Journal of My Experiences
We were awakened very abruptly at about 6am, by the turning on of the lights. We had a very short time to pack up all our stuff and get out of the gym. We were given a small bagged breakfast, which was actually quite tasty. We gathered with the Belgians from Ghent for a very quick goodbye service.
We had to hike a long ways to pick up our bus. We had a new bus Driver Eric was very good at getting through tight situations. He wanted to hear us sing, but we were a very quiet group. He would play old music and flicker the lights joking about a disco.
We had a good three hour drive to Germany. We stopped once or twice for Bathrooms and Lunch. I bought a newspaper that spoke of �WeltJugenTag�. I�m glad I bought a paper without pictures. Another contained a topless woman, their �Sunshine Girl� on the front page along with the Pope � Advertisements also contained nudity at times.
We arrived in Dusseldorf around 2pm. We were given about an hour to settle in. Unfortunately, some of our rooms, including Andrew and my own, were not yet ready. We had to wait. We went to a local hotel and used the Internet � my only reply home.
Next, we went to the Opening Mass in Dusseldorf. Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz Germany. He was president of the German bishop's conference. It was in a huge soccer stadium with about 40, 000 other people. It was wild!!! The hype and enthusiasm escalated � now THIS was World Youth Day! We tried to do our chant, but we were very poor at it. One highlight was the offertory procession, which included beer and sausages. The beer got a boisterous cheer. The flowers which represented the offering of our lives to the Lord only received a weak �Yippee.�
The stadium was filled to capacity, and we found out later that not all of our pilgrims got in. It was funny speaking to Emma Belair about it. She thought I was locked out. I was going on about how awesome it was. She was like �Oh, it was O.K.� I said �You�ve got to be kidding!!! That was SO AWESOME!� When she found out that I got in too, she said "Oh Yeah that was AWESOME!� It was funny that she played it down so as not to disappoint those who were unable to make it.
We had to take the Transit back and ran into people from every nation in the globe. The funniest were the Italians, who from the very first day were trying to trade our flags for theirs. I was like �No way! I need my flag for the rest of the week!!!� All throughout the week they were very aggressive. I became quite stringent �NIEN!!�. Yet, after the Papal Mass on Sunday I traded my flag.
Me and John went to a simple Italian Restaurant near the restaurant. The food was plentiful and cheap. We had schnitzel and fries for only 6 Euro. The storeowners were very kind.
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