Red-haired Hungarians

Hungarian women LOVE to dye their hair unnatural shades of red. I noticed this phenomenon a few days after I moved to Hungary. I gave the first few women the benefit of the doubt, assuming her at-home dye job had gone horribly wrong and she was on her way to the salon to have the color stripped. Then I started asking fellow exchange students if they had also noticed this...but they hadn't. I thought maybe I was just imagining things, but since then I've seen scores of women with red hair ranging from purple-y red (think Kool Aid man) to carrot-y orange red. There is no happy medium. It's either bad or awful.

I did some Googling to find an explanation but all I found was a few other blog posts from Hungary with the same observation and a Facebook fan page for Eastern European women with badly dyed red hair, which I promptly "liked." :)

I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to discreetly take a picture. Today was the day. You can also get a glimpse of some tame Hungarian PDA. It's normal to be waiting for the metro and see couples making out along the line. Heck, it's normal to be anywhere and see couples making out, though I think that is typical in most of Europe. I even saw a couple canoodling in a church after Mass until the priest or security guard (I couldn't tell, the priests here don't wear clerics) yelled at them and shooed them out the door. Stay classy, Budapest!

A resplendent shade of Kool-aid red!

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(Mis)adventures in Berlin!

Berlin Cathedral along the Spree River

I made it back from a wonderful weekend in Berlin with Kristen and four of her friends, but not without making every rookie travel mistake in the book! Before I even made it out of the Berlin airport I discovered the atm card I brought (of course the only card I had not previously used in Budapest) was not accepted at any atm's. Furthermore, I could not remember the PIN to withdraw cash using my credit cards, I left both my debit cards in Budapest, and had no cash on me to change into Euros. Smooth. Thanks goodness I was traveling with Kristen because she was able to cover my expenses until I could email my mom for my credit card PIN. The directions to our hostel weren't specific enough so we didn't make into the hostel until 1:30am (left the Berlin airport at 11pm). My crowning moment however, did not come until this afternoon. I was feeling pretty slick for making it to the correct train station and platform and then onto the regional train to the airport all by myself. At 2:10pm I queued up to board my 2:40 flight. When the lady scanned my boarding pass had I printed out, my name did not come up on the flight roster so she did a manual search and then pointed out that my return flight was for March 21st not February 21st. Oh. SHIT. I have absolutely no idea how I booked my flight with the wrong return date and then did not notice when I payed for it, when I got an email confirmation, or when I printed my boarding passes. My adrenaline kicked in and I somehow made it back to the departures area, pleaded with a security guard to let me out of the secure area after he tsk tsked me for my mistake, and went to the EasyJet ticket counter. Thank God it was a small airport and it wasn't busy at the time because within fifteen minutes I had paid 100 Euros to get my flight changed, went back through security, and made it back to the gate with time to spare. I still cannot believe that happened. Let's just chalk it up to lack of experience and consider it a lesson learned in world traveling.

Sausage, sauerkraut, and beer!

Besides my beginning and ending travel misadventures, Berlin was fantastic. Saturday morning we went on a free walking tour of the city and saw all the major sights including Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the site of Hitler's bunker, Luftwaffe Headquarters, Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the former SS Headquarters, the Book Burning Memorial, and the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his kid Blanket over the railing ;) After our tour we went to the Pergamon Museum and the Neues Museum, which mainly had ancient Roman and Egyptian items. Neither museum was my cup of tea because I would have rather visited the German history museum and the Topography of Terror Nazi history museum but I can't complain because we got into both museums for free thanks to Eli's sweet-talking skills. We did see Queen Nerfertiti's Bust, which is 3300 years old, and the Pergamon Altar, built by the Romans in the 2nd century BC.

Hidden entrance to St. Adalbert in East Berlin

Sunday I woke up early and went to Mass at 9am after going to bed at 5am because we walked around for several hours looking for a street of bars/clubs that never materialized. I barely found the church because Berlin is overwhelmingly Protestant and Catholic churches are not on the street, but set back, indicating inferiority to Protestant churches. The only reason I found the church was because I had seen a steeple in the distance so I thought I was getting close and happened to glance down an alley and see the interior of the church as the door was swinging shut. The steeple I saw must have belonged to a Protestant church down the block. When I walked into the church I thought maybe I had mixed the time up and missed Mass; there was a maximum of 25 people there in a church built for hundreds. The Mass I went to was the only Sunday Mass at the parish. Because there were so few people, you had to scoop your own host off a little plate and put it in the ciborium before Mass. Very interesting.

I spent the rest of the day at Sachsenhausen, a Nazi concentration camp outside of Berlin. It was used by the Nazi's from 1936 to 1945 and then by the Soviets until 1950. Sachsenhausen was not specifically a death camp like Auschwitz, but was set up as a work camp for political prisoners (read: criminals, Communists, homosexuals, gypsies, and Jews). Regardless, it is estimated that between 35,000 and 69,000 people were murdered there. The Nazi's used Sachsenhausen as their model concentration camp, ran medical experiments, and also used it as center to counterfeit American dollars and the British pound. An additional 12,000 people died at Sachsenhausen under the Soviets. I'm not even sure what to say about my experience there, other than that I still do not fully comprehend the magnitude of evil that took place in the very rooms I stood in. I saw several mass graves, the tables medical experiments were carried out on, and the rooms were dead bodies (and sometimes dying prisoners) were stacked until there were enough to transport to Berlin to be cremated.

Arbeit Macht Frei - work will make you free 

Sunday evening was the last day of the Berlin International Film Festival, so we caught a screening of the Spanish film Even the Rain, about a director filming a movie during the 2000 water crisis in Bolivia. It was excellent, which made up for the 5 weird short films we saw afterward. The Film Festival was in Potsdamer Platz, an upscale commercial area of Berlin. It's amazing how different Berlin and Budapest are even though both were "closed" societies until about 20 years ago. Everything in Berlin is newer, fresher, and cleaner, while the effects of communism is definitely still visible on the buildings in Budapest.

It was so great to see Kristen and meet her friends from Copenhagen. It was surreal to be hanging out with her in BERLIN instead of Bloomington. I can't wait to go visit Kristen in April and for her to come to Budapest!! I actually kind of missed Budapest while I was gone...a sign that I'm adjusting to my new home? :)

Update: All of my pictures from Berlin can be viewed here & my pictures from the concentration camp are here.

Roomies reunited! Our last night in Berlin.

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Beszélsz magyarul?

Do you speak Hungarian?

I've had 4 days of "survival" Hungarian but it still all looks like gibberish to me. I'm pretty sure learning Japanese was easier than Hungarian and I had to learn two new alphabets for Japanese plus kanji (the symbols). Hungarian has several sounds I am pretty sure my mouth is incapable of making and crazy letters like cs, dz, dzs, gy, sz, and zs. The o's and u's are hardest for me because the accented ones don't correspond to anything in the English alphabet - ó, ö, ő, ú, ü, ű. They do correspond to sounds in the German alphabet, so my German classmates caught on more easily. The closest related languages to Hungarian are Finnish and Estonian...meaning if I am reading a label at the grocery store I can't decipher what a single word means. I bought a packet of soup mix this week and I had to type all the instructions on the back of the packet into Google translate (my new best friend) and then also convert the amount of water from deciliters into ounces. Quite a production to make six ounces of broccoli soup! Besides not knowing Hungarian, I have no concept of the metric system so temperature, distances, and speed means nothing to me. 

Karaoke, anyone?!

If I don't learn anything else while I am here, I will at least come home with better world geography skills. I had to look up where Georgia (the country) and Kazakhstan are located, learned Belgium currently has no goverment and there is not a language called Singaporean. The countries most represented here are Germany, Belgium, Mexico, USA, and the Netherlands. I haven't met anyone from Africa and there are only a handful of students from South America. A few Europeans I have talked to knew of Indianapolis and the Indy 500 - I was shocked! One student was telling me how lucky I am that I speak English because I can travel to any country and people will speak my language. I do think it's presumptuous of Americans to expect everyone else to speak English. I'm jealous of the other students who can say something to their friends in class in Dutch or German without anyone else understanding. If I want to whisper a comment, the whole class can understand me! 


I'm beginning to get sick, so I stopped in a pharmacy after class to look for NyQuil since I forgot to bring some from home. I was surprised that all the medications, even non-prescription, were behind the counter and I had to talk to a doctor to explain my symptoms and what I wanted. I tried to explain NyQuil but I don't think there is a Hungarian equivalent. He showed me some other medications but I couldn't tell what it was from the packaging. I ended up buying cough syrup because it said Robitussin at the top of the box and I was like "YES, finally! A word I understand!" Next I'm off in quest of kleenex. I asked an American friend who has lived in Hungarian for a few years where I can buy kleenex because I haven't seen any boxes of tissues at the grocery store. She told me they are sold in folded plastic packs...of course. It's small things like this that annoy me and make me start comparing Hungary and the US. I also need to buy a coffee mug for tea and soup. I may just end up paying $8 for one at a souvenir stand because I have no idea where I can buy a mug and it's not like I can walk down to Target
  
Nutella count: third week, third jar.
  
I'm leaving Friday afternoon for Berlin and I'll be back Monday evening! Auf wiedersehen!

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American Conveniences + trip to Eger

Things I miss about the US...

1. Drying machines - hang drying winter clothes takes forever and there's no convenient place to put a huge drying rack in our room. Also, the washing machines are about 1/4 the size of American washing machines and have 500 buttons. We were literally given a guide that explains how to use the washing machines.
2. Normal currencies - the Hungarian forint has 8 coins and 7 bills. The coins are basically worthless. A one forint coin is literally worth $0 and a 2 forint coin is worth $0.01 USD. The paper bills are in overinflated amounts, for example, 10000 HUF is actually only $50.
3. Free ketchup - you have to pay for ketchup at any type of restaurant, even Burger King and McDonald's.
4. Smoking bans - you are allowed to smoke in restaurants and clubs. At first I thought this was representative of all of Europe but almost all Western European countries have indoor smoking bans. As a Dutch boy put it..."Hungary is uncivilized" haha. My clothes and hair always smell like smoke after getting a coffee or going out.
5. IU library - the library here closes weeknights at 8pm and is closed completely on Sunday. Seriously, what college student goes to the library before 10pm at the earliest?! In addition, we cannot take our coats or backpacks into the Corvinus library. I have to put my coat and bag in a locker and then carry all my books and laptop into the library. A Hungarian woman sits inside the library entrance and yells at you in Hungarian if you try and sneak your backpack in. I seem to get yelled at in Hungarian a lot (at the library, grocery store, metro), but I can never remember how to say "Nem beszélek magyarul." 

I spent the weekend in Eger, a quaint town in northern Hungary. Side note: the Hungarian countryside looks suspiciously like southern Indiana. Eger is known for its castle, thermal bath, historic buildings, and vineyards. In 1552 the Turks tried taking the city but an army of 2,000 local Hungarians fought off 80,000 Turks. According to legend, the Hungarian soldiers were served delicious foods and a lot of red wine to stay motivated. The Turkish soldiers believes that bull's blood was mixed into the red wine because nothing else could explain the strength and resistance of the Hungarians in the Eger Castle. This wine is now known as Egri Bikavér, or Bull's Blood wine. You can view all my photos from my weekend trip here. 

View of Eger from the castle

Eger Cathedral

Town square and castle in the background

NEWSFLASH: just booked a flight to Berlin for the weekend on the spur of the moment to travel with Kristen (my roomie at IU) who is studying in Copenhagen, Denmark!!!!!! We were planning on visiting each other in our respective cities and vacationing in March, but I'm so excited to see her on Friday! :)

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Culture shock 101

I feel like a stereotypical dumb American for not considering that Hungarian keyboards would be different than English keyboards. I spent 5 minutes staring at the keyboard in the library wondering why there was Z key instead of a Y and how I was going to type my password in. I was going to make a joke about Hungarians missing the memo on QWERTY keyboards...except I just realized QWERTZ keyboards are for real. Suffice to say, I won't be using a computer in the library again! 

My international marketing class is a master's level course, but so far it is comparable to basic marketing courses at Kelley. Corvinus University is the best university in Budapest, but it does not compare to IU. I would say it's comparable to Purdue University. Bazinga! You can miss up to 25% of the classes and the majority of the professors do not mind if exchange students skip class to travel. One of my professors is the former Hungarian Minister of Industry and Trade and President of the Hungarian National Bank. Color me impressed!

What is most interesting in my marketing class is hearing about American culture from the perspective of Europeans. My professor is Hungarian and has worked in several countries as a marketing exec and the rest of the class is from across the EU. When we discussed how September 11th affected the global marketplace, I was quite surprised that everyone talked about it from purely a business standpoint. Of course I was only in 6th grade in 2001, but I don't recall Americans being concerned about how such a tragedy would effect the global economy. The professor asked what major events have impacted the global economy and almost every single event mentioned by the EU students was American (9/11, Enron/Arthur Andersen scandal, Iraq war, subprime mortgage crisis, etc). I've been told time and time again how important the US is in driving the global market, but I did not understand until now.

One student thought the McDonald's menu in Europe was the same as in the US since McD is a global company. I thought that was funny, especially since the McD in Hungary sells "New York sandwiches" and other strange things. My roommate ordered iced coffee at McDonald's last week and got hot coffee poured over ice cream and ice! Interestingly, the first Starbucks in Hungary didn't open until this past September. Coffee culture is a recent trend here. Subway and Burger King are the only other American chains I've seen. Hungarians absolutely love American culture and listen to Top 40 American music.

I've always been fascinated with people from foreign countries, but now I'm the foreigner everyone wants to talk to (especially the Hungarians). A Dutch classmate was thrilled to find out I was American because he had never met a native English speaker before. It is quite amusing because sometimes the students who don't speak English as a first language have trouble understanding each other through their accents and I have to interpret for them :)

I think I'm going to be pretentions when I return to the US and keep calling my cellphone a mobile (rhymes with crocodile, not noble) and pronounce wi-fi as wee-fee. I do have a mobile here but it's expensive to send an SMS/text because you are charged different rates depending on which company your friend uses and the same goes for phone calls. However, incoming calls and texts are free. The first two numbers of your mobile denotes which company you use. Some Hungarians have more than one phone so they can SMS their friends using a number from the same company. Moral of the story is that I'm never taking unlimited texting and qwerty keypads for granted again! Shallow, but oh so true.

The broken English on the screen cracks me up. Long press = hold.

Side note: This is day 8 in Budapest and I'm on my second jar of Nutella. My diet consists mainly of Nutella on crackers, spoonfuls of Nutella, knock-off Kellogg's corn flakes, and yogurt until I can decode labels and be sure I am not buying paprika paste. Mr. Nutella can thank the American students studying in Hungary for singlehandedly increasing his net sales in Budapest. Did you know World Nutella Day was Februrary 5th? I know this because my roommates and I were so desperate that we googled Nutella recipes. The good news is that I have no idea how bad it is for me since the label is in Hungarian. Cheers!

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Rome Sweet Home!

It's official - I'm spending Easter in bella Roma! I forgot to throw three coins in the Trevi Fountain when I was there in June, but I guess I cheated the system ;) I'll be flying into Rome the Wednesday of Holy Week and staying through Easter Monday. Being able to spend Easter in Rome was one of my deciding factors in coming to Budapest instead of Hong Kong. My friend Katherine is joining me in Rome. We actually met exactly a month ago at a Franciscan convent on a retreat, and we will be staying in a Franciscan convent near St. Peter's (thanks Fr. David!). My pastor at home (hi Fr. Ted!) hooked us up with tickets to the Celebration of the Lord's Passion and Easter Sunday Mass with Pope Benedict!!  I don't want to wish time away while I'm abroad...but how am I going to make it through this month and 40 days of Lent before I can go to Rome?!

In other news, God totally owned me today while I was praying. The reading for midday prayer was from 1 Peter 1:17b-19. "Conduct yourselves reverently during your sojourn in a strange land. Realize that you were delivered, not by any diminishable sum of silver or gold, but by Christ's blood beyond all price: the blood of a spotless unblemished lamb." Oh. Snap.

I've been struggling with where to set my limits on partying and drinking since getting drunk 5 nights a week is the norm for other exchange students. I believe I just got my answer from 1 Peter. Yesterday I was at a pub (ironically called "Paris, Texas") at midnight with my roommates for pre-Super Bowl beers and there were 3 other American students there who had been drinking at the pub since 2pm. I'd rather spend my money traveling in Europe and buying rosaries in Rome than on cheap alcohol.

Tomorrow is my first day of class. I haven't had classes since before Thanksgiving! Until next time I leave you with the sage words of FTD, "be good, be holy, and love the Lord!"

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Lessons learned

1. Netflix, Hulu, and Pandora do not work internationally
2. Churches are not heated and are even colder than the outside temperature
3. Communion lines at Mass do not exist - just walk up whenever and wherever
4. Asking your waiter to split the check will not end well
5. If a sign reads "Tourist STOP" that means something cool is inside and you should open the door :)
6. Breading and sugar look indistinguishable at the szupermarket, Hungarian labels don't help either
7. 1/2,6 means 5:30, not 6:30...!
8. It is possible to eat a whole jar of Nutella in one week

Today while I was waiting to get on the metro a tourist asked me if I spoke English and then asked for directions. I've been in Budapest one week and I'm already started to feel less like a long-term tourist and more like a Budapestian! I'm not sure if I look obviously like an American or not. I definitely can not tell who is Hungarian and who is not.

Hungarian Parliament along the Danube River

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Spas and stars

On Tuesday I went to the Szechenyi thermal bath in Budapest after walking around in the freezing cold for two hours. The Szechenyi spa is the largest medicinal bath in Europe and it was amazing. It's supplied by two thermal springs that are 165-171 degrees. Doctors in Hungary actually prescribe the spa for patients; the spa culture is a big deal in Hungary. There were pools of varying sizes and temperatures inside, I saw at least 15 baths. Outside there are two large baths. It was so cold that our towels froze on the benches while we were in the outdoor baths :)  There's definitely a different type of modesty in Hungarian. Regardless of age or physique, the men all wore speedos and the women wore bikinis.

Nice and toasty!

The entire Szechenyi spa complex

Thursday night I went out to the discotheque with three other Americans. It was my first time at a club since I'm not 21 yet. The club was packed with Hungarians because a Hungarian pop star was performing. He won the equivalent of American Idol. His music was quite lame, but once the DJ took over the music was jamming (they listen to popular American music) and I was danced like a crazy white girl, per usual, until 3am :) I took a cab home and my friends went on to another club.

Friday I went on another guided tour - this time across the river to Buda. Buda is hillier and more quaint, with cobblestone roads, while Pest (where I live) is definitely more urban. We saw Buda Castle, where the Royal Family used to live and Matthias Church. Fun facts: Katy Perry's Firework music video was filmed on top of Buda Castle & Angelia Jolie owns a house somewhere in the Buda hills. My roommates and I are determined to find her house and catch a glimpse of Brad Pitt ;)

The Chain Bridge and Pest from Buda Castle

Buda & Parliament in the background

Matthias Church

I start classes on Tuesday. It's finally beginning to warm up and the sun is coming out, all the better to explore the city more, especially now that I'm confident enough to ride the metro around by myself! Cheers!

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I found Jesus!

Today after orientation I went on a mini pilgrimage to 3 churches. Providentially, the church with Mass in English and the church with perpetual adoration (whoop!) are within 10-15 minutes walking distance from my dorm and within a few minutes of each other!

First stop - St. Francis of Assisi Church. It's right around the corner from me and has daily masses in the morning and evening. I had to take a picture of the Mass schedule so I could translate it when I got home, haha :) Unfortunately the church is only open during liturgies so I couldn't go in.

Assisi Szent Ferenc - my neighborhood church

Mary overlooks a small cemetary

Second stop - Perpetual Adoration Church. I guess you could actually say Jesus found me, instead of me finding Him :) My friend Olivia's cousin had been to Budapest before and told Olivia about this church. It's definitely not a touristy place so I had to use my best googlefu to figure out the name in Hungarian, Ferencvarosi Orokimadas Templom, and then the address. On my way out I asked a Hungarian who looked to be my age (most Hungarians under 30 speak English) about the Mass times and he helped translate for me. Then the rector or security guard came over and talked to me for a bit once he realized I was American, introduced himself, and told me about the history of the church. For the most part, I've found that Hungarians are very friendly and helpful :)

Perpetual Adoration Church

Favorite place in Budapest so far!

Third stop - Sacred Heart Church run by Jesuits. Masses and confessions in English are offered here. This church was also locked but I'm coming back Saturday night for Mass with some friends :)

After church hopping I went on a tour of Pest with a group of other exchange students. We went to St. Stephen's Basilica, Parliament, and a bunch of other government buildings and monuments. St. Stephen was the first King of Hungary and converted most of the country to Catholicism. He's highly revered in Hungary - there are statues and streets/buildings named after him everywhere in Budapest. The holy right arm of St. Stephen is housed in a reliquary in the Basilica but that chapel was closed.

St. Stephen's Basilica

Main altar

Yesterday I went to one of the mineral baths in Budapest - it was fabulous! I work at day spa in Kokomo and this was like the ULTIMATE spa! I'll have to include that in my next post. I also keep forgetting that I have to bring my own shopping bag to the szupermarket. Tonight I had to carry my bag of salad, salami, and Coke Light home in my hands, oops. The day before I bought of ton of groceries and then realized I forgot my bag as soon as I went to check out. They have bags but you have to pay for them.

All of my pictures from Budapest so far are here with captions. Szia (bye)!

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Overwhelmed

I've been in Budapest 2 full days...it's quite surreal/overwhelming. I can't believe I'll be here for four months! Here's a recap of what I can remember from the past 72 hours...things are a bit fuzzy since I'm still jet lagged. I managed to get everything packed in my suitcases with 3 extra pounds to spare. When I tried checking in at the Indy airport I couldn't get my boarding pass since I don't have a Hungarian visa yet. I have to apply for a residency permit within 90 days of arriving, but since my return flight is for June there was some kind of problem. Thankfully I had several documents from Corvinus University stating my acceptance there so I was able to get my boarding passes. The immigration officer in Frankfurt, Germany wanted to know where my visa was, thankfully my explanation was enough to placate him. Then I barely made my flight to Budapest  because I had to go through security again and they were SO slow. I walked up to the gate as the shuttle was boarding to take us to the tarmac. Traveling was a bit more stressful than anticipated, to say the least.

97 pounds of luggage

When I got to Hungary my roommate's tandem partner (a Hungarian student) picked us up and drove us to our dorm. The outskirts of Budapest look just like Gary, Indiana - haha. The tandem partner kept apologizing and assuring us Budapest was really much nicer. Even in the nice parts of Budapest the buildings are slightly dingy looking. Effects of communism I support? It's an interesting mix of old buildings and modern architecture wedged together. My dorm room is really small and we share a small bathroom with the 3 girls next door. I was hoping I'd have a sweet Ikea-inspired room like Kristen in Copenhagen, but no such luck. I haven't had a share a room with anyone since the first few weeks of my freshman year, nevertheless 2 people.  My roommates and I are pretty much polar opposites...a chance to grow in virtue...?

Looking in from the door, orange concrete floor?

I've already forgotten exactly what I did yesterday because I was so tired. Our tandem partners showed us around Corvinus, it's just a few blocks away from the Kollegium (our dorm). We had dinner at a Hungarian cafe around the corner. I had paprika potatoes with spicy sausage - it was delicious! Of course we also had snaps (shots) of pálinka, a traditional Hungarian fruit brandy. It's usually between 40-86% alcohol. Don't worry mom - we only had 2 shots and they were apparently on the weak side ;)

Today my roomies and I slept in and then went to Central Market Hall for lunch. I have no idea what I ate but it was delicious. The market is three stories sells prepared foods, meat, fresh produce, souvenirs, etc. It's kind of touristy with the souvenirs, but there were definitely plenty of Hungarians shopping there. 

After that we took the metro to the mall, which was underground, to buy our transportation passes and get cell phones. I paid $65 for a phone, plan, and a bunch of minutes. It's really confusing, I miss American plans where everything is unlimited. In Hungary you pay different rates to text (Hungarians call it SMS) or call depending out which carrier the other person has, but incoming calls and texts are always free. We got cheapie phones reminiscent of the phone I had in middle school. No T-9 or qwerty keyboard - THE HORROR! This evening we walked over Elizabeth Bridge to the Buda side (Budapest used to be 2 separate cities, Buda and Pest, divided by the Danube river) of the city. Budapest is absolutely GORGEOUS at night. All the bridges and famous buildings along the river are lit up.

Danube River

Liberty Bridge

Old building - Corvinus University

After exploring we went to a pub around the corner from our dorm, ordered a bottle of Hungarian wine, and talked to some locals who spoke English. Alright, I'm stopping now. I'm so tired I am not even thinking coherently anymore, it's 2:30am here. Tomorrow I'm off in search of churches and a Tabernacle.

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