Oh well another adventure in Poland!!

 Euphrasia and I thought we would attend an open air celebration to mark the anniversary  of the death of saint Pope John Paul 2.

It had been advertised in out local church and after the success of the 3 kings parade in January we were defiantly up for a repeat of the experience.

We arrived at the main square and  after picking up our flags, an enormous painting of the former Pope was unfurled and we all held on to it, for dear life  sometimes when the wind got underneath it. 

There were a few songs played on a tonoy system and then a sermon was broadcast, we could tell it was St Pope JP2 by his voice - it sounded like an late recording. Then they played another and another - for getting on for an hour, by this time we were getting cold (and board) but when the hour was up there as an Our Father  and a hail Mary and we thought the prayer time would get going but no the banner was gathered up and we were handed burning torches and we set off on a precession to the Basilica. It was quite a feat handling a burning torch and a flapping flag in the very strong wind. 

It was a much smaller procession than in January but again we followed a truck which was belting out alternately children's choirs and military bands . We realised all might not be as we had anticipated when the people around us started shouting and chanting and waving their fists in the air. Never the less we had started and it thought we would see it through everyone was very pleasant, there were lots of old people; it was a catholic gathering after all and we said a few decades together for piece in the world in-between the deafening military music and in the teeth of a gale now, we'd also given up relighting out torches .

We finally reached the Basilica broke into a brisk trot to circle around and  returned our flags and torches to the van then made a run for the number 80 bus where we defrosted for 20 mins on the way home and decided to chalk it up to another ' experience' in Poland!

The next day I asked my flatmate about the symbol on Euphrasia's flag a W with a P on top. He said it was the symbol for the underground army during the occupation. St Pope JP2 was of course part of the resisitance and a symbol of hope at that time.