My WYD experience was, and will be one of the best I could ever have in my life. I feel like God has gotten to sink into the cracks of myself, addressed and soothed my fears and issues, and healed me in ways I can't describe. I feel truly blessed to have gotten to go on this trip and represent my Parish and country, and I feel so on fire with the Holy Spirit, I want to share this with everyone, and come to a deeper understanding myself. This adventure has had a profound effect on me, and I don't want to be the same as I was before, not at all.
P.S, there are three candles lit in Madrid, each with different intentions. Each of these to be prayed for by the people of Madrid, Spain, left there to be taken care of by a universal and powerful God. One of these candles is for you, who read about my trip, and for whoever has listened to me talk about it. Let God fill up your broken spaces, and set you on fire with love for Him, and the whole entire world.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Days 8/9 WYD
August 22nd
This is a quick recap of the day because I'm exhausted:
August 23d, last full day
Late night, early morning, Viva Espana!
Breakfast was quick, then a 20 minute Mass, then we met up with another group to finally go to the PRADO! Three tricky ticket terminals later ( say that 5 times fast!) we hopped on and off the Metro, and got in line for the Prado. The wait that at first seemed like it'd take forever went fast. I got in for free(WOOHOO MILITARY ID!) We saw beautiful original artwork by Rubens, Raphael, and a lot of other famous artists, Sculptures, a cloister, lunch. Then we went for icecream/cathedral hopping. We visited Madrid's old cathedral(beautiful) and its new one(strange).
At this point we were all half asleep, and Jessie and I could barely walk because of our legs, and we're hungry. Last Metro trip, then 15 minute walk to this place called Gino's. I had a pizza, it was amazing. Nom. then Hotel, packing, hanging out.
This is a quick recap of the day because I'm exhausted:
- 9AM breakfast
- 10 Nap
- 11 Mass
- 12, Mcdonalds for lunch
- 1-7:30, Shopping, tour of St. Isidore's(an incorruptable saint!)
- 7:30-8:30 Dinner at a restaurant at the plaza.
- 10:30, icecream run ( I ate an entire pint of Hagendaaz strawberry cheesecake, I have no shame.)
- 12-1, dance party, nbd.
August 23d, last full day
Late night, early morning, Viva Espana!
Breakfast was quick, then a 20 minute Mass, then we met up with another group to finally go to the PRADO! Three tricky ticket terminals later ( say that 5 times fast!) we hopped on and off the Metro, and got in line for the Prado. The wait that at first seemed like it'd take forever went fast. I got in for free(WOOHOO MILITARY ID!) We saw beautiful original artwork by Rubens, Raphael, and a lot of other famous artists, Sculptures, a cloister, lunch. Then we went for icecream/cathedral hopping. We visited Madrid's old cathedral(beautiful) and its new one(strange).
At this point we were all half asleep, and Jessie and I could barely walk because of our legs, and we're hungry. Last Metro trip, then 15 minute walk to this place called Gino's. I had a pizza, it was amazing. Nom. then Hotel, packing, hanging out.
Days 5/6/7 WYD
August 19th
Today we woke up at 8:30, ran to breakfast, grabbed a metro, and were almost late to catechesis. There was an awesome dance party, and amazing amazing talk by Archbishop Dolan, I went to confession with a Canadian priest who gave me much peace, the a beautiful Mass with over 350 priests, 50 bishops, and the archbishop celebrating( We totally freaked out over that because we love him more than the little monsters love Lady Gaga).
Lunch search involved lots of walking, a 30 minute wait at Burger King, a dash through the park, where we helped an Ohioan get her super important pass back! A quick talk with the group, then we left for stations of the cross with our Papa, the Pope. Some Italians directed us there, and other Italians gave us bananas.
Then we watched the most beautiful, moving, tear inducing, easiest to really understand stations of the cross I will ever witness. People from terrible places to be catholic carried the cross at each station, the music was heavenly and the pope was adorable, as usual. After that we caught the Metro, went to the Italian place, laughed a lot, ate good food. Now its 1:30 AM and we have to be up by 7AM For Mass and the 8 mile hike to campout. Peace!
August 20/21st?
I'm not actually going to write about this day because the only two phrases used by myself were, I'm hungry" and "I'm miserable". There was no sleep and complete disorganization but thats okay! The trip home was crazy too. ANYWAY.
Finally we got to the hotel, grabbed Mcdonalds, showered(YES!) chilled and slept. Then got ready for dinner with our bishop. REAL SPANISH FOOD! I was so tired. THEN WAS THE BEST PART OF THE WHOLE TWO DAYS. All of Rockville Diocese started playing Ride the Pony, which is the best and most pointless game ever to exist. People from Spain, Italy, France, all joined in an we played for literally an hour. It will never not be amazing and never will not be one of the best memories ever to exist. Now I'm tired, as I've had 5 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. GOODNIGHT.
Today we woke up at 8:30, ran to breakfast, grabbed a metro, and were almost late to catechesis. There was an awesome dance party, and amazing amazing talk by Archbishop Dolan, I went to confession with a Canadian priest who gave me much peace, the a beautiful Mass with over 350 priests, 50 bishops, and the archbishop celebrating( We totally freaked out over that because we love him more than the little monsters love Lady Gaga).
Lunch search involved lots of walking, a 30 minute wait at Burger King, a dash through the park, where we helped an Ohioan get her super important pass back! A quick talk with the group, then we left for stations of the cross with our Papa, the Pope. Some Italians directed us there, and other Italians gave us bananas.
Then we watched the most beautiful, moving, tear inducing, easiest to really understand stations of the cross I will ever witness. People from terrible places to be catholic carried the cross at each station, the music was heavenly and the pope was adorable, as usual. After that we caught the Metro, went to the Italian place, laughed a lot, ate good food. Now its 1:30 AM and we have to be up by 7AM For Mass and the 8 mile hike to campout. Peace!
August 20/21st?
I'm not actually going to write about this day because the only two phrases used by myself were, I'm hungry" and "I'm miserable". There was no sleep and complete disorganization but thats okay! The trip home was crazy too. ANYWAY.
Finally we got to the hotel, grabbed Mcdonalds, showered(YES!) chilled and slept. Then got ready for dinner with our bishop. REAL SPANISH FOOD! I was so tired. THEN WAS THE BEST PART OF THE WHOLE TWO DAYS. All of Rockville Diocese started playing Ride the Pony, which is the best and most pointless game ever to exist. People from Spain, Italy, France, all joined in an we played for literally an hour. It will never not be amazing and never will not be one of the best memories ever to exist. Now I'm tired, as I've had 5 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. GOODNIGHT.
WYD Days 3 and 4!
August 17th
Today was a very long day. We woke up at 7:30 after finally getting to sleep around 2, went to breakfast, then took the Metro to the very first day of Catechesis(which I can't spell!)! Catechises was held in a huge indoor stadium, for the english speaking pilgrims. Shortly after they started letting people in, it was so full, with over 12 thousand people, that they were turning others away. Everything was crazy, in the best possible way. The Sisters of Life and Knights of Columbus ran it, and the sisters gave 2 talks, followed by another talk from a Cardinal from Sydney, Australia, on reason and God and science, which was awesome. After that, we ran out, got lunch at a place caled telepizza, which incidentally, was always out of pizza and gave us sandwiches and water. Then we ran back to the hotel for a bus/walking tour of Avilla!
Our amazing tour guide was named Jerry. We learned the history, landmarks, saints, and art styles in and around Avilla.We toured the Cathedral, the city inside the walls, and the church built on top of St. Teresa's house, where we attended mass. Everything was absolutely breathtaking and I took a lot of pictures. A nap and a bus ride later, We made it back to Madrid just in time for a youth rally, where there was a lot of music and dancing and different flags and talks and people.
P.S Apparently McDonalds closes at 11:30 in Spain. Vips for dinner again. Also, can I mention again how gorgeous the Cathedral was?
August 18th
As I write this(in my journal, not the typed up version people are reading), we're siting on the side of the road, waiting for the pope, whose coming in 3 or 4 hours. Everyone is so excited, you can practically feel it in the very air around us. Also, a group of french boys climbed up in our marvelous shade tree about 8 feet up, and they're now dropping bark on us.
This morning after about 5 1/2 hours of sleep, we had breakfast and went to Catechises late. There was an amazing talk on Chastity and relationships, then a talk by the Bishop of Ontario. Then I almost passed out during Mass, which wasn't too fun. After a terrible lunch, and an overcrowded breakout session, we went to see the pope enter Madrid.
(later on in the evening)
Two crowded Metro stops and changes, 3 backpack chains, one quick turnaround and a patch of ground later, we were at a spot i the fence where we could sort of see the street the pope was to drive down, 5 hours later. Luckily, Spain knows how to party. So we danced, chanted, screamed, took pictures, laughed, yelled for aqua to be sprayed on us, and saw our Papa in the pope mobile, about 10 feet away from us. It was awe-inspiring.
We left shortly after, walked 4 metro stops, packed onto one, met south Koreans whose names are unpronounceable, but who were very cool. Fianlly, a little shopping, and a delicious dinner at an Italian place. Tonight we get to go to bed before 1! WHEEEE!
Today was a very long day. We woke up at 7:30 after finally getting to sleep around 2, went to breakfast, then took the Metro to the very first day of Catechesis(which I can't spell!)! Catechises was held in a huge indoor stadium, for the english speaking pilgrims. Shortly after they started letting people in, it was so full, with over 12 thousand people, that they were turning others away. Everything was crazy, in the best possible way. The Sisters of Life and Knights of Columbus ran it, and the sisters gave 2 talks, followed by another talk from a Cardinal from Sydney, Australia, on reason and God and science, which was awesome. After that, we ran out, got lunch at a place caled telepizza, which incidentally, was always out of pizza and gave us sandwiches and water. Then we ran back to the hotel for a bus/walking tour of Avilla!
Our amazing tour guide was named Jerry. We learned the history, landmarks, saints, and art styles in and around Avilla.We toured the Cathedral, the city inside the walls, and the church built on top of St. Teresa's house, where we attended mass. Everything was absolutely breathtaking and I took a lot of pictures. A nap and a bus ride later, We made it back to Madrid just in time for a youth rally, where there was a lot of music and dancing and different flags and talks and people.
P.S Apparently McDonalds closes at 11:30 in Spain. Vips for dinner again. Also, can I mention again how gorgeous the Cathedral was?
August 18th
As I write this(in my journal, not the typed up version people are reading), we're siting on the side of the road, waiting for the pope, whose coming in 3 or 4 hours. Everyone is so excited, you can practically feel it in the very air around us. Also, a group of french boys climbed up in our marvelous shade tree about 8 feet up, and they're now dropping bark on us.
This morning after about 5 1/2 hours of sleep, we had breakfast and went to Catechises late. There was an amazing talk on Chastity and relationships, then a talk by the Bishop of Ontario. Then I almost passed out during Mass, which wasn't too fun. After a terrible lunch, and an overcrowded breakout session, we went to see the pope enter Madrid.
(later on in the evening)
Two crowded Metro stops and changes, 3 backpack chains, one quick turnaround and a patch of ground later, we were at a spot i the fence where we could sort of see the street the pope was to drive down, 5 hours later. Luckily, Spain knows how to party. So we danced, chanted, screamed, took pictures, laughed, yelled for aqua to be sprayed on us, and saw our Papa in the pope mobile, about 10 feet away from us. It was awe-inspiring.
We left shortly after, walked 4 metro stops, packed onto one, met south Koreans whose names are unpronounceable, but who were very cool. Fianlly, a little shopping, and a delicious dinner at an Italian place. Tonight we get to go to bed before 1! WHEEEE!
WYD! intro, flight, first and second days.
Okay, So I've been putting it off, because I hate typing up written things, but here we go. In each post, I'll put one or two entries in my journal about WYD. Hopefully they'll all be done by tonight! Also, forgive the lack of anything fancy or lovely in the writing, I just wanted to jot it all down!
August 14/15th
Got chinese food at the airport, where we chilled for 3 hours, boarded, and sat on the plane for 32 more hours because of delays due to rain. Slept through awful plane dinner, had gross plane breakfast. Landed in Spain 7 hours later, made it through security no problem! At the airport, we directly got onto a sightseeing bus, where we all fell asleep. Before that, I happened to get to see how absolutely lovely everything in Spain is. Its not what you necessarily expect, but the older buildings were just...wow. The hotel is great, my roommate Becky and I have a little balcony, and the only channel in english is CNN, so we leave it on all the time. After we got to the room, we freshened up and went to a restaurant called VIPS for a snack before dinner. Next we went to Mass, then a meeting, and then we finally, at 9:30 we got to go look for food. Around 10, we found a Mcdonalds that would take our meal tickets. nomnomihatemcdonalds. I'm writing this in the hotel room with Becky. We're so exhausted, and I'm going through withdrawal from home/family/phone/friends. Time to sleep, breakfast at 8 tomorrow!
August 16th!
Today is the first official day of WYD, and we were supposed to go to the Prado art museum. Unfortunately, the tour company forgot to give us the passes. So we amused ourselves by wandering around Madrid, learning the Subway, and which flag belonged to what country. I met a ton of people, from South Korea to the Czech Republic. Wherever we walked, people would see our little American flag, and start chanting, " U-S-A! U-S-A!" then everyone would laugh and cheer and we'd find out where they were from.
As we were using meal vouchers, we could only go to specific places to eat. After adding half of the current population of this city in Pilgrims, those places were very, very crowded, lines are long, and people are thirsty/tired/hungry/hot/cranky.So we left the main square on the hugely overcrowded metro and ate VIPS for lunch. After lunch we came to the Hotel to relax for a little bit. Becky and I put on our full pilgrim gear( Yellow hat, orange fan, yellow shirt., colorful backpacks), then off the the welcoming Mass in the square.
While waiting, ( we couldn't see or hear the Mass), we played 10 games of 20 questions, talked to people from Poland, and made friends with Canadians! During the Mass, we tried to follow along as best as possible(P.S, Belgian people literally kiss you on both cheeks at peace) Then we joined the returning throng to go to get food and sleep near the hotel ( it was about 10:30 when we got to a metro with space, the pilgrims were so crowded.) Then the search for food was on! We actually got turned away from a place because they were out of food! Finally, we hit up a sketchy little family owned restaurant and had a really simple spanish sandwich( which is meat and bread, basically). I'm writing this at 12:30 and I have to get up in 6 hours. peace!
August 14/15th
Got chinese food at the airport, where we chilled for 3 hours, boarded, and sat on the plane for 32 more hours because of delays due to rain. Slept through awful plane dinner, had gross plane breakfast. Landed in Spain 7 hours later, made it through security no problem! At the airport, we directly got onto a sightseeing bus, where we all fell asleep. Before that, I happened to get to see how absolutely lovely everything in Spain is. Its not what you necessarily expect, but the older buildings were just...wow. The hotel is great, my roommate Becky and I have a little balcony, and the only channel in english is CNN, so we leave it on all the time. After we got to the room, we freshened up and went to a restaurant called VIPS for a snack before dinner. Next we went to Mass, then a meeting, and then we finally, at 9:30 we got to go look for food. Around 10, we found a Mcdonalds that would take our meal tickets. nomnomihatemcdonalds. I'm writing this in the hotel room with Becky. We're so exhausted, and I'm going through withdrawal from home/family/phone/friends. Time to sleep, breakfast at 8 tomorrow!
August 16th!
Today is the first official day of WYD, and we were supposed to go to the Prado art museum. Unfortunately, the tour company forgot to give us the passes. So we amused ourselves by wandering around Madrid, learning the Subway, and which flag belonged to what country. I met a ton of people, from South Korea to the Czech Republic. Wherever we walked, people would see our little American flag, and start chanting, " U-S-A! U-S-A!" then everyone would laugh and cheer and we'd find out where they were from.
As we were using meal vouchers, we could only go to specific places to eat. After adding half of the current population of this city in Pilgrims, those places were very, very crowded, lines are long, and people are thirsty/tired/hungry/hot/cranky.So we left the main square on the hugely overcrowded metro and ate VIPS for lunch. After lunch we came to the Hotel to relax for a little bit. Becky and I put on our full pilgrim gear( Yellow hat, orange fan, yellow shirt., colorful backpacks), then off the the welcoming Mass in the square.
While waiting, ( we couldn't see or hear the Mass), we played 10 games of 20 questions, talked to people from Poland, and made friends with Canadians! During the Mass, we tried to follow along as best as possible(P.S, Belgian people literally kiss you on both cheeks at peace) Then we joined the returning throng to go to get food and sleep near the hotel ( it was about 10:30 when we got to a metro with space, the pilgrims were so crowded.) Then the search for food was on! We actually got turned away from a place because they were out of food! Finally, we hit up a sketchy little family owned restaurant and had a really simple spanish sandwich( which is meat and bread, basically). I'm writing this at 12:30 and I have to get up in 6 hours. peace!
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