I go to an Eastern Orthodox Church. Not many Eastern Orthodox Churches in the West. We have icons, vocal chanting/music, incense, lots of things that overwhelm the senses. It's supposed to be pretty much like walking into the reign or rule of God in order to prepare you for the fullness of that reign/rule which is to come.
You're surrounded by the saints, that are illumined by the same light that Christ is. They are windows or icons into the creator, who is a consuming fire. All creation and humans are also windows/icons of that great light. This is why it is less difficult to love your enemies. They too are an icon of Christ.
Here's a link to one where you can get a 360 degree view:
http://www.360bigsky.com/serbian.htm
Imagine that with singing songs (all hymns are from the 1st-4th centuries), incense, veneration, prostrations, etc. It's pretty wonderful.
The incense is to remind us that we are to offer sweet smelling prayer. Prayer in Orthodoxy isn't necessarily talking to God so much as "being" or inner stillness. Most things in Orthodoxy are paradoxical but not always. Prayer is also communion. Basically everything communion.
We believe that the purpose of life is communion with God. That God is a perpetual movement of love, Love Himself, that dwells in each person of the other within the Holy Trinity and whose love can not be contained and so pours Himself out. He extends his grace to humanity and creation and can not help but to create and to love, to heal, restore and redeem that which appears broken.
We are supposed to be like the Trinity, distinct and yet without division, a continual outpouring of love.
Doctrinally, we don't see God as a god that was angered by man's disobedience and so decided that there had to be a sacrifice and so sent his Son that he might be sacrificed in order to appease His wrath. In Orthodoxy, we see that God's given us free-will and only hopes to bring us up to what we were originally created for - true humanity, communion. So, sin isn't seen as a legal issue as it is in the West. In Orthodoxy, sin is seen as a sickness and the Church is there as a hospital to help restore us.
We don't have the same models of original sin and pretty much our entire theological language is different from the West. Words like salvation, sin, faith, grace, etc. mean something different in Orthodoxy. So it's hard to understand what they're saying in Orthodoxy if you've already assigned meaning to those words.
The Church's been around for about 2,000 years. In 1054, the Pope of Rome changed a seven hundred year old creed. There's all this "politicized" stuff behind the story but basically speaking there were five jurisdictions: Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexander and Constantinople.
The Christians in those Eastern jurisdiction didn't dig the change and said something to the Pope in Rome. The Pope in Rome didn't appreciate being told he couldn't unilaterally change a 700 year old creed and so excommunicated the entire East.
The Eastern Orthodox are pretty much the Christians in those four other jurisdiction (we call them Patriarchates).
The West doesn't know much about Eastern Orthodox in the West and there are only about 2 million in the US (the 5-6 mil is inflated). However, the Orthodox are the second largest Christian group in the world.
So as long as you're a church hoppin', see if you can find an Orthodox Church nearby (might want to make sure the liturgy is in English). It's Beautiful.
God bless