Dear Diary....

In this age of the Internet, email, myspace, facebook, bebo, MSN, and Twitter, I probably ought to be calling this a ‘Blog,' but being a bit old fashioned, I'm gonna stick with calling this a diary. This is a diary of what I got up to between May 8 th and 15th, on the Parish Pilgrimage to Fatima in Portugal .

I'll start by saying that I didn't really know what to expect when I went. From the DVD that Fr Corbett showed us, I was slightly under the impression that this was going to be in a hilly, rural location, surrounded by trees and fields, so I was a little surprised to find a small town, full of ‘Tat' shops!

Friday. Day 1.

Not a great deal happened on Fri 8th when we left, except travelling. We got to the Priory for about 8 o'clock to be picked up in a mini bus, and driven to John Lennon Airport in Liverpool . The sun was out and it was a lovely day, if a little chilly. It was great to see Fr Kevin Smith again, one of our ex-Priests for anyone who doesn't know him. Anyway, we all squeezed into the bus, and set off. It took us about 2 and a bit hours to get there (The return journey turned out to be much quicker!!), checked in, ate some food, flew to Lisbon via Easyjet, and landed about half past four . I maybe a little sketchy on the times, as I'm writing this over a week later. We were met at the airport by Fr Andrew Stevens, who beckoned us over and hussled us into a waiting bus that sped us away to Fatima , and got there for about 6ish . As we were a little later than they had expected we had missed evening prayer, but sat down for a dinner of soup, salad, some sort of meat (I can't remember which, but there are times in the week, when we just weren't sure what we'd been served!!) followed by fruit. This was a meal that was to get…whats the word?...a polite one?...Repetitive!

After this we went for a walk with Fr Gray who has an apartment next to the hotel. He's an old friend of another of our ex Priests, Fr Holdridge, who was due to be joining us on Monday. So, went out for a walk, and saw the big square, colonnade, the new church, and the Chapel of Apparitions (Capelhina). By this time, it was getting dark, and chilly, so we then headed back to the bar in the hotel, where I was introduced to the famous Gin and Tonic. As I said to Fr Stevens, I'm not a big G&T fan, I don't really like Tonic water, but I'll try one, just make it light on the tonic. This would be a good time to add, that not one single drink in that bar was served with an optic (Glass bit that gives a standard amount of liquid), so after a couple, I was….Happy! After a couple of these, I went back out with Fr Corbett who I was sharing a room with for another quick walk, and then back in for the night.

Saturday. Day 2.

After a breakfast at the hotel of coffee and bread rolls (I had jam with mine, cheese and ham were available, but that's just weird. You have ham sandwiches for lunch, unless it's a bacon sandwich!) we went down the next Morning to a Chapel down the road from us. It was built by Polish people many years ago, and is typical of their style, lots of wood and carvings. It was very nice. I served there Saturday morning for mass as the vicar had asked me to do, and was reliably informed by Reg (From Fr Stevens parish) that 2 of the chalices had been ‘charged' (meaning wine was already in them) so don't put the purificators over the top as the clergy have a habit of putting their hands in and wetting the purificators and themselves!

After mass, Fr Gray took us for a more in depth tour of the town, and Basillica, as well as the new church. It was very impressive, it was hard not to be amazed by the size of the Basillica, or the artwork behind the altar, the intricate little alcoves down the side of both aisles, or the 2 altars either side of the main altar, where 2 of the seers, Jacinta and her brother Francisco were buried.

The ‘ New Church ' which I am told IS the correct name, was huge, and modern, and very impressive. The altar sits on white marble steps, with a golden display behind, depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and then above the altar is a big modern sculpture of Jesus on the cross. It's all very impressive, but his eyes were just wrong. They were big and puffed up like he'd gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson! But if that's the worst there was, it was all very impressive. I was like a shameless tourist taking pictures everywhere, but this was one of those places that had a stillness about it, where taking a picture wasn't necessarily the right thing to do. And as I can't figure out how to stop the thing bleeping when I take pictures, I decided not to do any more after the first 2.

After we had finished we then stopped at a café which was to become a regular spot as the weeks went on and ordered coffee. Most people had a custard tart, which went down very well, and I had a Danish. The waiter soon got to know us, and by the second day, had our drinks order memorized. Paddy very kindly paid for everyone. Thank you very much for that Paddy.

I think we then went back to the hotel for lunch, which I can't remember the specifics of, but am pretty sure it started with Soup, then Salad, then a meat with a vegetable, or a carbohydrate (Mick Foster sussed that they swap each day), followed by fruit.

The afternoon was then free, so a few of us decided to go on the little train that bombs around the street. It takes you to about 4 places of interest, where the children /seers lived, the church that has been erected in their name, the back of some shops in town, and I can't remember the other one! And the driver was fierce! Andrew (Higgins) tried to get a smile out of him. Tried I said! Then these 3 women got in the cart behind us. First they stopped at our cart, which was full. One of the women stuck her head in to check (bit like a Giraffe through a car window in a safari), but it was still full! muttered something foreign to Frank (Underwood), and shuffled off. She had big thick designer glasses, her black (Dyed!) hair was tied up and she had no teeth! She musta been 70. I leaned back to Dee (Foster) who was sat behind me and said ”By God, that's a sexy looking woman!” The ride, thankfully only an hour long, and costing 3 and a half euros, gave me a numb bum!

After getting back off where we'd started, everyone then went back to the hotel. I continued to have a wander around town, to explore, and take more pictures. I hooked up again with Fr Philip and we explored the Tat shops. Pretty much all of the shops sold religious items, i.e. rosary's, statues, and images, and after you had seen one, you'd pretty much seen them all. There was one shop however that was just down the road from us, which seemed to be of better quality than the rest, which did become a favourite of our group.

The day then finished with Evening Prayer in the Chapel followed by Dinner at the hotel. Soup, Salad, a meat, and then today pudding. We had 3 puddings over the week, and this one was either a bowl of strawberries, or a carton of ice cream. Not a Walls sized carton a piece, that'd be daft, but an individual yoghurt sized one!

The evening I do remember more clearly. It had been raining for a while since late afternoon, but had stopped, so myself, Fr Corbett, Spicer and Smith went for a walk to the Capelhina where the statue of Mary is kept. Every night, a candle lit procession takes place after the Rosary. It started to rain, so Fr Corbett fetched his umbrella, and the rest of us wandered up to the Basillica for another look. By this time it was nearly 2130 and the security guard began clearing people out so he could lock up. By this point the rain was coming down heavier than ever so the 3 of us stood behind the Colonnade (The big glass box where the Bishop and Priests would say Mass on Weds). It was a beautiful site, as despite the weather there were still a lot of people there for the mass with their lit candles. The Rosary was said in various languages by different speakers. The English version was said by a gentleman with a wonderful thick Irish accent. What got me that week wasn't the big buildings, or the artwork, it was the devotion of the people, which is something that I cannot imagine seeing in this country. I turned to my right and under the big covered walkway were lots more people with lit candles watching. The procession itself didn't happen that night due to the weather, but it was still a big turnout in the rain. It was a beautiful site to behold.

By this point I was missing my own bed. The one at the hotel was too short for me, and everytime I turned over in the night, the blanket followed me and woke me up!