Home Time! By Marc

Hallelujah! We are headed home! Finally! It's not that it's been a bad trip, it's been fantastic! I just think that it's time to head home.

This morning was going to be a slow morning but instead it ended up being fast. We woke up at 7 to go to breakfast after showering and dressing. Once at breakfast, I asked why it was so busy there. The guy replied "It's because the park opens at 9 this morning." That was a surprise!

We got back to the room and packed up really quickly and ended up being at the park at 9:05! Today was going to be a The Best of Disneyland Day! We were going to go to all the rides we thought were cool and do them again.

First, we went into the Disneyland part of Disneyland. (lol) we decided to go to the buzz lightyear laser game. This was awesome and I scored rank 3 space pilot. We then went to space mountain because it was awesome! Only mum and I went on that though. We then met up with dad and Ryan at the Matterhorn Bobsled roller coaster. This was definitely one of the most enjoyed rides of the park.

After that, we went to the area that we hadn't been to before. We went there because there was a roller coaster there that we hadn't tried. It ended up being awful. It went pretty fast but there were no really exciting bit and it was really short. Then got on the train which took us all the way around Disneyland.

After this we went to the Indiana Jones ride which we really enjoyed from yesterday. We ended up doing it twice more which made it our most visited ride of the trip. After that we went to the Big Thunder roller coaster because we enjoyed that one from yesterday as well. We thought about doing it twice but we didn't end up doing that.

The last thing we did in Disneyland proper was a shooting range. I did this twice and by the end of it I got pretty good. (btw, this was a shotgun shooting range from the wild west. Not archery) we then left the Disneyland area and went into the California adventure area.

The first thing we did in California adventure was a drawing lesson. This was to fill time but in the end was really awesome. One of the Disney artists came into a big room and showed about 40 people how to draw Minnie Mouse! It was all pretty cool.

Finally! The time you've all been waiting for! The Aladdin musical! This was absolutely amazing! The actors were fantastic, especially the genie! They even managed to write the whole play without Aboo! (Y'know, Aladdin's monkey?)

Finally, we went to the Toy Story cannon game. This was awesome but the lines were too long to do it twice. We thought about doing the big roller coaster again but decided against it. We left Disneyland for the last time and went back to the hotel. We had ice-creams and packed the car.

We got to the airport, checked on our baggage, had dinner and said goodbye to dad as he was leaving to San Francisco. We got through security with no problems and are now waiting at the gate for our boarding time in 1 hour.

I'll see you all soon! Cya!!!!


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Location:LAX Airport

Colours and Legoland

Hello people that I will be reconnected with soon! Today was our second last day over seas. I think that this is a good thing because even though we have had a blast, I think that it's time to go home.

Last night was pretty awesome. We went to a water lights show. This was at Disneyland and used fountains, lights and projectors to make an awesome lights show that depicted many famous scenes from Disney movies. It was very cool because of how they did it. The colours were very vibrant and used the colours used were very relevant to the music playing.

After breakfast, we left the resort to go to Legoland! We sat in the car for about 1 and a half hours but that was ok since I had my DS. Once we got there, we waited in line for a while before it opened and had a look at the map.

We spent the full day there at Lego land. There were a couple of really awesome rides and attraction there even though the whole park was aimed at a lower age group. In no particular order, these are the rides and attractions that I thought were awesome!

There was the Knights Tournament. This was a really epic ride that put you in a claw type thing that whirls and chucks you around when you went in. There were 5 levels of intensity. The ones I did were levels 3, 4 and 5. I think this ride was the best of the day.

Another couple of rides that I thought were cool - A roller coaster called "The Dragon", a driving school type thing where you get to drive a mini car and a the game room that they had set up. This was a MMO game called LEGO Universe and it was awesome.

We spent some time doing some LEGO Mindstorm and looking at the mini sets that they had built around the place. We then drove home and I am now looking forward to going back to Disneyland tomorrow.

DISNEYLAND!!!

This morning we got up and had our complimentary breakfast which was pretty good. We went back to our room and left for Disneyland at about 9:30.

First, we decided to go to the newest theme park out of the two. We first went and got a fastpass ticket to the night show that we are about to go and see. We then went to a jungle gym type thing that Ryan really enjoyed. We then went to Toy Story. This was really awesome. No more comment needed. It was just awesome.

THe next thing I enjoyed was an awesome roller coaster that had 1 loop-de-loop and heaps of turns and ups and downs. It was epic.

We then went to the other theme park in the resort and this was the better one. The first good thing we did was the Indiana Jones Adventure. It was an awesome roller-coaster type thing that we ended up doing twice.

We did 3 more roller-coasters - Space Mountain being the best. It was epic! There were extreme turns, motion deceiving lights and extreme speed! Finally we did the Buzz lightyear thingy. THis was sort of like laser tag except that you were in a car on a track and you shot at targets. It was awesome! SO AWESOME! ZEEERRRRG! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE! We are eternally grateful!

CYA!

To California and shopping.

Good Morning! At 5:00!!! We had to get to the airport this morning at 6:15 so we had to get in a cab at 5:30. We got to the airport and checked on our bags. After much stress as Mum didn't have a seat until 5 minutes before boarding, we got on the plane to LA.

Our plane had to make a brief stop at St Louis on the way so we had about an hour there to add to our flight time. Overall, our flight time was about 8 hours from DC to LA.

Once at the airport in LA, we got a car with a GPS and drove to our hotel. It has a great location. It's just across the road from Disneyland! How awesome is that!!??! We decided to go to the Mall for some shopping.

Once at the mall we went into two game shops and many clothes shops. I got heaps of shirts but no pants. We even found that in one of the game shops that we could get a Shiny Entei through and event! EPIC!

Spies and TRON

Sorry guys. This is just gonna be a lay-down of what we did today since the previous post got post got lost in the process of posting.

First, we got up, had breakfast and were out of the house by 9:15. We decided to go to the Spy Museum. Once there, Ryan and I went into a one hour activity called Operation: Spy. This was a hands-on, interactive experience that simulated what a real spy did. It was really cool. The next thing we did was go into the actual Museum. This was pretty interesting as it had heaps of information on everything to do with spies around the world.

After the museum, we went to have lunch and smoothies. We then walked down to the capitol to look around. It was pretty cool but we couldn't go in because it was Sunday and of course it was closed on Sunday.

Finally, we split up. Mum and Ryan went back to the Air and Space Museum while Dad and I went to go see the movie TRON. It was a pretty good movie and I enjoyed quite a bit. We went downstairs for dinner but none of us were hungry so I had a soup and Mum and Ryan shared a Fish N Chips.

Memorial and Space

This morning was strangely similar to last morning. I woke up, had a shower, got dressed and went down and had breakfast. This morning though, we found out how to make hot chocolates! I had a hot chocolate, froot loops, scrambled eggs, potatoes and some cranberry juice. It was yummy!

The first thing we did today was walk down to the Lincoln Memorial. We did, however, walk past the White House on the way. It was so surreal. It felt sort of like seeing the Mona Lisa. (See blog on the Louvre) There was a security guard standing on the roof so that was pretty funny. We walked down the streets throwing snowballs at one another on the way to the Memorial.

Once there, we went inside this Parthenon type thing which had a massive statue of Abe sitting in a chair. We had a look at the speeches which were engraved into the walls. That was all pretty cool. We then walked towards the Air and Space Smithsonian. We walked past a Korean War Memorial and the Washington Monument on the way.

Once inside, we first went into the Air section. This held heaps of cool models or actual planes and was pouring out with information. We got to design a war-plane, played on flight simulators and and an all-round ball. I then went on an ok but not fantastic flight simulation. We flew in the Wright Brothers plane on a sort of Questacon roller-coaster type thing. It was not that good.

Next, we went into the Planetarium for a show on Black Holes. It was really interesting and even had information on black holes that i did not yet know about. (This is not very often anymore because I watch heaps of videos on Black Holes) We then went to the food court for some lunch.

After the food court we went to the space area. This consisted of stuff on the planets in our Solar System, the Apollo program, the Space Race and much more. We even got to go inside a back-up Skylab! (American Space Station, get with the times!) there were some cool interactive activities and some really interesting facts. Overall, I enjoyed the space area more than the Air area. We left the Museum with 13000 steps under our feet and much more knowledge in our brains. We walked back to the hotel to reeeeelax.

We are now about to leave for dinner. L8R!

Snow and Natural History

Good morning! I woke up at 7am due to jet lag but we stayed in the hotel until about 8. Dad had to go to a meeting today so he left earlier. We had breakfast which was beautiful! It was an all-you-can-eat buffet.

We left at about 8:20 to head towards to Smithsonian Information Centre (or SIC... ...lol) This is also called the castle because it looks like a castle. On the way we found some snow so Ryan and I had a snowball fight. Ryan got some snow down my pants so the fight ended early to clear it out. We spent 20 minutes at the castle getting information from the lady at the desk. The Smithsonians didn't open till 10am so we had an hour to fill.

We first went to the Place where they print money. We took a 20 minute tour on it and it was awesome. There were piles of a million dollars just behind a window in front of me. SOOO COOOOL!

Next we went to the Washington Monument. We bought a ticket and headed up to the base of the obelisk. We went in at 11am and got to the top to look out. We could see all of DC and beyond form up there. Some small facts. The Monument was the highest structure in the world until the Eiffel Tower was built. (Which, btw, dwarfed it. The Eiffel tower is twice the height of the Monument) It is also the highest purely brick structure in the world to this day.

Finally, we went to the National Museum of Natural History. The first thing we did there was head straight to the cafe for morning tea! lol. Next we went to Ancient Mammals! This showed how small camels and horses were earlier. It was so fascinating especially the Ice Age part which had Mammoth skeletons and the like.

We then went into the African exhibit. This was pretty cool as it really opened my eyes to what life in Africa was like and how the people of Africa were taken as property!. I just couldn't believe it.

Next we went into the Ocean Room. This held heaps of cool stuff like Giant Squids, Whales and heaps of types of fish. There was a theatre that showed a deep sea exploration team going down the the bottom of the ocean. There were so many types of fish down there. Dad arrived back to DC from his meeting and met us there in the ocean room.

We then went into the dinosaur exhibit. Here we saw heaps of skeletons and fossils of dinosaurs from different periods facing each other off. There was a T-Rex and a Triceratops facing down and an Allosaurus and Stegosaurus staring daggers at each other. There were many other amazing things inside which was really cool. The T-Rex in there was even the model for the CGI one in "Night at the Museum"! How cool is that!

After the dinosaurs we went into the Ancient Ocean Exhibit. This took us back in time going from penguins and dolphins to ammonites and trilobites. This was cool as well because it showed how some of the early sea creatures would have hunted, eaten, breathed, swum and survived under the water.

Next, we went into the modern mammals room. This had every mammal you could think of. From Polar bears to desert mice. From Chimpanzees to Gazelles. This was interesting and I even got to see my long lost cousins! (I hope you know who I mean)

After that, we went into the human origins hall. This was focused on how early humans lived, survived, hunted and what they ate. It also focused on how scientists work out what roughly what happened in scenes from 1.8 million years before!

We then went upstairs to the 2nd floor. I didn't enjoy this as much as i would have liked to because I was tired. Basically, it involved the Geology and Insect Rooms. The geology one involved rocks, mining, planet formation, geodes, gems, earthquakes, volcanoes and a special exhibition on the Hope Diamond. The insect room included a butterfly house and many display cases full of a massive variety of insects.

We then walked home after a long day of excitement and bitter coldness.

The Trek to DC

Our day started at 7am when everyone woke up to have pre-breakfast and get out of the hotel. We walked down with our bags to the car where we started to drive to the airport. Once there we checked in our bags and went through security. We waited for about 2 hours before we could board our first of 2 flights today. Once we had boarded the captain announced that the flight would be about 8.5 hours long. Unfortunately there were no back-seat entertainment systems on this flight but we did manage.

We got into New York at about 3:20 local time. (9:20 Barcelona time.) We got in, got our bags and officially entered America. We went through security again and then sat down looking forward to the prospect of 5 hours before our next flight. We did however get to play in the snow just outside the airport which was heaps of fun. We waited for 5 hours playing DS and iPads while waiting. At about 8:40 we got on our 1 hour and 20 minute flight to DC. As soon as we were on the plane i fell asleep as it was about 3am. 18 hours after taking off from Spain, we got into DC, got our bags and got into a cab bound for our hotel. The hotel is nice. I get a big bed all to myself!

Carcasonne and Barcelona

Hello and welcome to the best read of your life. (just kidding) I'm a bit sick so I won't be writing a very long blog tonight.

First off we had an all you can eat breakfast with rubbish hot chocolate but nice croissants. We spent heaps of time there because we wanted to make our 13 euros worth it.

After breakfast we set out for the medieval part of Carcasonne. It looked so cool with all the walls and all. We first walked around the city a bit. It had heaps of shops selling the game Carcasonne and lots of figurines. We then went out onto the outer wall to look around and clamber a bit. Finally the castle had opened so we went there. The first thing on the tour was a bridge to get across to the castle itself. We then went up to then second floor to work our way down. We first watched a video about the history and reconstruction of the city. Then we went out onto the battlements and ramparts which was pretty cool even though it was raining. Finally we went into a museum and then out a gift shop.

After the castle we went down into the moat and played around. Then we went into the cathedral. I thought this was pretty boring but the glass widows were ok. Finally, we went for lunch and then a final run-around outside the inner wall but inside the outer wall.

After that, we got in the car bound for Barcelona. There were some cool sights to be seen and the trip lasted about 3.5 hours.

Once in barcelona we drove to the hotel and then spent ages looking for a parking spot. After looking for about 10 mins mum and dad sent us inside to watch TV while they found the spot.

We went out for dinner and then went back home to go to bed.

The next day we woke up at 8.15 am. We stayed in our rooms till 9 and then went out for breakfast. It was ok but we are still yet to find a good French patisserie in another country.

We then went on the tram to the big building with funny colored windows which name I cannot remember. We then walked past the monument which sort of looked like the colluseum. Finally we arrived at the sagrada fimilia. This has been under construction for over 150 years!! The inside and outside were spectacular even though it was unfinished. We had an audio guide that was really interesting as well.

We then walked past some more houses built by Gaudi which looked pretty cool. We walked for an hour more around Barcelona before arriving back to the hotel at about 3. We hung out downstairs for a while while the maid cleaned our room. We then went for a swim in a heated pool which was pretty cool.

I watched TV for a while and then we went out to dinner which consisted of many little dishes called Tapes. They included; cuttlefish, chorizos, chicken, potato, meat bomb and some bread. It was DLish!


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Location:Barcelona

Walkies and Nice. Then off to Carcasonne

Bonjorno! Sorry for not being able to blog last night. Dad got us lost so we didn't get home till 10 pm. Sprag. (new insult. Yes, uncle guy, son of a beiber already got old)

Yesterday we were meant to check out of the Convent at 10 am or something. But since it was Sunday we didn't have to. We just left our bags in the room and decided to go for a walk. (not that it was a group decision or anything.) First, we decided to got to the big monument or 'the typewriter' or 'the wedding cake' as dad likes to call them. It was pretty cool and Ryan and I played real-life mario kart on the way. (P.S. That's trademarked and it doesn't work.

Next, we went to the oldest bridge in Rome just cause. It was pretty boring. It really is just a bridge. It was built in 62 BC though so that was ok. We then decided to walk to a cool square that dad wanted to go to. Once there we saw a big market, some fountains, some caffes and some guitarist playing some random song. We had a cuppa and left.

On the way to our next destination we saw a gelateria. Mum and dad said that we wouldn't get some until after lunch because there will be heaps. We went to have lunch and afterwards we looked for a gelateria. Wa there one? No. Waaaaah!

We went to the airport and after a massively long wait, we got on a plane. We spent about 5 times as long in the airport than in the airplane. We got out at Nice and caught a cab to our hotel. We checked in and went out for dinner. After dinner we got lost. That being the reason why I called dad a sprag earlier.

In the morning we got up, had brekky and them dad went to FNAC while mum, Ryan and I stayed at the hotel. We checked out and went for a walk. Dad decided it would be nice to get us lost again. Although this time, it was in the rain. Bleeeeccccchhhhhh! Yucccccckkkkkky! We walked around for a bit but then finally got to our destination. We ate lunch and had gelato. (finally).

Finally we went and hired a car, went back to the hotel to get out bags and started to drive to Nice. Since then we've had dinner. That's it. Later.

Uncle Guy. This is a message to you. Plz stop using 'Son of a Bieber' and use 'Sprag' instead. It's cooler. Marc, out.


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Location:France

Best to Worsts. (Hotels)

Paris - Two separate room and brilliant breakfast.
Kyoto
Shibuya
Rome
Venice
Florence
Nice
Ueno
Train
Kobe - had to all sleep in same bed.


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Location:France

Vatican

Bonjorno! This morning we had breakfast. Duuuuuuhhhhh! It was just usual breakfast. Again. I love gelato! Wahoo!

Anyway, I'm pretty tired right now so I'm not gonna write a massively huge blog. First, we went to the Vatican city by cab. We got there waaaayyy to early so we just played DS. Our time for our tour had come. We went in and first we went through the museum of the Vatican reeeaaally slowly. We were led by this really bad, horrible, stinky guide (read Ryan's blog to find out more). There was some cool old stuff inside but it wasn't that interesting because of our bad guide. Then we went into the Sistern chapel. It was really crowded in there. Once we had left the chapel we went into the crypt and the basilica. It's the largest in the world dontcha know!

We then had lunch and gelati. Finally, we went to the Castel of Saint Angelo. It was pretty cool but not the best castle I'd ever been to. We then caught a cab home.


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(I forgot which day it was) - Gladiator!

Good Morning! We woke up nice and late this morning because breakfast was being served later than usual. It was ok. The breakfast. The waking up of the late was of the fantastic measures! Weird grammar. That's me. Oh yeah. Ryan here. Just kidding. Brawhahaha!

Ok, down to business. First, we went to the Colosseum. This was pretty cool because gladiators used to fight there! Awesome! There was a really badly set up audio guide because it told us to go to certain places that were blocked off. It so decayed! It really is awesome though. Yeah. Awesome. Weird grammar. Gelato. Cool!

Next we went to the Roman Forum which was cool because it was so old. There were heaps of ruins and columns and stuff. There were even Terracotta Warriors on display! We then went to the Palatine Hill next door. It had Nero, Flavian and Augustus' houses in it! That was cool as well!

By now I think you have gathered that I think old stuff is cool. That means Rome is cool. The ruins. Except Dad doesn't like them. Weird grammar. Oh yeah. We then caught a cab to the Pantheon. (BTW. the cabs in Rome are crazy. Well, driving in Rome is crazy. You gotta dodge people every 2 metres!) Basically the only cool thing about this place is the name because it sounds like the Parthenon. Inside is some tombs a nativity scene cause it's Christmas and some paintings. That's it! We then had lunch which was sooooo nice. Then we got really under-priced gelatos! 3 flavours for 2.80! I had Pineapple, Cookies and Cream and Coconut.

Then went to the Trevi Fountain. We got to throw money in over our backs which was really cool. We saw these blob things that you splat and then they reform. We didn't get any there though. (We got some later) We then went to the Spanish Steps which is weird. I think they should be called the Spanish Steps of Rome. If you say to someone that you went to the Spanish Steps they're gonna ask you how Spain was! We bought the blob things there.

Second lastly, we decided to walk along the River until we got to the castle. (No, they are not actually called 'The River' and 'The Castle'. I just can't remember their names). This took a while but it was fun anyway. Finally, we caught a really crazy cab to the Circus Maximus. (BTW, it's not a circus. It's a horse race track. Figure that out!) It was pretty boring. Just a patch of grass and some not so big rocks. We then walked back home.

Falling and Rome

This morning I woke up at about 7:30. This was nice because yesterday we woke up reeeeeaaaally early! About 7:15 to be exact. We had breakfast and took our bags down to the lobby so we could check out. We left them in a little room and left the building.

First, we went to the Accademia which was ok. There were lots of sculptures and paintings but the really cool thing was the museum of musical instruments. There were harpsichords, violins, violas, guitars, pianos and more! There was even a bowl that made music! We left that room and went further in to see the sculpture of David by Michelangelo. It was pretty cool because it was so precise.

After the Accademia we decided to go to Pisa. This was a late decision so we didn't have train tickets or anything. So we just rock up at the station and go "Hey! You! Ticket machine! You got any tickets for Pisa? Good! Give us!
And then we got on the train. The train was about 1.25 hours long. That gave me time to play DS. Once at Pisa we caught a cab to the leaning tower. We bought tickets and started to climb. It's really cool because you can really feel that you are leaning. We got to the top and said "Hi Pisa!" and went back down. We went back to the station to have lunch and then caught a train back to Florence.

Once back in Florence, we walked back to the hotel. However, there was this massive parade going on so we couldn't get through. In the end we said "Arbabaaaahhhh!" and barreled our way across the road. We got some gelato again (I heart gelato) and walked back to the hotel. We picked up our bags and walked back to the station. We then got on our train and left for Rome.

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Location:Train to Rome

Day 21 - Art and Heights.

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This morning we got up extra early so we could see 1500 pieces of artwork! I could not see the point in this and I was very huffed. 1500 paintings! Too many! 1500 too many from my point of view! Anyway, we went downstairs so we could have breakfast. The croissants were really bad but the bread was ok and the hot chocolate was lovely.

Once we left the hotel we walked to the art gallery. I brought my DS so I wouldn't be bored. I didn't see many paintings but I did play a lot of DS. After the art gallery we walked to the cathedral. This had the biggest brick dome in the world! We even get to climb it! 463 steps! That's not over the top at all! Never! I would never even think of that! The view from up there was pretty amazing though so it was worth it. The way down was horrible though. For most of the way down we had to use the same thin stairs as the people going up! Squishy!

After we had gotten out, we went back to the hotel and then out to lunch. We had nice sandwiches off a guy with a cart on the street. Dad really liked his. After that we had more gelato!!! Soooooooooo goooood! I heart gelato! After that Mum, Dad and Ryan went to the old Florence wall but I didn't want to so I stayed at the hotel.

For dinner I had a brilliant ravioli with butter but I also had some of Dad's awesome steak. It was soooooooooo goooood! We tipped the guy $20! Yeah! That good! After dinner we went for more gelato. I really heart gelato!
YUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYY! G'Night!

Day 20 - Walkies and Florence

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This morning I woke up a bit early bit I didn't tell anyone so ssshhhhhh! It was all dark so I stayed quiet! Once everyone else had woken up, I got up and had a shower. We had a nice breakfast. I had a chocolate filled pastry with another hot chocolate.

After breakfast we went to the Ghetto. This place is a place where the Jews hid from Napoleon and Hitler. It is very strategic and easily defended. There are only two entrances and they are both bridges. There are also many high buildings with windows for firing upon intruders.

After that we went back to the Monastery to check out and leave our bags in the disposal. We then went to Accademia! This was a reeeeeaaaally boring art gallery. It had heaps of catholic paintings and statues that all looked the same and frankly, they weren't very good. After that we went to the Museum of Leonardo Da Vinci! This was really cool because people had made the machines from his drawings. They were also hands-on so we could make them work! There were flying machines, weapons, wheels and more!

Finally, we went on a travel. We went in the general direction of the train station but we made many side trips. On the way we had Pizza and meringues. They were soooooooooo good! Once at the station we took a boat back to the monastery to get our bags. We then went back to the train station and waited for out train.

Once the train got there we boarded and went to our seats. We had seat numbers 32, 33, 36 and 38. However, number thirty eight did not exist. It simply was not there. We thought it was something like Harry Potter - Platform Nine and three quarters! We sat down in vaguely the right place so it was all good. The trip took about 2 hours to get to Florence.

Once there we walked to our hotel. On the way there were so many Gelato shops! I am officially in love with Gelato. It is soooooooooo yummy! We walked into our hotel, dumped our bags and left again. We decided to walk towards the fancy bridge with shops on it. On the way we bought gelato and then got to the bridge. It was pretty much the same as the Rialto Bridge in Venice. We went back home, had dinner and went to bed.

P.S I have no idea about what is going on in the cricket at the moment. If you could post the fixtures in comments that would be great!

Grazie! Ciao!

Day 19 - Glass and Bridges

Bonjourno! This morning we woke up pretty late - 7:40! Then of course, Dad us out of the door so we were out by 8:15! We had a nice breakfast but we also learnt something from it. We can by French food in Japan, France, Australia and USA but NOT Italy. We must buy Italian breakfasts here. Bread. Salami. Prego.

After breakfast we went to to boat station so we could go to another island called Murano. This island is famous for its glass-blowing! Once we got there we went to a little place that sold Fanta. But not just any Fanta, Grapefruit Fanta! It was soooo goooood! Anyway, we then had a little look around for this place where we could see glass being blown. Of course, on the way there were heaps of shops so there was ultimate window shopping going on. We had been given 30 Euros from dad for souvenirs. We got to this place that had a guy making stuff. It was cool but not that amazing. I bought a dolphin made of glass from him though. We then went to another place but this guy was was a grand master! Our favourite thing that he made was a horse. The had a blob, then he pulled out the head, then the mane, then the legs, then the tail and voila! There was a horse!!! AMAZING!!!!

We decided to go home with our loot to drop it off. After that we went to the Rialto Bridge. This is a bridge that has shops on it. It was also the only bridge over the grand canal for centuries. After that we took a boat to a church mum had seen earlier that had a cool dome. It also had some cool statues on the inside. We left and went on a really crowded boat back home. On the way we had dinner. I had Gnocchi with seafood. Best Gnocchi ever. If you ever want Gnocchi, come to Venice. We then had dessert - Gelato of course. I had Nougat flavour. It was so good! Finally we walked home.

G'Night!

Day 18 - Royal Venetian Exploration

"Yawn... Oh! I'm on a train! Hello!!!"
(Ryan's first words this morning)

This morning we woke up at about 6:30 because of the moving train and all. We woke up and had a bit of a realisation that we were sleeping on a train!We were promised breakfast but it never came so we were lucky to have a croissant handy. Once in Venice we went to a little food court and bought more breakfast/morning tea.

Once out of the station we walked to our place of rest. A Monastery! Monastery! I couldn't believe it! (My anticipation was that we would be sleeping on the cold, stone floor of a church and being forced to wear robes while chanting mindlessly) I was pleasantly surprised. It looks just like a hotel! Except for all the monks and priests walking around. We have a nice big room with four beds, a bathroom, power and lots of cupboards. Nothing like what I though it would be!

After dumping our bags and exploring the room we left to explore Venice. Our first stop would be St Mark's Square! We decided to take a boat cause, y'know, it's Venice. The boat took us all the way round the island instead of going the through the canals which was pretty disappointing. We did get to see the outside though. Once at St Marks square we saw all the cool stuff like towers, the palace and restaurants. We decided to go to have some lunch first so we went to look for a Pizza restaurant. We found one and I had a lovely seafood pizza.

After lunch we went for a look around the Doge's palace. It was awesome. On the first floor there were pillars with carvings on them. 41 of them! On the second floor, the main attractions were the armoury and the prison. In the armoury there were some awesome sets of armour, swords, lances, halberds, spears, pikes, horse bards, crossbows, bolts, claymores, maces, axes, guns, bullets, torture devices and knives. There were so many different styles of each thing. I was in gloriousnous!

After that we left St Mark's square and went on a walk up the main canal. We saw churches museums, restaurants and more in little over half an hour! We then ran into this gondolier who just happened to be free. It was a nice time of night so we decided to go on a gondola ride! It was fantastic! The water, the skill of the driver and mostly seeing how Venice was set up.

After the gondola we went to a boat station and left to find "The best gelato place in Venice". This was an epic fail. Once there we walked up and down so many streets it's not funny! Ryan was getting sick of it so we caught a boat home. We are going to go out to dinner soon and hopefully have some gelato for dessert! Good Night!

Day 17 - Goodbye Paris and Hello Venice!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Today was a bit of a slow start. We woke up at 7:15 and I just stayed in bed. I had a shower at about 8:00 which was wonderful. We had breakfast not long afterwards but dad was still asleep (Jealous!) we then relaxed for another hour or so while Mum packed bags for the trip to Venice.

After Mum had finished packing we put our bags in the hotel locker and left for Montmartre. We had to take two trains on the way which was silly because we had to go in a giant V to get there. Once there we walked to the base of the mountain and saw that there were two choices for us. 1: walk up 175 steps to the top of the mountain and; 2: take a cool car Thingy on tracks to the top requiring no effort at all. What did we choose? 1 of course! So there we were, trudging up the steps at an alarmingly slow rate while Ryan raced up to the top and waited 10 minutes for us to get up there! Once up at the top, we had a look out to the lovely view of Paris. Too bad the whole city was foggy! That was a bit of a disappointment so we went inside the church. There was a service going on at the time so we had to be really quiet. There was absolute silence... ...then a baby started bawling its eyes out and broke the tension. There were some cool statues and mosaics in the church but that was about it.

After Montmartre we went to a Macers for lunch. (So much for going the whole trip without Macers!) this was because everything was closed since it was the 1st of January. Afterwards we went to Papa's for a little hang out.

We said goodbye and left to go and book a taxi at the hotel. After that we went and met my Dad's second cousins Nicolas and Anne-Flore. We had hot chocolates and talked until about 5:30. We then picked up our bags and caught our taxi to the train station.

We got there at about 7:00pm and waited there for about 1 hour before boarding. This train is awesome! There are four beds, cup holders, heaps of lights and heaps of hidden baggage space. Thomas, you would love it here!

Anyway, we are gonna be here on the train for another 12 hours so G'night!