WYD

Yep, i'm finally getting down to it. My LONG overdue post. Been really lazy to blog these days. But anyway, here's the account (a VERRRRRRRY summarized one) of what we did during WYD.

Day 1, 15 July 2008: The first place we went was to St.Mary's, the oldest cathedral in Sydney. The first day was pretty much free, the only big event we had was the opening mass at Barangaroo, celebrated by Cardinal George Pell, the archbishop of Sydney. There was a concert at night (in which Guy Sebastian & Paulini performed too) after the mass with amazing fireworks which lasted for a reeally long time! Seriously was a fantastic conclusion to the concert.

St. Mary's cathedral

the interior of the church

the crowd at barangaroo before opening mass

the screen where we watched the mass taking place

guy sebastian!

some of the fireworks after the concert. that thing there is the stage where the mass took place & also the concert

Day 2, 16th July 2008: We had a catechesis session first thing in the morning. All of us had to walk to a nearest church from where we were allocated our accommodation at Blacktown (which was 30mins by train from city! imagine having to travel like this everyday!!), and then listen to a homily/sermon for 3 hours by different bishops from different parts of the world per morning. That is, each morning there would be a different bishop we'd have to listen to. Had this catechesis session for 3 mornings in a row. There was a SA gathering after that, all of us (our parish group) had to take the bus to some suburb from the city where ALL pilgrims from South Australia would gather for a mass. It was there that we met & made some friends with our fellow Adelaideans.

We had the day free after that to go for any Youth Festival activities. These activities were also a 3-day thing whereby there were forums/workshops/concerts/talks..(whatever it was) which lasted thruout the day & you could attend whatever you wanted to attend if you've got free time (when there were no major group activities with the parish group, you could go do yr own stuff with yr own group of ppl). We couldnt really attend that many as most of the time we had other activities on so usually it was only at night that we could go for the Youth Festival stuf. That night we went for a talk by Christopher West. He was reeeeally a talented guy & a funny one too! Topic was damn interesting - about the Theology of the Body. hehee. Was very good. There was a mini concert before his talk & ah. what can i say. Every second being in a crowd filled with ppl with the same religion just..it was so overwhelming. & the excitement & enthusiasm you see in everyone was amazing! Had fun doing the popular "wave" before the talk began.

this was how we slept at our accommodation (a school) at blacktown

where we showered. ho ho ho. thank god there was even hot water!!

the catechesis session

at the SA gathering

Day 3, 17th July 2008: The BIG day! When Pope Benedict XVI appeared on screen in person. lol! Since we were too far from the stage anyway, what could be seen was him on screen. Well, better than nothing..! Esp when everytime we were lucky enough to be allocated to areas where we had the big screen right in front of us! good view. Spent the day at Barangaroo again, with catechesis in the morning before that. Whole arvo was spent with the pope giving speeches in the many different languages he knew - i forgot how many. After that at night, we all went to listen to Christopher's talk again. lol. Couldnt resist, it was too interesting! Anyway, the one there was on that night was a sequel to the one we went before today. A just-as-interesting Part 2 of the Theology of the Body.

everyone waving & cheering as the pope's boat-a-cade came in

those pilgrims who got to be on the same boat as him were lucky!

the pope mobile. some mercedes i-dunno-what model which apparently zooms by very fast

pope waving from the pope mobile

a few of us. oooh that's me right in the middle!! look look!

Day 4, 18th July 2008: Catechesis in the morning as usual followed by Barangaroo again. Most of the events were held at this place. Stations of the Cross was on the whole arvo, it's the depiction of the final hours of Jesus & the devotion commemorating the Passion. There were actors acting representing the scenes at the Passion of Christ. (& i am so jealous cos my bro got to take a pic with the main actors post WYD!!! - I havta say 'Jesus' was quite cute! & with my bro's caption under his pic, it was sorta true the actor looked a bit like j.timberlake!! lol. He was a volunteer for WYD and volunteers get lotsa "access" to things we normal pilgrims dont have access to. They even got a 'private' session with the pope, all the volunteers only post WYD =( ). ANYWAY, at night there was a concert again, part of Youth Festivals. Hillsongs performed, Matt something performed & a few others I didnt really know. Atmosphere was awesome, everyone singing in one voice!

Day 5, 19th July 2008: Was a reeeeeally tiring day. We had to walk from the city to a suburb called Randwick where we slept out in the racecourse that night. It was a 10km walk = 4+ hours!, so you can imagine how tired we all were having to lug our sleeping bags & all the other necessities for a night out in an open, HUGE field. Had an evening vigil that night & it was simply splendid. Every pilgrim had their candles lit & you could just see hundreds & thousands of lit candles in an open field stretching as far as the eye could see...After the vigil, there was a concert again. hehe. Full of song most of the time. & it was great fun! All of us were dancing & there were those Irish(?) kinds of music where all of us linked arms & skipped in circles..those polka kinda dances if you get what i mean. The night was freezing cold, so we danced ourselves warm! hahaa. In the end, i had to take off my layers of clothing. All of us slept camp-style that night - some pilgrims even had tents pitched up. Was a memorable night, first time doing such myself, camping out in the open, cold, winter night. Sadly there wasnt a single star in the night sky. lol.

our parish group - some werent inside as they were still busy eating brekkie - shortly before we left blacktown to head to the city for the walk

walked on the famous sydney harbour bridge, roads all closed specially for us!

not a single empty space spotted!

upon reaching randwick racecourse. already buzzing with activity

candlelight vigil

Day 6, 20th July 2008: It's WYD! Yea, WYD's actually supposed to be this day, the last day & on a Sunday where we celebrated mass with the Pope. Nothing much, just mass then had to walk back the way we came from, except that we were able to take the train home halfway through. I would have died if we were to walk back allllllll the way!! The whole thing ended at about past noon, a few of us went to chinatown for a late lunch & then headed back to Blacktown.

Finito for WYD week. Post Wyd, it was Bondi Beach & Blue Mountains & headed back to boring ol adelaide 2 days after. That's it!! YAY for this post!!!! *whew* If interested to see more pics, they're all on facebook. Too many of them.

Ahh i'm just glad i managed to finally get this post out of my drafts section -_-