World Youth Day 2008

World Youth Day is the largest youth event in the world and was held in Sydney from Tuesday 15 to Sunday 20 July 2008. Organised (that's the correct spelling in Australia) by the Catholic Church, WYD brings together young people from around the globe to celebrate and learn about their faith. It was largest event Australia has ever hosted-and the 2000 Olympics were here-and it marked the first visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Australia.

Many of the streets of Sydney were closed this week for World Youth Day. On Thursday, Rob and I got to join in some of the festivities and even saw the Pope up close. Instead of squeezing in with the thousands of people that were lined up on the streets waiting to catch a glimpse of the Pope ride by after his speech in Darling Harbour, Rob and I passed all of them by and walked straight into Darling Harbour like we owned the place. We just kept walking towards where we knew the Pope was going to be, and somehow no one stopped us! We didn't even have the proper tickets/passes/identification but no one seemed to notice us stroll right on in. We got a great spot where we could hear his speech and then were able to get some up close pictures as he rode by us. It was a really neat experience.

The final mass this morning at Randwick Race Course out at Centennial Olympic Park was attended by over 500,000 people. We decided to just watch that one on TV. :)