Happy Easter!

Easter Mass

HAPPY EASTER!

After experiencing the crowds outside of security and hustling our way into the square, we stood for mass, praying for no rain.  The sun came out and Mass was beautiful!  Pope Francis even processed right by us on his pope mobile after Mass.  We left once it was done and weaved our way back to Bernardi for an Easter Brunch. 

Pope driving by

Afterwards, we celebrated by strolling around Rome, buying gifts for family members and eating the long-awaited Gelato.  We grabbed our last dinner together at an authentic Italian underground place called, “Il Ciociaro.”  We had a delicious meal and wonderful conversation.  My parents walked me back to Bernardi to say goodbye.  It was harder to leave them than I

thought.  Both Bernardians (who were traveling on spring break) and my family was “leaving” me at the same time so I felt like I was losing two families at once!  But I didn’t have much time to feel sad, because I needed to get prepared for my next adventure in the morning: Medjugorje.  

Assisi with my Parents

I went to Assisi for the day with my parents.  It was rainyjust like last time, but still pretty.  This time though, there were a lot more people, probably because more people are having a devotion to St. Francis of Assisi after Pope Francis chose his name after him.  We saw the same places I mentioned in my last blog, minus the church of San Damiano.  I loved going back down into the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi.  We grabbed a classic McDonalds

dinner and ate back at the apartment.  

Stations at the Coliseum with the Pope

Stations at the Coliseum

I stopped by Bernardi today to pick up some stuff, and ended up staying to watch The Passion with some of the Bernardians for the afternoon.  I met up with my parents and we stopped in various churches (since during holy week, all the churches in Rome have their altars open for prayer) on the way to the Coliseum where we were going to be able to do stations of the cross

Pope Francis

with Pope Francis.  We were greeted by crowds and didn’t quite know what to expect.  I, of course, was used to the tight spaces and pushing, but my parents found it a little difficult.  We stayed for all of the stations and the message the Pope gave us.  By the time it was over it was after 10pm and we still had to wak all the way back to Bernardi on the other side of town to print off our train tickets and then all the way back to St. Peters to our hotel.  After standing for hours and fasting, we were exhausted.  I was moving by sheer will power, but we eventually made it back to our hotel after midnight.  I crashed hard on my soft bed for the night.

Holy Thursday

Piazza Navona at Night

Today we toured the Vatican Museum (my parents and I).  We took our time going through the rooms before settling for a while back in the Sistine Chapel.  It was wonderful to be able to experience it for a second time.  Afterwards we grabbed some lunch at a pizzaria and rested at the apartment.  We took the 45 minute walk to the Angelicum so I could show them where I take classes and the beautiful walking route I take.  Unfortunately, the Ange was closed so we wandered back and met up with the rest of the group for Holy Thursday Mass at the Gesu.  Afterwards, we grabbed dinner at a place I’ve wanted to try called, “Da Francescas” by the Piazza Navona.  Unfortunately, we weren’t that impressed by the food and the service, but I’m glad we gave it a try.  Then we headed back to our rooms for the night.  

Two worlds collide

I nearly toppled my parents over running into them in St. Peter’s square.  I couldn’t walk fast enough across the square when I saw them in the distance so I sprinted over and gave them the biggest, longest hug I could possibly manage.  My parents had entered into the world that I had fallen in love with, the place I had described to them the past 2 months.  They were here!  We didn’t have a lot of time to catch up because we had a Savi Tour scheduled at 1pm.  This time the tour was so much better.  Our guide was a Seminarian from the NAC, and instead of focusing merely on the Architecture of St. Peter’s Basilica like my last tour guide did, he explained to us how it was really more of a pilgrimage to see the bones of St. Peter, and the foundation of the Church.  My parents loved it and I was so thrilled to be able to experience the proof of the whole history of the Church right in front of me, with the bones of St. Peter where Jesus said, “I tell you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church (Matt. 16:18).” After the tour we walked back to Bernardi, stopping at my favorite bakery place to give them a tast of the “Bomba” delights.  They joined us for community dinner and met some of my friends.  I was supposed to stay with them in their apartment by St. Peter’s but to be honest, I was hesitant to leave my Bernardi family.  I know it may sound crazy, but we’ve really become a family and I hadn’t seen them for a week while I was in Greece and I knew I was going to miss them!  So I invited my roommate Anna to come with me to the apartment for the night.  The sentimental feeling didn’t last very long once I saw how nice their apartment was and how comfy the beds were!  I immediately settled back into a groove with my parents alongside me.  

too beautiful to leave

We packed our things and headed toward the airport, with John, the owner of our hotel and his little sidekick as our escorts.  The last site I saw of our hotel was Fruit Loop Alex waving enthusiastically at us while we drove away.  I was so sad to leave.  We took a bumpy flight back to Athens and checked into the same hotel.  Emily and I went into the Acropolis Museum and toured around.  We stopped for lunch and had an amazing cup of cppucino freddo.  Since we already saw the important stuff in Athens, we spent the afternoon resting and relaxing.  We grabbed our last dinner in Athens at Plaka Tavern, partly because the restaurant owner said if we ate there he would give us free wine and dessert.  I wouldn’t pass that up!  We were able to talk about the favorite parts of the trip and how relatively smooth it had been.  It was a great ending to a wonderful Spring Break trip!

Riding Donkeys on Palm Sunday

St John the Baptist Cathedral

 Another warm sunny day waiting at the bus stop to go to Fira for mass.  We got the bus times wrong and ended up getting to Fira an hour after we had planned.  On a mission, we walked to try to find the church in a stressful power walk through the confusing streets.  Finally, we found St. John the Baptist Cathedral (which happens to be the only Catholic church on the island) and entered into the small but highly decorated chapel. We sat in the back row not sure what to expect out of a Greek Mass.  When the priest began mass, he shouted something in Greek all the way to the back of the church and everyone turned toward us. A lady behind us whispered, “he wants to know where you’re from.”  “Uh,”  I stuttured, “American?”  “Ah!”  He smiled and

Donkeys!

jabbered excitedly in Greek.  Well, we felt welcomed right away.  He had someone in translate for us in the homily to explain that because Catholics were the minority on the island, and many of them come from mixed Orthodox families, they go by the orthodox schedule (for school and work) and so, being behind the liturgical schedule, they were not celebrating palm Sunday mass today under permission by the Pope.  After mass he stayed true to the friendly Greek mannerism and hugged us and kissed our

Fira- My dream view!

cheeks.  Afterwards, we tried to find the old port where we heard we could ride Donkeys.  Spotting a Donkey in the street we decided to follow him.  He led us to a string of donkeys led by a man who motioned for us to follow him.  So here we were, walking down these thin stairs following some donkeys, trying to dodge poop, and having no idea where we were going in this hilarious parade.  Finally they stopped and we got on and began our descent down the cliff to the old port.  Riding Donkeys on Palm Sunday was not the most graceful thing, and so I can better understand how humble Jesus must have been riding in on these stubborn creatures.  I was so afraid they were going to

Oia 

throw me over a cliff or trip down the steep steps, but all the while I was still laughing hysterically.  The old port was beautiful.  There were Greek men in circles arguing over fish (I assume), and little shops where we picked up some traditional blue-stone gifts.  The cable car wasn’t working so we decided to walk back up the mountain.  Bad idea.  Over 1000 stairs up the side of a cliff in the hot sun with donkeys coming down definitely gave us an excersize we didn’t anticipate.  Finally at the top we awarded ourselves with Gelato and went back to the bus to go to Oia, the tip of the island where you can see one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world.  We discovered there was no way to see the sunset and get back to Perissa with the bus schedule, so we had to problem solve and borrow a phone from a guy in a snack shop to call the hotel and work out a taxi.  Before taking the bus we grabbed lunch at a restaurant “Niki” overlooking the cliff where we had just walked up and rode donkeys.  I had the best Greek Salad I’ve ever tasted.  Once we got to Oia we walked around and shopped.  One of the places we went into was really cute and it ended up being the lady’s living room.  She lived downstairs.  She saw us eyeing a beautiful silk and sequined scarf and tried to get us to buy it.  But being way over our price limit we explained to here we were poor students.  Instead of being a typical Italian shop owner and losing all interest in us for not giving them money, she simply said, “that’s ok, you have your whole life to buy things like this.  For now, try it on, and feel beautiful.”  She then grabbed Emily and showed her all the different ways she could wear it and had us take pictures of her.  She made us feel so beautiful by just wanting us to enjoy it, without feeling the necessity to buy.  It was wonderful.  We still had some time before the sunset so we stopped at a restaurant to try what we’ve been waiting to eat since we got here: Baklevah.  The restaurant was all out so we had to settle for spicey feta cheese with honey crust.  We ran out to the spot we had picked out for the sunset and had the most incredible 20 minutes of our trip so far.  I couldn’t

Oia at Sunset

believe my eyes at the shear beauty in front of me!  I blinked and it wouldn’t go away!  I named this as “My happy place” I would go to whenever I am feeling sad.  It’s easy to think that God exists when you see a site like this.  Afterwards, we took the bus and taxi back to our hotel and commemorated our fabulous day by buying a pan full of baklevah and eating it in our hotel room J while going over the pictures from our day.