On the Pope in Sydney

Today saw the end of World Youth Day (week, chuckle), celebrated with a stadium sized mass headlined by the Pope. It was a strange week, full of clapping, happiness, multiculturalism and... well, people. The city was at capacity and had the same vibe as an alternate universe Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, ironically something Sydney-siders are much more comfortable with.

There were a few iconic cases of preaching to the converted, none more so than the crowd gathered around two brothers with Bibles, standing on milk crates outside our Town Hall. I appreciate public enthusiasm as much as the next man, but surely they could see they weren't winning any new friends.

Much has been made of how spritly this new Pope is. In fact so much is being made of this I was almost expecting him to get all John Howard on us with regular morning walks. His enthusiasm for life was best demonstrated by his hoon around the northern CBD on Thursday afternoon. His Holiness impressed thousands of loyal followers by clocking up record times on the Sydney circuit. Unfortunately you can't please everyone and he managed to disappoint hundreds of thousands by racing past the onlookers at almost 60km/h.

Above is a 'before'. Below is a few seconds later. I was quite chuffed to see the little Australian flag and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.

A lot has been said to criticise this week's gathering, me, I will continue to argue that any event that brings hundreds of thousands of international guests to town is a good thing. These guys were uber happy-clappy, well mannered and not nearly as intrusive as originally feared. I didn't see much of the religious side of the event but I did have a good time meeting Spaniards, Mexicans, Argentians, Peruvians, Bolivians, Brazilians,  French, Lebanese, Tongans, Fijians, Filipinos, Dutch, Brits, Americans and all the rest.