England – Elise

When we arrived in Newcastle, we crossed the ticket stall and two of our relitives were waiting for us. We got to our hotel and got settled in. After that I was the only one ready so I went down stairs and a stranger walked in and asked me my name and how old I was. Then he huged me, AND THEN I relised it was a cousin. This hole time I new that we were going to meet more than two relitives. After that there was about seven! That afternoon we went out for lunch and had fish and chips, wich is a really big thing In England. After that we had a nice rest of the day with our family!

When we arrived in London, we met up with a friend called Jo and she had a boy named Jack. We walked around the city and saw Big Ben wich was under construction. It should be called Ben’s construction, all we could see was the clock. We saw the London Eye wich is a ferris wheel. Then we went to the Natural History Museum that had lots of history of dinisores like chicken eggs come from a dinisores tale. Also they give you history on how baby’s develop. Then we went for a tiny walk. After that we said good bye. Just to finish off our day we went to Harrods. We found a BABY out fit that was 2000 dolars. The next day we went out to BBC wich is where people right the news. If there was a criminal in Vancouver they would be in charge of writing about it. That evening we went to Harry Potter world and hopefully someone else will blog about that because I don’t feel like blogging about it. That next day we went for a nice walk out to the London Bridge, and also right beside London Bridge there is the Tower Bridge, wich is way nicer than the London Bridge. The tower bridge should be called the London bridge and there should be no such thing as the actual London bridge. After that we went out to a Petter pan play that I really enjoyed. Then we went out to Buckingham Palice where the Queen lives. We took two metros back to our friends house and had our last dinner of the trip.

Istanbul, Turkey – by Anna

Istanbul was an unforgettable few days. Hagia Sofia was a church until 1453, when they changed it into a Mosque. Mosques cannot display any images of people on the walls so when they wanted to convert the church, they had to cover everything up. Hagia Sofia aka “Ayasofya” is now a museum where you can walk around and see some of the faces and people starting to show as the paint wears off. The Blue Mosque was beautiful with all the handmade tiles on the ceiling and the big pillars with blue designs. Istanbul is divided in two continents, Asia and Europe. We were staying on the European side so we had fun exploring the Asian side. We tried mussels with rice inside. They were actually pretty good. The Grand Bazaar is a huge market filled with clothes, spices, soaps, leather, traditional Turkish lamps and Turkish delights. We spent a whole day in the bazaar and eventually, we got a little overwhelmed. Turkish people are so lovely. They will invite you in for apple tea and ask you questions. The Hammam was so relaxing! A Hammam is a scrubbing spa. My parents did one in Morocco so we wanted to try it here. They started off by putting us in a salt room. It looked like Christmas! They then put us in the sauna, gave us a foam soap massage and gave us tea! It was great! Turkish delights are jelly candies with different nuts and spices in them. My favourite were the plain ones covered in icing sugar. In the Grand Bazaar, there would be tonnes of different delight stores with samples. Go to the Bazaar hungry! Another delicious snack that we tried when we were in Istanbul was the Turkish ice cream. This ice cream is different from all the others because it was thicker, strechier and takes longer to melt. They will serve you the ice cream once their done their mini show! I’m definitely coming back to Istanbul!

Newcastle-by Amelie

We were supposed to go to Newcastle for two nights. Because of the huge power outage in London, our train got canceled and we quickly had to book a hotel. After finally getting some rest, we went for round #2. I was getting tired of that train station. We got to the metro that we were going to take to the train station and realized it was closed, too. We hopped in a taxi and got to Kings Cross Station. We were finally on the train going to Newcastle! Yay! Once we had arrived, we were picked up by our cousin Lesley and our Uncle Tony. They brought us to our hotel and 30 minutes later picked us up with a couple other relatives we had never met before. There was Graeme and Hazel, Matt and Ben (Lesley’s kids) and Ian (Lesley husband). We walked to a fish and chips store and had our first British snack. Once we were done eating, Matt, Ben, Ian, Lesley, Tony and our family went to Lesley’s house and stayed there until dinner. All of us but Matt and Ben went out for dinner and met up with another relative named Ian. It’s a lot of names, I know. The next day, we had to go to back to London. First, we packed up, then we were picked up by Lesley and Tony again and brought to the train station. At the train station, we met up with Graeme and Hazel again and we all went to a coffee shop. Once it was time to leave, we all hugged goodbye and we took of for London, our second to last stop. It was so nice to finally meet all the relatives on my mom’s side.

Kruger National Park-by Amelie

All safaris we did were absolutely amazing. In Kruger, we did two full day safaris. Our drivers name was Edward. He was great and super patient with all our questions about different animals. We stayed in a fancy lodge for four nights. On the first safari day we woke up at 5:30. It was freezing on the way there! It took a while to finally warm up enough to be able to take off our blankets. It was a great day, with plenty of giraffes, lions, buffaloes, zebras, gazelles and hyenas. We saw hippos, crocodiles, rhinos (the animal we really wanted to see), and plenty of different birds, too. I think one of the things I liked the most was the lion because I had been wanting to see a cub for so long and we finally saw some. For lunch on the first day we went to a town called Skakuza. Skakuza is in the middle of the national park, it’s a town with a conference centre, a restaurant, a gift store and a couple other services. We got a book with a check list of all the animals there were in the park and we were able to check off almost half. There was a lot on that check list, though. The day we were not on a safari, we were exploring the area around us. The first stop was a view point called the Three Rondavels in the Blyde River canyon, the second was Bourke’s Luck Potholes and the third was a small walk called God’s Window. On the second safari, we came more prepared with warmer clothes. That day, we came super close to two lions with three cubs who were hunting. In the morning, we stopped in the middle of the park to go by the river and see birds, hippos, crocs and a beautiful blue kingfisher. We stopped in a different area for lunch called Lower Sable. It had basically the same services as Skakuza. Kruger was so amazing because it was so special to see some animals who weren’t being hunted because the park protects them. The white rhino is one of the animals who are in a lot of danger and we saw some of the last ones.

France – by Elise

When we arrived in Paris, the thing I was most excited to do was to see the Eiffel tower. I was waiting our whole trip to do that! I was so happy that we made it to Paris. We walked around the city and saw the Louvre, Notre Dam, and of course the Eiffel Tower and lots of museums. The one that I liked the most was the Picasso museum, it had some pritty cool paintings. OK, I said I really liked the Eiffel Tour but what is better is the baguettes with avocato, cheese, turkey and mustard. I LOVE BAGUETTES.

The most annoying part of the trip is the driving. The one that we did was seven hours!I hate those things. After the seven hour drive we were all so excited to meet our friends, especially because we were going to the World Cup women’s soccer game. We got our shirts that said Canada, a hat that said Canada, a bag that said Canada, a Canada tatoo and a Canada flag. We were so excited because we were playing against a team that was not as good as us.That team was called the netherlands, BUT we lost.

We arrived in Languedoc, wich is close to Provence. We stayed at a place that used to be a barn. It was buatiful and big but I got bitten by so many mosquitoes. It was so hot so we went to the river. We got to the river and I went cliff jumping. I’m going to tel you the things I engoyed, the river the ice cream the bike rides the kayaking the baguettes and seeing our friends. I REALLY LIKE LANGUEDOC.

Paris part 2 – by Anna

Amelie bogged about our first two days in Paris and I’m blogging about the rest. Day 3 was spent at the Louvre Museum. It was so huge! We started off our visit at the Mona Lisa. On our way, we saw plenty of paintings from the French Revolution in 1789 and many religious paintings. When we entered the room with the Mona Lisa, we were all shocked because it was so small! When I thought of the Mona Lisa, I thought of it as a big painting but it was much smaller than I expected. It wasn’t very busy so we managed to get a selfie with her. After that, we walked down a very long hallway full of furniture from Louis XlV’s room. Don’t get me started on his bed, it was so luxurious. I thought that the kings looked quite funny in the paintings because of their wigs. When we were done with the French kings, we moved towards the Egyptian exhibition. We were all disappointed when we found out that section was closed for the day. On our way out, we stopped by the Venus de Milo. That night, we had a good dinner on the Champs D’Elysée, the most famous street in Paris. The next morning, we went to the Palais de Versailles. The palace was ruled by the King Louis’. We visited the palace and learned about the French Revolution. We did not end up visiting the beautiful gardens because they were closed. That night we went back to the Champs D’Elysée to do some shopping and to go up the Arc de Triomphe for a panoramic view of Paris. It really was spectacular. On father’s day, we visited the Picasso Museum. Picasso drew and sculpted some amazing things and some that seemed too simple to be famous. After the museum, we went for a walk to the Sainte-Chapelle church. It is well known in Paris because of its beautiful stained glass windows. It was one of the most beautiful churches I’d ever seen. There wasn’t a single window without stained glass. In the late afternoon, we went for a walk around a quaint neighbourhood and enjoyed ice cream. The weather was so hot! The next morning, we drove down to………..Provence!

Wadi Rum-by Amelie

Wadi Rum was in the middle of nowhere in Jordan. It was amazing! We stayed at another Bedouin camp. When we arrived (we had rented a car), we tried to go out in the sand, but of course, we got stuck. These nice Jordanians laughed at us and helped us out and we decided not to give it another shot. We drove in circles around the town, while the manager kept sending us voice messages. The voice messages were things like: “I see your car, come back, come back” or “that’s you, come back, come back” and “come back, come back”. He also said “I am waiting, come back, come back”. We finally found him and we put all our luggage in the back of a Toyota truck. We had a super fun and scenic drive through the dessert with huge boulders everywhere! When we got there, we went up to see the sun set on the top of a rock, it was so beautiful! Elise and I had so much fun making Inukshuks out of the rocks at the top of the mountain. That night we went to the tea tent and we hung out before going to dinner. Dinner was delicious, there was hummus, vegetables, pita bread, salads, baba ganoush, Jordanian desserts and chicken that was cooked under the ground. After dinner, we went back to the tea tent and played a card game. The next day, we went on a tour around Wadi Rum. First, we went for a hike on the rocks and to the spring, and had a beautiful view of the area. Then, we went to the sand dunes and did a redo of a picture in Mui ne in the sand dunes and took some interesting illusion pictures.

Mui ne

Wadi Rum

After the sand dunes, we went to a nice little place for a picnic lunch. The driver made a fire, cooked delicious chili, baba ganoush, pita bread and cookies. After lunch, we went to the small arch (which we did not find scary at the time) an took some pictures. My hat blew of because the wind was so strong. We went to go get my hat and the driver told us a sad story of 25 year old girl who fell of the arch and died. That made us all petrified. We went to the drivers wife’s house and she had two girls there with her. We had tea and played outside a little bit with the kids. After that, the driver dropped us of in the middle of nowhere and told us to walk through the sand for 20 minutes. We then drove to the big arch. The big arch was around 20-30meters high. Wadi Rum is so windy that we almost said we were not going to go on the arch. When we got to the top it was so high. My mom was the one to take the picture because apparently she wanted my dad to be in a photo for once (we all thought it was because she was too scared though). The next day we had to leave! We took a 3 hour drive to the airport in Ammon, next stop EGYPT!!! The place I never expected to go to…

Food, Artvo and Victoria Markets- By Elise\

AUSTRALIAN FOOD

We got to Australia and we all wondered what we were going to eat.

So I decided to blog about it and this is what we tried new

Fresh vegetables

Australian candy

Fish and chips

Vegemite

Tim tams

Lamington

Milo

Lamb burger

The flavours of Tim tams are caramel dark chocolate white chocolate and double

coated

I Really Like Tim tams!

ARTVO

Wen we first arrived at the artvo we entered the room and we started walking

Thru the hall way and started acting out the pictures it was really fun!

I really like the picture with me and my sisters hanging from the wall

VICTORIA MARKETS

We got ready for the Victoria markets and started walking to the tram station. Wen we

got to the Markets we started walking around. We got really good fruits and we even

got Lunch which was bagels and spinach pie. We kept walking around. it was gust 4 of

us because are dad was at work.

Merimbula, Australia- by Anna

When we arrived in Merimbula, we were introduced to Nerissa ‘s dad Barney and his partner Tina. It was really late and we were exhausted after a day of driving so, we went to bed. The next morning,Tina made us pancakes then we all got ready for a fun day at Pambula beach. Just as we were about to leave, my dad said that I was going to take surf lessons and I was so happy about that. I had been wanting to go surfing ever since Caloundra. We all piled up in the car and we drove to the beach. My surf lesson was a blast, the coaches were fun, and the waves were huge but great for surfing. Meanwhile, Amelie and Elise were on the beach making a huge sandcastle with Brendan, Nerrisa’s brother. In the evening, Nerissa came with us to look for kangaroos. We did not have much luck at first but then we came across a golf course packed with them (maybe not packed but you get the picture). There were baby’s and a giant one that we were all scared of. We got some good pictures and we were able to go pretty close to them. The next morning, I went for a walk with my mom and Nerissa. It was a really nice boardwalk. We walked all the way down to a little Cafe and I ordered a milkshake. Then we walked back to the house. Later on, my dad and I took a surf lesson. Yesterday, he saw me having so much fun that he wanted to join me. My dad never managed to stand on his board, it was hilarious to see him fall into the water. I found my dad was a bit of a distraction because every time I was just about to stand up he would cut me off. Thanks dad! That night, we went out for dinner with a whole bunch of my mom’s old highschool friends. The next morning, my dad and I woke up early, and we went for one more surf. The water was quiet but every once in a while there would be a giant one sometimes, too big for me. After surfing, we drove up to Eden to have a picnic and to meet my mom’s host moms from 1994. Eden was also the place that my parents were engaged. It was a nice evening, the food was good, and it was nice to finally meet Marg and Jo. The next morning we said our final goodbyes to Nerissa, Barney and Tina. Then we drove off to………….Melbourne.

Otavalo, Ecuador by Anna

The best markets ever! When we got there we were done with buses and travelling so we settled in at our hostel. After a little while we made our way downtown to check out the markets because we had heard that the markets were amazing. We saw around fifty markets with souvenirs, ponchos, hats, carpets, scarves and a tonne of other things. We had a quick look around and we were also told to come back on Saturday for the huge markets. We left after getting Elise the cutest poncho for only eight bucks, and we loved to bargain down the price. We went back to our hostel and went out for dinner at a bar with a DJ playing all of the old songs that my parents found awesome but I found………..weird. The next morning we went out for crepes, (we were so excited to eat them after months of eggs!) then we headed to Parque d’el Condor. We had to hurry because there was a show that started at 11:30 but there were not a lot of people so we had good seats. The show was pretty cool because there were condors, owls, falcons, harpies, and eagles. They would fly so far. After the show we walked around a bit longer and saw a lot more birds. Then we slowly made our way down to a waterfall. It was so nice. We also went to a little Indigenous experience which shortly turned into a very steep hike. After that we went out for dinner at a pizza place which had good food. The next day we woke up early and we all got into a jeep, that took us up to the top of the Cuicocha volcano. When we got to the top, we hiked around the Laguna Cuicocha. It was fun but the altitude was hard to hike in. After the hike, we got bikes out of the van and started to bike down, down, down for 18 kilometers. We started off on a trail that was a bit challenging for me, but apparently impossible for my dad, so my dad and sisters stuck to the road and i went down the trail. it was fun but i had a few big wipeouts. We then met up and continued to go down.Then, we went out for lunch. After that we finished the night with a nice walk around the town. On Saturday morning we went to the markets. We were so surprised because they had blocked the whole main square and ten or twelve blocks more for the markets. We looked around for a bit and we shopped until we had to hop on a bus and go to QUITO! The capital of Ecuador. It was really interesting to see all of the Indegenous boys with braids and all of the girls with typical Ecuadorian dresses on. We had a pretty nice experience we had in Otavalo.