Here I Go A-Wandering: Hello from Lourdes!

No blog yesterday...but that was because we had to be out of the apartment by 11am and then we had a train ride from 5:45-11:45pm to Lourdes. We got to the hotel and the WiFi access code we got only allowed one person at a time (and they gave everyone the same code...smart). Got a new code today so I have WiFi!

Anyway...yesterday some of us went to the Flea Market in Paris. It was really cool...lots of antiques (and cheap knock-off clothes/purses). If I lived in Paris I would totally buy a nice kitchen table from there. I did by a pretty ring from a gypsy there. She promised it would not turn my finger green!

We then took a train from Paris to Lourdes. There was a man on the train that was checking me out...he kept smiling and winking at me. He wasn't that attractive to me, though, and so I let the french man get off at his stop without talking to him.

I did write my journal entry on the train. It is:

We are on our way to Lourdes now on the train. It is a six hour train ride through the French countryside from Paris to Lourdes. So far we have been on the train for about 40 minutes and the ride is absolutely beautiful. Several of my companions have already fallen asleep (or at least shut their eyes). It is a very relaxing, calm ride (so far…who knows what can happen in the future). The only complaint I can even THINK of is that there is no A/C. It is warm, but not uncomfortable. My mind keeps going to what it would be like when Lourdes first started to become a pilgrimage spot, how the ride in the late 1800s would not have been as nice as the one we are on now. As well, we are all (relatively) healthy with no major health issues. We are not in wheelchairs or on crutches. Most of the people that go to Lourdes have some sort of ailment. I’m sure it was possible to take a train to Lourdes in the 1800s, but how quickly after the apparitions was a train station put it? How long did that train ride from Paris take? How comfortable was it (because It was surely not as comfortable as the one we are on)? Was it always there? Is the only reason it is there is for convenience for the multitude of pilgrims?

I am not quite sure what to expect at Lourdes. I have read and been told that it is mainly older people with physical ailments that go to Lourdes for physical healing. As a young, healthy person, will I (or can I) have a similar experience as the other pilgrims? Since I am going as a scholar, should I even be expecting to experience anything? While I cannot ever know for sure what Bernadette saw at the site (if anything at all—since study the Salem Witch Trials I have been very skeptical of anyone who claims to see something that someone else does not), the impact of the vision has been massive. I cannot wait to speak to pilgrims to see what their experience is like.

I am also curious as to how different the Lourdes experience will be to the Iona experience. They are very different places…one is for physical healing, the other spiritual healing. People that go to one spot wouldn’t necessarily go to the other. I am looking forward to speaking with pilgrims at both. The trip to Iona, however, will not be fun. But, a pilgrimage is supposed to be difficult, otherwise it would not be a special, unique trip.

And on to the pictures!