Finding St. Johann der Evangelist in Vienna
I'm not even sure if I wrote the title right.
I was just walking down the street when I stopped in my tracks at the sight of an old-looking church. Since it was the first European historical site I'd ever seen, I was deeply moved and snapped some photos all by myself. After taking them, I Googled the location, and the name was pretty long.
Katholische Kirche St. Johann der Evangelist
I ran it through a translator and pieced it together:
- Katholische Kirche: Catholic Church
- St. Johann: This is probably 'St. John'...
- Evangelist: Evangelist.
I just learned that 'Evangelist' means someone who preaches the gospel. Anyway, put it all together and it's 'St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church'. In Korea, it probably would have just been 'St. John's Church', but in Austria, they add the 'Evangelist' part.
A choir was practicing inside, but I didn't quite have the courage to just walk right in.
The building didn't look like it was in the best condition. Parts of it were crumbling away, as if they just take their time fixing things unless it's a highly maintained landmark. I wondered if they also mindlessly patch up temples or palaces with cement like we sometimes do back home, but for now, I'll just assume they don't do that at all.
I didn't get to see St. Stephen's Cathedral, but I told myself, "Hey, at least I saw something in Europe!!" and happily walked to the station in the rain.