MADRIIIIIIID! 20th August

we woke up to a nice hot day, renee woke up to a lovely message from her sister, and 3 consecutive alarms playing my new favourite song.. all was well

a group meeting was held, and we were informed of the plans for the day- luckily for us we got to do a final shop for gifts and food for the sleep out.

after all this, we soon found out that- luckily for us- the metro had shut down and all the workers were striking due to the large numbers of pilgrims.. not tourists; thus meaning that we had a exciting 5km walk ahead of us to the sleep out. hoorah!
the walk would have been fine, if not for the 40+ degree heat that left us all boiled over and tired.

upon arrival at the sleep out, we found ourselves amongst millions of other pilgrims, all keen and ready for the pope's re-arrival. setting up camp we found a lovely patch of dead grass in which we lay down our sleeping bags - only to find that we were being invaded by numerous grasshoppers who were way too keen to jump all over us and our belongings.

come close to nightfall, after a scorching hot day we were kindly greeted by thunder, lightning and rain.. all of which really just added to the excitement. the rain absolutely soaked everyone and everything - including our sleeping bags; although it was quite convenient that we were given umbrellas that could double as shade from the sun and protection from the rain.

once the rain eased off we found ourselves keen for sleep, not a good nights sleep however as the ground apparently isn't as comfortable as we all would have liked. we were lucky to get a few solid hours sleep and this did make quite a difference come morning.

some of us were lucky enough to watch the sunrise the following morning, those of us who (much like myself) were still trying to get more sleep, however, preferred watching the back of their eyelids.
mass began, and we found ourselves a little lost in regard to the happenings; and we soon left as communion was not offered.

thus began the 5km walk back to the university, oh joy.



love from sam and renee :)
p.s WE ARE PILGRIMS, NOT TOURISTS . . .