Egypt to Madrid

16/08/11

Monday – up way to early, 4.30am to get our luggage out after trying to squash as much as we could in the main bag, have a slightly stale boxed cake breakfast then off to airport, through security and on our way to Spain. The last part of the flight was quite the extreme adventure – my gut went up many times as we seemed to duck and weave constantly. On landing Jenny ran to the toilet and some others were quite queasy and were suffering from travel sickness.  

Our accommodation is pretty good, a bed and shower is always good, WYD Sydney was just the floor in a hall. We went for a stroll down the street but pretty much everything was closed as it was a public holiday.

Tuesday – Australian pride, squished and hot and bothered in the streets attempting to get a seat for mass.

Worked out some of the Madrid train and bus network getting into town to the ‘Jesus palace’ where we held the Australian WYD gathering. Around 3000 Aussies- the atmosphere was electric and the New South Blues were really loud and in the spirit.

Afterwards we attempted to get in as close as possible to the opening mass – the streets, sidewalks and even traffic light posts were jam packed like a tin of sardines. Imagine that – no room for a mass ; ) among the thousands or hundreds or thousands. After 15 minutes of not hearing a thing and only just being able to see the big screen we decided to head back. We found a little café so we had a drink, chips and peanuts (on the house) and watched it in Spanish in comfortable surroundings.

We headed back to the Jesus palace for a concert and sang some old favourites with actions – trading my sorrows and others.