Day 9: Tuesday 16th August - Official Opening Mass of Welcome

Please accept our apologies for not being able to update our blog, but we have been really short for time!! We have had late nights and early mornings but it has been all worth it!!! Anyway we will now update you with all that has happened the past week!!

Our flight into Madrid was great as it was a charter flight which meant the whole plane was filled with just pilgrims – I’ll let the photos speak for themselves!! 

Anyway I have the honour of blogging our first day as it was my birthday!!! J The day started with everyone in the cafeteria singing me happy birthday! I knew then and there that it was going to be an awesome day!!

We then made our way over to the Palacio de Deportes at Goya for the Australian gathering. It was an amazing sight to see around 5000 Australians in Madrid to celebrate World Youth Day. We also met up with the Salesians pilgrims and Father Bernie Graham which was great! 

After the gathering we had some time to take in the sights of Madrid. Our group had a Spanish Tapas birthday lunch for me which was great and I also received a gorgeous Dior lip gloss from the girls which was a great surprise. 

After a delicious lunch of patatas fritas, calamari & ensalada we met up with our bus groups to celebrate opening mass. Whilst we were not near the location, we did however get a really good spot right in front of the screen! The only negative was that everyone else was thinking the same thing so it became a struggle to maintain our spots. Luckily we had some American’s behind us telling everyone to “go back... there’s no more room” hehe..

Although the mass was in Spanish we celebrated it together as a group and definitely felt God’s presence. The streets of Madrid became silent as mass started which showed the unity of everyone there. After mass ended, it was an adventure getting back home but it was all part of the journey. 

Our motto for the whole week – we are pilgrims not tourists!!!