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Published: July 22nd 2008
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Hello everyone! Welcome to our final blog, and we have a lot to catch up on.
Well, we had another couple days in Mooloolaba, we met the girls on Thursday morning and enjoyed another round of surfing with them, then on Friday we had our opening mass with the church and hung out with lots of the Canadians there, including Archbishop Smith. This was also the day we went to the Australia Zoo! We all got free face painting! And we enjoyed the Crocosseum show where we also saw Terri Irwin (Steve Irwin's wife) and enjoyed the many animals there. We got to pet a koala, feed an elephant, and also feed and pet kangaroos! One of our host families held a barbeque for us that night so we spent the night singing, eating kangaroo (SOOOO tasty!), and playing soccer with her young kids.
The next day we all headed into Brisbane for Heart of the CIty festival with all the pilgrims in Brisbane. We took a short 3km walk from the main cathedral downtown to the festival with thousands of others and this was really when we all felt WYD was really happening. There was also live music
all day, shops, kiosks, food, and plenty of activities, including a delightful giant blow up soccer game! Then we just walked around Brisbane for a bit before heading home. We had another mass Sunday morning and then we went to Dicky Beach for some surfing again! This was our last chance and we also had the great opportunity to watch Paul, a son of one of the host families show off his amazing surf skills, and he also gave Dennis some tips!
We left Monday morning for Brisbane airport and quickly went through security and got on our flight. When we arrived in Sydney there was some minor hiccups of where to pick up our pilgrim registrations, but we found it eventually. We got to our host church and found our host families who once again, gave us hospitality beyond our imaginations, we all settled in and had a tasty dinner.
Tuesday morning we headed into Sydney and saw the Sydney Opera house, although it was packed and Dennis saw his Sydney Harbor Bridge. Then we went to the opening mass at Barangaroo and enjoyed the singing, fun, and mass. We got good old WYD food and enjoyed
the concerts going on there before catching our train home.
Wednesday we had catechesis in the morning at our parish, as well as a 6:45 AM mass that was difficult to be enthused about that early! Then we headed into town and went to St. Mary's cathedral with the rest of the Edmonton Archdiocese including the bishop. We waited in line for a very long time and during this time we joked, laughed, sang, took photos, and... broke the Archbishop's camera! Oops! Dennis dropped it when we were taking a photo for him with some pilgrims and it was blurred on the screen.... then our friend Irwin tried to get the sand out of the lens and proceeded to break the lens.... so now it didn't work at all! Oh geez. But ABRS (as we called the Archbishop) was not upset and told us not to worry at all. We offered my camera for his use but he refused. The cathedral was beautiful and there were lots of exhibits of the patrons of WYD. We really enjoyed it and it was at this time that my knee had popped out (well the patella had) and refused to pop back
in, making it impossible to straighten my knee. Oh well, at least I could still walk. We went to Christopher West's theology of the Body talk which was unreal and then headed home.
Thursday we skipped catechesis and slept in, then went to mass and headed into Barangaroo harbor for the welcoming to the Pope! We got not too bad of spots and then got to move up closer. My knee decided to pop back in during the pope's address and I do believe I swore while he was talking. Not my finest moment! Then we went to the international Lifeteen XLT adoration with Matt Maher and that was absolutely beautiful! We really loved it.
Friday we went to catechesis and then headed into the city for Stations of the Cross which went from St. Mary's cathedral, to the NSW Art gallery, to the Sydney Opera house, to Darling harbor, and then to Barangaroo where they re-enacted the crucifixion. It was very moving but we unfortunately had our view blocked mcuh of the time from pilgrims who were not really there for the stations but to talk and move around with friends. We stayed for the concert and
adoration afterwards until 10 and then ran into Phil, Milene and Nancy at Starbucks.
Saturday was the pilgrimage day and we started at noon over the Sydney Harbor Bridge and walked 10km to Randwick Racecourse. There were no hiccups, except for the Atheist group who protested, threw condoms, and had signs, posters, and t-shirts telling us we were gullible. Sigh. Unfortunately, a pilgrim who was hit by a condom apparently hit a protester who did it and that was all that made the news. Out of 400 000 people, one guy, and we look like the bad guys. Many of the pilgrims walking past just sang, chanted "Benedetto" and said they would pray. However, there were many articles in the newspapers saying that they really should not have been there in the first place. We got to Randwick and realized that it would be impossible to get into our section and we had to move back. Numerous people had brought tents, normally a no-no and took up far more space than was necessary. We settled in, ate, walked around, and enjoyed the vigil. At 1AM Danielle (my cousin) jumped on my sleeping bag when she found me. That was
a fun surprise. We also ran into our Dutch host family from the last WYD and spent some time chatting with them.
Sunday we woke up to "WAKE UP PILGRIMS" by the lady who apparently couldn't sleep anymore, so we were not allowed to either. Grumble. The morning mass was beautiful, with 24 people being confirmed by the pope and Dennis and I were accidentally stuck near the motorcade so we got an amazing 5 foot view of the pope! YAY! We walked home to the train station and everyone showed and got cleaned up so we could go back to Sydney for dinner and a movie. We saw The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie. It was awesome!
Monday we went to the Blue Mountains, where we once again ran into our host family from Holland. It was really windy and cold there! only 10 degrees without wind. We hiked a bit and shopped around before catching the train home and buying some more tasty kangaroo meat for a barbeque.
Today we got up late and went into Sydney to enjoy some tourist sights, including exploring teh outside of teh SOH, taking a harbor cruise, and
walking around Darling Harbor. Oh... and Dennis had to apply first aid to a guy WHO GOT HIT BY A CAR! It was insane.
Coming home tomorrow morning! Love you all! See you soonn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kim and Dennis
P.S. This is by no means a complete summary, but typed in 20 minutes.
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