addendum: the pope in Sydney

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On last Thursday I've been to Sydney, which seems to be a really nice city, but unfortunately it was world youth day and the pope was there and 500.000 pilgrims to see him doing nothing but driving by, waving behind bullet proof glass. Main streets and the botanic garden were closed and it was impossible to move freely. I wanted to have a look at the Opera House and at the inner city in general but my vision was obscured by thousands of america-flags. Can anybody tell me why they seize any opportunity to wave their flags? Worse enough that people from all over the world meet to celebrate the pope although he never did anything useful, but why do they come to this event to celebrate America? It seems as if they do not know what they're doing - shouting and screaming as if they were 13 year old girls awaiting their favourite boygroup. I'd really like to hold a shield that says 'I love my boyfiend' or sell T-shirts with the slogan 'I'm a child of unmarried parents - why don't I feel sorry?'. An objective observer immediately realizes: This is a commercial event. Everybody bought the same backpack and I don't want to know how much an entrance ticket to the park was, where they're celebrating themselves and their head of church. Seems as if I have to get back there to get a more authentic picture of the city. And I'll do so for sure.

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Photos

the pope
representing the dark side