Inabina in Europe: Jour 41

September 30th, Friday

So many good things happened to us throughout our journey to Lourdes. Miracle # 1, nothing happened in the camp out. Miracle # 2, we were able to get away with the wrong seats in the train. It's like this: Kwi and I each have a Eurail global pass which is valid for 3 months (unlimited wherever in EU). The thing is our pass is youth and is for second class seats only. We didn't think that we would run out of seats so we decided to book our hostel first before reserving our seats. We got to the train station to reserve and the second class seats were all gone. We had to push through so we opted to get first class seats.

When the ticket man went up to us to check our tickets, he didn't noticed that we could only sit in the second class seats. Kwi and I were so relieved! We were really destined to go to Lourdes!!

We had a stopover in Bourdeaux, the city of wine!

We got out of the wrong exit and saw the part of the city that was dead. We had no choice but to wait out our next train.

Our next train was to get to Pau, then from Pau to get to Lourdes. Check out the second class seats in the train we rode! Pretty cool ey?

The story behind our last train ride was that we missed it by a few minutes because the second train was delayed. We were a bit panicky cause we were just going to take the regional train (which is free) and there was no more train to get to Lourdes via the cheap train :( So we went to the ticket office to ask for help. Miracle # 3: the man gave us a free ticket to Lourdes via TGV!!!!! We were so thrilled that we got to Lourdes earlier, I think an hour if I'm not mistaken.

Lourdes has a cute little city bus! According to Kwi, this place is ranked the second largest venue of hostels and hotels in France (after Paris). I guess this is because so many people visit Lourdes for the pilgrimage.

The city is really devoted to Mama Mary that they even have sculptures in the buildings.

Our hostel was pretty okay. We had a private room, which was awesome! It's okay. At least there were no bed bugs! Haha

After dropping our things, we wanted to walk around and explore Lourdes beyond the sanctuary.

It was such a hot day that we wanted to eat ice cream.

We split a McFlurry with Kit Kat balls and other one is Magnum. I must say the McFlurry back home is way way better! Oh how I miss the McFlurry back home!!!

The sacred water from the spring is one of the things that people look for. For those who are planning to go here, the water is free. If you are like me and is not particular with the bottle, bring your own bottle. If not, there are so many bottles sold over the city. I brought an empty 1.5L water bottle and filled it up with the sacred water! Hihi

Check out this store, it's all white! <3

There's something else I noticed: there are so many pizzerias in Lourdes! I'm not quite sure why but I have never seen so much back in Lille or even in Paris.

There's this whole block of specialty shops that sell similar things: empty bottles, rosaries, crosses, prayer books, etc. I saw this store and I had to take a picture of it! Most of the items sold in this store are made out of Swarovski! Haha

At the end of that block, we finally hit the sanctuary. A big mistake of us was that we expected the weather to stay the same up in the mountains (we were in shorts). So it was getting chilly the farther we got.

The place was very serene. Not much people already because it was around dinner time.

Here's the water station where people are free to fill, drink the water coming from the spring.

I am proud to say that I drank this water all throughout my stay in Lourdes. The water is so fresh! :)

This is where Mother Mary appeared to St. Bernadette before. So many people fall in line in this area to wipe the rocks surrounding the statue. We finished scouting the place at around 8, and I was telling Kwi that I want to do the sacred bath tomorrow. I hope I get to do so!