WYD pilgrim backpack

Each World Youth Day, as part of the package to attend, pilgrims get a backpack full of goodies. This year’s pack contains:
- A rain poncho
- A “heat sheet” that looks like a huge piece of foil. Many are using it so far to put on the ground as blankets.
- A hand-cranked flashlight
- Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
- Gospel of Luke in book form
- Sydney Airport coupon book
- Pilgrim festival and transport guides
- A small, washable WYD 08 tattoo
- A pen
- A bandana with the WYD logo
- A photo book of Australia, “The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit”
- A discount card for McDonald’s around downtown Sydney.
- A bottle of water

I may have missed some small items, but those are the major ones. I ended up getting a second pack as part of the media and it did not contain the McDonald's card, water or photo book but did have a little WYD koala clamp. The media center also provided us with liturgy guides.

Many pilgrims also ordered special WYD sleeping bags for the overnight campout for the vigil and closing Mass the 19th and 20th. Those bags – red with a blue inside – came to our rooms on Tuesday. They will definitely be needed as it has been quite cold at night. I have to admit that I'm a bit ticked about the sleeping bags. I thought the picture had a cool gold cross on the red bags but the ones we received are just solid colors -- albeit the shades of red and blue that is in a lot of WYD stuff. But there's no WYD identifier on it. It will still come in very handy on Saturday night, so I'll stop my whining there.

I’ll recap Tuesday (the official opening of World Youth Day) soon… I am in the process of shoring up that post as well as cropping a couple of pictures of Sydney and the opening Mass. I also hope to start getting the guest blogging rolling again.