O Canada

On our third day in Lisieux, Rebecca and I decided to take a day trip to Juno Beach – the landing site of the Canadian troupes on D-Day. Our Canadian-themed day started early as we mat a young couple from Surrey, BC at the bus station in Caen (we heard them struggling to communicate in English so we stepped in to translate). Approaching Juno Beach we started to see Canadian flags, both flying and on the signs pointing towards the Juno beach Centre. We were surprised to find out that the Juno Beach Centre, which featured Canadian Tour Guides (bilingual students, mostly from Ontario and Quebec), has only been open since 2003. It was started by a group on Veterans who, upon returning to Juno Beach, discovered that the only memorial that existed was a tank that had been recovered from the ocean floor in the 1970’s. Now, through the help of the government at various levels, veterans groups and the support of Canadian businesses and individuals, there is a beautiful memorial to the sacrifice paid by Canadian solders in June of 1944. There is a permanent display which teaches a bit about Canadian history and our country’s contribution to the Second World War. This I really liked since my education in Canadian History seems to be fairly limited, and because I have always found the Second World War very interesting to learn about. At the end of the display there is a room in which the names of all the Canadian Soldiers who fell during the Second World War are scrolling on the wall. It includes over 45,000 names and takes more than 13 hours to complete!

After we explored the display we went outside for a guided (English) tour of Juno Beach, which included a visit inside a German bunker (very cool!) It was almost surreal to stand on the beach, in the heavy winds and gloomy dark clouds, and to imagine what it must have been like for those men, 65 years ago, to have landed in almost the same conditions. Some men, unable to swim, drowned before even making it to land, while other were shot down by the Germans or wounded by land mines and obstacles. In the end though, it was a victory for Canada as the majority made it to land and the Germans in the bunker we visited surrendered (due to a malfunctioning machine gun). Rebecca and I continued to explore the beach a bit after our tour and went to see another bunker, stopping to immerse our feet in the English Channel on the way.
The Juno Beach Center was a great last stop for us; almost a transition back into Canada. I think it was a combination of many things that made us feel as if we were already home: the gift shop selling Maple Syrup, the mixture of English and Québécois-French being spoken all around us, the cool, windy weather, the beautiful sandy beach with crashing waves and the many Canadian flags being flown.

We have now left Lisieux and are bound for Paris: our last stop before heading back to Canada. Tonight we will enjoy one last dinner in Europe (and our last one together) before going our separate ways tomorrow morning – me to Saint John and Rebecca to Ottawa(ish). I must be honest, there have been many MANY moments over the course of the last 5 weeks that I have spent lost in daydreams about clean hot showers, my hair straightener, MacBook and cell phone, going to the bathroom without carrying a roll of toilet paper and a 50 cent coin in my purse, and driving my Corolla through the drivethrough at Subway when I need a quick lunch. Although these things will be nice conveniences to come back to, it will be very hard to say goodbye to Rebecca... who knows when we’ll see each other again (or where!) Maybe we’ll have to meet up in Asia or Africa next time.

Tomorrow looks as if it will be very long. I will be heading for the Paris airport at midnight (that’s Toronto time; 6am here), landing in Toronto and driving to Quebec City with my sister. Sunday morning we’ll be up early to drive back to Saint John, which is exciting as I am very anxious to see my sister and my entire family!

I came to Europe five weeks ago with three expectations: liberté, amitié et pauvrété. I certainly accomplished the poverty part (that wasn’t hard) – I’m going home a lot more broke than planned, yet I wouldn’t change a thing! I also made many new friends and met lots of people from ALL over the world. As for “liberté”, I have learned a new meaning of the word. One of the strangest things about this trip for me was learning to trust: in God and in other people. Countless times I ended up simply standing back while others planned hostels, found the right train or chose a site to visit. For me, that’s not an easy thing to do. There were also numerous times when neither Becca nor I would have ANY idea what we would do next, how we would get to the next destination or where we would be sleeping and the right thing also seemed to just come our way.

It will be very tough to say goodbye to adventure, new places and delicious meals, but I know God has many more exciting things planned for my future, which I can’t wait to discover!

Lovely Lisieux

It has been a desire of mine to come to Lisieux for almost 5 years now – ever since I read “The Story of a Soul” (the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux). I can now honestly say that this town was everything I had hoped for... and so much more! After 2 overnight trains within 3 days, and a VERY overcrowded Lourdes, we were really hoping that our last stop – a three night stay in Lisieux – would be a restful one. Well, God REALLY outdid himself this time! We arrived around 10am, after about 20 hours of travelling and countless espressos. By the time lunch rolled around we were STARVING and ready to eat just about anything. Luckily, the center for pilgrims where we’re staying not only costs a mere 30E/night; it also includes 3 meals a day. So we headed down to lunch, expecting to find cold sandwiches, and were served a full 4-course French meal: red wine, salad, rice, steamed veggies, chicken, bread, cheese and caramel flan! Oh, but it didn’t stop there: when everything had been served the community of young women who live here and run the center all come out with their djembes and guitars and sang to us! These lavish meals were served daily for each lunch and supper, always including 2 songs by the sisters (and an Ave Maria at supper time).

Food aside, Lisieux is a lovely, peaceful place. We were lucky to have started out our time here with a free, 3 hour guided tour for pilgrims, given by one of the many youth volunteers swarming the town. We saw the Basilica of St Therese as well as her home, parish and convent (Carmel) where she spent her religious life. We finished by stopping to pray at her tomb in the chapel at Carmel. These were all very profound experiences for me as I have always had a strong devotion to St Therese, and seeing the exact rooms, statues, gardens and streets that she spoke of in her autobiography made it all seem so real. Yes, I know it IS real, but sometimes reading books about far away and long ago Saint can make them seem almost like a fairy tale.
The Cathedral of St. Therese was absolutely incredible. I still think the Basicila we saw in Turin is my favourite, but this one comes in a close second. Building of the basicila began just before the second world war, and was completed shortly afterwards. The paintings, mosaics and stained glass windows all told a story, and all represented something related to Therese, her life or her teachings. For example, the windows on the right were blue, to represent mercy, and the windows on the left were red for love. The mosaics at the front contained scenes from the Old Testament involving angels and demonstrating God’s faithfulness to his people (she loved angels). The scene just behind the altar showed Mary and St Therese holding open the cloak of Jesus with lambs approaching (there were leading people to Jesus). The Basilica also contained 18 side-chapels, each dedicated to a country that had made a contribution in the building of the basilica. We were pretty excited (and proud) to see the Canadian Chapel, featuring the patron Saint of Canada, St Joseph.

Since we had 3 days here we decided Lisieux would be a sort of retreat stop for us. So, on our second day here, we slept in and then decided to take the day to be apart... I need my alone time sometimes! I had a great afternoon, wandering through the woods, writing, reading and calling my sister. The only bad part came when I had a bit of a problem getting my phone card to work and broke down crying (for the first time since being away) out of pure exhaustion and frustration. After 2 hours, 2 different people’s help and a long wait outside the phone booth, though, I got to talk to Meg. At the end of our conversation a man burst into my phone booth (after arguing with the guy in the booth next to me) and starting yelling that he had been waiting for 25 minutes and was going to call the police if I didn’t hang up. Oh, the funny characters to run into in places like this...

The rest of our stay here involved daily mass, a beautiful evening prayer led by the youth volunteers, lavish meals, coffee, drinks at cafes with free WiFi and my first (yummy) Crème Brulée. Although I am very sad to leave Lisieux, I am very thankful to have had this as our last stop before heading back to Canada. It was a great way to relax and re-focus before re-entering the real world.

A Very Happy Birthday

With Turin behind us, at 7am, Rebecca and I were very excited to be off to Lourdes. Granted, we had a 15 hour train trip ahead of us, but our original plan had been a 25+ hour trip, so we thought 15 sounded pretty good. The trip through the mountains in North Western Italy was beautiful, but not as breathtaking as the views of the coast of Southern France! As we would along the cliffs, in and out of tunnels, we had amazing panoramas of the mediteranean sea. At that point I got pretty sad that we had been forced to skip our day in Nice (as originally planned). Seeing it made me realize just how beautiful it really was and how much I really wanted to go there. Well, I guess God knows the desires of our hearts. I kept TELLING Rebecca that going to Nice WAS the desire of my heart, while she insisted that our inability to find affordable accommodations in Nice was all a part of God’s plan and that our trip would be exactly what was best for us blah blah blah. Well, it looks like we were BOTH right! As soon as we arrived in Nice we discovered that our 2pm train was full (and we didn’t have reservations). The only way to get to Lourdes was on the 9pm overnight train: SCORE! We were “stranded” in Nice for 9 whole hours. So not only did we get to spend a day on the beach in Southern France, but we weren’t going to have to pay for accommodations in Nice, thanks to our reservation for a bed on the train at the low price of only 21.50E! I was ECSTATIC! We grabbed our bathing suits and tiny travel towels, lathered ourselves in sunscreen (although apparently not ENOUGH sunscreen), checked our bags, got some yummy French crèpes and headed straight for the beach! To say that the beach was beautiful would be horribly inadequate. Anyone who knows anything about me knows me knows how much I adore the ocean, so this was truly one of the most perfect places for me. I spent the afternoon in absolute disbelief that I was actually there, swimming in the Mediterranean and just looking around me again and again adoring the scenery. I could go on forever, so I’ll just say it was great.

After a meal and a fancy cocktail, Rebecca and I were finally bound for Lourdes – on our first overnight train. THAT was an adventure of a whole new kind! We were a bit surprised to have two German guys arrive in our cabin (we slept in tiny cabins with 2 triple bunk beds), but they were pretty nice and it ended up not being too awkward. After a short, shaky night sleep I awoke in France at 5am as a 23 year old and was off to catch yet another train. We conked out on reclining seats and in no time had arrived. We had NO idea how to get to our hotel, but just as we were staring at the map and debating whether to walk or call a cab, up pulled a bus, which dropped us off at the door of our hotel. We were ECSTATIC when we got into our room right away (9am). That was the best birthday present I could have hoped for: for the first time in 4 days, a hot shower!

We went to Sunday mass in the Basilique de Notre Dame du Rosaire, which was ginormos but was packed to the brim at both the 10am and 11:15am masses. Side note: approximately 5 million pilgrims visit Lourdes every year, including more than 70,000 sick. It was amazing to see the volunteers pushing wheelchairs EVERYWHERE! The rest of the day included lunch, a few espressos, a phone call home, a rosary in the grotto where Mary appeared to St Bernadette in 1858, a huge Eucharistic procession ending with benediction of the sick in an underground basilica built to hold 25,000 and then a nice birthday supper. Rebecca treated me to mussels, blue cheese salad and a yummy ice cream Sunday. We had to skip the candlelight Marian procession, unfortunately, due to two nights in a row of less than 5 hours sleep.
Monday we decided to participate in a guided 1-day pilgrimage in English. As we were chatting with our guide, an American Seminarian studying in Rome, I remembered just how small the Catholic world is: it turns out that he was Blair’s roommate at Ave Maria for a semester! After mass IN ENGLISH (woot!) we prayed the Stations of the Cross, which was absolutely incredible. The stations, made huge cast-iron life-sized statues, ascended a mountain in the middle of the town. It was a hard walk but a powerful experience. That afternoon we watched a video on the life of St Bernadette and visited her home and birthplace.

At four o’clock it was time to head back to the train station for another long day and night of travels. Three trains and almost 20 hours later we were to finally arrive in Lisieux – birthplace of my favourite Saint, St Therese of the Child Jesus. We have reservations at a convent there, for three days, and are VERY excited to have a place to stay for three whole days in a row. Lourdes was a beautiful town, with a river flowing through the middle and surrounded by mountains, but I’m really looking forward to a bit of rest in Lisieux and hoping it’s a little less crowded. Whatever this stop has in store for us, it’s our last one before we head back to Canada, a thought which brings both sadness and a bit of relief.

Where Not to Go in Italy: Turin

Ok, maybe that’s a tad harsh, Turin wasn’t THAT bad, but I certainly won’t be going back there!

One of the few happy memories I have of Turin came at midnight on the night before we left. As Becca and I laid in bed, trying desperately to sleep since we had to get up at 5:15 the next morning to get to the train station, we laughed to the point of tears as we recalled our short two-day visit to Torino. This involved making a list entitled “The Pros and Cons of Turin”, which I will include at the end of this post. It’s funny that the most “difficult” time of our trip could turn out to be the one we will most likely remember more than anything else.

Now I must clarify: nothing SERIOSULY went wrong, but nothing at all seemed to go right, either. It was the endless miscommunications, inconveniences, wrong decisions and busses-stop errors all adding up that turned into the most hilarious two days I have ever survived. It all started in Pisa, where our train was delayed by an hour, where I almost got pick-pocketed and where we learned that the overnight train we wanted wasn’t actually running the days our schedule book told us it was (see my last Blog post). As soon as we arrived in Turin we headed to the street to catch the bus. This is where things get sketchy: we had two options for busses to take us to our hostel, the “58” and the “58/”. Yeah, I know, figure THAT one out! Each route offered two options for stops close to our hostel, but it wasn’t well explained at all. Anyway we found the bus, but no place to buy tickets. We tried asking people but – SURPRISE – no one speaks English in Turin! This is where Kathryn’s new best friend enters picture: Rebecca’s English-Italian Dictionary (sorry Bec, you’ve been replaced). Anyway, it’s a long ridiculous story, involving a lonely half-hour wait alone with all of our luggage as Rebecca wandered off to find tickets (which she got from a parking meter, I think) but I won’t go into detail on that – see Rebecca’s blog for the detailed account: http://www.thebewwilderedpilgrim.blogspot.com/. Once we were ON the bus, with validate tickets in hand, I started to relax a bit and broke out the dictionary to brush up on my Italian. I figured out and recited the most necessary phrases first, including “Help!”, “We are Lost”, “We are looking for Via Modane”, “I don’t understand”, etc. Eventually I started having some fun and was saying things like “I like the baby”, referring to the cute baby in the carriage next to me who was playing with my backpack. As it turned out, our Italian language lesson came in VERY handy when, as we were still giggling about the cute baby, the baby’s mother pointed to the door and said “via modane”. We turned beat red and followed the helpful couple and their children off the bus and said “grazie” many times as they went into their home and pointed us in the right direction.

Finding our hostel, then, wasn’t too hard, even though it blended right in with all the other apartments in the neighbourhood ( we were way out in the suburbs in a residential area). When we checked in we discovered exactly what happens when you book a 20E/night hostel last minute. We were in a 4-bed all-women dorm (thank GOD we had no roommates) without a lock on the door. The bathroom doors didn’t lock either, and neither did our windows. Our windows, in fact didn’t even close! They did have beautiful sheer curtains though, beautiful... but they did make getting changed a tad awkward. The bathrooms featured a lovely full-sized bathtub with a showerhead on a hose. Ok, so no shower, it wouldn’t be THAT bad, right? WRONG! No hot water. Three good things about our hostel, in its defence: it only cost 20E/night, it had free WiFi and the complimentary espresso in the morning was actually good. I had three. On our first night we decided that since it had been a difficult day we would relax and go out for a real Italian meal (i decided to allow myself one good meal in France, Belgium and Italy and to eat as cheap as possible for the rest of my meals). We had a great meals of bread, salad, pasta and wine at an authentic restaurant swarming down the street from our hostel. It was kind of fun to point to something on the menu and see what arrived at our table: it was delicious!

Friday, our full day in Turin, didn’t have too much on the schedule but we figured we’d ask people at our first scheduled stop and go from there. We went to Mary Help of Christians Basilica (which was called something else, obviously, in Italian). It was BEAUFITUL! I think it’s my favourite Church so far – and I’ve seen TONS. We managed to communicate to a woman there that we spoke French so we had a French brochure and began to wander. After praying at the grave of St. Don Bosco we went into the Chapel of Saint Francis de Sales which is attached to the basilica, and ended up walking right in on a group of young pilgrims from CANADA! Ok, so they were ALL from Canada, but they were speaking English. As it turns out, they were youth from Salesian youth centers all over the world that were there for a mini world-youth-day-type pilgrimage. The priest from Toronto who was leading them was very nice and let us join in for a bit, which was nice because everything was supposed to be closing (Italy shuts down at noon for some reason) but everything was open for them. Once we had seen everything there we set off towards the Cathedral of St John the Baptist to see the Holy Shroud and the grave of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassatti. It was closed to we wandered for a while and found... nothing. By the time the church opened at 3 we were hot and tired and unimpressed with Turin. The Cathedral was nice but nothing too impressive (the shroud was not on display).

After this we hopped on the bus to go to the train station to reserve some more train tickets and went 15 stops in the wrong direction before getting off the bus and going back the right one. An hour later we got into line for tickets and waited an hour to find out plan C wasn’t going to work and that we’d have to change our travel plans AGAIN. Urrgghh! From the train station we thought maybe we should get some snacks for our 15-hour train trip the next day and went in search of a supermarket. We found it, bought snacks and some yogurt and rice for supper and went back to our hostel to pack, blog, and eat.

Well, eating turned out to be much more of an adventure than we had bargained for! As Rebecca was busy blogging I cracked open the rice to discover it was not very good. I kept eating it, though, until the moment I stumbled upon a little miniature octopus in it. Then two baby octopi. Then three baby octopi! I dared Becca to eat one and agreed to buy her pizza if she did. After I took a great video of her eating and swallowing the entire thing, we headed out into our neighbourhood to find a slice of pizza. Not hard, right? We’re in Italy. WELL here comes another surprise: since it was “the day before August 15th” most shops and cafes were closed. The only thing we found that was open was a Chinese Restaurant (thank God for the Chinese and their ever-present always-delicious food no matter where in the world you are). We had to use the dictionqary and pointing to order, though, and got laughed at by a little girl – I have never felt for foreign!

It was that night that we laid in bed, laughing until we cried, as we composed the Pros and Cons of Turin:

Pro – Our hostel has free Wifi / Con – It doesn’t have hot water
Pro – There are lockers for our bags / Con – There are no locks on the bathroom door
Pro – We have a book to tell us all the train schedules in Europe / Con – the book is wrong
Pro – We haven’t needed an umblella / Con – we are wetter from sweat than we were from rain
Pro – We found a “supermercado” / Con – It sold us baby octopi
Pro – The people are friendly and willing to help / Con – no one speaks our language
Pro – There are tons of markets, cafes and pizzerias / Con – they’re all closed
Pro – Italy is very Catholic / Con – they disappear for days leading up to the feast of the Assumption
Pro – Ham & cheese sandwiches and Pizza / Con – we’re both allergic to them
Pro – The bathrooms on the train are free / Con – They’re filthy
Pro – There’s a breeze / Con – Our windows don’t close
Pro – the curtains are pretty / Con – they’re see through
Pro – Becca has lots of blister packs and band-aids / Con – I have lots of blisters
Pro – iPods and mini laptops / Con – they keeping dying
Pro – We’re laughing / Con – it’s because our lives are ridiculous
Pro – making a pros and cons list / Con – living through all the cons

I am Not a Backpacker

As we were getting off the train in Pisa a friendly British man we had met helped us take our bags down from the overhead racks. His wife chuckled and commented, “I thought backpackers were supposed to travel light!” I guess that settles it then: I am not a backpacker! I brought and bought SOO many things that are just unnecessary that I’m starting to get just a little annoyed at myself. Not only that, but dragging a HUGE backpack, a suitcase and a handbag through cobblestone street in 30 degree (or higher) sunshine is not exactly enjoyable. Anyway, Rebecca and I have decided that we are not backpackers, just travellers.

With that established I will add that we are having a great time, despite a few setbacks here and there. This morning, for example, as we were leaving Pisa, we decided we should book our next few train tickets (we needed reservations for the overnight ones). When we tried to book the train from Nice to Toulouse, though, we discovered that our timetable book was wrong and that the overnight train didn’t run that night. That threw off our ENTIRE schedule and we spent the next 2 hours (since our train was delayed by an hour) trying to figure out how we could make it work. Since we couldn’t find any place to stay in Nice that was affordable, we decided that we would have to skip southern France altogether and opt for 25 hours of straight travelling to get to Lourdes sooner. I was a bit upset about this at first, but I realize now that it’s not the end of the world. We have compromised on going to a beach in North-Western France closer to the end of our trip. I guess my beach-dream will have to wait a week longer. My stress was multiplied as we boarded the train and encountered gypsies for the first time. Two girls without bags or suitcases (suspicion #1) got on the train before Rebecca and were stopping her from getting through the door to our car. There was another girl behind me who I could feel was hitting my backpack (suspicion #2). Anyway, I quickly realized what she was doing when I turned around to see her sneak her hand behind her EMPTY purse. She had opened my purse that was hanging off the back of my backpack (thankfully I’m not stupid and the only things I was keeping in there was a few souvenirs, and another purse, that wouldn’t fit anywhere else. The downside of being a shopaholic and buying way too many purses). I started telling Rebecca - loudly - to go into the car since the girl behind me was trying to pickpocket me. She, however, was just plain confused – realizing that we had gotten our reservation for first class and thinking maybe it was a mistake. An Italian lady came over as the girls left and said that she had been watching and that she didn’t think the gypsy girl took anything. She later apologized that that had happened to us in Italy. I was a little shaken up by the experience, which was magnified by the increasing doubt that we had properly made our reservation. BUT, as we speak I am RECLIINING (huge luxury) in first class and gliding past the Mediterranean Sea. Our tickets have been checked – so we’re here to stay for the next few hours.

The past two dyas have been an absolute whirlwind! We left Assisi yesterday morning and arrived in Florence at noon. Florence was just as great as I remembered. After spending WAY too much on a salad and fruit for lunch (although it was arguably worth it to eat something besides bread and cheese) we headed for the Church, Santa Maria Della Fiore, and the baptismal (which is a separate building altogether). I was glad to get inside the baptismal since I hadn’t last time, and the church was just as impressive the second time. After this we headed to see Michaelangelo’s David (me for the second time, Rebecca for her first). It was worth antoher 10Euro and an hour wait in the HOT sun – it remains my favortie peice of art. Then... shopping time! I was very proud of myself for managing to find the markets that Mallory and I shopped at 4 years ago right away. The “never-ending markets” as I like to call them. It was here that I spent all my money on earrings, purses and necklaces. Was it worth it? Absolutely!!! We attended mass at 6 and then got on the train for Pisa after a quick supper of peppers in tomato sauce (weird, I know).

Arrival in Pisa was uneventful. We walked to our hostel, where we had free unlimited WiFi – YAY! It was late when we got to sleep, but we were up early again in the morning to pack and to go see the leaning tower. When I say “go see the leaning tower” I mean, literally, that’s all there is to do in Pisa. Our 3 hours there were more than enough. We decided we name today “crazy picture day” and had a lot of fun taking crazy pics of each other. Unfortunately for me, crazy picture day also happened to coincide with bad hair day.

So, here I am: on the train to Turin (did I mention that I’m in first class?!) It’s CRAZY to think that yesterday morning I woke up in Assisi, since then I have been to Florence and Pisa, and tonight I will sleep in Turin! The scenery out my window is indescribable and, like most of my trip so far, I feel like I’m in a movie. I don’t know how I’ll ever go back to real life in just two and a half weeks.

PS. The photos above are:

1 - Rebecca laying on her suitcase and trying to force it closed this morning as we were leaving Pisa.

2 - Our of legs and suitcases was Becca and I on the bus in Assisi attempting to stop our suitcases from falling over as the bus wound around the windy streets descending the moutain.

3- Becca being very unimpressed with the long hot wait to get into see the David in Florence.

4 - Me "pushing over" the leaning tower of Pisa.

The Most Beautiful Place on Earth: Assisi

That’s right, Assisi is BEAUTIFUL! Rebecca and I arrived here yesterday afternoon extremely exhausted but content nonetheless. We are staying in a Guest House run by American sisters called the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement (which means they speak English: bonus!) Our room features a bathroom / shower that rates a full 15 out of 15, featuring a shower with doors, a hairdryer and a shelf to put our stuff on. When we arrived and began to explore our room I started to say that just once, somewhere between here and home, I wanted to have a second pillow. Before I could get the word “pillow” out of my mouth, however, I opened the closest to find a second pillow waiting for me. I let out a scream, causing Becca to think I saw a mouse and to scream as well. Our temporary home only got better when we discovered the gardens, the breathtaking view, and the not-too-hot chapel. The icing on the cake was breakfast this morning: joyful service by the sisters and YOUGURT! This FREE breakfast wasn’t just a bun and Nutella, it had juice, cereal, 3 different buns, toast, coffee and yogurt. I was wiped yesterday and completely crashed at 8:30 – sleeping like a baby on my firm mattress and soft pillow. . Oh the small joys in life!

Anyway, enough about our beautiful accommodations (did I mention it’s only costing us 30E per night??), Assisi itself is incredible. It is built along the side of a mountain, which makes for difficult walks but breathtaking views. Some of the architecture here dates back to the first Century and there are endless little stairways, alleys and piazzas. The highlight for me, besides the scenery, was mass this morning at San Domiano Church. This is the Church St. Francis of Assisi built after God asked him to “rebuild His Church” (which he took literally, actually re-building the building where he was praying at the time: an old church that was in ruins!) Today also happens to be the feast of St. Clare of Assisi so there are Franciscans ALL OVER the place, and there was a huge procession through the city this morning to the Cathedral of St. Clare. We also visited the Cathedral of St. Rufino (Patron of the Town of Assisi, we think, whose feast day happens to be tomorrow) and the Basilica of St. Francis which houses his tomb.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Florence for the day, and then we will spend the night in Pisa. Thursday it’s off to Torino for 2 days. We spent a LOT of time here resting and planning for the rest of our trip. We still don’t have too many concrete plans made beyond Turin, but it looks like it’s starting to come together now. I’m very excited to see what else God has in store for me in the 11 days to come!

PS As I was waiting for my pictures to upload Rebecca and I heard bells going (AGAIN) outside the cafe. I commented that it sounded like every Church in the city was ringing it's bells and wondered how people ever sleep here. About a miunute later Becca asked "are those drums? Is there a band?!" She went to the entrace to have a look and exclaimed "Kathryn come quick!" There was a huge procession going on from the Basilica of St Rufino to the Basilica of Santa Chiara (St Clare)... who's feast day it is today. AND WE MISSED IT BECASUE WE WERE ON THE INTERNET! We didnt know it would be happening - too bad! She got some pictures, and a video though....

Photos: Me in front of the Basilica of St. Fransesco (St Fransis of Assisi); Becca and I outside San Domino

Rebecca's Side of the Story

By the way, now that I've joined up with Becca some of you may be interested in her blog as well (as it is about the same trip but from a slightly different perspective). You can find it at http://thebewilderedpilgrim.blogspot.com/

<-- That's Me and Rebecca... in Rome! :)

God is My tour Guide

So, with a little divine providence, I finally made it to Rome. My travels from Brussels to Rome were more than a little difficult, but things always seemed to work out at the last minute (although my credit card did come into play at one point). On the way to the airport, which took a good 5 hours by the end of it, I met my first Canadian (of all the time I had been in Europe). He had asked for directions to the bus right after I did and was told to follow me. I eventually realised he was following me once I had realized that I was lost, so I set off with my new Quebecois friend to find the bus. He ended up convincing me to cut in line (to avoid missing the bus AND my flight) and helped me get my luggage on the bus, but I never did get his name. Once I was at the airport, about 5 minutes before boarding I was forced to pay 135€ for my boarding pass (LOONG story). Basically, my supposed 40€ flight ended up costing over 250€!!! I know one thing for sure: I will NEVER fly Ryanair again! But, after a few tears and a waffle from the vending machine, I was on board for what felt like the longest and bumpiest flight of my life. It was ALLL worth it as we were landing in Rome, though, when I looked out the window of the plane to see St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vitoriano Monument and the Coliseum :) On the bus to the metro station I met a very nice Belgian couple who were outraged to discover that a girl of my age was taking the metro alone at night in Rome. As it turned out, they were going to the same stop as I was so they accompanied me (AND bought my ticket)! At around 10:30pm I finally arrived at the convent where we’re staying and was reunited with Rebecca! It was and is soooooo good to see her again! We were up talking a little too late Friday night...

Saturday it was 40 degrees celcius in Rome; at 5:00. FOURTY DEGREES!!! I have NEVER experienced heat like that in my life! We were pretty busy all day, too, visiting the Vatican, St. John Lateran (main Catherdral of Rome), The Church of the Holy Cross and the Holy Stairs. Yes, we climbed the Holy Stairs, on our knees, in 40 degree weather - talk about penance! Honestly though, it was an incredible experience. Just before that, waiting for it to be open, a random man (tourist) approached us to tell us about the church of the Holy Cross, which contains relics such as Thomas’s finger (doubting Thomas), thorns from the crown of thorns and a piece of the true cross. I had heard about this Church (the young from SJ stayed there with fater Peter last year) but had no idea where to find it... and kind of forgot about it, to be honest. besides the relics, tt was also a very nice, COOL place to take a break and mostly deserted so we stopped in the Eucharistic chapel to pray a rosary together as no one else was there. If that guy hadn’t approached us at random we would have never found this church! It was then that we realized we didn’t need a guided tour of Rome (or Italy or France for that matter), because God was our tour guide. And that’s only one example of many! For the evening we had a lovely Italian supper and walked around a bit by Piazza Navona and the Pantheon and, of course, ate more Gelato. Very relaxing evening! That night, however, was not so pleasant. I was EXHAUSTED, but really not used to the intense heat and had a really hard time sleeping. It didn’t help that someone very nearby was sick to their stomach most of the night, which woke me up lots. I woke up VERY tired and with a sore throat this (Sunday) morning.

After breakfats this morning we set off for the Vatican so that we could get a few things blessed by the Pope at the angelus , go to mass, and so that I could climb to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica – something I missed last time I was here. I was a bit stressed on the metro because of was the first Sunday of my trip that I did not already KNOW where and when I was going to mass in advance. I was afraid that by the time we got there and found a mass we’d be too late (it was shortly before 10). Our tour guide, however, knew exactly where we’d be going. As we approached St Peter’s Sqaure we passed the walls of Vatican City and Becca commented “hey, that sounds like an organ coming from in there”. Sure enough, people were rushing around the corning and through the doors and a small chapel. We walked right in and mass started no more that 2 minutes later – we couldn’t have timed it better if we had tried! After mass I climbed the dome (extremely worth it, but I would definitely have prefered not to have climbed 350 stairs when its 35 degrees). We spent the afternoon eating pizza, drinking endless bottles of water from the fresh taps all over Rome (its so nice not to BUY water anymore) and traveling to St. Paul’s Outside the Wall – one of the 4 major Cathedrals of Rome. It was a beautiful church, although my less impressive from the outside, which is built on the tomb of St Paul and, again, a small relief from the sun so we stopped for another Rosary. Once we were done there we decided to retreat to our room to prepare for tomorrow while the sun was still out. We plan to go back out this evening for supper and to the Trevi Fountain when it’s a little more bearable to be outside.

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m so utterly exhausted / sick or because I’ve been to Rome before, but as wonderful as it is to be back in Rome I really need a break from all the walking an sightseeing. Rebecca agreed (and she’s been in Rome for a week now) so we’ve decided to go to Assisi early tomorrow and spend the day there doing nothing but relaxing and resting. We will have a full day there on Tuesday before heading to Florence and Pisa on Wednesday.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the shopping in Rome is even better than I remember! ;)

Aurevoir Bruxelles, Bonjourno Roma!

My last week in Belgium was indeed a good one :) Although I am sad to say goodbye to Brussels and ULB, I can't pretend I'm not psyched for part two of my summer adventure! It's almost surreal to think about how I spent my last couple weekends: in Amsterdam, Paris and now Rome! Im not sure how I got to be so blessed as to be given this opportunity, but Im extremely thankful! Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels... you hear of these places all your life, but then actually being there is just unreal... well, actually, it almost feels natural! Every once and a while I think "holy cow I'm in _______ (insert city here)" but most if the time I just enjoy myself. I absolutely love exploring new places; I definitely inherited the Gorman travel-bug! I just wish I could spend MORE time somewhere, like really get immersed in the culture. If I could go back and do it again I'd for sure go abroad for a semester.

This week we met some locals (boys, of course). They took a group of us out to a local pub called Delerium. Now don't let the name fool you, Delerium wasnt ever close to a dance bar, it was more of a pub. There we tried some less commercialized Belgian beer (the most popular being the various Trappist beers) as it holds the world record for serving the most different types of beer (take THAT Saint John Ale House!)

Tuesday afternoon, instead of joining the tour of Musée Magritte, Anne-Narue and I opted for our own Brussels sightseeing / shopping, which featured the beer museum (bug disappointment) and the Chocolate museum (very interesting and delisious). At this point Id be amiss to neglect to mention the BEST thing I've tasted to date: fresh strawberries dipped in a milk chocolate fountain! 3€ for 4 strawberries sounds reduculoud but I can assure you they were worth more than that! We spent our afternoon eating / sampling chocolate and shopping (for souvenirs, gifts and for lovely clothes from the 100+ shop indoor market we stumbled upon)! That was day one of the rare Belgian we are currently enjoying :)

The rest of my final week in Brussels went by in a flash! Thursday was excursion day, as usual, and this week's trip took us to Gant and Bruges in 30 degree sunshine! It was a lovely change from cold & rain, but by the end if the day we were all way too hot and exhausted to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL city of Bruges. We had a lovely boat tour though, which provided a 30min sit-down with a cool breeze.

Tonight we head out for one last night on the town then tomorrow morning we have two classes and a little closing ceremony at lunch time. Mid-afternoon I will be heading for the airport and saying aurevoir to Bruxelles. But, the good news is that by 10:00 tomorrow evening I will be back in one if my favorite places in the world: Roma! Not only that, but one if my best friends in the world, Rebecca Richmond, will be waiting for me! After 2 and 1/2 years of phone calls and emails we have managed to cross paths again - but we had to go all the way to Europe to do it. I'm exhausted, but very excited for the next phase if my trip nonetheless! Someone gave me some advice just before I left home that has stuck with me: see and do everything while I can, there's lots of time to rest when I get home...

*PS I wrote this yesterday (Thursday) but am just posting it now. My night out last night was good fun and my classes this morning weren't too bad either ;) Ive now oficially finished my LAST French course of my degree - CRAZY! Im off to send home a box of purchases (terrible, I know) then to the airport... HELLO ROME! :)

PARIS

So, Paris wasn't exactly as I was expecting, but it was definitely just as great! Upon arrival at the train station we (just me and Anne-Marie for this trip) were a bit paranoid, to say the least. We had been warned before leaving Brussels that the Gare Nord was the most "sketchy", so we clutched our purses and walked as fast as possible to the Metro. We were shocked to discover, however that the metro was actually much scarier than the train station: it was hot, LOUD, slow and pretty old. Nevertheless we made it to our hostel (which wasn't too bad as far as 68€/night double rooms go). We dropped our thing and headed immediatly to the Eiffle Tower! I am sure I will never forget the moment I first saw it... We were on the metro (subway) which seemed to take FOREVER when suddenly we emerged from underground and began to cross a bridge. I looked out the window to my right and gasped so loud I'm sure the whole train heard - there was the Eiffel Tower, all lit up! It is really imossible to describe that feeling, so ill just say it was fabulous! We took about 50 pictures of it (or more), made our first purchase, of many, then went home to bed to get ready for a very long Saturday.

Saturday we were on our feet for about 15 hours in the hot sun but it was absoletely worth it! We were up and out by 8am in order to get to the Eiffel Tower before the lines got rediculously long (and they DID get VERY long so it was a good idea). Going to the top of the ET was a bit scary but very awesome! We wet straight to the top and took a million pictures (of the entire city). From there we picked out some of the sites we wanted to visit during the day. Any hourorso later we went and bought tickets for the boat tour we were to take that evening, and took off for the catacombs. After a little more than an hour in line there (and some tummy pastries as we waited) we walked throguh the 1.7km underground tombs which were much creepier than the catacombs in Rome. These ones consisted of piles and piles of skulls and bones arranged rather artisticaly that had been transferred in the 18-19th Century from various cemeteries in Paris. Creepy, yes. From there we visited two Chutches: Notre Dame de Paris and St. Germain-de-Prés. Notre Dame, needless to say, was INCREDIBLE! Huge, detailed, beautiful... what else can i say?

From there we walked. We walked and walked and walked. For two hours we strolled along La Seine in thehot sun which was a great was to see the city, but not something I would like to do again! By the time we arrived at La Place de la Concorde we collapsed (finally sitting) in the first semi-affordable resturaunt we found. We didn't realize until later that it was a British Restaurant! The food was terrible and over-priced, I ordered red wine by mistake and our waiter didnt understand us but the water was free, the toilet was free and we got to sit, so we didnt complain too much. After our break and meal we were ready to hit the road again - for shopping! We walked down la Champ d'Elysées, mostly just to see because it's an expensive area (Luis Vuitton, Mercedes, Guess etc etc). We managed to find a store with some sales though, called "Promod" where I bought a very pretty skirt :) The street ended at L'Arche de Triomphe, but we were so tired by that point that we simply took a picture and hopped on the metro towards our boat tour. The one-hour boat tour was very worth the 11€ it cost us! It included a bit of history and explications of what we were saying, which we really needed! The highlight for me was seeing loads of people dancing tango on the bank of La Seine - definitly added that to my to-do list!!! (Of course I need to learn HOW to Tango first...) by the time the boat tour was over you'd think we'd have been ready for bed, but we opted instead for another walk - along the park facing the Eiffel Tower - at sunset. Very beautiful! By the time we got home that night it wasMidnight.

Sunday we were up and out by 8am once again and off to Le Louvre (it was free that day - yay!) I only had anhiur there (which is redoculoussince it's 700m long and 3 floors - it'd take DAYS to see it all! I opted to go straight for the Mona Lisa and Venus De Milo, then saw a few of the Ancient Greek, Roman and Egytian rooms. I left to go to mass at 1030 and ended up embarking on quite the adventure... but God had my back. I literally ran to the subway which proceeded to break down -, at 1055 and 3 stops away from the one I needed to get to the only mass I knew how to get to! Instead of waiting for a new train to come I went in search of another. Long story short, I didn't find one, nor could I find another Church so I headed for the tallest bell towers in Paris: Notre Dame! I went with the expectation of going to confession, praying a little and going back to Le Louvre to meet Anne-Marie for 1230 as planned but was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had arrived 10 minutes before mass!!! I don't think I need to say how beautiful mass was. The readings were some of my favs, the music was fabulous, the homily was powerful and the mass was reverent and extravagant. Finding my way back to Le Louvre was near imossible, but eventully I found Anne-marie again and (after paying 1€ for aBathroom whivh i easnt happy about) we headed for food. We picked up our backpacks, ate more croissants and had MORE espresso and went to the Musée de la Mode (fashion museum) ... which was colosed :( so we went to the Wine museum instead! :)

After the Wine museum we tried to find a grocery store to buy breqd, cheese and wine for a picnic. Nothing was open but we found a nice guy in a resturaunt who made us up a cheese tray to go, and gave us a free baguette! I bought a WAY overpriced tiny plastic-bottle of white wine and we headed to the Eiffel Tower for a lovely, relaxing picnic. It was VERY nice :) After our picnic were were off again to the train station and back to Bruxelles. It was a beautiful weekend, altough a bit expensive. I ate some of the best croissants Ive ever tasted, and drank the absolute best coffee. I got a bit hooked on expresso but made up for it with a couple early nights this week. I cant WAIT to go back to Paris someday!!! Theres still SO mcuh more to see and eat... and tango to be danced!

Week Two in Belgium

Well, only 4 days has gone by and I have so much to say! Last week, after 4 late nights in both Brussels and Amsterdam, I ended up with a cold - not surprising since I JUST got over brichitis b4 leaving for Europe. So, I had a couple nights of going to bed at 8 as well as a nice sleep-in on Friday (I was willing to skip a class in order to be ready for Paris!)I wasn't willing to miss out on a Thursday excursion, however. As many people already know, I had been planning on going to a small city in Germany for the day Thursday called Eupen (Aix-la Chapelle en Français). It's a VERY long story, but that fell through and I managed to get hold of a ticket for one of the ULB excusions to two Belgian towns called Tournai and Lessines. Both were very nice! The GPS made an error on the way to Tournai so we had a beautiful drive through the Belgian countryside (which reminded me of PEI other than the OLD red-roofed homes and narrow roads no wider than our bus, at best).

Tournai featured a 70m high belltower from the 11th century with 258 stairs, which we climbed. It also had a BEAUTIFUL and huge Cathedral from the 11-13th Century. It is the onlyChurch of it's kind in the world as it was Constructed in 2 different styles: Roman AND Gothic! *For those who don't know the difference, gothic has lower ceilings and rounded arches and gothic has much higher cielings with arches which come to a point at the top - apparetly each reflect the different spititualities of their times periods. Gothic = introspective and more me+Jesus whereas the gothic period had more of a communal heavenly-directed stlye if worship (says our prof). Anyway, they built half the Church in one style during the 11th Century, but then gothic was more in so they changed half way through building it! In Tournai we also had our first real Belgain meal: mussels and fries (with a Belgian beer we see EVERYWHERE called Jupiler, which was gross). Our only stop in Lessines was an old Hospital/Convent started in the 11th but Augustian sisters (which is now a museum). It was SUPER interesting learning about the methods of healthcare of that time and how they progressed. I really liked that tour!
Friday, almost immediately after class, Anne-Marie and I took off for the train station. Note: class ends at 4, and our Train didn't leave until 815 --> we were too excited to sit at the school so we sat in the train station instead! Eventually we boarded our very cool high-speed train and, after an hour, arrived in PARIS! :)

Paris was everything I had imagined and more... well, almost. Haha, for some reason I had this image in my head of walking through a long field just behind the Eiffle Tower, turning the corner (to the right) and finding a busy street lined with little outdoor cafes. These ficticious cafés all had thin French men in striped shirts and red berets serving lattés to stylish women with puppies in their handbags. Alas, no such street existed - but that field/park did, I did see one girl (who very well could have been a tourist) wearing a beret, and there were MANY stylish women with little dogs and cute handbags, but no dogs IN handbags...

If you would like to hear about my FABULOUS weekend in Paris, you'll have to wait a day or two - I'm far too exhausted to type any more tonight!

(*Photo: Me at the top of the Belfry with the Gothic/Roman Church behind me)