Day 5 - Tuesday 23rd
I woke up thoroughly refreshed after several rough days. After a short breakfast, I attended the Monastic Office which was like the Liturgy of the Hours, all in French of course, but it was spoken, chanted and sung by the nuns, complete with a kind of large lap harp. The Monastic Office was just heavenly and lasted a good 45 minutes or so. After that we went off on our adventure through Paris.
Astonishingly, we crossed paths with some of our fellow UD Romers on the metro. It was a very pleasant surprise. From there, we visited Notre Dame, which was magnificent to behold. I had wanted to visit Chartres Cathedral (my favorite gothic church in the world) about an hour’s train ride away, but it wouldn’t have worked out. But Notre Dame is definitely a close second in my book for a gothic church, what with its lavish detail and breathtaking rose windows. From there we’d intended to visit the Louvre art museum, but as it turned out, it was closed on Tuesdays. I know, another heartbreaker. Nothing is going to be perfect. We did shortly explore a little of the gardens next to the Louvre, which were quite charming.
More walking and we saw the famed Opera House (cue Phantom of the Opera overture), and then we saw three incorruptible saints within the same hour -- St. Vincent de Paul, and then St. Catherine Laboure who was at the one address I memorized since childhood: 140 Rue de Bac, Paris. To our surprise, the third incorruptible saint was there: St. Louise de Marillac, the co-founder of St. Catherine’s order, the Daughters of Charity. From there, we visited the Eiffel Tower once again, this time staying long enough until it sparkled at dusk. It was quite impressive and incredibly exciting! After a satisfying day of travel, we ate a quick dinner at McDonald’s (they have a euro menu too) and returned to the guest house. We were all very tired from all the walking around, but the excitement of living a hallway away from a grand church was enough to keep me wide awake to attend 10pm Mass and stay for a silent rosary in the near-darkness as I had the night before. Some things are worth repeating. If only it could have lasted all night…
Next morning was a repeat of the previous morning with early breakfast and the Monastic Office. We checked out of the guest house, eternally grateful for having stayed at such a glorious place, and headed off for the train station for a half-day of traveling. Despite a couple of delayed trains, our guardian angels made sure to get us to Kaiserslaughtern, Germany on time to be picked up by some good friends of mine who are stationed in Germany. The family-friends of ours were extremely kind and generous to us. They made us feel right at home, even with their three little children running around, and fed us our first real dinner in a long while, complete with an exceedingly delicious sparkling white sweet wine from Trier, Germany, the place we were to visit the following day. Oh, and we even tried some German and Czech chocolates, which were fabulous. It was really great to be sleeping in a cozy home.
Day 7 - Thursday 25th
It’s pretty rainy in Germany, or at least it is in Ottenbach. The hour-long morning drive to Trier, Germany was pretty misty as well, but that was more in the mountains. Once we arrived in Trier, we explored three of the churches at a leisurely pace. They were lavishly decorated and were mostly if not completely gothic in architecture. Not even a photograph could capture the majesty of the church.
By the time we were done, it was lunchtime. Prices for food in small German towns are surprisingly cheap. I mean, who buys a deliciously large hot pretzel for 49 cents? Or a satisfying fish and chips meal for three euro? (okay, more like 2,99 without tax) Great food! After that, we wandered throughout Trier, finally coming across the house of Karl Marx. Yes, THE Karl Marx, the father of communism. His house, which includes a courtyard and a garden in the back, is a museum now which you can explore and read about his life. Pretty intense stuff! I found the politics and history a bit difficult to chew, but it was nonetheless interesting.Afterwards, we visited Constantine’s basilica, that is the basilica in the architectural sense, not the church sense. Constantine’s basilica is now a protestant church, but still retains is ancient aura. The Aula Palatina building next to it was very beautiful on the outside (we didn’t go in), and the gardens in front of it were bright green. We ended our expedition on the other side of the gardens in the charming park with a long duck pond and vibrantly colored fall leaves, enjoying the scenery from a park bench. Our host came to pick us up, but not before taking us out to eat at a restaurant with delicious German food. We arrived home tired but very pleased with the events of the day.
Day 8 - Friday 26th
Anyhow, we explored the castle, the apothecary museum inside, and saw the biggest beer keg in the world! Ending the castle visit, we drove down into the town and visited the bridge, did a little shopping (all window shopping for me as usual), ate dinner at Pizza Hut, which turned out to taste a dozen times better than the American version, and returned home for our last night in Germany.Day 9 - Saturday 27th
2 a.m. wakeup call. Or, more like 2:30 a.m. because my guardian angel was slacking on its duties of waking me up. *ahem!* Our hosts did the work of being our guardian angels and woke us up for the hour-long drive to Frankfurt airport. During the night drive, it started to snow! It didn’t stop even when we arrived at the airport. Unfortunately, it was not the kind of snow that sticks to the ground, but it was still pretty exciting, more so when I watched the snowflakes collecting on my window on the airplane and melting away as we ascended for the 2 - 2 ½ hour long flight to Rome. Once in Rome, we made our way into the city and ate at The Scholar’s Lounge, an Irish pub, for lunch. We stuck around for a few hours, trying to sort out where we would stay for the night. Eventually, we decided to bite the bullet and stay at a hostel down the street from the Termini train station. It ended up costing us nearly 40 euro each, though we had been led to thinking we were staying for 20 euro each, and two of us were going to be staying in a mixed dorm, but thank the merciful Lord that the two people who were already occupying it were women, though they were the slightly eerie, tattoo-covered college party girls. They weren’t there when we walked into our room and they arrived much later that night, making minimal noise and spending most of their time on their iphones when they weren’t sleeping. I was so exhausted and wiped out from the frustration of getting directions, running around with heavy luggage, and having to pay what felt like an arm and a leg for my hostel that I just crashed and went right to sleep the minute we checked into the hostel and found our room. Oh, and it was only 3 p.m. when I went to sleep. I slept soundly and didn’t wake up until one of my traveling buddies woke me at a quarter to 9 p.m. to tell me that there was a free pasta party downstairs which was ending in fifteen minutes. I was planning on skipping dinner since I’d paid so much for the hostel and I had been sleeping most of the day anyway, so I could have lasted until morning, but it looked like God was taking care of us. The pasta party was at the small restaurant right next door to the hostel, and the only stipulation was that you buy a drink and get free pasta. We each purchased a 2 euro water (really, you’d think that water was scarce at prices like that!) and received generous helpings of pasta pomodoro (tomato). I went right back to bed after that, feeling just a little better. Daylight savings time began that night, so we turned the clock back and looked forward to savoring an extra hour of sleep. Still, I remember the last words I mouthed that night to my guardian angel right before drifting off to sleep: “Okay. I have a Papal Mass to attend tomorrow morning and I really don’t want to miss it. I’m sure you don’t want to miss it either, right? So I REALLY need you to wake me up on time this time. No slacking off now, okay? Alright. Thanks a bunch. Goodnight!”
Day 10 - Sunday 28th
Woke up shortly before my traveling buddy’s phone alarm went off at 5 a.m. “Thanks a ton, Guardian Angel!” We were up and rolling in no time. We checked out of the hostel and headed right to Termini, down to the baggage holding area. We had to wait until 6 a.m. for them to open, but we had our luggage checked in for holding while we attended the Papal Mass. We arrived at St. Peter’s Square a good half-hour before the scheduled time to meet with the priest to collect our tickets to get into the Mass. We found him right on schedule, collected our tickets and made it safely into St. Peter’s Basilica. Following Father’s advice as he’d handed us our ticket, I grabbed the seat closest to the main aisle where the Pope himself would pass through. As I sat reciting what must have been the 50th rosary for me within those 10 days, I found myself relieved to be reunited with my fellow UDers, safe and at home in the heart of the Catholic Church after a long, hard 10-day. Well, at least half of the trip was stressful and hard. The Papal Mass marked the closing of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. It was even broadcasted on EWTN! Pretty exciting! The best part was being there watching the hundreds of priests and bishops pass me and proceed up the aisle to the main altar. And yes, I saw Pope Benedict. He was at least five to eight feet away from me! He blessed me and my companions too! The Mass was a perfect ending to 10-day. At my urging, immediately after Mass, we headed right back home to campus, arriving a good hour and a half after the Mass had ended. And yes, as I’d said I would after the half-traumatic 10-day, I did kiss the campus ground upon our arrival, almost laughing hysterically.
10-day was a pretty intense adventure. I really learned a lot about myself on this trip. Some of my flaws were confirmed on this trip, such as my impatience and the reluctance of taking on the role of leadership. I even discovered faults that I didn’t even realize I had, such as anxiety, doubt, and mistrust. All the same, I was spiritually strengthened by the experience. I know I prayed the Rosary a great deal more than I have in awhile, I talked a LOT more with my Guardian Angel (though I’ve already had pretty good communication with it), and I learned that trust in God is essential for survival. Speaking of survival, I found this to be one of my greatest strengths on the trip. I’m already a very thrifty person, but my frugality was taken to a new level on this trip as I was careful, almost to an extreme at times, when making financial decisions for myself and my group. I also survived on whatever food was available, even if it wasn’t very filling. Don’t worry, I made sure I received enough nutrients in the end. I turned out to be pretty good with navigation, even though I doubted myself for awhile. I found I have a good sense of the general layout of a city or at least the general direction of where things are, and I’m actually better at navigating smaller areas and small towns than huge cities (for one of my traveling buddies, it was the other way around). I actually chart a mental map in my head as I go, so in some ways I don’t really need a map. That skill has come in handy time and time again. I was also the interpreter/language-link for my group. I was amazed at how much my group valued my bilingualism, even if the Spanish is not as refined as I’d like it to be. I found the Spanish to be pretty useless for a good 75-80% of the trip (they don’t speak much Spanish in France and they speak lots of English in Germany). Even so, knowing a Romantic language made understanding French just a little easier, and it has also made understanding Italian a whole lot easier.I also discovered that I actually have better street smarts than I initially thought I’d had. I could always tell when and how to keep a low profile, whom to avoid, how to blend in with the crowd and become nearly invisible (an uncanny talent I’ve already possessed), and knew how to evade every last street vendor, gypsy and pickpocket without being ripped off. On several unfortunate occasions, specifically in Paris, France, my fellow traveling buddies fell prey to street “vendors” who usually forced them into paying outrageous sums for the most ridiculous “souvenirs,” if they can even be called that. For me, fortunately, I adopted the “rude” attitude and practiced it unceasingly, wearing an assertive, firm and (at times) almost angry expression when passing by a potential money-snatching vendors. My singular moment of glory on that aspect was actually in Rome after the Papal Mass when we had to purchase some metro tickets from the kiosk and a lady came along as the tickets were printing and she tried swiping as they printed. I literally smacked her hand out of the way and exclaimed “NO!” Yep, I even surprised myself at how easily I did that. She spoke all Italian, but I understood that she was trying to get us to give her the tickets because she “needed them.” “How much are you asking for them?” she asked in Italian, but I wouldn’t hear of or acknowledge a word of it. When she remotely attempted to swipe our change as it came out of the kiosk, I pushed my aggressive attitude, completely blocking her from the deposit slot. I was so aggravated that I forgot any Italian and talked back in Spanish. She didn’t leave us alone until I’d collected our tickets and change and stormed off, my buddies trailing close behind. Yeah, I think I’ve got these people figured out…for the most part. Even the most seasoned traveler has been pick-pocketed at least once. I’ll do everything I can to avoid that.
With all that I’ve learned about myself on 10-day, in a way I feel I’m a different person. As the saying goes: “Know thyself.” I still have a long way to go with that. Let the journey continue!
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