Of Burgers and Milkshakes in Madrid

Madrid, Spain / World Youth Day – Day 1

Coming from Toledo, we are rushing back to Madrid as we are scheduled to attend a Mass in Cibeles Square presided by the archbishop that evening. We were expecting that there will be a huge number of people attending since it was the first official mass of the World Youth Day and true enough, we were welcomed by a swarm of people the moment we arrived in the city!

 

Still one block away from the event location, we already accepted the fact that we could not anymore squeeze ourselves in due to the thickness of the crowd, so each of us just settled on the vacant spots in Puerta de Alcala that had a nice view of the big TV screen which showed the Mass. We laid our newspapers down, waited for it to start and heard mass together as one with the other pilgrims that night. You would not believe that the city fell silent during the whole mass despite the number of people who flocked in the place. It was solemn.

My stomach was already grumbling even before the mass ended so seeing the lengthy lines inside the restaurants after the Mass really made me cannibalistic crazy! Add to it the fact that most of the stations were closed at that time since they could only accommodate people by batches, leaving us no other choice but to walk, walk and walk some more until we find a restaurant where we can eat.

At long last, we ended up falling in line at Burger King! Though very long and crowded, the lines were moving. I chose the set with a burger, large fries and drink in it from the pilgrim menu and gobbled all up in a bat of an eye.

Realization after: Junk foods are lifesavers!