A place I am missing: Madrid.

In my last entry, I posted pictures from our visit to Torreorgaz. This one here is Part II: Madrid.

Imagine Plaza de Cibeles filled with 2,000,000 something young people from all over the world! This was where the opening mass for the World Youth Day proper was held and we made a lot of country acquaintances to whom we’d shout “Viva (insert country here)!” and they’d shout back, “Viva Filipinas!”

The city is so different from Torreorgaz, mainly because it IS a city. Although Madrid still felt very quaint to me. This is, again, Plaza de Cibeles, for the way of the cross with the holy father. Streets here are filled with the buzz of young people from ALL OVER the world, carrying their respective national flags (we got our own) and shouting chants such as “Benedicto!” and “Viva el Papa!”

Caught in the act. Lol. We had a lot of waiting time because we always went to the places for gatherings early to get a good spot. That was me caught reading — I think the next shot after this was me caught sleeping on that very bench, book closed on my lap. Ha ha!

The pilgrim walk to Quatro Vientos under the blazing heat of the sun. It was summer there in Spain and temp reached up to 46 degrees Celsius. Can you imagine? That walk, with all our stuff, took about 3 hours from our place of Stay, Alcorcon, to the venue for the vigil with the pope. We survived it!

This shot was taken after the mass with the pope. Ya, who said World Youth Day was all about posh and clean sleeping places? We were dusty, sweating, SICK (because of the “hurricane” that landed on Quatro Vientos — an open field outside the airport — during the vigil the night before), and in need of a decent washroom, and yet we were so happy for everything we went through!

One of the parks we pass through every time we go out and back to Alcorcon.Very picturesque. :)

Last day in Madrid meant shopping so I wore my reserved dainty clothes. Lol. Skirt from Forever21, top from Zara, sling pouch from Indoensia, and ballet shoes from a shop in Plaza de Cibeles!

It’s always good looking back to good memories, no? :)

A place I am missing: Torreorgaz.

WARNING: I am on a very nostalgic mood. Lol. I just realized I haven’t really uploaded some interesting highlights of my trip from last August here in my blog, so here they are. Part I: Torreorgaz.

Torreorgaz is a small town that is approximately a 4 hour bus ride away from Madrid. People here are very simple and hospitable. That’s just one of the houses with interesting architecture there — it reminded me so much of some old buildings in Manila!

Real Churros by our Spanish mothers there! It’s hollow and soft in the inside, and crisp on the outside. Very very very tasty!  Certainly different from the ones here in the Philippines.

On our last lunch in the town, they had a surprise for us: PAELLA! Mmhm! We were so happy not only for its authenticity but also because it was our first ever rice meal since we arrived Spain (a week maybe of hard and tough European bread that gave us gum sores lol).

Besides our visit in Fatima, Portugal, we also went on a day visit to a nearby town, Montanchez. These were some of the new friends we met: mostly Italians and Montanchez locals.

Pueblo. View from one of the Montanchez sites that we visited, Castillo de Montanchez. Beautiful isn’t it?

I’ll post Madrid highlights after.