“The visit from 2 – 6 August is longer than originally expected and covers almost the entire week of the big Catholic rally that St. John Paul II inaugurated to try to invigorate young people in their faith,” according to euronews.
And for anyone planning to be around Lisbon that fine week of August: that “rally” — Jornada Mundial da Juventude, or World Youth Day — is expected to bring around 1.2 million people into the city. Religious people. Young religious people.
Lisbon the city has around 550,000 residents, fyi. Lisbon district — which includes Sintra, Cascais, Vila Franca de Xira, and 13 other municipalities — has around 2.2 million inhabitants.
We have no doubt that the city’s various construction projects, including on the metro and on the drainage system, and the fact that the city center’s main transportation arteries appear to be mostly under construction too, will not make Lisbon during that week a living hell.
