One of the students who had arrived early wanted to go to mass with me on Sunday morning. Though I am not Catholic, I attend a church when I travel to be more immersed in the culture of the area I am visiting. The student met me in the lobby. It was pouring rain so we ordered a taxi to take us to the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The cathedral’s twin spires dominate the landscape. Inside, the sacristy had a cycle of frescoes dating from the 13th century. There are baroque marble altars, statues and pulpit. The cathedral houses the tomb of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac. One needs to only read the history of the region to see that as complicated as the history might be, this Cardinal added to that complication when the Pope made Stepinac a martyr after his death in 1960. Though I did not understand the Croatian sermon, I understood the order of service. There seemed to be a bit more incense sharing than I have seen in other services, but all in all the choir, especially the male choruses (and the men seemed to dominate the music), were extraordinary. Their voices made the ancient history of the site and the present people worshiping come together in a unique way. Though raining heavily, the student and I walked back to the hotel but stopped at an indoor farmers market and bought strawberries, cheese, bananas and bread. There were rows and rows of stalls with meat hanging and sausages, layers of vegetables, cheeses of all kinds, bake shops full of loaves of bread. We stopped at one stall with many choices of cheese, I recognized a soft Croatian cheese I had had before. Unfortunately the lady at the cheese counter did not speak English, so I pointed to the cheese I wanted and held out 10 kunas. She smiled, picked up a fresh 2 foot length of cheese that was still wrapped in its red wax sheath. She cut the wax off and pointed to the slicer. I nodded. She sliced the cheese and kept slicing the cheese, when she finished I had a lot of cheese. At the hotel, after drying off and changing out of wet trousers and wet shoes (I have a rain poncho, but my legs got wet from the heavy rain), I had a wonderful meal of cheese with bread and strawberries. Luckily I have a mini fridge in the room to store the rest of the cheese and the strawberries. I love traveling.