Our arrival the next day in Paris was delayed by a train connection we had misjudged, so when we arrived we ended up having to chill out in Brussels, Belgium for a few hours and catching a later train to the Gare du Paris Nord, or, the main Paris train station.
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| One of my favorite pictures I've taken, of the beautiful hall church St. Maurice's, in Brussels, Belgium |
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| Inside St. Maurice |
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| A street in Brussels |
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| The outside of St. Maurice |
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| One of its stained glass windows |
In Brussels we walked around and got some food and saw the parts of the city around the train station. Brussels is a pretty city with the same larger buildings as Krakow and Vienna that are basically apartments built with old style architecture and balconies, and then it has a good amount of other modern businesses. Brussels doesn't smell as good as Vienna or Krakow though and isn't nearly as clean. While the first two seemed to have a lot of maintenance done on them to keep them fresh, you could Iook at the bottoms of buildings and see wet spots where people had peed, and in fact we walked right past one woman pulling her skirt up to squat and pee on the beautiful St. Maurice hall church.
St. Maurice's was easily one of my favorite churches so far. It doesn't look like it was in use much, although they had the blessed Eucharist in the tabernacle, but it had wide open spaces and huge pillars and as the name implies, was built after the styles of the Viking halls. It had lots of stained glass and was honestly more simplistic but elegant than a lot of the churches I've seen so far. I kind of wish they still had masses in there.
Finally we made it onto our train to Paris and got through the various train stations where they rerouted us due to us getting lost. We showed up in the Gare du Paris Nord (north station) and discovered that Parisian train stations are actually like hell on earth. This is because there are six million people, six million possibilities of being pickpocketed, there are signs but they are all confusing, and we managed to get onto the metro system and figure out enough that we purchased a ticket, escaped the craziness that was the station, and made it out into the city.
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| The Leaning Tower of Pisa - just kidding, just kidding. |
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| Kristie, Leslie, and Elizabeth under the Eiffel Tower |
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| A quick shot of Paris |
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| Paris at night, as viewed from a bus |
Note about the metros - I may be from the suburbs but I'm no city slicker. I greatly dislike public transport, I don't like being in crowded stations, and I certainly don't like not knowing where I'm going. Paris has two directions - Nation, which is towards one large main station, and Etoile, which is for Charles de Gaulle Etoiles, the main station on the other end of the city. Somehow we managed to navigate through this labyrinth of about 20 different subway lines to get where we needed to go.
At night the city is gorgeous.
We got onto the bus and drove down the main streets including the street with the huge opera building and made it out to the street with the Eiffel tower. We took some pictures, and chilled out under the tower for awhile (I was particularly tired because of my bag). I was slightly disappointed because we had lost six hours and we didn't get to go see Notre Dame or the Louvre due to lost time, but I'm glad we didn't try, because that would have been absolutely hectic.
After that we headed for our hostel. We were all tired and cranky because we hadn't had enough to eat and we had missed two trains and we just wanted to crash, so I figure that it was just a result of that that I was getting super annoyed with my group. We asked a lady for directions and she gave them in French, and I understood what she said and tried to talk to her but I was interrupted by my traveling companions who told me to shush every time I tried to ask a useful question and basically informed me that I was wrong and knew nothing.
At that point I was feeling a little like the random extra in the group, so I was glad when we got to the hostel, finally took a shower, and got WiFi and crashed.
When you're out traveling, by the way, WiFi is a precious, precious commodity. You thieve it off shops and nearby hostels, you hog it when you're in a hostel and they give you the password so the signal is strong. It's key for making plans and goofing off and reading books and uh, keeping in touch with people.
The next day we had to pretty much just leave Paris. We did have some time in the morning though, so we went to the Rue Du Bac, which is the street on which St Catherine Laboure's body is kept in a shrine dedicated to the Miraculous Medal. We also got groceries for food in an incredibly upscale grocery store. I kid you not, there were several levels and it was also full of glass and gold display cases and when you paid, you inserted your money into a machine so the cashier didn't even have to touch your cash.
The shrine itself was pretty incredible. There was a statue encasing the remains of St. Louise du Marillac, the incorrupt body of St. Catherine Laboure, and a relic (we think it was the heart) of St. Vincent de Paul. There was also the chair in which Mary appeared to St. Catherine to reveal the miraculous medal. We were all a lot less grumpy due to having grabbed a decent meal. I'll put up pictures of the Miraculous Medal shrine when I get them off my phone.
Back on the train to Fatima this time. It was going to be an over night but we hadn't gotten to reserve a sleeping car, so when we got to the first Spanish to Portuguese train, we received a rude awakening. The train wasn't near as nice - and I use nice as an extremely loose term - as the others we had been riding. We'd even been spoiled earlier that day by riding a train with an outlet to charge phones. This one - was disgusting. You could see the dirt on the seats from other occupants. We were also stuck in the only four seats facing backwards, which means we were facing two other people and we had no foot space.
The night turned out to be a long one. It smelled like bathroom and there was a group of drunk people who decided to party almost all night, turning obnoxious Spanish music up and yelling to it and screaming and drinking, and every once in a while, Leslie says they got off the train at a stop, ran around screaming, and then got back on. I slept through it, sort of. I heard them, but I didn't realize what was going on - I thought they were a really bizarre dream.
Anyway, we woke up from that feeling absolutely disgusting and very tired. We ended up in Caxarias, Portugal, which is a short distance from Fatima by bus. Caxarias had a bathroom that wasn't nasty, and it was quite a while until the bus, so we all changed and freshened up. We then adventured out to grab breakfast at a little cafe across from the train station. There I managed to actually utilize my Spanish speaking skills, including finding a supermarket. Turns out that if I slow down my Spanish and make a lot of synonym guesses, I can communicate.
Because we had eaten, my traveling companions were much cheerier and were were happy to let me do the talking. Maybe the long train ride traumatized them. Caxarias is a tiny town and it was amazing how cheap everything was. All of us got a pastry for breakfast and a drink and the total added up to about two euro.
(Note on the food. I am so so so so so sick of pastries and breadstuffs. It's the cheapest thing you can buy, but my body wasn't used to the huge amounts of carbohydrates and lack of water, so while we were traveling I felt really sick. Now that I'm back, I tried eating some other stuff and my body freaked out at the difference.)
In Portugal, we spent a little time in Fatima seeing the shrine and basilica, which were crowded because it was the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima.
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| Fatima Sanctuary |
They were saying mass when we got there and it was raining and windy. We were pretty miserable so we got lunch and WiFi and made a hasty reservation for the first place we could find to spend the night. After reserving it we went and found a taxi and ended up going straight there. The taxi ride wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be - between all of us it was maybe ten bucks each or even less.
When we showed up we were incredibly surprised. Turns out we hadn't reserved a hostel. We were actually staying in a Quinta in Ourem, Portugal, which is basically a remodeled Portuguese country manor which had been turned into a bed and breakfast. We were introduced to the owner's wife, who said she was from California and spoke good English as well as Portuguese.
Note on Portuguese - it sounds a heck of a lot like Spanish, but they mash their words together and use a lot of "shhh" sounds instead of "s" sounds. When we were briefly in Spain I had been so happy because I could read all the signs and could understand a large chunk of what people were saying, not to mention communicate with them if I needed to.
Anyways this Quinta did not have a room reserved for us. They had an entire apartment. That's right. It had a loft, a full bathroom, a kitchenette, a TV, a common area, and they gave us full access to the walking trails and to the remodeled barn which had been turned into a lounge, a bar, and a beautiful spot to relax. On arriving there we ditched our bags, I took a shower and headed to the lounge.
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| A foresty road at the quinta |
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| Our apartment had a spiral staircase. |
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| The loft - I wanted to stay up here but also did not feel like sharing a bed. |
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| Outside the Quinta Alcaidairia-Mor |
Note on showers: when you've been in a train overnight and wearing the same gross clothes for almost 48 hours, when you've been sitting in dried sweat from other people and greasing your face by just existing in a compact car of other people's recycled breath, a shower is the most beautiful invention which definitely tops sliced bread.
Five or ten minutes after going to the lounge I came back briefly to grab a bar of chocolate I'd bought in Caxarias. Everyone except for Leslie, who was in the shower, was dead asleep. Both Elizabeth and Kristie were upstairs making no noise whatsoever. It was maybe six thirty in the afternoon.
Well, I took that as my cue to have a nice relaxing evening chilling. Even when I enjoy my travel companions I definitely need to just have time to be on my own or thinking on my own or reading or writing. It was so peaceful in that barn. I ended up skyping Mom and Dad.
This is when Nuno came in and introduced himself to me, he's the owner. He urged us to go to the candlelight procession at the square that evening because that's when bunches of people would be there. I told him it sounded lovely but that most of us were sleeping and we we would have to grab another taxi.
In the morning I went walking around the Quinta on my own waiting to go to the shrine and kick off the next day.
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| Good morning Portugal |
We ended up sleeping and going to the procession the next night instead (there's a video on the previous post). To get to Fatima the next day we ended up getting driven by Nuno instead of having to call a taxi. They fed us a heavenly breakfast all you can eat bread, cold cuts and cheese, brownies, coffee, fruits, and jam, beforehand.
Nuno drove us because he was taking his little daughter Sofia to preschool. She rode with us and I asked her a question in what I hoped was passable Portuguese, and she answered but I'm not sure what she said.
When he said goodbye to us Nuno was incredibly sweet, he gave us all kisses on the cheek and asked us to call him if we needed any help. He also asked us to rate his Quinta well online because he's bad at machines and doesn't know how to up publicity. I absolutely loved him, he was great. He was a little intimidating at first but he turned out a very fatherly figure. His little mansion was gorgeous. He said he didn't get a lot of American tourists, but that the Quinta had been used for several filming projects. They also give horseback tours and have sheep. I went on a walk in the morning before we left and said hello to the horses out in the field during the sunrise.
Fatima - we got to see places like the homeplaces of the three children of Fatima, which was a really long hike in the blazing sun carrying our backpacks. There's a place full of Portuguese oaks where the children used to shepherd their sheep, and it's very old testament looking. There they had the stations of the cross and monuments where Our Lady appeared twice, as well as if you walked down to the city you could see the third appearance occurred, in a garden behind Saint Lucia's home. We tried to do the Way of the Cross but we got lost on the paths and suddenly managed to get from the Fourth Station to the Crucifixion. I wasn't too sad about it. By that point in the sweltering heat I was exhausted from carrying my backpack and everyone else was walking so much faster than I was.
Earlier also we were allowed to walk through the basilica (which was being reconstructed) in one small area and see the tombs of the Little Shepherds.
In Fatima we got really familiar with where we were going because we were there for two nights, which would have been nicer if we stayed in the same hostel for both nights. However, we didn't... we ended up going to Hotel Pereiras which was located on the main avenue leading to the Basilica. We had paid for two separate rooms which were mixed dorms, which we were nervous about, but Armando, the guy in charge, gave us a four person double room together so that we could stay as a group, for no extra payment. He was really nice about it.
At Fatima we also went to the evening procession which involves saying the Rosary in a bunch of different languages and carrying around the statue of Our Lady of Fatima which is crowned on the 13th of every month from May to October in honor of the major apparitions of Mary, and processed around the main square. After every decade, they sing several verses of Immaculate Mary. Let me tell you, they may sing it in different languages, but I am pretty freaking sick of that hymn (they played it for the Lourdes Processional also).
However carrying a candle around and singing and praying was kind of interesting. There were less people because it was the day right after the major feast day. Apparently on October 13th, the square is crowded with thousands who can barely move, so they just stand there and sing instead of processing with the priests carrying the Mary statue.
During this time we got awfully familiar with the main mall center, which had three levels and several touristy shops and some eating places. We got a decent meal at one of the eateries which reminded me a little of Roaster's at home. While we were in Fatima we also bought a heck of a lot of Rosaries and got them blessed. I have so many Rosaries for people now that have been blessed at different places that it's hard to remember which was blessed where. I also have to remember where I put all of them because they are so small.
The little stores in Fatima are crazy. There are an incredible amount of small shops so that if you want to buy something, you have to do no more than just turn around and open your eyes. Most of the shops sell the same thing, so I'm not sure why they bother having more than one of them or what the people get out of running individual ones.
We also got into a bit more of an equal footing. Hanging out with Kristie, Elizabeth and Leslie is interesting because they've known each other for a long time and are pretty close which meant I was sort of disadvantaged. They're also pretty super-Catholic which I find difficult to associate sometimes when all they will sing is praise and worship hymns or all they can talk about is this Catholic family camp they worked at.
It was interesting talking to Leslie a little about the cliquey group I've seen her hanging out with. She said that she decided to leave the clique and not travel with them anymore because everything ended up being centered around the guys in the group and none of the girls seem to want any other girls joining them. They also apparently have a hard time deciding where to travel and so end up going nowhere, and just standing around in these cities doing nothing.
On the contrary when I was traveling with the girls, I had difficulty stopping to take a break sometimes. They are very driven and don't seem to enjoy just standing to take pictures very much or just enjoy the view. The only time we really took breaks were during Mass or Adoration, so I came to enjoy those times not only for some Jesus time but for some break time.
Traveling with them was also interesting. At first I thought they were aggravated with the fact that I just wanted to read my book on the trains, and they would just sit there or read or do whatever, and sometimes they'd also talk. Turns out they were glad that I didn't talk much on the trains - we all just needed some down time to recharge and think and I guess they get motion sick on trains. They told me when I got back this morning they think I'm the chillest of all of them and I didn't freak out at all.
Okay, so moving on from Fatima to Lourdes. Having spent a couple of days in Fatima walking around and seeing various things, going to masses both in English and in Portuguese, going on a couple of cheap tours, we got on another train to Lourdes.
This post is getting really long so I'll continue it later.
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