Roma day 4, 5 & 6

1. The mouth of truth (Boca Della Verita)
2. The Capitoline museum
3. The Vatican

 

 

 

 

Today when I got up I went to do my blog (the last one you read) and we left the apartment to the …

MOUTH OF TRUTH TRUTHTRUTH TRUTH TRUTH

D

 

The MOUTH OF TRUTH is a lions mouth that believably if you put your hand in and if you are a liar you get your hand bitten off. Now I'm not a liar…

 

 

Aaaaaaaah

 

 

 

hhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllpppppppppppppppppp

No more of that for me!!

 

 

THE VATICAN

 

Next we went to the Vatican . We got a tour by a man named Rich who made me spin a large marble cup. It was really scary because I thought it might break. He was really nice and I enjoyed the tour but sometimes i got a bit tired.

The highlight of the Vatican was the Sistene Chapel. The pictures were on the walls and on the ceiling. On the ceiling their is the famous and inspiring picture of God breathing life into man. Michel Angelo painted it and put a picture of a brain behind the picture of God. The most famous bit is the finger of God touching the finger of man.

Other pictures on the ceiling were Adam and Eve getting ready to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge and disobeying what God had told them. The picture was beautiful and on each corner a man was painted, When you looked up at the picture, the men on each corner were in 3D. How did he paint that?

 

God giving life to man

 

 

When we got out of the Vatican we went into St. Peter's church (again) and up the 709 steps there and into the culpa (the dome). The view was amazing looking down into the church. The people were like little ants. The light coming through the centre of the ceiling shone down a kind of gateway on the floor of the church all that way below.

Saint Peters is the biggest church in the world and Saint Peter is buried underneath it. He died in a horrible way. After the fire of Rome, Emperor Nero (who was not a nice man), blamed the Christians and began to have them killed even though they didnt do it. Saint Peter was killed by crucifying him upside down.

 

On the way out i saw two Swiss guards. Their clothes were different.

 

Swiss guards

 

I mailed a postcard. It will have the Vatican stamp on it.

 

 

The Vatican is the smallest state in the world.

 

So goodbye for now.

 

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Rome Day 2,3 & 4

 

1. The Spanish Steps
2. St. Peters Basillica
3. The Colosseum
4. The Roman forum and Palatine Hill

Today I realised I could get a new souvenir today seeing as I was in a new country,Roma. This was mum and dads plan as of what we were going to do.

= lots of walking

 

 

I decided what I wanted my new souvenir to look like:a motor scooter that preferably moves. Anyway enough of that already, I left the apartment to get down to The Spanish Steps. When we climbed them I counted one-hundred and thirty two steps altogether,each set of stairs went up by twelves which means I climbed eleven sets of stairs . Did you know The Spanish Steps were built in the early seventeenth century A.D..

 

THE COLOSSEUM

The colosseum

A short while afterwards we walked down to the coliseum. At the colosseum I explored the underground tunnels. I saw a cat in one of them. When we left the tunnels I saw an old roman elevator made with pulley systems , ropes and weights. The gladiators would go to fight wild beasts during the games. When we went on the battle ground I kept getting scared that the animals would come out and get me. The colosseum closed down in the fifth century because a monk named Telemachus put himself between the gladiators to stop their fights. The audience killed him but the gladiators stopped anyway. Tomorrow we are going to go to the Capitalone museum.

So bye bye , at least for now.

 

Book I'm reading : The red pyramid by Rick Riordan

Next stop: Pompeii and then Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast

 

 

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Athens & Rome day 1

1. Acropolis and Parthenon - Athens
2. Fly to Rome
3. Trevi Fountain
4. The Perfect Pizza

 

THE ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

When we got there we looked down at our feet and saw lots of acient ruins underneath the safety glass floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view from the acropolis museum . I think it's quite pretty.

 

 

In our game Zoe and I had to go around the museum finding Athenian statues and putting stickers of them on our poster. (See above).

At first I thought Athens was dirty and stinky, but then when we went into the good parts of town I thought it wasn't so bad because of all the amazing artefacts you pass by.

We accidentally ended up on Mars Hill when we tried to go to the real Acropolis (but they wouldn't let us in at 5.27 even though they were supposed to let people in until 5.30). From Mars Hill you can see the entire of Athens and it is beautiful, amazingly huge and, from where I was looking, very clean (which is weird because when I was actually down there it was quite dirty in places). Mars Hill was extraordinarily slippery because it is made of white and red marble (the marble patterns between the colours were also very interesting and delicate). The marble on the hill was slippery because people have been walking on it, to see the view, for over 2500 years.

That's the view from Mars Hill and that''s what I meant when I said it was beautiful.

 

Trains in Athens look like the trains from Subway Surfers (if you know that game please explain to someone else what it is).

 

The whole train is covered in graffiti and it looks way cool.

OFF TO ROME

(We apologise for the short intermission while we fly)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have an apartment in Rome for our stay. My first impressions were big ,comfortable and amazing that it had an elevator I think this is amazing because apartments are just houses rented out on something like Ebay.

We wandered out into the bustling city to hunt out the Trevi fountain. It's a short walk from our apartment which is in the centre of Rome. Trevi fountain is an ancient and interesting fountain that shows off old roman characterises in their statues. Out there it is nearly impossible not to photobomb people because there are so many people taking photos.

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Naxos day 1,2&3 ( mixed )

1. Temples Apollo and Demeter
2. Hidden Kouroi
3. Decorated easter candles
4. stale honey Nougat
5. Animals in unexpected places
6. The beautiful Sunset
7. Meals - our special breakfast place and Souvlaki like uncle Crispy told us about.

 

TEMPLES

Apollo :(dictated) We walked to the end of the beach of Choro which is the Capitol of Naxos and where we stayed. At the tip is the Temple of Apollo. We avoided the waves which were calm on one side of the path and rough on the other as the spray of the sea combined forces with the wind to saturate the path. The rough side was purple, black and dark blue compared with the gentle side which was light blue, aqua, green and "lime-ish". I was surprised that protection from the wind made such a difference to the colours.

 

The path to Apollos Temple. One side the ocean is rough and the other side was smooth

 

The temple looked a bit like a giant frame of a photo but without the bottom. After the distant mountain, the photo frame was the first thing we saw as our ferry came close to Naxos.

Apollo's Temple

 

 

Demeter's Temple

Here is Zoe telling us about the story of Demeter. Her daughters name was Persephone. Persephone was Hades' wife but she didn't want to be. She was tricked by Hades into eating 3 pomegranate seeds (seeds of the dead) which means that she had to stay in the underworld for 3 months of every year. Because she is The Goddess of Flowers when she was in the underworld, no flowers grew and this is how the Greeks explained winter.

 

 

 

We got a bit lost driving to find the Temple.

 

Huh?

 

 

This is what the Temple looked like. It was in the fields because Demeter is the Goddess of agriculture and fertility. As we walked up the path to see the Temple we saw some goats and some cows. The cows had small horns and one front foot was tied to one backfoot to stop them running away I think.

The Temple looked a bit like a church.

 

Demeter's Temple far away I a field

 

 

Panorama with me and the Temple

 

 

ANIMALS IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

Animals that took me by surprise today:

• a flock of sheep running across the road followed by a sheep dog and a shepherd with a mobile phone.
• A depressing chameleon in a pet shop - I think it was cruel to keep that animal in a teeny cage with wood shavings
• A big and round pig in the back of a ute. Pig not happy
• Goats near Demeter's temple
• Horses and donkeys being led on the road
• A dead rat in a creek
• A gazillion tadpoles

HIDDEN KOURI

The kouri are gigantic figures of stone - about 5 metres long. 5 metres tall if they were standing up. We drove for an hour to a town called Ano Potamia and walked five minutes to some small woods. We had to walk up long paths to find both of them. They were hidden so we had to choose the right turn offs and steps to find them. Because they were separate it took even longer.

When we found the first kouri I couldn't even see it. Zoe had to point out that the large stone shape in front of me was a body, a face, two arms and two legs. They were made over 2000 years ago from pure white marble. They are still here now because when the encounters Greeks were carrying them their kouri's marble legs snapped so they couldn't stand them up. Did you know there are only about 200 kouri's left in the world?

 

1 kouros

 

2 kouri

 

We are now on the ferry to Athens. Off to Rome tomorrow and then Pompeii.

I'm reading The Kane Chronicles - chapter 12

So goodbye for now

 

 

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Santorini - Naxos

 Today before we left the house to Naxos we went to go for a walk.

The hotel didn't seem safe anyway.

I was hearing noises near the steps so I turned the video camera to record and went to investigate.

This is what I saw.

 

 

 

We went down to a place called skaros (Castle rock). I explored a cave there.

I found it when we were walking up to the top of Skaros. I saw a little entrance off to the side and a little below the steps. We all climbed down and went inside. The cave was an old Venetian house. I found a smaller door inside the cave. It lead to a chimney we think, but we couldn't find the hole from the outside (see picture below).

I would have explored the extra cave there but mum and dad said no because we had to catch our ferry we didn't have time anyway.

This is Skaros

 

 

Actually it was an old Venetian cavern

 

 

I threw myself over roofs.

 

Wah hee !!!!

 

 

And threw rocks over the cliff.

 

DIE ROCK!!!!!!

 

 

Sometimes Zoe can be really annoying.

And Me !!

 

 

We had to get a move on to get back to our hotel to say goodbye and get our bags. Needed energy so had a vanilla milkshake. Next thing you know we are back on the ferry and headed to Naxos .

I will miss Yiotta (the hotel manager) and Bogdan who worked there. Bogdan would always ruffle my hair and say “Freckles”. Yiotta would always help us with tips for our journey and tell us stories about her family. They were so nice and I will miss them.

 

One last sunset

 

 

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Santorini day 4

1. Up early
2. Breakfast
3. Volcano tour
4. Hot springs
5. Fresh Crepes with a special treat
6. Dark walk to dinner

 

Today we were up very early ( nine o'clock to be exact (late for you early for me)). I was really tired.

We soon fixed that , I had cocoa flakes and a tasty fresh orange juice for breakfast.

Next we went on a volcano tour which went to the volcano then the hot springs. I only got off at the volcano. Volcanoes don't look like you think they do they are actually huge rocky paths with lots of craters in them.This one is over 2500 years old. I think it's interesting that there are different types of rocks black being recent red being from longer ago.

 

 

The volcano view

Our boat

 

 

At the hot springs nobody went for a swim (I think that's because they weren't really that hot) and to get there you had to swim through some very cold ocean.

 

When I got back we went to have lunch. Zoe and I got Crepes, and as a treat we got to eat ice-cream (with a knife and fork).

 

Yummy in my tummy

 

 

When that was done we headed down to dinner. This time we had it at a place called Bella Thira, it was delicious. I had spaghetti bolognaise

Next stop : Naxos

Book I'm reading: the Kane cronicals

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Santorini day 3

Today for breakfast I had the same as yesterday except this time I had scrambled eggs as well.

 

Tasty

 

Then I did some drawing and maths.

 

Tasty

My picture of Doodlejump

 

 

 

Next we went down the cable cars to the old port.

And up on the donkeys .

The donkeys are traditional on Santorini because they can carry up to one fifth of their body weight (and they weigh about 500kgs) up the very steep mountains. My donkeys number was 271 and all the donkeys click up the cobbled paths with their bells ringing.

Need - carrot - on - stick

 

 

OWW!!

Then I found out just how many stairs I had climbed. It's written on each stair.

 

 

588 STAIRS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

We went to Oia by bus. The Greeks call it Eeya

I explored the markets and had a bit of a run around.

Lots to see.

(Talk about a gingerbread house).

 

 

Yum yum [resisting] NO!!!

 

 

After that we had a luscious dinner at a tavern called ESTIA. I had "Spaghetti In The Oven". That is spaghetti cooked with bacon , cheese and thick creamy tomato sauce. it came in a stone bowl straight from a hot oven. I think it had a beautiful taste.

We have had some good meals in Greece and I think that the Greeks are really involved , interested and proud with their food. I think this because their traditional food is really very tasty. There is lots of seafood in Greece because their country has over 200 islands = lots of beaches = lots of fish. They also make delicious meat dishes with Lamb , Pork and chicken. Here in Santorini they are very proud of their Fava beans , cherry tomatoes and Capers . My Dad loves the beans(he gets lots of wind)! My favourite dish was the succulent Pork Gyros, but I also l tried tzazki (with yogurt and cucumbers and garlic), pork fillet, grilled halloumi, fava dip and home made sausages.

Also, I tried octopus. It came with some Calimari rings. liked the squid more.

All in all I had a great day.

Now,lets go through the things I did today :

1. BREAKFAST
2. DRAWING
3. MATHS
4. THE OLD PORT
5. THE MARKETS
6. DINNER

 

Whew.

 

Our balcony got a bit wet

Maybe the spa overflowed?

 

 

 

 

Next stop is Naxos and then Athens for a day before we go to Rome.

Book I'm reading : the Kane Chronicles

 

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Santorini Day 1+2

1. Ferry trip
2. Car up the mountain
3. Dinner at a great restaurant
4. Went to Thira for a look around - long walk there and back

 

Ferry Trips

Yesterday I went on 2 ferries. I went from Crete to Athens and then to Santorini. 10 hours plus 8 hours. These ferries did not have wings or magic wands, but they did have elevators, escalators, a children's play area, a garage for hundreds of cars, shops, a cafeteria, and a cafe/restaurant, one of them had 9 floors, cabins for sleeping in - our cabin number was 8258B and we had our own bathroom in our cabin.

Our first boat

 

In Santorini

Today we went to breakfast in the new hotel "Heliotopos" (delicious). (By the way Heliotopos means sunny place)

I had chocolate cake and cereal. Mum was not happy.

 

Thira

After that I went to Thira, the main town on the island, where I did some huge jumps.

Up

 

And

Down

 

Then we had Gyros for lunch and I got an Ice cream. A Gyro is meat , vegetables and chips wrapped in Greek bread.

I feel that Santorini is better than Crete because…

 

The island is much more beautiful place.

People go out of their way to help you. People also learn English so they can understand you. You might say “ Santorini feels more touristy ” but this would be because you have not been to many parts of the island yet. This is my favourite Greek island so far.

Place we go next : Naxos and then Rome.

Book I'm reading : The Kane Chronicles By : Rick Riordan. I am loving it

 

 

 

 

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Crete Day 2

As I woke up I realised I was in a new country. That means I had to get a new souvenir today.

The new hotel was called The ATRION Hotel.

Look to the right to see our hotel

For breakfast I had crispy bacon with special Cretan honey. It was delicious.I also tried a special round Greek Donut - its about the size of a ping pong ball, the dough is a little bit more soft and squishy than a normal donut with a little bit of crushed pistachio on top. The outside is similar to a Perth donut with a bit of sugar on the top.

Today we did 3 things

• The old markets where I bought my new souvenir.
• Knossos - the ancient ruins where the minotaurs maze was.
• Dinner at a place that Zoe organised

THE MARKETS

At the markets I got my new souvenir.

How i got a closeup of this picture: Firstly I took a picture of it on our hotel floor. Then I zoomed the picture on my Ipad and then took a screenshot by pressing the home button and the off button at the same time. The screenshot gets saved into my photostream where I could grab it with Blogsy and post into my blog.

my new souvenir

 

I got this particular souvenir because the owl is the mark of wisdom and its eyes are the symbol of strength and courage. I knew that from Percy Jackson books. The owl is made out of brass or was it bronze and the eyes are made out of glass.

I did some research using Safari and found this on a website "The main difference between brasses and bronzes is that brass is mostly made of copper and zinc while bronze is mostly made of copper and tin". Although i still don't know what my souvenir is made of.

KNOSSOS

Knossos is the ancient ruins of King Minos's temple and the maze of the Minotaur (called the Labyrinth). It is very old, some parts are more than 4000 years old.

Here is a picture of me on a road in Knossos that is the oldest road in the world. Thats what they told us but Zoe is sceptical.

Us on the side of the oldest road

(dictated by Drew, typed with great skill by LD): Here is a summarized version of the story of the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a half bull, half man. He could talk and walk. He was wild and was imprisoned in the Labyrinth by his father king Minos. Every year 7 Athenian boys and 7 Athenian girls were sent into the Labyrinth for the Minotaur to kill and eat. When it was the prince's turn to be sent into the Labyrinth he said to his father "I will kill this beast". "If come back to Athens with my sails white, you will know I have killed the beast, if my sails are black i will have died". Prince Theseus prayed to Hermes and Artemis to help guide him through the Labyrinth. The Gods came down to earth and gave him a ball of string. Theseus took the princess of Crete with him and tied the end of the ball of string to the door of the Labyrinth. As he unwound the string he finally found his way to the Minotaur. It was a rough battle but the Minotaur was dead in the end. Thesues rewound the string to find his way back through teh Labyrinth. As Theseus came back home to Athens he was so busy celebrating with his friends he forgot to change the sails to white. When his father saw the black sails, he was so sad, he jumped off a cliff.

Acrobats jumping a charging bull

Knossos

 

 

DINNER

Finally we went to dinner at a place that Zoe organised.It was really amazing. We had ten different dishes altogether.

We all had a huge meal.

I decided that I would have french fries and meatballs. We all shared a massive salad, eggplant fritters, chicken souvlaki. I had the best meal I have ever had. My main course was a pork fillet steak. It was juicy and tender and every mouthful was delicious.

 

Yummy salad - if you like cucumbers

 

 

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