WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

Hi, and welcome to my podcast, my Life, and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková and I am an English tutor. I created this podcast for English students on an intermediate and upper, intermediate level who want to get better in their oral comprehension. You can find a  transcription of this episode as well as a vocabulary list and comprehension quiz in the notes of the episode.

And now you can also find an interactive transcription there, so definitely check it out. Today I will be talking about the most interesting churches I have ever visited. And maybe it will not be what you think. So without further ado, let’s begin.

 Number one Loch Lomond church in Scotland. Why was this one interesting? Well, it was not exactly a church. In fact, it was an 18th-century former church. Former means that it was in the past and it is not a church anymore. Today it is a restaurant and a bar run by a family business. So instead of a mass, which is the event that is organized in church every Sunday, for example, here in the Czech Republic.

You can have a beer or a coffee and a meal there. There are even concerts and other events. If you want to see what it looks like, I will put a link for photos in the notes. It was very fun to order a coffee in church.

Number two,  a church in Caen. Caen was the city where I went on Erasmus, if you remember, or if you listened to the first three episodes, there are a lot of churches there, but one was. Specifically interesting because again, it was not a church, but it was a gym. Yes. They transformed a church into a gym and not any gym.

It was a chain of gyms, which means there is one brand. One company that owns many gyms, all over France, and this one was called Basic Fit. And you can find it in almost all cities in France. Hmm. Maybe not all cities, but in the bigger cities for sure. It was very interesting to be running on a treadmill.

A treadmill is the machine, for cardio that you can run on. So treadmill next to a stained glass window, which, is the window in a church that is colorful and very typical of churches. I went there only once because I wanted to see it. And if you want to see some photos that I took there, you can find them also in the description. Maybe you can ask, was there any pushback to having a gym in church? Pushback is a  negative reaction or response. So were some people angry?

Of course, there always be people who are angry about anything. But I think that this is quite a controversial topic. I found a petition that was signed by 604 people who really, really don’t like the fact that there is a gym in a church in their own city.

But, this church was desacralized in 2015, desacralized means that it is not sacred anymore. It is not a holy place, and, you cannot have a mass there. So you don’t go there every Sunday. It was just a building looking like a church. And even though 604 people hated the fact that it is a gym, many people loved it and they were intrigued, and interested in this place and wanted to try it out because how many times have you worked out in church?

 Number three is the Church of Saint Joanne of Arc in Rouen. This one is in contrast to the first two, actually, a church. It is not a pub and it is not a gym. It was built in honor of Saint Joan of Arc who was burned to death on May the 30th, 1431 right there in Rouen. It is interesting because it is quite a new church.

It was completed in 1979. And it doesn’t look like any church I have ever seen. Because it is such a new church, its style is according to 1970s architecture. So by that, I mean that it was built according to architecture that was popular in the years 19 70, 19 71, 2, 3, and so on. If you are looking at the church from the outside, the roof is supposed to represent the flames that killed Joan of Arc and the curves of the roof. So again, the, shape how the roof is shaped, are supposed to symbolize an overturned ship, which is very noticeable. You can notice, you can see it from the inside if you are watching the ceiling. The ceiling is the top of every room. It looks like you are watching the bottom of a big wooden ship.

It all looks very strange, since, since is a different word for, because since it is a church that is so modern. It looks a little bit out of place, but at the same time, it has 16th-century glass-stained windows. Again, the windows that are usually in church, the one with small, colorful glass, and they took the stained windows from an older church from the 16th century and put it in this one, in the modern one. So if you are watching it or if you are standing inside, it all looks funny or… Or just, yeah. Interesting. If you are interested in the way the church looks, I will again put photos in the notes.

I think I will create, PDF where I will put all the photos of everything I am talking about. So you can just open it on your phone or on your computer or wherever you are listening to this podcast on, and just look at everything.

 Number four is the biggest church in Iceland. It is in the capital city called Reykjavik, and it is called Hallgrímskirkja. I hope I am pronouncing it correctly because the Icelandic language is very difficult. You have no idea. I put it on this list, not only because it is very, very big, it’s the biggest and tallest building in Reykjavik, and you can see it from almost all points in the city, but also because of its shape.

It has long wings on the side of the main tower, which look like, hmm, I would say stairs. The shape is inspired, so the inspiration is, by the natural and geographical features of Iceland-  feature is a distinctive attribute or aspect of something, so it is inspired by the natural and geographical aspects of Iceland.

It is supposed to symbolize the creation of volcanoes and glaciers. Glaciers are big mountains made of ice that you can find in very cold places. When you look at the shape of the wings on the tower. You can really see the connection to Icelandic Nature. And again, you can look at the comparison of the wings and different natural places that I visited in Iceland and, and that is the end of my list.

Now, the rest of the churches and cathedrals that I have seen were quite similar, and they looked like what you would expect from a church or a cathedral.

 But since I was able to come up, so since I could only think about four very strange churches, I wanted to include some other interesting churches that I haven’t visited yet, but maybe they will be as interesting to you as they are to me. 

Number one, there is a snow church in Germany. Yes, there is a small Catholic church that is made of ice and snow, and it was built in 2011 and it is located in Bavaria.

I hope I pronounce, the place correctly. Number two, Lego Church in the Netherlands. It was built in 2011 as well, but it was a temporarystructure. Temporary means just for a limited time, so unfortunately it is not there anymore. And number three. And the last one is a see-through church, see-through means that you can see on the other side of the church through the walls, and it is in Belgium.

It is a structure made of 2000 columns and steel plates. It is transparent. And it lets in the sunlight, the inside of the church changes depending on the position of the sun. The church may seem, which means it may look like, it disappeared completely, or it can look totally solid depending on your viewpoint.

Okay, and here we are. That is the end of today’s episode. If you liked it, I will be really glad if you can give it five stars on the platform you are listening to this podcast on. And if you are interested, look into the notes of the podcast to see the transcription and the vocabulary. The comprehension quiz and also the PDF with photos of the churches I was,  talking about. 

Have you ever visited any interesting church that was different than all the churches that you saw in the past, or would you like to visit any of those churches I was talking about? I must say I am not the biggest fan of churches. You know, it’s not something I need to see everywhere I go, but I find it quite interesting that you can have a meal in churches, you can work out in former churches, and yeah, some of them are very fun. 

What do you think? 

Let me know and you can always write me a message on Instagram where I am @ dajinka 73, or you can visit the link in the notes of the podcast. Alright, that is all I have for today. I hope you will have a lovely, lovely day, and I will see you next time.

Bye-bye.