About Jesus, And Sexual Misconduct.

One of the most hilarious stories my mother has ever told me involves nuns. Nuns are quite rare to find in Australia, and even harder to recognise, since they long ago discarded their habits. But some years ago, my mother saw a number of nuns walking down Glen Osmond Road. Helping the local church with its redevelopment, they walked down the footpath, each carrying in front of them a large sign advising interested onlookers,

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While nuns may be hard to find in Australia, they are all over Poland. Krakow was a place of special importance to the Polish Pope John Paul II, and his presence can be felt all around these paved streets. And only a five minute walk from here is the quite remarkable Jewish quarter, Kasimierz. I spent the afternoon there yesterday, and intend to dine there tomorrow night, after I complete something of a Jewish pilgrimage of my own. Assad and I were going to complete this pilgrimage together yesterday, but after quite a heady night I decided to leave him to his own devices.

Speaking of Assad, he didn't end up leaving the club with the Polish girl who found us. Apparently, though she was completely to his taste, his "spider senses went off" while talking to her. He thought she may have come up to us only because she overheard our conversation about... well, I'll leave that between us. She was very insistent on his company for the evening, but he was a little concerned, not only about her, but about the older man who seemed to be hanging around her. Last night we went back to the same club, but without the beauty of alcohol it held rather less interest for me; I was much more interested in talking to Will, a master's student in literature, about Proust.

It was reading Proust in the Gallerie Krakowska today that I saw large groups of nuns carrying shopping bags.

And at the time, despite all the spirituality surrounding me, I still felt strangely empty. That was until about 15 minutes ago, when all of a sudden today became immensely excellent, and one which I will remember for my entire life.