In which Amy almost gets run over by the pope

Our (slightly belated) JMJ/World Youth Day wrap up

We were blessed to enjoy the heart of Lisbon during the recent JMJ/World Youth Day¹. We want to stress that these are our impressions and experiences. We have read other accounts that were not entirely positive, especially regarding drinking, garbage, and Pilgrims² not paying for transportation. We also talked to a lot of people who were deeply inconvenienced and we saw a lot of shops open but empty, a true hardship falling in the heart of tourist season.

The residents of Lisbon felt on edge, some nervous about how the event would affect them, others certain it was going to be an utter disaster.

It seemed as though many people were thinking it might look something like this:

Here’s what we got:

This delightful group of 8 enthusiastic and mostly weary Pilgrims from the Sacred Heart of France was smaller than the average, but just as loud as some of the bigger groups.

Our street, Rua do Passadiço, is on the line of the JMJ’s designated “red zone,” the area with no cars, no cabs, no scooters, no metro. Ours is a quiet neighborhood with narrow streets, not too taken over by the Airbnbers in the summer. While the passidiço part of our name means walkway, it’s not a a main one. We honestly figured we might see a slight uptick in the number of people in the Airbnb rentals around us, but that would be about it.

We could not have been more wrong.

It also turned out that some of the Pilgrims like the ones in the video above had discovered that our road is a shortcut to one of the main sites of the event - Parque Eduardo VII.

We found this out on the first day when we heard people talking and singing at the street side of our apartment. We went over to that window and OH MY GOSH there were big groups of large-flag-waving kids passing our building! It was amazing. We spent a lot of time running back and forth between the window and the computer. Scott’s default Google search for the week began: “Flag with...” Which led to a sentence neither of us ever expected to either utter or hear:

“Slovenia just walked by.”

All of Avenida da Liberdade had been set up with huge screens and speaker systems. As the crow flies, we are .15 miles/.24 km from that magnificent boulevard. Except… we are on the lip of a bowl so the sound travels very well to us. It was lovely to have hymns floating gently in the background during the day³. Or, the sounds of the Pilgrims.

In the morning the Pilgrims would pass by in one direction - in clusters and clumps - and when the big event at Parque Eduardo VII ended at night, they would stream back in the other direction, singing and giggling. Amy called it siggling. We found it delightful.

On our walks with Josie we went down to Avenida da Liberdade and saw something akin to the Olympics parade. (We assume. Never having actually been to the Olympics.)

A sidewalk along Avenida da Liberdade, a main thoroughfare to Parque Eduardo VII, before and during.

The video is especially helpful to illustrate what we were seeing. These Colombian pilgrims are gradually overtaken by a very large group of pilgrims from Brooklyn.

It’s hard to get the full scale of a crowd, isn’t it? Here’s a before picture of their end goal -Parque Eduardo VII, where many of The Big Events were held - the opening mass, stations of the cross, etc.

To put things in perspective, that blue altar (yeah, that’s an altar) that you see is .37 miles / .6 km⁴ away. That’s 6.5 (American) football fields. And here’s a picture of this same space during JMJ. Photo of tv shot sent to us from dear friends who decided to be out of town.

For the Pilgrims who didn’t make it into park proper, there’s the enormous rotunda at the foot of the park, set up with screens and speakers. On the avenues leading to the rotunda were more huge screens and speakers.

One of the many screen/speaker stations on Avenida da Liberdade. This one is .53 miles / .85 km from the rotunda below Parque Eduardo VII.

Out And About

So what impact did all these Pilgrims have on Lisbon? As you can see above, it was easy enough to cross Avenida da Liberdade. We did so, in fact, to have lunch with a friend. The restaurant we went to was surprisingly empty. Like, completely empty. The owner said it had been like that for much of JMJ. Halfway through our meal, 11 pilgrims descended on this really small restaurant.⁵ Eleven orders all at once is a real challenge for a kitchen of that size. Let's put it this way: we've never seen a busier waiter.

Amy was … brave? … stupid? … insane? to go to the (gasp) Mall. We had a ceiling fan there needing to be picked up. She had to hoof it pretty far to get to a metro station, but she was able to get a seat on a train and it wasn't that bad. Until, that is, she walked into the mall. She has no idea why she didn't think some of the 1.5 million teenagers might want to hang out in a mall. She unfortunately had to go to the food court which was packed shoulder to shoulder. It's the first time she's ever picked a restaurant based on the shortness of the line.

Near the end of JMJ, we headed out of Lisbon to visit friends in the country. We were on the subway, and we were on a commuter train. The commuter train was nuts, but Amy nabbed a seat.

We were startled to find out that the Pilgrims had made their way out of Lisbon proper at such a distance. We chugged by station after station filled with teenagers sacked out on the platforms, often leaning against large packs⁶.

It was the trip back that was most interesting as we passed the newly created - for this event - park where are the pope was going to be giving the closing Mass. It’s hard to describe what we saw but if a picture’s worth a thousand words this poorly-shot phone video must be worth at least a couple dozen.

Oh, right. The pope. In which Amy almost gets run over by the pope

Amy here for this next piece: Sure, sure, we haven’t mentioned The Big Draw of JMJ: The Pope. As you can image, getting out and about with a destination in mind would be a bit challenging. I had an appointment in the heart of the crazy. Obviously I set out with plenty of time, just in case things went terribly awry. They went great! Until they didn’t. One of the main thoroughfares was completely crowd control barriered. Is that a word? Did I just create a word? Booyah. Anywho. For those who have not read the most recent edition of the Herrfield-Redling Dictionary, there were barriers all along the edge of the street. Accompanied by policepersons. Since I had to cross the street to get to my appointment, I asked a policeman. He said, “No.” I said, um, what? He repeated himself. And added the Pope is coming by. I explained. I showed my doctor’s appointment reminder. He said I could go up a little way to where it was directly opposite the street I needed, ask there, and maybe the policeperson would let me across.

Quite nervous, I sprinted the few blocks, arrived panting, explained my woes to that policeman. Maybe it was the sprinting. Maybe it was the stark fear in my eyes. He said ok BUT HURRY. I dashed across the completely empty road. I stopped to call Scott and tell him about the latest JMJ development. While I am standing on the street corner, a phalanx of vehicles with flashing lights approaches. Motorcycles, SUVs, beefed up limos… I’m scrambling for the phone’s camera. And got a video of the Pope!!!!!!!

There’s the neat thing about not having wi-fi for so long. I’ve been having problems with my phone. Enough that I need to do a factory reboot and see if I can salvage it. But I’m not going to do that and all the uploading of apps until I have wi-fi. So what I’m holding in my hands is a phone that is reluctant to work in the way you expect.

Papal inconveniences aside, in our view, if you have to have 1.5 million people take over your city, this is the group. In fact, we enjoyed them so much, at the end, we were wishing this was a yearly event!

The atmosphere all week was, in a word, festive.

Of course, we are totally jaded now. We can't imagine the event that could come to Lisbon that would equal this one. Everything else is going to be piece o paper. Just keep an eye out that the pope doesn't run you down!

That’s all for now.

Love from Lisbon,

Amy & Scott

1. JMJ or Jornada Mundial da Juventude, or, World Youth Day

2. Everyone else calls the “youth” of World Youth Day “Pilgrims” so we will, too.

3. And it was only during the day. The music started no earlier than 09:00 and ended by 17h (5 PM) or so.

4. Thanks, https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/create

5. 30 seats, tops, inside and out.

6. They may be heavy but they make for good back rests.