WYD2011 August 16
And the fun officially begins today...! :D
Some girls decided to do some dance movements on the streets while waiting. Other nationalities joined in by doing their own dances. It was very cool to watch... You rarely see this in the streets of KL!
A small Korean contingent. You know how people were saying that Koreans all look alike because they all go to the same plastic surgeon? Well, these people here actually look all different though. Speaking of Koreans, I got mistaken for a Korean. By a Korean!!! Hahahaha. It was super hilarious to me. :D
We spent the early part of the day in the Retiro park. The park was huge!!! Lots of greenery (finally).. You can actually get lost. There were volunteers but because of the language barrier, it was hard to get directions. "No inglais no inglais!" Direct translation, no English. *rolls my eyes a bit* How can you have volunteers for an international event who can't even speak English??
With some youths from the country of Portugal!!! Football yo...!
This was an activity where they praised God using dance movements. It was fun when they involved us as well. We just had to do some simple actions.
A view of the spectators from the other side of the so-called stage.
Nearly everyone was wearing hats as the weather could get quite hot midday and you don't wanna get sunburn!
Our East Malaysia contingent, the Sabahans! Don't mind the lady in blue. She got in my shot. :(
Citizens from Vietnam, in their traditional wear (a bit). Look at the sleeves. The girl in the shot must have been pretty happy and full of joy. Hahaha.
There they are again...You can see the little yellow hats at the left... That is definitely Vietnamese.
I can't remember what this is... But it's some kind of architecture. Hence the photo. :P
The park has a lake..! Some youths enjoying themselves rowing in the sun. One thing, the Europeans, Americans, love the sun... I mean I love it too but I am not going to row a bot in the scorching sun. It burns!
Moi. Lol. My waist looks weird. That's my travelling pouch where I put my money and passport. Underneath my shirt. Spain has a lot of professional thieves. Two guys of our group got their iphone 4 and blackberry stolen. Another lady got her credit cards and daughter's passport stolen. Kinda freaky....
With the boys from Columbia...!
With youths from Argentina and England... I think. Urgh.. I don't recognize the flags. It was fun taking photos with people from all over the world. You don't really know who's who. People just pop in and out of anyone's pictures, bearing their countries' flag. And if you are carrying one, people tend to want to take pictures with you cause of the flag... Hahaha. Good point to remember.
With the Swedes (Swedish?) and the Columbian boys again. I call them boys as I didn't see any girls in their entourage that day.
In the afternoon, we hopped onto the Metro again to head to one of the exhibition halls for a talk. Theology of the Body, initiated by the late Pope John Paul II. The crowd waiting outside was humongous and unexpected to me.
You can see some the crowd waiting in line to enter the hall.
Long long wait..........
Finally in the hall... that is the ground floor you are seeing. We had to sit at the mezzanine level as it was getting full but luckily we made it in as there were many youths who were barred entry because of the over-capacity.
My late late lunch. 5pm. Later than in KL too. Hahahaha. Fries, pineapple slices (whatever for though?) and ham (salty much?).
And my plate of stewed vegetables. Looks odd but it tastes better than the ham!
After "lunch", we headed on to Plaza de Cibeles for the opening mass of WYD2011.. This was where I saw the magnitude of this event. The number of people here is uncountable.
The few of us were looking for our Malaysian group or at least any other groups of Malaysians, so we would be together to represent our country. But looking for them in this crowd, is like looking for a needle in a haystack. We abandoned our thought soon after and decided to stay where we were. It was a hopeless cause anyway.
People were shoving, and you were actually in bodily contact with the other people as you tried to squeeze your way through. Yuck! The sweat... If you are claustrophobic, stay away. I witnessed a lady crying, looking suffocated with a volunteer helping her through the crowd.
You really had to hold onto the other person's hand as you walked through this street. If not, You will definitely be left behind and get lost with all the shoving and pushing.
Did I mention that this is the sky at 7pm in Madrid? The sun sets at 9pm!! I'm "photosenstitive". I can only have my dinner when the sky is dark. Eating at 8pm in Madrid is like having tea... Seriously!!
The crowd the crowd!!!
After the mass was over, we headed back to our lodgings. Almost everywhere we went, we saw WYD pilgrims (well, obviously you nuthead.). The Metro stations were crowded and packed. The buses, taxis were not allowed to enter town. Most of us lingered on the streets for the crowd to clear, which never seemed to actually! We had our dinner on the streets, sitting on the roads, chit chatting and photo taking!
One thing I found fascinating, was seeing the number of participants for WYD2011. There were so so many...! And so many countries..... It was really awesome. (I'm sorry, I can't seem to stop gushing bout this...)
Oh, and the Spanish, really take their siesta time seriously.
Comments