The question you gotta ask yourself...

Was it worth it?  You tell me...

So, yesterday, I did a little more research about the whole ordeal.  Turns out that it has pagan origins, not unlike other holidays we have, like Easter and Christmas, so I was thinking that I don't want to stand around at 6 in the morning listening to some hippy-dippy music about suns and stars, or Mother Earth and tree hugging. I had enough curiosity to set an alarm anyways.

I woke up before my alarm, paranoid that I'd miss it, and I could hear the rain.  Would anybody show up to go with me?  Even if no one did, would I still go by myself?  I waited for ten minutes.  Right on time, three other people showed up: A French guy, a French girl, and a guy from Denmark.  We were all dressed up for the rain and toting umbrellas.  We started walking towards the bridge, and I was astounded by the number of young people parading around in their night-clubbing clothes (which means, not very warm or very practical for the weather).

Nice morning for a stroll, right?

Benedicte and Xavier (pronounce zah-vee-yay, so very French!)

I think this is more people on the streets than normal at 5 o'clock in the morning!

Benedicte and Emil just had to stop for coffee on the way.  Cafe's were open for this event!

Magdelen College and the temporarily empty street beyond.

 We arrive at Magdelen Tower and make ourselves comfortable in the back row, determined not to get shoved or moved if at all possible.  Despite the rain, we knew it was going to get crowded!

The Brave Crew: Emile, Benedicte, and Xavier

Just for the record, I don't think anyone's allowed to look good in a photo taken at 5 in the morning!

The heavily guarded bridge to prevent bridge jumping.

Magdelen Tower.  At the top is where the choir would stand and sing.  Still too early to expect anything...

Within ten-fifteen minutes of standing around, the crowds started gathering.  What made it even more tricky was the rain.  Everyone had their own umbrella, which meant everyone took up more space.  And people zig-zagging through the crowds were getting poked by umbrellas, and umbrellas were getting jerked around as well.  It's amazing how many non-morning people show up to an event like this.

You can start to see people standing around on top!  Still, no singing for at least another fifteen minutes.... Time for people watching...

 The singing started exactly at 6am.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear them singing a song of dedication to God, and they even had a prayer.  They sang another song, and then we dispersed.  I took a video of the singing, until I got jostled around by people too much.  I moved and then I couldn't see the tower, so I people-filmed.  People are too funny and too ridiculous.

The languages you hear during this video is actually English.  I have a video of the actual singing, but it wasn't downloading, so I'll try tomorrow.  But you can see the size of the crowd and people pushing their way through it.  Quite chaotic.  Quite hilarious.

During the singing, I snapped a shot of the "bobbies" guarding the bridge.

You can sort of see the firefighters standing along the river waiting to apprehend the  bridge jumpers- if there were any.  I didn't wait to see if anyone would jump.  I was wet, cold, and ready to head back!

Unfortunately, this is the only picture that turned out after we started heading back.  There are Moorish dancers carrying a steer head on a pole.  I think it's to lead the way to the Bridge of Sighs where they do their moorish dances.  I did not follow.

Instead, I decided to use this coupon I received while standing  at  Magdelen Tower.

YAY FREE HOT CHOCOLATE!

So, I head back to the room, thinking I would go back to sleep.  Instead, I was wide awake.  At 6:45 in the morning!  So I made breakfast, cleaned up after breakfast, went grocery shopping, did laundry, had lunch, and did some computer work.  All before 2:30.  Feeling a little tired, I rewarded myself with a nap until 4:30.  I  felt super productive!
So was it all worth it?  Yes, I would say it was.  How many people can say they started off the month with so much productivity?  Too bad it'll all go downhill from here :-)   We'll just see.  Hope you all had a nice May Day, and may the summer months bring much productivity to us all!
Blessings!
-E