San Jose | Thursday, October 3 - 7:46 p.m.
Silicon Valley is rushing toward me. The plane jostles us around a bit as the wheels touch down, and I breathe out that inevitable sigh of relief that I never realize I’ve been holding until I’m back. Bay Area, I missed you.
Same day - 8:04 p.m.
An unfamiliar, unwelcome blanket of heat envelops me when I step out of the airport. I shrug off my jacket while checking my weather app, and my eyes bug out. 100 degrees? Since when is San Jose hotter than LA, or Rome, for that matter? Maybe it is a good thing we’re getting out of here.
Same day - 10:45 p.m.
It is entirely possible I’ll have to buy a second bag in the course of this trip.
Friday, October 4 - 10:46 a.m.
I checked my Sims* when I woke up this morning and saw that one was working from home at a coffee shop nearby. Now we’re sipping a white mocha (her) and brown sugar cinnamon latte (me) and chatting over work and grad school apps in the same cafe that everyone came to during AP exams and college apps seasons.
*Find My Friends
Same day - 1:53 p.m.
I chopped four inches off my hair and now I’m standing with my dad in an Ike’s (#9 for me please, I refuse to say its actual name).
Saturday, October 5 - 10:44 a.m.
We’re headed to Concord so my dad can go to a card show while my mom and I run errands. We’re driving up 680 and I don’t say “the [insert freeway]” when I’m home and I’m bookmarking all the places I would take my LA friends to if (when!) they visit and they’re all the same places that haunt and hold my younger self.
Concord | same day - 11:41 a.m.
Dad: dropped off
Coffee run*: in progress
Temperature: 91 degrees
One of the never-ending novelties about going home is passing all the same apartment buildings and coffee shops with each visit and daydreaming about which of them might be my new home base someday.
*Pumpkin pie latte and vegetable scone for me, hibiscus berry iced tea for Mom
Alameda | same day - 2:02 p.m.
We may be going to Europe, but it’s still Filipino American History Month of course. There are festivals happening all over the Bay this weekend, and this particular one is at Alameda Waterfront Park—how could you possibly beat this view?
Same day - 4:42 p.m.
Off to Mass. You would think, since we’re a group of Catholics departing on a Sunday for a pilgrimage, we could get speed run Mass said for us in the SFO terminal, but no such luck. Fr. KS, if you’re somehow reading this, it’s a joke, I swear.
Sunday, October 6 - 12:18 p.m.
It’s 88 degrees out—in San Francisco—and I’m wearing sweats. This plane better be a damn icebox.
San Francisco | same day - 2:53 p.m.
Changed into a dress. Much better decision, because I’m already sweating from carrying my luggage up the stairs in the parking garage. Of course the elevators would be out of service.
I didn’t expect that saying goodbye to one parent at the terminal would feel any different than saying it to both of them when I go back to LA.
It did. I could say I didn’t shed a few tears but I’d be lying.
Same day - 2:57 p.m.
Genuine question: who is buying designer in airport terminals?
Same day - 3:43 p.m.
My mom’s favorite coworker surprised her at the gate! She was under the impression that her friend had decided not to come. Turns out the whole office was in on the joke.
Same day - 5:08 p.m.
Takeoff! My movie options are as follows: The French Dispatch, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Babylon, CHIPs, The King’s Man, and Ocean’s Eleven.
It’s weird picking movies knowing your mom is sitting right next to you for ten hours. No Challengers for me I guess.
Lisbon | Monday, October 7 - 1:07 p.m.
Landed in Lisbon and boarded a bus to Fatima. And, for anyone wondering, my plane watch was Ocean’s Eleven, a first-time watch for me (how is that possible?).
My first purchase in Portugal: a giant bottle of water
Mom’s first purchase in Portugal: Pringles and a KitKat bar
Same day - 3:16 p.m.
Took the bus to a couple of the monuments in Lisbon, ordered a latte, and got a rude awakening when I discovered it was hot. Not sure European coffee and I will get along. There’s a bridge here that looks exactly like the Golden Gate? Will have to investigate (ha).
Back on the bus and continuing to Fatima. And now, I sleep.
Fatima | same day - 7:00 p.m.
Unsettled by the lack of both washcloths and bar soap in the hotel. Needed to consult my mom’s friend to figure out how to go from bath to shower mode (is there better terminology for that?) in the bathroom.
Tuesday, October 8 - 12:01 a.m.
The immense convenience of Catholicism is that our rituals are standardized. We have a designated repertoire of prayers and a set rotation of daily readings. You can go to Mass anywhere in the world on a Sunday, and you will hear the exact same pattern of words—albeit in a different language—as someone in another hemisphere. (Go ahead, ask me to recite a prayer off the cuff in Latin. It’s a two-in-one party trick and party killer.)
9:30 p.m. rosary at the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima with well over a thousand people in attendance. According to the priest who led the rosary, there were six groups from the U.S., three from the Philippines, three from Brazil, one from Slovenia—and those are just the ones I can remember, on top of the individuals and families who came on their own. We said the prayers of the rosary in the languages of the groups represented, and, because of that universality, you always knew where you were in the pattern.
The rosary, with this late hour, also included a candlelight procession. The priests (about ten total) lit their candles on the altar, then did so for those attendees closest to the altar. I can’t do justice in words (or pictures, for that matter) to the sheer wonder of seeing hundreds upon hundreds of candles lit in mere minutes, and then to see those candles making their way through the dark.
Same day - 2:08 p.m.
Been moving too fast today to update! 7:30 a.m. breakfast, 8:45 a.m. bus load-up, 9:30 a.m. Mass, 10:15 a.m. free time, 11:30 a.m. historical site visit (the homes of the children who Mary appeared to in Fatima; the apparition site is the chapel where we had Mass in the morning and rosary last night), lunch and shopping at a mall (but really, the whole first floor is a store of souvenirs made in Portugal and the whole second floor is a cafeteria-style restaurant).
Currently sitting on the bus, about to begin the four-hour drive to Spain. Our first stop: Santiago de Compostela, ironically the end point of the Camino de Santiago.
Same day - 5:13 p.m.
Rest stop close to the Portugal-Spain border. My (non-coffee drinking) mom did not care one bit for my convenience store iced coffee.
Santiago de Compostela | same day - 10:46 p.m.
I’m at the UNESCO World Heritage Site! I’m at the tropical storm! I’m at the combination UNESCO World Heritage Site and tropical storm!
Wednesday, October 9 - 8:43 a.m.
Emergency departure from Santiago because of said storm (Hurricane Kirk before being downgraded!!!), so we sadly won’t get to see this city that is the culmination of the Camino. Like my mom said, we’ll just have to come back.
The silver lining: since we’re heading to our next stop (Burgos) half a day early, we’ll now spend part of tomorrow in Madrid instead of heading there just for our flight to Milan.
Currently on the bus and doing our daily rosary. I’m not in the habit of routine prayer like this, but I will readily admit there’s something immensely comforting about being surrounded by forty people that remind you of your grandparents, listening to them recite words you’ve known your whole life.
Burgos | same day - 4:24 p.m.
A couple noteworthy remarks have been uttered today. One lady in the tour group (83 people on the pilgrimage in total, split between two buses) saw me standing outside the rest stop convenience store and squealed, “Go back inside with your mom! I get nervous with you two, it reminds me of Taken!”
Our very nice tour guide is Spanish himself; he’s not big on rattling off history, but he’s happy to tell us about Spain’s current affairs. “Our current king is a fun guy. Very well-educated. He is a father. His daughters are well-educated. But he has some messes. His wife was…journalist? Very big scandal. And he has many girlfriends. He is…how you say? Horny. Horny, horny man.”
Thursday, October 10 - 10:19 a.m.
Leaving Burgos today and getting on a 3-hour bus ride to Madrid, where we’ll spend a couple hours before boarding a 3-hour flight from Madrid to Milan.
If your first thought is, “That’s a lot,” we’re on the same page.
Madrid | same day - 7:46 p.m.
The Madrid airport is the biggest, most winding airport I’ve ever been to, and my home airport is LAX.
Exhausted and grumpy, if I’m being real. Choosing not to write about it in the moment so I don’t sulk!
Highlight of the day: tapas, duh.
Just outside of Verona | Friday, October 11 - 6:38 p.m.
Landed in Milan at 11:40 p.m. last night, got to the hotel outside of Milan at 1:30 a.m. Zzzzzzzz.
Went to Mass and toured the Cathedral of Milan this morning, had free time for lunch, then got back on the bus for a four-hour drive to Venice. The stop-and-go traffic could give the 110 a run for its money. Currently at a rest stop and it was…nicer than some mall food courts I’ve been to???
Just outside of Venice | Saturday, October 12 - 12:01 a.m.
The end of today marks the halfway point of this trip (including travel days), so that’ll also be the end of this post! Next week’s post will be all about the second half of the pilgrimage in Italy.
Boa noite, buenas noches, and buona notte,
GJP
Reading: “Americans Have Not Turned Against Higher Ed” for The Chronicle of Higher Education (if you’re reading this, you probably already know that I work in higher ed comms, so expect to occasionally see articles and books that I’m reading in that area)
Watching: BBC’s 1995 Pride and Prejudice (I think it’s a better adaptation than the 2005 film, not sorry about it!)
Listening: Bewitched: Goddess Edition by Laufey
travel diaries i’ve been waiting for you!!