Dear /r/Berlin, I have two questions from a very recent transplant. Completely unrelated, but I hoped maybe you could help me?

One: Imagine that you have some $1000 in cash, in US dollars, and you are not in a hurry. What's the best way to turn it to Euros? I know of places like Ria and Wechselstube, but the rate there is horrific. For example, today the official course was 1.18, but Rio used a rate of 1.34, which is 14% higher. So it's like having a fee of 14%. Which is a lot!

So what if you have cash in dollars, but also have time, and don't need to exchange them immediately. Is there a way to exchange them at a rate that is closer to the official rate? Can one maybe put dollar cash to their Euro bank account? Can one use their own bank, once they have a bank? Or is Ria really the only way?

And another question, about churches. It may be stupid, but I really don't understand how it works :) Can one attend a church, if they don't pay the church tax? Will they just be shamed all the time? Or will nobody know? Or do church-paying people have some sort of a secret church-pass that they show at the church-entrance? What's the proper behavior here?

Thanks a ton!!