Sleepless in Madrid
It is now 3 AM, local time (in Madrid), and I am still wide awake. After the two-day rush of events, I would have expected that I would be sound asleep together with all my fellow pilgrims. Instead, I find myself still feeling the effects of a probable left-over adrenaline. The "two-day rush" reference here deserves some clarification as it aptly describes what many of the pilgrims actually felt. You see, all 60+ KCK pilgrims gathered at MCI airport on the early morning (8:30AM) of Thursday, Aug 11. More than half of that number had to go through Chicago-O'hare for a connecting flight to Washington-Dulles. The rest were fortunate enough to get the more direct flight from MCI to Dulles but their flight from MCI did not leave after another four hours. Once everyone arrived in Washington, the whole group took the more-or-less 6-hour flight from Washington to Madrid at around 6pm. Based on 'body clock', we would have arrived at Madrid at around past 12 midnight. But since our trip took us across several time zones, we were greeted by a fresh new sunrise as we landed in Spain. Ideally, we also would have slept during the flight in anticipation of this sudden change. But due to the wonders of modern aviation and the pervasive excitement among the members of our pilgrim group, we spent most of that 6-hour flight visiting with each other, reading books and watching movies/playing games on our own individual backseat touch-screen monitors. Needless to say, many of us managed only 2 hours of sleep (at the most) or less.
If you have read the previous blog by The Bearded, we have already spent most of the day touring the streets of Madrid and visiting the Cathedral of St Mary the Royal of La Almudena. At around mid-afternoon, the group decided to try the locally-mandated siesta time which allowed us a little over 3 hours of rest and sleep. I am pretty sure majority of our group took this golden opportunity to recharge, as I did. The rest of the evening was spent in prayer (the seminarians managed to squeeze in a holy hour) and liturgy as we celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with the archbishop (who arrived separately from another trip) at the Church of the Collegiata of San Isidro. This church holds the remains of Madrid's patron saint, San Isidro Labrador (Isidore the Laborer), and his wife, Santa Maria dela Cabeza. After the mass, we had the opportunity to pray before the incorruptible remains of St. Isidore (within 3 feet!!) which, for me, was an amazing and holy experience. We gathered the group shortly thereafter and made a small trek towards our late-dinner (read: beyond 8pm) location where we were treated to a sumptuous 2-course meal and dessert.By 11 pm we have returned to our hostel and ready to conclude the longest 2 days of our lives.
So what gives me the energy to be awake at this awfully late hour?? Is it the adrenaline? is it the late-night meal? is it the much-needed-but-never-should-have-taken-but-gave-in-anyway-NAP? Well, i honestly do not know. But since I know what's good for me, I am deciding to finish this blog entry now so I can salvage enough sleep to carry me through another hectic-but-widely-anticipated day.
Please keep us in your prayers! I have included some photos that I took of our day below ... God bless!
