Off to Church.

And you're probably wondering about that.
Yes,  you've tuned in to the right spot.  We'll get to that in a minute.

First of all,  I have to say,  it's turned out to be a really spectacular day,  since it's not only above freezing by a couple degrees,  but also sunny.
It's also not that easy to take a picture looking up the Danube from a moving auto mobile.

Seems my demeanour is very much connected to the weather.

Just one of those things.

The weekend was a little less bright and sunny,  but it didn't snow at least.  We seem to be in some sort of weather island,  since there was some nasty weather in Germany just north of us,  but if it were not for the paper or little snippets on the net,  we would really have no clue.

I'm fine with that.

So Saturday consisted of a trip to the car wash,  with the usual line up that one encounters at just about any car wash on a Saturday after some lousy weather.  It's not like we were in a hurry or anything,  so we were willing to wait.
On the way in on the Guertel,  we thought we'd stop at a shopping centre called Lugner City


The only really positive thing I could say about this place was that the parking was free.  We did go to one of the restaurants for lunch.  It was OK,  but unfortunately,  the Austrians can still smoke in restaurants,  so I took a shower and put on clean clothes as soon as I got back home.   That whole "smellin' like an ashtray program"  doesn't work for me.

So in addition to the somewhat mediocre food and the fact that the place was mobbed,  we really didn't come away with a very positive impression.  Well,  I do seem to recall using the term "shit-hole"  on our way out,  but I might have been getting a tad impatient by that point.


One of our other stops was a joint called Media Markt,  which is actually a German company,  (not putting in a link to their website,  since it's just pitiful)  and I would compare it to say,  a Futile Shop or Worst Buy.   It's the kind of place where,  when it comes to certain items,  you probably should just go there to look,  and then go buy it somewhere else.

We were looking for a stand alone external dvd burner.   This is going back to the problem I'm having with the drive in this laptop,  which I'm not going to bother to mess with,  since there's a very good chance that I'll bollocks up the computer completely or....have to do without it for several days while someone else tries not to do the same.

 

Here I am setting up the one we bought from the Niedermeyer store right outside our front door downstairs.  I made sure we had an understanding that,  if it didn't work to my liking,  I could bring it back.  The clerk said I had until Monday.  I told him if there was a problem,  I'd be back within the half hour.

So now we can once again watch episodes of "House"  or any of the other disks in whatever format in which they happen to be.
One of my little jobs over the next day or so is to load a Divx program on to an older laptop that we have kicking around,  and then we won't have to tie up this one.

Now for our feature presentation:

On Sunday morning,  it was "decided"  that we'd go to church.  I can see you furrowing your brow.  Yes I know,  one can usually count on one hand the number of times I show up in a house of Worship in a decade.  Let me just say this,  I'll go to a church in Europe from time to time simply for the experience.

This was one of those times.

By the way,  I've actually been to Notre Dame in Paris on more than one occasion.

I'm just saying.

We went "on the line" and were able to establish that the church that is about a 10 minute walk down Mariahilfer was the right kind,  and that there would also be in fact,  services.
After the whole Dutch experience,  we don't automatically figure every church to have services on a Sunday.
Oh,  and you need to go to that site,  and look at the pictures.  It is truly a beautiful building...

Here's the thing.   I can't seem to find the actual website of the Church anymore,  but it did list all the services,  and we made it there and got in the door in a timely fashion.
Now,  my Russian is a little rusty,  and my Polish is even worse,  but within a very few minutes of getting there,  we quickly realised the service was in Polish.


OK then!!



Between Gabe's Slovenian,  and my weak grasp of Russian,  at least we knew when to stand up or sit down,  along with a few of the regular parts of the program such as the Lord's prayer and the Rosary. Well,  I think that's what that was...
There was also a reading from Corinthians.

Other than that,  I'm pretty much empty.

Got no clue.

Oh...and on the walk down,  the temperature was perhaps hovering around the freezing mark.  Turns out it was about the same in the church.
Started to lose feeling in one of my feet since,  even though the seats were heated,  that didn't do much for some of the extremities.
And yes,  I said,  the seats were heated.

That's one way to get them in the door I guess.




We were certainly glad to get back to the apartment,  since by the end of the service I was losing feeling in more parts than just my feet.



Next time I'm thinking long johns and winter boots.