15 posts tagged “jp2 pilgrimage”

OK, here's the plan:

I'm going to write (a novel of) my adventures here with some pictures/video to add to the story. If you would like to see all pictures (or skip out on the reading because I did try to caption them), you can find my entire album (of over 1200 photos) here. On the off chance that I don't use all of my video, you can see them all here. Because this is a huge process and an actual novel is kind of a no-go, I'm going to be posting totally out of order so you can just scroll down through chronologically or click:

Day 1 - 2   Day 3   Day 4   Day 5   Day 6   Day 7   Day 8
Day 9    Day 10   Day 11   Day 12   Day 13   Day 14   Day 15

"May I have a big heart that is able to understand love and give itself,
that is not frightened either by evil nor by error,
that embraces courageously its brothers and sisters,
and works totally in Charity."
- Pope John Paul II

My darling mother (aka Amy O) drove me to the airport. We left about 10, because I was taking my sweet time getting the finals ready for leaving, and got to LAX about 1-130ish (we stopped for lunch). LAX is a miserable hole, and the international terminal - specifically the Lufthansa counters - was packed. I waited in line for long whiles. I was kind of impatient about it, because I wanted to be set and going already, but I managed to entertain myself by playing "spot the fellow traveler." I picked out four of the other people in my group while waiting in line. I checked in and asked the lady for an emergency row seat or somewhere with extra legroom, and she told me there weren't any. She also told me I was second to last to check in (as it turns out, Olivia was last, and she was moved to a legroom spot).

At the gate, I met Sylvia and Sandy, then Dan, Olivia, Al, Christina, Tracy, Millie & Bob, and Rena. There was lots of chit chat, and we actually boarded fairly soon after we all got to the gate. Our plane was humongous. Lufthansa is wonderful; fly them always. It was split-level, with bathrooms and kitchens downstairs (excellent for walking around and taking a stretch). There were 8 seats across (2 aisle 4 aisle 2), and I had two to myself, which was lovely. I popped a couple PMs as soon as we got on the plane, and shortly thereafter the flight attendants came around with free booze. (Fly Lufthansa! All you can drink for free! ... Lufthansa, call me: I'll do your marketing.) We took off over LA about 4pm west coast time (1am central Europe time) and into the sunset (v. dramatic).

I wiped out very quickly after snackage (see above - hooray for Coke Light and smiling crackers). I had intended to watch The Simpsons Movie, but I fell asleep. Magical! Actually, before I fell asleep, I got the Official Dan Musical Tour because I fail at knowing Christian rock. Dan was really kind of hilarious about making sure to share the music in his iPod Shuffle with everyone. No joke. It was awesome. But I did sleep. And I woke up - I don't know how many hours in... probably not very many. Early enough for sunrise, half of Mr. Bean's Holiday (which, I'm sure I don't need to tell you, was horrible), and plenty of flight time remaining. I busted out my iPod and started shuffling through tons of classical & gospel music with the sunrise. It was quite lovely.

We flew over Iceland, Ireland, and England before hitting major cloud cover over the mainland of Europe. I took a bunch of pictures so I could try to figure out where we were. The clouds lifted as we came in over Germany, which is a really beautiful country.

I decided this was Ireland, but it very well could be Iceland.

I think this is England. All those 'lands are hard to identify from 35,000+ feet.

I know this is Germany!

Flying in was beautiful. Germany (as you can see) has the lovely patchwork going with its farms, but it also has these dark, thick forests all over the wheres. We landed in Munich on Wednesday at about 12:30p central Europe time (3:30a PST). We wandered through the airport a bit - it was very empty seeming. I attribute that to the Germans' efficiency (we saw a lot of that - not always good). Tracy and I wandered through some of the shops. Everyone sat around a bit, chatting. We took off from Munich to Krakow around 2(?)... I don't know. The plane was packed. Thankfully, it wasn't a very long flight, but it was mightily uncomfortable. Poland from above looked surprisingly different from Germany. (I'm naive sometimes, it's ok.)

Krakow, especially, looked very industrial. Lots of huge buildings and factories. Probably a testament to the long-term Communist rule, which enslaved the Poles for years and years. Time out: let's research this good and properly because I know the Commies came in basically after the Nazis left, and I think they were around until the Solidarity movement in the early '80s. Ah, yes. 1952-1989. This is a pretty informative Wiki. Anyway. We landed in Krakow at about 4:30p CET (7:30a PST). We didn't do much in the way of customs or anything (didn't in Germany either), which was very interesting. I changed some US dollars into Polish Zloty (which was kind of fantastic, because 1zl is about $0.40), we met up with Fr. Stan, Maryland Mary, and Manchester Mary, and went out to load up into the van & drive to Czestochowa.

Ours is the front bus. It was cozy. Our driver's name is Mark (or Marek), he was from Oswiecim, he has a 16 year old son, he likes to drive fast (also, likes to interrupt when Fr. Stan is talking... hee). We went from JPII International Airport in Krakow straight out to Czestochowa, about a 2-2 1/2 hour drive. Tracy and I sat up front with Christina. My knees didn't fit, so they were helping me figure out how to best position myself. Christina was a genius and recommended a little wrap-around to the (emptyish) seat in front of me. I did get stuck at one point, with my left knee beneath that seat. Good times. Very pretty sunset though!

We stayed at the John Paul II Pilgrim House just outside of the Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa. We arrived at nearly 7. It was quite large. Olivia and I were roommates for the entire trip, which was quite lovely, so we went and started to settle in before our dinner. We had to go for a bit of a trek to find the right dining facility - they had actually set us up at a restaurant between the pilgrim house and the monastery - but it was tasty! I don't remember what we ate exactly. Soup. Pickled veg. Some sort of meat. After dinner, Olivia and I walked through the big church and the Black Madonna chapel. It was very pretty and very crowded. I didn't go, but every night at 9 they have a big prayer service - probably why it was more crowded than I would have expected. We went back up and talked and read for a bit, and then we went to bed.

I woke up at like 5 in the morning (CET / 8p PST). Every morning they do an unveiling of the Black Madonna (though I'm not sure why she gets covered), so I decided to roll out and see it. I wandered around for a while, in shock again at the sheer number of people (primarily teen aged) who were pouring into the chapel. I actually missed the beginning of the unveiling, but what I caught was incredible. The chapel was packed, for one, and there was a huge fanfare of horns and organ, and the Poles all sang their Black Madonna song. It was beautiful, and then they started Mass (which was about when I remembered that I could take video with my little My First Digital Camera).

I skipped out on their Mass because we were going later and wandered around taking pictures of the sunrise before breakfast. I didn't take any breakfast pictures here, but breakfast in Krakow was the same, so no worries. After breakfast, we had Mass at the foot of the icon, toured the Basilica & monastery, and went into Czestochowa for lunch and adventures.

From Jasna Gora, looking across the meadow down to Czestochowa

Our 4th floor room

I'm redoing this since I'm awesome & lost the first round, so let me re-warn you: I was loving the changing leaves, and I took a lot of nature pics. Just work with me.

Stations of the Cross along a path around/under(?) the monastery - I'm standing on a bridge over the path

I think they were trying to tell us something.

This gives you an idea of how the Black Madonna chapel was laid out. There was this ante-chapel, with art and gifts and some pews. Through the arch is the main chapel, and - at center - the golden blob is the icon behind a grille.

Mass

If you can see the shadow at her crown... The actual painting - said to've been painted by St. Luke on the table from the Holy Family's house - is very simple (I will put a picture below). People have given the Black Madonna fancy outfits to wear, which are usually precious stones/jewels, including dress & crown, with space for faces and hands. This outfit is her commitment outfit, which is made of wedding rings given to the Madonna by people who want her intercession in their marriages (or by people who've lost a spouse).

Daylight view from Jasna Gora into Czestochowa

Looking back to Jasna Gora from Czestochowa

It was better than it looks - really. These are "pancakes" wrapped around bolognese (ground beef, tomato, onion, mushroom) on the left and spinach & cheese on the right. Yummy.

Our scary alley-way dungeon internet cafe in Czestochowa

Jasna Gora from the foot of the meadow (bookin' back, late)

Pretty sunset from our window

After breakfast, we hopped on the bus for Oswiecim, where we had a 10am tour appointment. I had the headphones in and the iPod going, and I was loving the scenery. I took video, not realizing Rena and Christina(?) were talking through the whole thing.

When we got to Oswiecim (in German: Auschwitz), we went to the State Museum.

Our tour guide was very informative. Auschwitz was a tough morning. I was very conflicted because there were really beautiful colors and buildings and trees, but there were also the exhibits of shoes and eyeglasses and luggage and baby clothes and hair. There are no words that I can use to help you envision the sheer magnitude of these exhibits. "A lot" doesn't do it justice. "Tons" doesn't even do it justice. And then, even if you could picture the amount of dead people things, there's no way to share with you the stale smell of 60 years of death.

ARBEIT MACHT FREI (Work will set you free) - the main entrance

Facts. Auschwitz was originally a Polish military camp. When the Nazis came through, they appreciated the ready-made space and kept it more or less as it was. The first prisoners in Auschwitz were Polish political, intellectual, and cultural leaders. The Nazis (and then the Communists) wanted to eradicate Polish culture - Poles being barely above Jews in the social hierarchy.

Auschwitz (Auschwitz 1) was a "work" camp, and Birkenau (Auschwitz 2) was a straight death camp. When the Jews arrived in Oswiecim, they were separated straight away. Able-bodied men (and maybe a few women) went to Auschwitz, where they generally survived 3-4 months doing extremely strenuous labor on minimal nourishment, with very little protection from the elements. Women, children, elderly, and less than able-bodied people went to Birkenau, packed their things in a neat little pile so they could find them later, stripped down for a shower, and crammed into a room where cyanide pellets were dropped from the ceiling. The gas chambers held something like 1500 people at a time, and it took about 45 seconds for them all to die. Then some of those able-bodied folk who were working carted the bodies out to the incinerator so the next 1500 people could "shower."

Cell Block 11 is the only building that still stands as it did 65 years ago. It was the "prison within the prison," and it's where St. Maximilian Kolbe was martyred. In the yard, outside the cells (and their windows) of Block 11, is the execution wall.

The Nazis had some serious propaganda happening. I know I remember learning in school about people trying to escape and being terrorized at the thought of going to the camps, but there were Jews from all over Europe who honestly believed that Auschwitz was a new beginning for them. They thought they were packing up all of their belongings to start over in an all-Jewish city, where there would be no more harassment. The Jews from Greece paid for their own passages to Poland, so they could move to Auschwitz.

We left Auschwitz and did a drive-by of Birkenau.

Coming up on the Birkenau train depot

After Birkenau, we made our way through the pretty, peaceful countryside to a Franciscan monastery not far away. It's all Maximilian-y / Sanctuary of Divine Love, and I think it's newer than WW2.

Inside chapel where we had Mass w/ a(nother) cute little Franciscan

Sketch of St. Maximilian Kolbe, just outside of the chapel

Fr. Stan saying Mass

Pretty red flowers around the monastery

We left Oswiecim for Krakow, where we stayed 5 nights at the Hotel Fortuna (no relation), in the heart of the Jagiellonian University (University of Krakow) and "Old" Krakow. It was grand. Staying there for so many nights was awesome, too, because we had the opportunity to explore the area and have some fun.

Dinner at the Hotel -- yum. Soup for starters, pickled carrots/cabbage/beets for salad, and roast pork (with some sort of pruney thing inside it) and potatoes

Fr. Stan has this bad habit of grabbing people's cameras and taking ridiculously close pictures of them. This is his second attempt (thank God because the first was just me and so not cute...), now including Dan, Sylvia and myself.

So Saturday morning, I woke up nice and early. Olivia was in the shower, I lazed about in bed for a bit, and then I decided to look out the window, to admire the view before getting ready for the day.

Oh yeah! It had snowed! It was very exciting and made for a lovely, lovely day. We got ready, had breakfast (which I will show you), and headed out for the day trip to Wadowice - where Karol Wojtyla grew up - and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska - where he would visit.

Breakfast usually consisted of: bread with (unidentifyable berry) jam, cheese, hard boiled egg, pickles, other cheese, kielbasa, hams/salamis. Honestly, this first breakfast was the "try everything (ish)" meal, and then I defaulted to the bread and jam for 4 days. All good in the 'hood.

Driving past Wawel Castle/Cathedral on the way to Wadowice

Wadowice was a very quaint little town, now famous for its "Pope cakes" (Kremulka? ... I don't know how to spell it). At the main square is the school where Karol Wojtyla was educated and the Basilica of the Presentation of Our Lady, where he was baptized / catechized / spiritualized. The Wojtyla family apartment is right next door to the Basilica, on the second floor; it is now a JP2 museum.

The school

JP Statue with tons and tons of youth, as we found all over Polish religious sites

Our group waiting to go into the apartment/musem (Clockwise: Fr. Stan, Mary Manchester, Olivia, Dan, Sandy, Sylvia, Christina, Millie, Bob, Rena's hair, begging gypsy. Not pictured: me, Marty (Tracy), Al, Maryland Mary)

Entrance to the building

Entrance to the Wojtyla Family's second floor apartment

Dan found a Polish wife! I was quite amused... this girl's mother was very enthusiastic about shipping her off to Almost Oklahoma, TX with Dan. My favorite part of the exchange was when Mom was saying, "oh, yeah, she's a very good cook," and the girl got this completely aghast look on her face and said, "Nie!!" ...I guess she doesn't cook.

Basilica of the Presentation of Our Lady

Our Lady of Perpetual Help (+Jesus) where KW/JP would pray every single day when he lived in Wadowice

The baptismal font (read this) - I could not get a clear shot of this if my life depended on it.

St. Therese altar

Pretty little side chapel...

..which turned out to be a reliquary with Padre Pio and St. Maximilian Kolbe (...and someone else. Polish is hard to read!)

We left Wadowice and went to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, which was the alternate pilgrimage spot (to Jerusalem) in the 1600s when Christians couldn't go to the Holy Land (Kalwaria = Calvary). My understanding is that JP would go there on retreat as a youth / young adult. It was so awesome, this big hilltop forest around a cute little monastery.

In the evening, we went back to Krakow for a night on the town. We walked through the Jagiellonian University (where KW/JP taught) to the "Old" Square and found a cute little restaurant to eat in. There were two Sephoras there, not even 1 mile apart, and I did not set foot in either, thank you very much!

University of Krakow

Entering the Square - bear with my fuzzy pictures... when I don't use a flash, my My First Digital Camera takes 4-7 seconds to take a picture & I have a pulse, which leads to shakiness

St. Mary's cathedral

Yummy... cheese pie. I promise this, too, was better than it looks. Pastry filled with Georgian(?) cheese, covered with roasted peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and more cheese. Yummers.

...

The next morning we had breakfast and left Krakow for a day trip to Lagiewniki and the Divine Mercy Shrine. I didn't know much about Divine Mercy going in - other than that I've always thought the image is kind of cheesy (because it's very anglicized / modernized, which has always perplexed me. I didn't realize the painting is from a visionary/mystic), but it was a lovely, lovely day. We had Mass in the Chapel where St. Faustina's remains lie below the DMPainting (the most beautiful Church I've ever been in - I'll scan Colleen's postcard). It was very quiet and calm and full of cute little nuns. At 3, we went back into the Chapel for the Divine Mercy Chaplet, which the Poles sing (eee!). That's when the cute little priests came out of the woodwork. It was way amazing. I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Divine Mercy Basilica is very modern and remarkably empty for a European Church. Underneath the "ground" level we're at, there are tons of smaller chapels, including the Hungarian Chapel, where we had teachings.

Cute little nun walking through the grounds

Sr. Gaudia and Christina

Sr. Gaudia is a novice at .....huh. I don't know what the convent / order is called. Hold! The Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and the convent is called Jozefow, but no one seems to ever use that name. Anyway. She filled in for the "usual" English-speaking nun to tell us about Faustina and Divine Mercy. She was just the cutest thing. I pretty much wrote down every word she said, which I will probably transcribe (another time, another place... another suitcase in another hall). She was very sincere and convicted. It was grand.

Highlights:

• God's greatest pain is mistrust.
  His greatest joy is trust.
• Trust is the greatest proof of love.
  Feelings come and go, a matter of will. Love is not a feeling.
  I will love you in spite of feelings.
• God always has a Plan B.
  Even if you make a wrong choice, He will open another road and help you.
• God is simple.
  Simple is good.
  We make things too complicated.
• When it became known that God had given Faustina a message with which all of humanity could prepare for the final coming, there was a big to-do. The message?
  "Trust."
• Trust in God 100%. 95% is not enough.
• If You will give me a long life full of happiness, be blessed.
  If You will give me a short life full of pain, be blessed.
  If You will give me many friends and support, be blessed.
  If You give me no one, be blessed.
• Have the faith of a child, not a wiseman: I don't care where you take me; I trust in you.

Fr. Stan taking pictures of the mosaics in the Hungarian Chapel beneath the Basilica where we learned all the things.

Inside the Basilica - Divine Mercy image, Tree of Life, and awesome global Tabernacle

Good good good day!

Monday morning we walked through "Old" Krakow to Wawel Castle / Cathedral where St. (Queen) Hedwig, who restored the Jagiellonian U. lived/is buried, where St. Stanislaus (Poland's #1 guy) is buried, where Juliusz Slowacki - the poet who prophesied a Slavic Pope - is buried, and where Karol Cardinal Wojtyla served as Archbishop. It is also the home of an awesome legend about a dragon.

Wawel Castle

OK. On the left is my lovely roommate, Olivia. On the right is our very first black woman in Poland. This picture is to commemorate the moment, the triumph of diversity. Yeah, no one else thought it was as funny as we did, but that's ok because we are awesome.

Picture stop on the way up the big hill to Wawel

...which was about halfway.

Wawel Cathedral (no, I don't know why one dome is regular and one is rusted)

Wawel grounds

The view of Krakow from the bell tower (which was a heck of a [narrow, high] climb)

Mmm... pierogi. This was the best lunch.

After lunching (and shopping), we got on the bus and went to Nowa Huta, which was a Communist project. We went - specifically - to the Arka Pana, the Church of the Lord's Ark. They don't just call it that; it apparently was built to the dimensions of Noah's Ark. Huge is an understatement. I don't think this church was completed that long ago - I think KW/JP gave it the official go-ahead shortly before he was made Pope (late '70s). The Commies didn't want to let the Poles have a church in Nowa Huta, but the Poles -stubborn?- went ahead and built one. It took 20 years and ...a lot of rocks? I don't know; something about stone by stone. Anyway, very infused with the suffering of the Polish people within the Communist rule. The church has three levels: the main sanctuary, a loft/second floor, and an Adoration chapel/grotto below the altar. The most striking thing in Arka Pana is the crucifix, which is really just the corpus, about 15', and the very depiction of agony. Intense.

Tuesday was an easy (rainy) day. In the morning, we walked through Krakow to St. Florian's, which was where Karol Wojtyla served while he was teaching at the University. It was a pretty little church, and Rena & I were glad to be there because we had just found out about the fires (Florian being patron saint of fire fighters).

After Mass, we walked back and grabbed lunch (in the rain). In the afternoon, we had the option to go to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which I totally took in honor of Mole Day. These salt mines started operating in the 1200s, and our 3 hour tour took us through about 1% of the place. OK, so I know you're all like, "Big whoop... a salt mine." The reason the salt mines at Wieliczka are fab is because, for years and years and years, the miners would work all day (mining) and then spend a ton of free time carving sculptures and chapels and all kinds of magic. Basically our whole tour we saw nothing but salt. It's true. Let's begin.

So this was our tour guide, Mark. I took this picture without knowing how truly awesome he was; I was just all over the snazzy suit with the shiny buttons topped by a hardhat. As it turns out, Mark was quite awesome. The more time separates us, the more I wonder about his truth to BS ratio, so take all salt mine stories with a grain of ... salt ... unless they're linked to facts on the wide wide world of webs. Anyway. Mark is a Pole who was taught English by an Irishman, which makes for as awesome an accent as you are imagining. Also, he was hilariously dry and full of stories.

We had to walk down a million rectangles of stairs. I counted. You can count for yourself if you want.

A salt statue of Copernicus (who, I'm embarrassed to admit, I did not know was Polish. I have so neglected 25% of my heritage.)

This is a depiction of the legend of St. Kinga. She was a Hungarian princess, who was betrothed to the King of Poland. As a dowry, she asked for salt - because the Poles had lots of gold and silver but no salt. Her father gave her the largest salt mine in Hungary, into which she threw her engagement ring as a sign of...... who even knows what. Didn't matter, though, because when she got to Poland, she had people start digging and they found this very salt mine with her ring in it.

The other big legend of the salt mine is about gnomes (there were a lot). Apparently, and I'm totally kicking myself for not trying this, if you kiss a gnome with a mustache, you will find a good husband shortly thereafter. Some of the gnomes have been kissed on so much th