i just have to say, POLAND WAS SO AMAZING!!!!! wow. talk about a sweet trip! i can honestly say that this past weekend was one of the most fulfilling trips of my life! we traveled by bus straight through thursday night for about 12 hours. when we arrived in krackow we hit the streets and did some hard core touring before heading to the divine mercy shrine where we saw the original divine mercy painting, had time for prayerand walking around the convent/grounds, and celebrated mass in their huge church. it was such a beautiful and holy place. absolutely beautiful .
that night we spent in a slightly sketchy youth hostel downtown. we were all out of toilet paper by late that night… we went out and got some ice cream and we just chillin when this huge group of jewish people come by all celebrating a bar mitzah or something. they didn’t know much english but a couple of the guys knew “have a nice day” and so they said that to every one of us.
next morning we went to the birthplace of JPII – sweet – and then spent several hours in the concentration camps.
concentration camps. wow. talk about intense. i don’t know if you guys know this but my grandpa had to flee Germany as a jewish child. it gave a very real perspective to the whole thing.
there was such a heaviness everywhere. it’s so hard to put into words the incredible evil… it was, yeah, really hard. i don’t think i spoke a single word the entire time.
instead of me trying to explain this, i will have to let the pictures i took speak for themselves. (which should be up soon)
after the concentration camps we were able to celebrate mass at a church nearby which was absolutely wonderful. such a release after the camps. i got to do the readings so it was extra cool for me. a group of consecrated made dinner for us which was so good after walking around all day and then we saw an exhibit done by an artist who survived 5 years in the camps. again, intense. ok, i’m not done telling everything but i *have* to go watch a movie. later!