Wednesday, Dec. 23 and Thursday, Dec. 24

Our baby was quite the little gurgler, after Joe introduced her to this new way of expressing herself. She really took off with it. Good thing we have a lot of burp cloths. She’s getting more comfortable in the sitting position, and is a true champ of the reaching rattle roll move. We’re really loving playing with her and holding her, and we’re all starting to sadly anticipate Joe’s soon departure back to the states.

Even in the frigid cold, we ventured again to the river, and stopped to admire the statue of one of this city’s female heros from World World II.

We found another church to explore-- a contemporary Catholic one reminiscent of Joe’s upbringing. The light made a beautiful reflection through the stained glass windows. We then convinced our translator to show us two mosques, and were lucky to go inside one of them and talk with mullah. The white and light blue interior, had a particularly soothing feel to it.

We’re still trying to find a Jewish synagogue. Joe tracked down via the internet the only one in this city, but alas, it does not appear to exist anymore. The hotel manager was very helpful with our search, and browsing through the local yellow pages found a Jewish Cultural Center. We hope to visit this soon.