This year, I had a different Maundy Thursday.

Traditionally, me and my family have a Bisita Iglesia thru 14 churches around the metropolis. We've been doing this as far as I can remember. Religiously (no pun intended) for the past 20+ years.

This year, we did something different.

My mom had an idea of going out-of-town to a grotto in Quezon.

Actually, up until Holy Wednesday I wasn't exactly sure where we were going. I just knew it was out of town. And that my mom asked me to invite a friend of mine to join us.

I told her to send her a message and ask her in my stead since I was doing a lot of stuff at the office. And she did, and Rich said yes. Actually, Rich said her aunt (Tita Jaec) agreed to lend us her car for the trip. Yahooey!!!

So I left the condo wednesday night (midnight actually) and went home to prepare for the trip. I was so in a hurry I forgot to bring clothes from the condo (I have most if not all my clothes at the condo already).

I was told we would be leaving at 5am Thursday. I did some stuff before sleeping and ended up going to bed at 3am.

My mom woke me up at 5am and we eventually left at around 6am. They wanted to take the LRT to the bus station but I told them it was probably closed for maintenance, since the LRT usually takes advantage of the Holy Week for this stuff. They said it was open, and since I was their child I had no power and choice on the matter.

The LRT was closed. We took a cab.

We got to Quezon at before lunch time. We had merienda at Rich's house. Tita prepared a great meal.

We then went to the Grotto (which was still about an hour from their house).

We had lunch then started the walk to the Grotto.

My mom, dad and Rich got tired quickly during the climb to the top (while praying the stations of the cross). Probably because of the heat and lack of physical activity. Their knees were literally shaking when we finished. Thanks to OCMI, I had a lot of practice and exercise.

We then went to the town of Lucban to buy some pasalubong and have halo-halo. Actually I didn't have halo-halo. I don't really like it. I had a burger and gulaman.

After that, we went to Rich's place, had dinner and went home.

It's the first time I've spent Maundy Thursday outside of the Bisita Iglesia tradition we had in the past.

It was a good change.

Maybe next year, we'll do something different again.

Maybe…

Next year…