There were quite a few people wandering around at this time, perhaps they were thinking to bet the queue like I was.
This was one of the collapsed chapel sites, the marquee debris has been cleared.
The day was still quite cool when I woke up, but by the time I got back to the camp it was already much warmer and I had to madly rush to get my sun screen lotion. The sun is not easy in this hot climate.
Exodus!! we have Exodus presence at the JMJ 2011 Madrid, here is the photo to prove it!
The pope arrived and celebrates Mass at 10am. He reminded us again that World Youth Day can be a life changing event, allow this change to occur by accepting Jesus into our lives, to become firm in faith rooted in Christ and to go out to be evangelist to the world!
We all managed to receive communion that morning, but it is the first time I have receives the body of Christ as the crumbs on the bottom of the chalice.
At the end of the Mass, the Pope announced the next world youth day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!
JMJ ended officially at 12.30am. Not too bad for a Mass for over 1 million people!
We had to clean up and clear out. Last night because of the thunderstorm a large amount of the rubbish had been blown all over the place. Being tidy kiwis we cleaned up our surrounding area before heading out. The group next to us were staying to haven lunch first so we gave them two large bottles of our water. The crowd milling out was big, everyone was still orderly and cheerful as we walked out. I think it must have taken half an hour longer than going in just simply because of the amount of people and the heat slowing everyone down.
There was a moment of surprise and amusement for me as I watched a teenager spray water at the police officers from a spray bottle. The first one was initially surprised then smiles and said gracias! This must be the only time one can 'assault' a police officer and get away with it and receive thanks!
A round of applause must be given to the Madrid police force and the metro staff. They treated us mostly politely and did all the crowd control very effectively. I was quite surprised how quickly I was able to get onto the metro. I was expecting a whole day of queuing under the Spanish sun.
Remember how I said when we went into the vigil the metro was not smelling too good? This time around the smell was even worst! Reminds me of the unbearable smell of high school changing rooms but ten times worst!
Finally we got home, first thing we did was drink refrigerated water and lovely cool showers. We washed all our cloths till finally I felt more presentable. Some of us took naps, others like me tried to catch up with some blogging or diary writing.
We decided that since this will be our last night as a group of five in this trip we will go out for a nice dinner. We walked around Sol until we found a bar/restaurant where we sat down for dinner.
Our meals.
The dinner was absolute fun as we chatted about our time together and how quickly it had flew by. We remembered to odd little moments we shared together and what we learn about each other that we didn't know before this trip.
That night we got home and realized we actually had a lot of food still remaining so we got together again, ate and chatted some more!
Tiffany had to leaves at 4.30am the next morning so I guess she was planning to stay and talk, but I was too tired by the time we got home. Wish I could have talked longer, truly, the mind is willing but the body is weak.
Happy times fly so quickly and friends will always part ways. All we have to hold onto is our fond loving memories of each other.
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Location:Calle de Palafox,Valencia,Spain
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