Dun da da dah dah dun dun dahhhh....Disneyland

Dun da da dah dah dun dun dahhhh!

I am a super hero and I am here to tell you about Disneyland!

(He he he...)

Hi this is Emilia and we went to Disneyland while we were in Hong Kong.

The first ride that we went on was called Space Mountain. If you ever go to Disneyland you HAVE to go on Space Mountain. It is a roller coaster that when it starts going it goes into pitch black where you can't see anything. All of a sudden there are some flashing lights but still you can't see anything. In fact, you can't see anything for the whole ride. Then you start going up a steep hill and when you get to the top of the hill you can see lots of stars and planets, then suddenly - zooooom - you zip around the place and there are sudden turns and drops. The first time on it I was screaming. We actually went on Space Mountain six times because it was one of the only non-babyish rides.

Another one of my favorite rides was driving the Disney cars. It was pretty fun as I sat next to mom in a Disney car driving around the tracks. Luckily (because I'm a crazy driver) there were special things attached to the car and track that stopped the car from going off the tracks.

We also went to two shows. My favorite one, Encounters with Stitch, was really fun because Stitch picked me to tell a little about myself in front of absolutely everybody. He asked a few things like what my name was and how old I was. Then he asked where I was from and when I said Canada he said "Canada, Canada, yippee!! Canada... huh? ... Never heard of Canada". That made me laugh into the microphone which sounded quite awkward! The other show was Lion King and it was fascinating. It was well thought out and my favorite character was a flying bird.

I thought Disneyland was quite the experience and if I ever have the chance to go again I would.

Bye, Emilia

Two T's (one for Trek and one for Tigers)

Hello everyone!
We are in Chiang Mai Thailand (pronounced Chang My.) Yesterday we came back from a three day trek. The activities we did are visiting a longneck tribe, elephant riding, white water rafting, hiking in the mountains and alongside a river, and bamboo rafting!!! My favorite part was white water rafting because you get splashed a lot and it's really fun when you go down gigantic rapids!!!!!! Me and Tias didn't paddle though, we just HELD ON for our lives!!!!!!!!!! We couldn't bring our camera white water rafting or bamboo rafting so we have no photos of that.

About 14 years of 'stretching' to go

Time for a swim

Tiger part now.
Before we left for our trek we went to the Tiger Kingdom. It is where visitors/tourists can pat tigers. Me and Mattias, since we are kids, were only allowed to pat the smallest tigers. Not the small ones, not the medium ones, not the largest but only the smallest. It was very cool. We figured out that the tigers' black fur, like cheetas, is softer than the tawny fur around the stripes.

On the prowl

Being in Chiang Mai has been really awesomely cool.

From,
 Emilia

SNOW!!!

Hi everyone. We just arrived in Laos the day before yesterday. While we were coming over the pass to get to Dien Bien Phu it snowed!

About the snow - we were right on time to see the snow because the day it snowed was the day we left. Oh, I forgot to tell you it snowed in Vietnam in a town called Sapa. Everyone was outside taking photos of the snow. All of the locals were really excited because it was only the second time in TEN YEARS that it had snowed!!!!!!!!!

We barely made it over the snowy, slippery pass because no one had winter tires so Dad and some other men had to get out of the bus to push. When we started to go down the pass we all yelled at the driver to go into first gear and not use the brakes. It was really funny.

The snow day wasn’t anything compared to the next day when we crossed into Laos on the way to Muang Khua. On that day it was MUDDY! Everyone on the bus except for me, Mattias, and a British woman had to get off to push and pull the bus. Once we even had to get a four wheel drive to pull us out. We crossed a few rivers but not on a bridge. We drove straight through the rushing waters and once it came to the top of the wheels. It was scary. We all made it with all our luggage and everyone was happy but pretty muddy.

Hmmmm???

Saved!

Daddy's feet!

Tug - o - war with a bus

From Muang Kha we took a boat to where we are right now. We are in Muang Ngoi Neua.

Hue

Hi! We're in Hue. Here is how to pronounce it; hway. Anyway, yesterday we went to the Citadel, which is an old palace. It was stopped being used in 1945 and is very intriguing to go to. It is definitely a must do if you come here! Yesterday was our arrival day but we arrived in the morning so we had lots of time for the Citadel. It was a very traditional palace for Vietnam.

Much of the palace is in ruins after the damage of war.

Today was a very relaxing day. First we did math which was really fun because Dad and I did a math game. Then we got a little peckish for lunch so we went out and got Vietnamese lunch. Mine was really good and was something I hadn't had for a long time - cauliflower!  From lunch we had a taxi take us to a natural hot spring. The pool wasn't too natural because they had made the pool but it was still geothermal (heated by the earth). Mattias and I also paid to go into the swimming pool, but was fun but it was really silly that we couldn't dive because it was 2.2 m deep. Shivering, Tias and I got into the taxi with mom and dad to go back to the hotel.

Chillin' in the hotspring

Tomorrow we are going to see tombs and pagodas and then fly to Hanoi in northern Vietman.

Khai Dinh Tomb - a mix of Vietnamese and European influence

Bye, Emilia

Elee-phants!

Hi,

Three days ago it was my birthday. I'm 8.  For my birthday we went elephant riding at an elephant rehabilitation centre. First, we helped bathe the elephants. We were on top of the elephant bareback scrubbing it down with brushes.  I love the feel of their thick leathery, rubbery, bumpy skin. But I don't like their thin wirey hair.

Then we rode the elephant.  My elephant was named Sri Nuan. Most of the ride we had to ride on the benches on our two elephants, but for a bit near the end Tias and I got to ride on the neck. Then we fed the elephants. We fed them bananas and I patted their trunks many times. Then we went back to the hotel and to my surprise, there was chocolate cake and flowers waiting for me, Mom, Dad and Tias. It was an awesome birthday.

Emilia

B Power

Hello!
We are in Bangkok, Thailand at the moment. We flew in yesterday on an eleven hour flight, repeat, eleven hour flight. It was an overnight plane on Thai Airways. Thai Airways is a really nice airway.

First B part - Bangkok
Today since I was so tired from our flight, I slept until 11:30am. Then we had breakfast and headed out. We took a tuk tuk to the river pier to take the ferry across. Across the river, we went to see the Temple of Dawn. At the Temple of Dawn we went up the outside of the tower. We went up the biggest one. The Temple of Dawn is a series of temples. The steps were really really steep so I had to climb them like a ladder. Each step was about one foot high. After that we took the ferry back to the other side and walked to see the Reclining Buddah. The reclining buddah is very, very, very, very big. It's huge, Ginourmous! The pupil was about the size of my head and the nose was as big as my body stretched out with my arms above my head and on tip toes. It was pretty beautiful. Then we explored a bit and took a tuk tuk back.

Photo by Emilia

Photo by Emilia

Tuk tuks are little taxi things that have three wheels. They're crazy. They are crazy because they take so sharp corners they almost tip right over. They are meant to take three people, driver and two passengers that are in the back but we managed to fit 5. The four of us squished in the back and the driver in the front.

The proof is in the side mirrors

Second B part - Birthday
My birthday is coming up in 2 weeks! I'll be turning 8 while we are still in Thailand. We will be on an island in Thailand called Koh Chang and will probably go elephant riding NEAR the beach. I am very excited.

Bye,
From Emilia

Sunny Christmastime

Hi everyone. Merry belated Christmas. We were on Zanzibar, which is an island off the coast of Tanzania, for Christmas. For Christmas day we were on the beach. We started the day by waking up and looking at all our presents. I got a jingle dress, an Eqyptian bookmark, a ruler with heiroglyphics on it, some turkish delight, a Croation doll, a Greek doll and a Turkish doll, a blue eye bracelet, one special african hair braiding, and Santa signed us up for swimming with the dolphins in the wild.

My favorite was swimming with the dolphins. The closest I got to one was probably about one metre. I felt like diving down and touching it, but something told me “no”. The way you see them is to look under water with your mask and you see them. To get into the water near them you have to jump off your moving boat while there are other moving boats around. You can’t hesitate. We also saw one baby dolphin with its mom, it was really cute.

After we opened our presents we went for a big buffet breakfast. There were even cream puffs and brownies...  I especially liked when daddy thought the cream puffs were plain and he put chocolate sauce on his. He bit in to it and went “ wow!”  After breakfast we went to the beach for the day. About lunch time, Mattias and I got hungry (of course) so we got some food from the beach bbq and cokes.  After that, Me and Daddy built a sand man, (not a snow man) it was big but had to be lying down so he wouldn’t collapse. Later, me, mom, daddy and Thias all went for a long swim. The Indian Ocean is so warm, you actually feel like you are in a bath tub!

At dinner time, we went to a beach buffet dinner. It was a really really yummy dinner, and for dessert there was Christmas cake and fruit tarts. 

For presents from the family, since there were no shops around, we decided to make gift certificates. Daddy is getting a new coffee press mug since his old one got left behind... Mattias is getting a soccer ball, Mommy is getting a new swimsuit, and I am getting a long skirt.

On Christmas we also picked a fresh coconut that was very yummy. My favourite part of Christmas day was present opening from under the drawn Christmas tree.

Bye for now, Emilia

Snorkeling in the great Red Sea

We are in Dahab on the coast of the Red Sea in Egypt. We went snorkeling in the best snorkeling area I have ever done. The first day we just went outside the Penquin Hotel, where we are staying. We discovered that day that my snorkel had too big of a hole and we had to dump it. It was still pretty cool but I didn't see many fish at all. Yesterday, we shared snorkels at the Lighthouse snorkel area. It was the coolest snorkel area I've ever seen. I went out for the first time, saw a few fish and then my mask started leaking. So we went in to the beach area. For the second time I went snorkeling in the lighthouse, we fixed my mask and then I could go snorkeling with my Mom. I went out on her back to where it got really pretty. We saw a few fish, I got too excited and breathed with my nose a bit so my mask started leaking again and we had to go in. Darn it!

The third day, today, we bought a new snorkel for me and then the snorkel started filling up because the waves were so big. We were at the area called the Islands, which were only amazing if you went really far out. After the Islands, we met a friend, Nathan, who we had met in Olympos, Turkey and went for milkshakes. I had a pineapple vanilla thick shake, that had a lot of really yummy ice cream in it, which is probably rare here. This afternoon the water got calmer and I really wanted to try snorkeling again because I was getting anxious to see some of the cool fish. I went out on Dad's back and then I didn't panic, I was totally calm and guess what? I saw Indian lion fish, pencil fish, a puffer fish puffed out, a really cool blue fish with purple spots and a purple tail and a yellow face, and I saw two bright yellow fish with colorful stripes on their tail. I finally did it. Yahoo, yippee kayaye!

I can't wait until tomorrow to check out another really famous site named the eel garden. It is supposed to be really cool.

That's it for now, bye,
Emilia

ps. there is a really nice waterfront walk path that I like to walk barefoot on.

TD and P of C

Hello everybody, sorry I haven't blogged for a while.  While we were in Istanbul, we went to a TURKISH DANCE. At the dance there were belly dancers and men dancers and there were traditional dancers. There was a bit of Turkish jazz. My favorite was in second part. It was a solo belly dance and she had little jingle things on her dress so when she moved she jingled.  The dance was in an 500 year old Hamam (Turkish bath) that was converted in 1986 to a theatre. There wasn't a big stage. You sat in regular chairs that went in a semi circle and the stage didn't go up high. At the intermission they were giving away Turkish Delight and drinks.

In Egypt, where we are now, it is very hot and we are in Cairo. Today we went to see the PYRAMIDS OF CAIRO. The ones still standing and full, in total there were 10. When we went into a pyramid that was very small, Mom, Mattias and Dad had to duck, but I didn't- hee hee hee hee heee ha ha ha.  We saw the Sphynx and the day we are flying out in 2 weeks we are going to see Pharaoh  Tutankhamen's famous mask at the museum of Egypt.

Hamam (Turkish Bath)

We are in Amasya, Turkey. We arrived two days ago and at about 5:30 in the morning we realized I had a terrible flu. I threw up quite a few times and the full morning was boooorinnnng because I had to stay in bed. Mom said that all the energy needed to go to getting my flu to go away. Luckily the flu only lasted the day. Today was much better. When I woke up we realised I was fine. So for the day, I will say these in order, first thing we went straight to a mosque (mom and I wore head scarves). The mosque was very cool. There were men going in and out praying on their knees facing east because they are Muslim. After that we went up a hill to a castle that was built-in the bronze age. It was very fixed up and looked like a building from only 1000 years ago. After that we went to the most exciting part of the day.

We went in the hamam ( I like to call them hamammis). First we got really sweaty and hot in the steam room. Then we doused ourselves in water and then finally we went in to a room and had a real scrub down. All of the dead skin came off and it was disgusting. After that we went for, yay, the massage. It felt so nice. When he did the choppy thing on my back I was making noises which made it seem like a bumpy truck. Then we got wrapped up in so fuzzy towels and had tea (only mom and dad had tea, we weren't allowed for some odd reason). I want to go for another one, it was great! Mom said we probably will go for another one in Istanbul.

Bye, Emilia

Fairy Chimney Hike

I am in Cappadocia, Turkey.

We went for hikes through fairy chimneys. The fairy chimneys are rock formations that stick up like big cones. In the fairy chimneys there used to be people living in them.  The first day we went for a hike we went through two valleys. The two valleys are called Rose Valley and Red Valley. They are called that because they have the colour pink on the mountains. See...!

The second day in Cappadocia we went for a tour of the underground city. In the underground city 20,000 people used to live there too.

People lived in the sturdy chimneys and the underground city because they were early Christians and Christianity was not always accepted. They even built churches into the rocks. One of the churches built into the rock in the open air museum was really neat with a cool design on the ceiling.

The third day we went for a 12 km hike. We went through tons and tons of fairy chimneys. Here are some more pictures...

Pamukkale

We went to a small town called Pamukkale. There is also a site named Pamukkale. The site has little cup things that hold water. They do not hold water all year long. We got lucky in that it rained so that they would be filled with geothermal water.

We also went to an ancient pool in Pamukkale. The ancient pool was more geothermal than the cup-thing-a-ma-bobbers. We swam in the ancient pool. In the ancient pool we would play on daddy's back and daddy would smash his shins on the ancient pillars and the ancient rocks. The ancient pillars and the ancient rocks came from the Roman empire. The Romans built a beautiful pool for the emperor and the ancient rocks and the pillars are from that pool.

All the water at the site was geothermal (geothermal means heated by the earth). Most of the geothermal was warm, but some of it was bit cool. The geothermal reminded me of Iceland.

Bye,

Emilia

Quarterly update

Amazingly we are, to the day, three months out! This is one quarter of the way through our trip so we decided it was time to reflect on the many adventures we have had so far. We are doing this as a family, so some of the comments may include more than one response if we have differing thoughts.


Iceland
Best attraction: Minke whale, geyser, natural hotsprings
Best food: homemade soup
Biggest challenge: staying awake the first day; sleeping during daylight

England
Best attraction: salcombe sailing, Oliver, crabbing
Best food: Salcombe ice cream
Biggest challenge: Saying goodbye to the car

France
Best attraction: classic hike in Pyranees, Eiffel tower, Puy du Fou, Chateau Breze , Lascaux caves (so many...)
Best food: pan au chocolat, Camembert, mussels
Biggest challenge: finding camping in the middle of the night in Moisac(they lock the gates); kids biggest challenge was talking the parents into letting them have a pan au chocolat
every day

Spain
Best attractions: FC Barcelona museum; hiking in Picos de Europa, aqueduct in Segovia
Best food:we camped and cooked our own food mostly so we are not sure what we missed...
Biggest challenge: parking (anywhere in Spain), getting away from the cigarette smoke

Portugal
Best attractions: uncle Paddy and playing in the waves, archaeological site Citinia de Briteiros
Best food: BBQ fish, rice bowl with egg, vegetarian platter
Biggest challenge: getting info from Tourist info about anything other than the specific town we were in.

Germany
Best attraction: FC Koln game, riding Marina and Geronimo (auntie Chris' horses), hiking the steepest vineyard in Europe
Best food: pretzels, Daddy's birthday cake, Chris' pumpkin soup
Biggest challenge: beating Michy at footie (Mattias), none for the rest of us

Austria
Best attraction: Crown jewels in Vienna, meeting all the family, hike on the Hohewand with the petting zoo and zip line
Best food: sacher torte, heurigan food
Biggest challenges: getting cold milk, finding a happy Austrian in Vienna

Slovenia
Best attraction: Skojan caves, Vintgar gorge
Best food:Slovenian pub fare in Bled
Biggest Challenge: staying dry

Croatia
Best attraction: Plitvice Lakes, old city Dubrovnik
Best food: seafood risotto, ice cream/ gelato in Croatia
Biggest challenge: finding an easy route to Greece

Greece
Best attraction: black sand beach, Santorini; quads, old streets of Rhodes, Zeus' temple
Best food: halva, olives
Biggest challenge: finding fresh pita in the stores, not stepping in land mines (dog poo), finding legit TI offices

And there you have it....some of the best, not really much to complain about, and lots of yummy food.

Quad - ruple

We are on Santorini Island.  We rented some quads. On them today, Daddy let me drive for a bit. Frightening, hey!?  He totally took his hands off the steering and accelerator and let me drive. We went to three beaches. One was rocks and we didn't stay long. Another was a red sand beach and the other was a black sand beach. We stayed at the black sand beach the longest.  At the black sand beach, me and Mattias would swim in the water and snorkel with Daddy. We also would lie in the sand and bury ourselves. Yesterday we drove on the quads to Oia ( EEH-ah) and watched the sunset.  Tonight we are going on a night ferry that will arrive at 7am.  I am looking forward to Rhodes Island.

Walls (images here too...!!!)

We walked on a Roman wall. It was so cool! You could see all of Dubrovnik. I forgot to say we are in Dubrovnik. We also went to an Island called Lokrum. On Lokrum we went swimming on a rocky beach. We had to wear sandals because there are sea urchins on the coast of Croatia. Lokrum is on the coast of Croatia.

While me and dad were swimming, we saw a black sea urchin eating a clam. It was really awesome. We also went tortoise hunting - no tortoises, but we did see peacocks. And we saw a baby peacock. The length including the tail was about a half foot and it was about half a foot tall. It was by its mama peacock.  We also saw lots of males but they did not spread their beautiful feathers (I guess that is for mating season).

Daddy is reading to us about the Groovy Greeks. They got in a different wall by playing tricks and because Cheradimus knew the password. Tomorrow we are heading to Italy and the next day to Greece on an overnight ferry. I hope the Greeks don’t play any tricks on us!

The Green Market

We went to the Green Market. It is a market where people sell food and clothes and other things like tablecloths. We bought some fruits and vegetables. It was near the water line, and since it was a sunny Saturday everywhere you looked there was a person. Even if you looked down the street you would see a person. Oh, I forgot to mention where we are - on the coast of Croatia in a town called Split.

Back to the markets part. There were also a whole whack of bees. Mattias didn't get stung, Dad didn't get stung, Mom didn't get stung....but I got stung! In a very bad place to be stung. It wasn't my fault because, when the bee flew by my eye I blinked and it got tangled in my hair and then it stung me right on the very edge of my bottom eye lid. I screamed! Almost everyone came and circled around to see what happened. A doctor and a nurse asked if we wanted help. Mom showed them we had an epipen and they realized we were good. I was crying so hard I could hardly hear Mom talking to me. That darn bee. Luckily the stinger didn't get stuck there and it didn't die. My eye got all puffy. Dad went into a random restaurant and got ice. We wrapped it in a head scarf and held it against my eye. The bee sting was in the morning when we just left the hostel. It still hurts now and it is 10 pm.

Tomorrow in the morning we are going to some islands to find some good snorkeling. We will stay there for four nights. Today we walked around the town and looked in a place for turtles, unluckily we didn't find any. Here on the coast of Croatia, when you go to the waterline, there is a rocky edge. Mattias and I went to clamber down the edge, we were careful and it was okay. We tried to catch crabs, but no luck. But on the rocks we found some crystals. Mattias chipped some off with a different rock. At a different part it was a straight down drop with slippery concrete. You couldn't go on it it was too slippery. It wasn't too long, only about 5 feet. We could see all sorts of colorful fish in the clear water. Some were long and scaly like a rainbow trout but looked like a baby shark, but we knew they weren't because sharks wouldn't come that close to the surface.

At night we thought it was beautiful because the palm trees were lit up and the buildings reflected on the water. We thought that was very, very pretty.

Mattias and I decided we want a hamster and a turtle. By the end of the day we were pretty tired so Mattias and I got ice cream. I got lemon with chocolate sauce. Mattias got vanilla with chocolate sauce. That's what we did today. Get back to you soon.
Goodbye, Mima

Going to London

Hi everyone,

A few days ago we were in London. The first day we were there we went on the London Eye! Does anyone know what that is?  Its like a big ferris wheel except you stand in a big ball thing that is glass and it takes half an hour to go all the way around. You can see not even close to all of London, but sure enough you can see quite a bit. You can see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben(which sadly we couldn't go on a tour of because the pope was coming and it was closed for safety reasons). You could also see the big cathedral (cathedral is a big big church). After the London Eye we went to a London Theatre. That is very special to go to. There we saw a play called Oliver. It was about a boy named Oliver who is an orphan. When he asked for more food he got sold. The time this story took place in was 1830 and the place it took place in was London. Oliver went through a few people, first a guy that sold coffins and then he went stayed with a man who taught him how to Pick Pockets. There was also a mean man who worked with him. A rich nice man who Oliver pick pocketed, took him in to his grand home and looked after him until, yikes, he was stolen back by the pick pocket man. la di la di la. The bad man hurt the pick pockets girlfriend who was trying to help Oliver. But the mean man was very sly and good. Oliver was very scared on Saturday night because the mean man was trying to kill him. And then, good news alert, the nice man saved Oliver's life and took him in to live with him.

My Granny Bird and Grandpa B took me. It was fun.


Bye for now.
Emilia

Trips on a train

Hi everyone,
A few days ago we took a train to Parie (Paris). Today we went to the Eiffel tower and we went up it to the top. It was so high-up although you cannot see all of Paris because Paris is so huge! I took the pictures below. We are staying in a hotel next to a neat and pretty building. Tonight we went out for dinner to a Tibetan restaurant.

A few days a go I met a friend named Phoebe. She was a nice English speaking Australian girl. We made great friends and in the morning we got to play long. She is also traveling around the world but she is at the end of her trip.

I hope everyone has a good year at school and enjoys having their teacher, no matter who their teacher is.

Miss you all, bye
Emilia