Many New Entries!

After a very long day of waiting, hurrying, waiting some more, and hurrying a lot more, we had a wonderful day in Sunny Madrid.  Umbrellas kept us relatively cool as we waited for opening mass tonight, but we were rewarded with a wonderful view, especially as the sun set behind the buildings at our backs.  City Hall in Madrid is beautiful, but the excitement of the crowd most definitely stole the show.  To be praying and attending mass with a million other Catholics literally from around the globe truly focused our faith as we all stood "firmes en la fe."

On a more selfish note, please keep my sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Evan in your prayers as we prepare to welcome her son, my nephew into the world!

Blog Update:  Last night our wifi connection would not allow all of our bloggers to post, so here I will paste what each wrote in a file on my computer.

Buenas noches!

Collin

Olivia's First Blog.

My name is Olivia Picklo I am not a member of St. Aidan's Parish but I was fortunate enough to be invited to travel with them to World Youth Day. My home parish, SS John and Paul located in Washington Township, did not travel to World Youth day but are going to the World Youth Day at Home. I have had so much fun so far on this trip, even though the weather is very hot! I have made a lot of new friends including Sean Nemes. My favorite day so far was when I hung out with Collin and Amy! Rome was so gorgeous, I didn't expect to fall in love with the city. I think I might just have to move here! I ate so much delicious food, saw so many gorgeous Churches and walked tons of miles. This trip has been a lot of fun and I am excited that I am making new friendships and growing closer to God. Keeping all of you back home in my prayers. 

love, Olivia.

El primer blog de Kaitlyn :)

Hi, I"m Kaitlyn Kozyn and am a member of St. Aidan's traveling to Europe for World Youth Day. As you all know, we've had some amazing experiences so far in Rome and Barcelona, and today we began our first complete day of Madrid by touring the Palacia Royal which is the symbolic home of the Spanish monarchy. In our free time we got the opportunity to shop around the heart of Madrid and buy souvenirs for our loved ones. We are all anticipating the start of World Youth Day tomorrow; today we saw many other countries celebrating their excitement for the event. One thing I'm looking forward to most is meeting with foreign youth and celebrating Catholicism with them. Less than 24 hours !!

Kaitlyn

Barcelona and Madrid Sights

Barcelona was great - we saw the famous La Sagrada Familia (the Church of the Holy Family), sites of the 1992 Olympic Games, the house of the artist and architect Gaudi, and more.  We arrived in Madrid after a great high speed train ride through the country.  Madrid is an exciting city filled with many people from all over the world for World Youth Day.  (We spoke to people from Italy and Long Island, NY already.)  We visited the royal palace, the center plaza where people gather during new years eve, and a monument dedicated to Miguel de Cervantes (the author of Don Quijote).  Of course we also explored the shops of the city. :-)  It was a fun filled day for all.

Jennifer Wakenell

Hello, my name is Lauren Cheaney!  Rome was a very interesting city to see, but now we are in Spain which I have been looking forward to coming to. On Saturday night we arrived in Barcelona by a ferry.  Barcelona has a beach which many apartment buildings throughout the city. The next day on Sunday we spent the day sightseeing. We visited a beautiful park called Guell Parc.  Then we went to La Sagrada Familia which is a famous church. While we were around that area we saw groups of Catholics from other countries that are going to World Youth Day. We went to mass at the Cathedral of Barcelona.  After lunch we took a very fast train to Madrid.  Today, we went to a park where we saw sculptures of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza.  Then we went to Las Ventas which is the building where they have bull fights. There was a sculpture outside of the building that had the matador and a bull. After that we saw the Palacio Real which is the Royal Palace. It was interesting to imagine how the royal people lived many years ago. We were not allowed to take pictures; however, I am happy I had the chance to see the palace. Each room had beautiful tapestries and paintings.  There was one room that had 144 seats that the king and queen have dinner parties. The people who were ranked the highest sat closest to the king and queen. Each room had it's own theme. We went into a porcelain room, a yellow room, and there were separate rooms for each meal.  We also saw the former bedrooms of the king and queen. After the Royal Palace we ate lunch together and then we had free time. During my free time I met a girl from Argentina, two people from Boston, two groups of people from Italy, and a few girls from New York. I know that they are going to World Youth Day because everyone in the group is wearing the same shirt. I am excited to start World Youth Day tomorrow to meet many more people from different countries and to compare our countries and cultures. Also, it will be interesting tomorrow to see so many different people sharing one common interest, our faith in God.

Lauren Cheaney