Las Vegas

Nikolas' Travels

Eifiel Tower Jordan/ Israeli Border Patrol Aquila, South Africa

Coolest things about New York : I liked the people because they were very nice and I also was really surprised about all the cops there was. I was also surprised about all the limos there were lots of hummer limos once there were 5 of them in front of our hotel. I also thought central park was cool it had a big frozen lake you can skate on. My favorite restaurant was the Paris diner near central park I also liked the olive garden by time square. The empire state was very cool too we went on a fun motion simulator. People don’t stop for ambulances or police or the fire department! Its weird we were the only ones stopping! The taxis were crazy if the cops saw them they’d be toast. The New York fire trucks use there sirens differently because they go woop,woop, and they use there horn a lot. But if they did use there sirens all time, all you would hear in New York is sirens all day long, so that’s why they only use it a little bit.

The horse drawn carriages we went on one it is very cool they are mostly around central park. And ours went right down town I thought it was crazy! I am surprised the horses did not get hit or frightened or scared.

We went to a Christmas show at the radio city musical it was very cool because it was 3d at the start and it was also cool because later in the show a ice rink popped out and two people that figure skated on it was neat.

I told my Mom and Dad that I could move to New York , but now that I think about it, maybe we could just get a cabin. I really love Vancouver and miss it very much but I’m very glad I went to New York .

We have been on the Queen Elizabeth II for 3 days and are somewhere off the coast of Haiti right now. I really like the kids club because it has very fun stuff to do. I am building a village out of popcicle sticks it’s really fun. The food is really great. There are also really cool swimming pools I haven’t used them yet but they look very fun. There is a big model of the ship it looks so real. The one we are on is really big, we actually try to get lost in the qe2 because there’s so many cool things. The cool thing about the boat is that it is the fastest large passenger boat in the world. The other cool thing about the boat is that in December the crew told us it took on 100 foot waves on its Atlantic voyage.

The are only ten kids on the boat and there’s one kid that is 9 but it’s a girl!! That makes me lonely. The other thing that really sucks is that I have to do 3 hours of stinken school work! The other thing that sucks is that the boat has water tight doors on 5 and 6 deck that open and close every day and it blocks the hallways which is a real pain and the fire alarm goes off every time they open and close! They have water tight doors for leaks in the boat.

The panama canal was man made but 25,000 of the men died. When we go through the canal there we are only 30 inches away from land on each side. Each lock is filled with 26,000,000 gallons of fresh lake water from Gaton. Lake . The canal is almost 100 years old! And the locks are 1,100 feet long and the QE2 is 963 feet long, and that does not give it a lot of room to fit in.

The electrectly powered cog railway mules pull the huge ocean liner through the lock transit. The qe2 is charged more money then any other passenger ship, that’s because of its cargo. The cool thing about the boat is that on deck six there could be cars. It costs over 90,000 dollars ( u.s. ) for our ship to go through the canal. Its still cheaper to go through the canal then it is to go around south America which is 11,000 miles! The panama canal was completed in 1914. To go from the atlantic ocean to the pacific ocean you have to go through a series of six locks and have to be lifted over 85 feet. I didn’t know that a huge ship like this could be lifted up and down.

This morning I had to wake up at 6:30 am and went on a very very cool excursion to an Indian village. First we had to go on a 1 hour and 15 minute drive to the place where we would go on boats to the village. When we got there and there was a whole bunch of Indians giving out life jackets. They looked cool. Then we all got on boats with motors and Indians with long sticks just in case we get stuck. When we arrived at the village (which took 30 minutes)

There was a big group of people playing music and dancing. After that we got to meet some. Then there was an introduction where they told us about the things they use for crafts and stuff. Then we got to wonder around the village and look at a craft store. Later on I met a guy who wanted to talk to my dad about something so I went and got him. Then after the guy finished talking to my dad the guy gave me a handcrafted bow and arrow for free for being the first boy ever to visit his village! The guys name was Mattu and he was the only man in the village who could speak a bit of English. But he was very nice so we bought 2 things from his table. On our way there and on the way back we heard monkeys screaming and on the way back we also saw a resting alligator! The Indians wore blearily any clothes which freaked me out. They live in grass huts that are raised high so that no snake water or chickens and they are also raised so they can berry there dead relatives! That’s freaky!! The tribes name is embra tribe. The boats were made out of big trees. When we went through the rivers we hit big rocks that almost made us flip. We probably would have gotten Eaton by crocodiles. I am so glad I went and I could actually live there because of all the cool things they do like making crafts and other cool stuff. But id have to learn Spanish if I ever live there.

We just came home from the beach in Acapulco , and it was very nice. Me and my dad went body surfing. It was fun. The waves were very big like the ones in Hawaii . After the beach we went for lunch in a very nice restaurant and I had a cheeseburger but the meat was gross. We went everywhere in a taxi I had a lot of fun. There are a whole lot of Volkswagen bugs. The taxi driver we had was very nice. He took us to the older side of Acapulco and it was very smelly and dirty and there were also a lot of poor people. We went to a little market and looked around but we didn’t get much. When we got back a little kid ran up to the taxi and opened the doors for us so we gave him $ 1 and he spoke excellent English. Luckily the weather was hot which gave us more fun. When we were about to leave I got a picture with a Mexican police officer! He had a huge gun. He looked really cool. He was protecting all the tourists. Mexico is really different then Canada . In Canada there are palm trees that are over 1000 dollars but in Acapulco there only 3 or 2 dollars! Mexico is different then Canada because Mexico is way hotter but Canada is cleaner.

We arrived in Los Angeles on Jan 17 2005 and all government offices were closed. I am doing a story on Martin Luther king today for my homework, because I never knew who he was, and it is very important part of history.

He lived from 1929-1968 and was the winner of the Nobel Peace prize. He was born in Atlanta Georgia U.S.A. on Jan 15^th 1929. He was the leader of the American civil rights movement. A very important person named Rosa parks was arrested in 1955 for not giving up her seat in a bus to a white person. Miss parks was doing nothing wrong. Martin Luther king was assassinated in 1968 because some white people didn’t like what he was doing. Mr. King was the leader of the organization that made the bus boycott and helped stop segregation of black people and white people. Mr. King wanted all protests to be non violent. In Washington DC he made a strong speech called “I have a dream” about not judging someone by the colour of there skin and all men are created equal. King was assassinated by a sniper in 1968 and a man named James earl ray pleaded guilty then said he lied. He was sentenced to 99 years in jail. After learning about Mr. King I think he was a very good and peacefull man. I am glad I learned about Mr. king today.

We are going to pearl harbour and to visit the World War II Memorial for all the soldiers who gave their lives.On Dec 7^th 1941, Japanese submarines and planes from an aircraft carrier attacked U.S. ships in Pearl Harbour . The attack badly damaged or sunk 8 battle ships, 13 naval vessels, 200 U.S. aircrafts and killed or wounded over 3,000 military personal. The attack by Japan was an unpleasant surprise and forced United States into World War 2 on the allied side. The Japanese were on the side of Germany and Italy . A memorial called the U.S.S Arizona now stands in pearl harbour. The U.S.S Arizona was a battle ship that was sunk on the day of the attack and were 1,000 crewmen went down with the ship and are still buried at sea. The names of the men and woman are in graved on a marble wall at this memorial that was built in 1962. I think the attack by Japan was very unfair. If there ever is another war they should only be aloud to use paint ball guns.

We went to Pearl Harbour today and we saw some of the sunkin U.S.S. Arizona. It was freaky to know that people are still somewhere in it. And there is still oil leaking from the ship. Before we went to the memorial we watched a movie about the bombing and it was actual footage of it. It was quite sad. After seeing pearl harbour today I hope there is no more surprise attacks. We will be in Nagasaki , Japan on Feb. 27 and we are going to see the Japanese memorial and that will be interesting to.

We went to Oahu today and drove around the island. We went to the North Shore to boogie board in the huge waves except all the beaches were closed because of a big undertow. I still wanted to go surfing in the big waves but my dad said NO WAY! We saw a fire truck and an ambulance and a medical helicopter looking for someone lost at sea. So we drove all the way to the other side to Waikiki , waves were little and big but there good for boogie boarding. The other bad thing was I learnt how to boogie board at the last second because it was late and it was getting dark really fast. The trick to boogie boarding is to push down on the end of your board right when the wave gets to ya. At night it is really cool on the main strip because theres a whole bunch of shops, mimes, and street performers. I really liked Hawaii and I could move there cause there are lots of surfing and other cool things and I could go swimming every day.

We were going to go to the big Island of Hawaii , and see captain Cooks burial ground. The sea was to rough so we could not get to land, but I am writing a story about him anyway because my dad is forcing me even when I don’t really want to. I don’t think I should have you write a story about a place I did not go.

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) born in Yorkshire, England was an explorer in the 1700s and he sailed all over the world.

Captain cook is famous for 3 voyages. The first voyage took him around the cape horn thru the south pacific and to the coastal waters of North America . He then discovered the north and south islands of New Zealand which he named New South Wales . In January 1773 he recorded the first crossing of the Atlantic circle. Cook was searching for islands that have been seen by other explorers but lost because of primitive navigational techniques.

Cook wintered in New Zealand and in Tahiti ports. On cooks 2^nd voyage he located Easter island, Polynesia and Tahiti and Tonga , which he named the New Hebrides .

1776-1779. His third voyage was to tackle another great mystery, the Northwest Passage . Cooks expedition suffered its first real problem when some New Zealand islanders killed and ate a small group of his men. Cook went back to Tahiti and Tonga and had problems because the islanders were stealing things and it made him mad. Cook had had enough, so he headed north into uncharted waters and discovered the Hawaiian islands, in which he named the Sandwich Islands . Cook decided to winter in the Hawaii islands in which his crew spent many great weeks in Kealakekua Bay . When they left they had depleted all the food supplies and this angered the people of the island. Not far from the island one of Cooks ships was badly damaged and he had to return to Sandwich Islands that made the sandwich people really mad so they stole one of his small boats. Cook then took the chief hostage and that’s when a islander struck and killed him. I guess it would be cool to see his grave in Hawaii , but I don’t really know him. I kind of want to see it, but I am mad right now because I had to learn about this and I really did not want to.

This historical tradition dates back to the 13^th century. Since it had been dicided that the world was round not flat the Spanish and Portugese explorers ventured further south and west without fear of sailing off the end of the earth. The excitement of sailing into the southern part of the world became a special event. It was commemorated in a quasi religious/mythological play involving King Neptune and his court who were ‘’crossing the line” for the 1^st time. The initiations took on various forms, some were highly dangerous. “Pollywogs” (were the ones who have never crossed before) would be covered with various nasty liquids found in the bilge of the ship and then suspended by the ankles and plunged into the sea. On the QE2 you only have to kiss a fish and then get covered with old stinky food from the kitchen and pushed into the pool.

This tradition is still carried on by many sea going vessels including the navy and the marines. The modern day “Crossing the line ceremony” has changed a little for hundreds of years and in fact contains a speech by King Neptune which was originally made in 1393.

We Came to Tahiti and first stopped at a place called Papeete . The Island of Papeete was dirty and rainy. There were no beaches and everyone was poor and it was very expensive cause a can of pop cost $3.50. My mom and dad couldn’t find anything to do so we went on a catamaran. I wouldn’t want to live here.

Moorea - We went to Moorea a day earlier then the ship. We went to a Sheraton hotel and it was beautiful. We stayed in a grass hut! The swimming pool was huge and a very nice light blue color. The beach water was light blue to. The sand was very nice to. There were chickens running around and there were weird birds flying and screeching. I went snorkeling and saw exotic fish. I got real sick and threw up everywhere. It’s because I drank some water from the shower. I had a real gross grilled chicken Caesar salad. Blaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! So when ever I drank my pop it came back out. So now I don’t eat to much and I probably won’t wanna eat another Caesar salad for a while. And yes I could move to Moorea (of course). We are now heading to

New Zealand

and I hope I go back to Moorea someday.

We left the Qe II and stayed at a Hotel call the Crowne Plaza in Auckland New Zealand and it is very cool. We are on the 28^th floor and we have the best view. There is a huge building that is right beside us and you can bungy jump of it (over 150 metres!) and my dad might do it. The fire trucks are almost the same as the ones were I live. The police and fire trucks sirens are very weird. We watched our ship leave and we were pretty sad. It gave us a loud honk before it left. We went to a really good Chinese food resturant and had dinner. It was called Dragon Boat. Before we ate we saw a guy get arrested and it was freaky. They started talking to him and then he said something and then they grabbed him and did that old police grab. (He must of done somin that was really bad!) Maybe he lied because when they were taking him to the police van they threw something on the ground. I think it was drugs. We went to a really busy part town of called Queens street and it was really quite nice. We also went to this awesome under water world and you got to go on a ice vehicle and saw real penguins! Then we saw huge sting rays in a tank! Then a moving platform took us to a huge tunnel tank and we saw huge sting rays and sharks and cool fish! Then we went to the gift shop but didn’t get anything. Of course I could live here because its just like home. Oh and by the way my dads finally gonna let me play runescape on the computer.

We got on a boat and it took us to this island that was called Waiheke and it was so cool. We got on a bus and it dropped us off at a church and we walked to a beach. The beach had a playground and a little swamp that had huge eels in it. The ferry ride was pretty cool to cause there were lots of nice people. At the beach a kid caught a huge eel and it was cool. In the city I got a wicked toque, that says New Zealand and it looks like skaters toque. There were a whole bunch of crazy and noisy birds that were screaming there heads off. Me and danika made these disgusting drinks that had muddy sand and grose seaweed beans in it. But the beach sucked because its was real dirty and the seagulls took up all the room and it was raining when we were there.

After the beach we went to a restaurant and the food was awesome I had real good chicken nuggets and my mom and dad got really good olives and I ate most of em. We also saw some phosphorus floating in the water. It was cool cause it looked like a coral reef. And I think it was red. On the island there were a lot of olives because they grow them there and there were also a lot of mountains, sheep and horses and winery. On the way back to the ferry we saw how tropical the island was because we saw lots of exotic trees and lots of horses and sheep and I really liked Waiheke Island cause it was great.

Did you know the Komodo dragon live in south central Indonesia on an island called Komodo. This island is an national park and protected by the government of Indonesia . These giant monitor lizards can grow up to 10 feet long, 300 pounds and live up to 100 years. They mostly eat wild pigs, Goat, and Deer. I would like to see Komodo island but I wouldn’t want to camp there.

I am not ready to write because I want to go swimming and I don’t feel like writing. I am having a good time but the stinking homework sucks!

We saw a huge komodo dragon and it was so cool! Fact: komodo dragons eat deer, wild pigs, and possibly humans! Oh by the way we went there on a really fast ferry and then we went on cable car up a big huge mountain to the entrance. Ok back to the zoo, We also did another really cool thing………… WE FED GIRAFFES!!!! Well me and danika did. But it was really cool we fed them old apple slices with herbs on it. And we also saw really big tigers and one was in a really bad mood because another tiger went into the other tigers spot and the bad mood tiger charge and fought the other, and the bad mood tiger was very nasty cause he clawed the other harmless tiger on the side of its face! We also saw a huge feircem elephant who was probably having a real bad day because he was trying to break out of his cage and it wasn’t a very nice sound either cause all you could was booooooming!!! Crashing!! And chains snapping so it was freaky.

Danika was one of the main actors in a bird show in the zoo. She did not want to do it but my parents bribed her with a toy. The lady who asked her to do it said it was going to be a baby bird but it was a humangus owl with huge claws and my sister felt the claws even with padded leather glove so she was pretty freaked until she got that toy. He he he! We also saw some huge 2 feet turtles that looked like they were 200 years old. We also saw some cool gorillas and monkey and we found a secret window that had a great view of some. One came right up to the window and ate food! He was sooo cute! (that’s what a sissy girl would say by the way)I would say he looks awesome! Yep! There was one big huge fat gorilla and he was the big boss! He was charging at all the other gorillas cause he needed some food. (He’s actually called a silverback.) I really liked the zoo and I hope you enjoy my story about it cause im da best writer in the family! (just kidding!)

At the museum there was a lord of the rings exhibition and it was so cool! They had all the swords the characters used and they all had dents from hitting things but some were plastic weapons. There were also some really cool shields and armour. They had Gimlis armour they had legolases armour and they had gandalfs staff and clothes. They also had aragorns armour and by the way they had all the weapons with the armour. They also had some of the orcs weapons and armour. Me and my sister and my dad got pictures of us as hobbits and it was so cool because they made it look like one person was bigger than the other. It was sooo funny! We got one picture of danika being bigger than me and one with me bigger than my dad. You were aloud to see how they created Gollum, and the main orcs it was so cool cause the people who played the orcs had to sit in a chair for 10 hours and were painted and they got rubber masks and glued them to there faces. They actually slept in the chair! So it was really cool but its only around for a limited time.

We got off the ship and saw opals that were all types of colours mixed together so opals are really expensive but we got 2 for free! My mom and dad took me to a beach called Glenelg. We were told a story about a 16 year old boy who was eaten by two sharks while being towed behind a boat. We ate at a restaurant and I had a ham and pineapple pizza with danika and it was great . The beach was like a Caribbean island so it was pretty cool. We went boogie boarding and danika was the best boarder (well she was really good but I was better).

The waves were really small so it didn’t work really good. My dad told us that sharks will not come into shallow water so we don’t have to worry. But they actually go onto land to eat people if you can believe it. Father O’Shea told us at dinner that he studied sharks in school, and most attacks happen in 12 inches of water. My Dad does not know about sharks I guess, but atleast he kept watching the water as we played so would not get killed. I thought I saw shark but my dad said I didn’t. I had a really fun time at the beach. The weather was really hot and dry so I burnt my shoulders.

When we finished swimming we went to McDonalds and there were birds in it! But I had a really good cheeeeeeeeeessseeburgerrrrrrrr!!!!!!! My mouth is watering now so my dad is gonna get mad (just joking) We took a cab back to the ship and we got more opals…

I went to hear a man talk today about being a hostage and it was cool and funny. The mans name was Mr. Waite and he was taken hostage and thrown and chained in a cell for 5 years. He told us some funny stories, one was about a time when they threw him in a car and he noticed another body in the car so he said there’s not a lot room in here and the man replied saying well there was until you got in! The other was they wanted to put him in a trunk but he was 6 foot 7 so they couldn’t even close it even when they sat on the trunk it still would not close so they put him in a refrigerator and then he found out that when you shut the door the light goes out!

I did not really want to go to this but my dad said I had and it was hard to understand. I have to go to 2 more of these talks as part of my school work but that’s ok because he is getting to the good part which is when he gets locked in a cell and there about to attack him.

We got off the ship and got a train to go to a beach near Perth . On the way to the beach we saw wild cock-a-toos in the trees they were very annoying. We went to the beach my mom and dads friends from the ship and we had a great time! When we got there the waves were humongous! Me and Danika played in the water with the huge waves and when the waves hit us we went flying. So it was really fun! Then one of my mom and dads friends Hooten buried me in the sand and made me look like I was sticking out of the ground! He got a picture of me. Me Danika and my dad made a big shark out of the sand it looked real until I stuck a cigar in his mouth! After we ate lunch well we watched parrots and seagulls fight. The lunch was awesome! Then my mom and dads friends had to go back to the boat so we went to Perth and I got a 20 $ book called “A series of unfortunate events” The first book out of 3 I think and its called the bad beginning. I’ve almost read all of it. We went to the art gallery of Western Australia and it was sort of boring but at least we got in for free.

Whiteman National Park and Game Reserve - received February 20

We drove about an hour from Freamantle to big park called Caversham Wildlife game reserve. This place had kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils and much more.

We went to see a this huge koala looking thing called a Wombat and it was huge my dad and mom held him but I didn’t.

Then we went to see rabbits and feed this Lama, went it ate out of your hand and it felt really weird.

On the way to the kangaroo area we saw these huge Camels and you can ride them but we didn’t have any time so that would have been cool but we will do it in Egypt.

We came to this very large gate that let you into this huge park that had Kangaroos we fed them and pat them it was sooo cool!

The Kangaroos were pretty soft but one of them had sharp teeth. After we fed one of the fat kangaroos farted!

There were herds of them and you were not allowed to run because it would scare them away and that wouldn’t be very good would it?

After we went to see the Koalas and they were all sleeping they actually sleep 20 hours a day and wake up at night and eat then they sleep again.

There was this bird that was saying hello! Hello! And he sounded like an old lady!

I really really liked this place and after I got a kangaroo pen that had buttons and when you pressed the buttons it would punch and it had boxing gloves on its hands so it was cool.

Today we went to listen to the Captain talk about stuff and everyone got to ask him questions.

The QE2 can even carry cars and once carried a tortoise, a limo, a wolf hound, rats, expensive cars.

A Ship is the best place to be in a tsunami because the water moves at the bottom and only makes big waves when it gets close to shore.

The ship has an operating room and someone once had there appendix removed and a baby was born.

Captain Mcnaught calls the Queen Mary scary Mary because they once had a race to a port and the QE2 won because the ship is the fastest crew ship in the world.

In the 80s the QE2 was converted to a military ship to help fight the war in the Falkland Islands and they converted it in 1 week and loaded 35 hundred soldiers and a helicopter pad.

The QE2 then broke the record for the longest passage ever by any ship without stopping when it went to fight in the Falklands .

One lady asked if many kids want to become a captain on a crew ship and he said no because they all want to be fire fighters.

As part of my schoolwork, my dad feels it’s important that I listen to Mr. Waites lectures. I feel that it is pretty interesting but he just uses some very complicated words for a 9 year old.

by thinking of math equations in every way. Mr. Waite communicated to the other hostages by tapping on the wall so the code would be like 1 tap would be A and so on. He went to Washington and took a picture at the Whitehouse with Vise president George Bush senior. When the story broke about the Iran contra (whatever that means?) the hostage takers captured him because they thought he was connected with the Americans and he could give them info. He was chained hands and feet to a wall for five years. They asked him what he wanted and he always said books. Then one day a nice guard gave him a book called THE GREAT ESCAPE! The poor guard couldn’t read English so he got him just any old book. He was in an interrogation room and they told him he only had 5 hours to live then they put him back into a room and he fell asleep. When he woke up he heard the door unlock and a guard stepped in and asked if he needed anything before his death and he said I need to write a note to my family so they gave him a pencil and paper but he was blind folded so he looked thru the crack at the bottom and wrote. The guard took the letter but Mr. Waite found out they never sent it. The guard if anything again and he said a cup of tea. So he drank the tea and they asked once more and he said I need to pray so he did. The guards told him to turn around so he did then he felt a gun point to his head and the guard all of the sudden said MAYBE ANOTHER TIME. That was very weird! At one point he got very sick so they taped him up and they drove him to a doctor’s house so he could be examined. Before that they said they would let him go but they lied!

When they said they’d let him free they made him dress up like a lady and they drove to a family of threes house and a mom a dad and a little boy stepped out of the building and went out to greet him but when the boy saw him he screamed and ran back inside. The guards said they had to chain him to a wall but the dad argued saying “WE CANT HAVE A MAN CHAINED TO A WALL IN OUR HOUSE!”

Terry Waite has been a hostage for over 5 years, locked in a cell, sometimes blind folded. He was taken hostage in Beirut . He communicated by tapping on a wall. One of the guards was nice enough to get books to read in his cell but the guard could not read English. Mr. Waite was usually transported by being taped up and thrown in the back of a car. At one point he thought he was going to die because one guard pointed a gun to his head, but he dropped the gun and said “maybe another time”. Mr. Waite’s friends were also hostages and they had to eat a sheep’s head with everything in it and on it. The head guard told another guard to buy food for the hostages but he secretly pocketed half the money and when they found out they took him outside and shot him with a gun. When Mr. Waite was released, an Airforce plane took him home and when he got there he could not even recognize his kids. I am glad I saw Mr. Waite and listened to him, he is a nice man.

Nagasaki city, Japan, western Kyushu island, capital of Nagasaki . The first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima . It followed with a second bomb against Nagasaki on August 9^th.

According to U.S. estimates 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed by the Hiroshima bomb called “Little boy” and about 70,000 and 1 third of the city by the bomb dropped on Nagasaki , called “fat man.”

The only thing left of a church is this tower of bricks. That was one powerful bomb

These are the only times that a nuclear weapon has been used in a conflict between nations. There is no escaping the association of the atomic bomb with Nagasaki . It fell on the people in the ancient community just after 11am, August 9^th, 1945. The fat man, the bomb was twice as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb that was dropped a few days earlier. All was quiet in Nagasaki . At precisely 11:o2am, there was silence. “I was very thirsty, and went out for water: I found the water with something like oil all over it. I wanted the water so much that I drank as it was with oil over it”. –Sachiko Yamaguchi (age 9 at the time of the bombing ) Peace fountain in Nagasaki ’s Heiwa-koen (peace park) dedicated to those who, like Sachiko, died in a desperate search for water following the atomic blast on August 9^th 1945.

The story of this boy is very sad because lots of other kids died from thirst so that made me feel really sorry for the kids that died.

Today was our first day in Japan and we went to peace park which is exactly were the bomb hit and it was hard to believe. The difference between pearl harbour and Nagasaki was that Japan only bombed the navy ships of the U.S. , but America dropped a bomb in the city and blew up 5 schools including 1/3 of the city so many kids died in class. I understand why we have wars but I don’t understand why they have to kill little kids? After Peace Park we went to the museum and it was graphic and scary and that is where I saw the pictures of the schools. It showed kids dead with no heads lying on the ground and people with skin torn right off there backs and people that had there heads burnt in half so it made me feel angry and I felt sorry for all those poor people that were innocent being blown up for no reason at all. The museum was terribly scary but it was interesting but still scary so I might have nightmares. I’m glad and sad I went to the park and museum.

In Nagasaki it was really neat the way there cars were so small the way they liked kids so much and they also had lots of neat electronics like really small cameras and video cameras and even high tech cell phones. The coolest thing we saw was this high tech toilet that had a heated seat and a cleaning spray that sprayed on the seat and then it spit out a cleanex to dry it and it had a butt washer and cleaner.

We went to eat at an oriental Japanese restaurant and I had 3 bowls of rice with extra soy sauce. My mom and dad had all that grose seafood stuff. YUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!! After we went to these really boring gardens and we bought tickets but there was nothing to see so I wasted all my energy walking up a stinking mountain!! (what a waste of yens (Japanese $) after I got in so much trouble I couldn’t get the rubber numchucks I wanted at the market. But im goin to get some in Osaka , I hope.

Jujutsu or Jujitsu is a name applied to many styles of Asian martial arts that involve kicking, kneeing, choke holds, throwing, and verified weapons. Ju (Japanese for “gentle or soft”) indicates how much energy is produced by the enemies attack, and jutsu (Japanese for “art”) refers to the use of that energy against the enemy. Unlike most types of martial arts, jujutsu has no standard uniform, nor does it have any spiritual exercises.

Jujutsu is thought to have evolved from martial arts techniques that reached the Japanese islands from mainland Asia and were mixed with the combat techniques already present on the islands. Jujutsu-like fighting practices became an important part of military training among the bushi (samurai class) during the Kamakura period (1185-1333).

Bushido (Japanese, “the way of the warrior”) is the code of ethics observed by the warrior noblemen, or samurai of feudal

Japan

. Like the rules of chivalry that prevailed in medieval Europe , Bushido was based on such virtues as rectitude, endurance, frugality, courage, politeness, veracity, and, especially, loyalty to ruler and country. Only through the exercise of these virtues could a knight maintain his honor, and one who had forfeited honor was compelled to commit suicide by hara-kiri. Fully developed by the late 12th century, Bushido became a written code in the 16th century. When feudalism was abolished about mid-19th century, the code was abandoned, but its influence, mainly on the army, persisted.

We bought an actual dragon samurai sword but unfortunately the boat security took it away until the end of the cruise but I still have a dagger that I might give to my cousin. You should of seen the look on the guys face when he saw the sword but they said this isn’t the first sword they’ve had today.

My mom and dad wanted to go to some temples with some of the crew (our friends) so we did and it was a little interesting. Before you went in you had to walk under a wooden circle with paper lightning bolts on top of it and when you walked under it (without a hat on) you got good luck. There was one temple that had a 15 foot golden Buddha with candles around it. One of the temples was the oldest temple in

Japan

. We saw a lady walking around the 2 posts and prayed to a bowl of water but the weird thing was that she did that for one whole day. It was more like a cemetery than old temples. I sort of liked the temples but I don’t think I’d go back there unless I was more interested. After a man gave us a whole bunch of little turtle cakes we bought tons of things from him and my dad gave him a Canadian dollar and he really liked it. We went down town after and I really liked it, because it was full of very cool Restaurants and arcades, and shops that were really high tech. We went to a Japanese restaurants but I didn’t like it so we went to McDonalds after. I would like to come back to Osaka .

Well………… I LOVED IT! Because it was like Las Vegas but way bigger and busier and a whole bunch of electronic stores and stalls. I got 2 Gameboy advance games and a padded case. One game was the Incredibles and the other was a game that had 106 games loaded on it and they are awesome. But the bad thing was I got a stinking stomach flu and couldn’t go out that much! But when I did go out I had lots of fun. We spent most of our time shopping at the huge midnight market and we got the incredibles dvd that is still in theatres everywhere els. Haha!!! We also got the son of the mask lemony snickets series of ufortunate events. After feeling better we went to a really high peak on Honk Kong island and it was cool but we were only there for a couple minutes. After that we went to a marina and a lady invited us for a ride on her boat which is her house for 200 Hong Kong dollars. We did (of course) but we were sort of nervous because the lady just walked up to and practically threw us into her boat or house. It was cool though because she zoomed us around the harbour. Sorry to say this but she was good for a lady.. hehe sorryyyyyy. She brought us threw this tight fit threw 2 fishing boats and even she was clapping. I know im not supposed start a scentance with but or because but I do so just forget about it!

We drove to Bangkok Thailand with a driver who was really good and fast. He was also good when we almost got in accidents because he would speed like crazy until he got away. He took us to our hotel with our friends and the hotel was the best one yet. It was called the Peninsula Bangkok . Our room wasn’t ready yet so we went to eat at a great Chinese food restaurant and it was good. I had sweet and sour pork and a bowl of rice and you guessed it….. with extra soy sauce. After we went to our room…. Well it wasn’t exactly a room, it was the biggest room in the hotel which was so called the grand suite! Gosh it was a sweet suite! The rooms curtains opened and closed with a remote and the bath tub had a T.V.! After discovering our huge room that had a view of Bangkok we went on a canal tour. So we went down to the docks and payed the money and a nice big boat pulled up so we got all excited but then it left and a long junky boat with holes and an old engine pulled up so we got sort of nervous but we went on anyways. He drove us out of the harbour and into this old place where lots of very poor people lived in these old squares made out of rusty metal so it was quite sad but most of the people waved to us. And that made me feel a bit better. I saw this huge lizard that was on the rocks and it was about 6 feet long! After about an hour he took us to a crocodile farm and he told us to go in so we bought tickets and walked in. At the entrance there was a spider monkey on a leash jumping around but when we got in side we were totally scared, well I wasn’t, but my mom and dad were. My dad was especially scared because they had some of the longest killer snakes in the world like the king cobra and a Viper and a man ran up to us and said “I’m taking out a king cobra and a Viper and doing a show”. The snakes were sitting in a sack almost right in front of us but, my mom and dad didn’t want to see the show. The snakes were in cages with holes that were filled with plastic bags and card board so they would not escape. There were monkeys and a huge tiger and you could stick your head in its cage but you wouldn’t want to, so we tried to leave but the guy tried to stop us, but we left any way. So the boat driver took us to 2 or 3 temples that had bhudas in them. One of the bhudas was almost all solid gold and it was the most biggest statue I’d ever see. It was called the reclining bhuda. I got a gold coin from that temple. I think I know why they are so poor, because they probably spend all of their money on those beautiful temples, gold and gem bhudas.

On the way back we all saw a smaller lizard but my dad says it was huge, but the one I saw was bigger. So the day was awesome except all of the poor people and the polluted waters and skies. The streets of Bangkok were very dangerous because of all the poor people, but the weird thing was every body had motor cycles! There were more motorcycles then cars! The coolest part in the hotel was the huge pool or pools because there were four pools connected so you just need to swim under a brisge and climb up and down waterfalls. I liked seeing Bangkok but I did not like seeing the poor people. It made think what it would be like to be poor, and it wasn’t very good. I might want to go back there when I get older, WAY OLDER and stronger.

The day started by getting on a bus with our friend Hala and her friend. The driver drove for an hour and we finally got to a little city called Kuala Lumpur . It was extremely hot! We pulled right beside the world’s tallest building. It was made out of stainless steel! We tried to go up it but there were no more tickets left so we went to a big mall and we saw a big event going on about 2 F1 racers and one of them was from Quebec . It was so cool! We could of just walked down there and got an autograph or picture from them! But we just mostly bought Danika birthday presents. We drove back with a crazy taxi driver and we drove by the Kings palace, the railway station and the new monorail system. I would like to come to Malaysia and see this city again.

We got off the boat and got on a shuttle that took us to some malls. The malls weren’t that great because everything was really expensive. Everything was very expensive in Singapore ! So we took a taxi to a place that would take you to some island. When we arrived there was 2 very tall buildings. So we walked in one and went to the ticket booth and wanted to buy a ferry ticket but the ferry was not running so that left us with the really high cable gondola! Dun, dun, duuun!!! Just kidding, my mom was the only one who was scared. When we got to the island she was totally relieved! When we got there we had lunch at Subway and watched a snake charmer. After we took a monorail to an unbelievable beach called Bora Bora . There was a really nice bridge that took you across the water to a fairly small spec of land with a big tall tower. You could also swim to the island in like five minutes, but we did not have our bathing suits so we did not. After looking around we went to sit down and have drinks. After that we went back on the monorail to the Underwater World. We bought tickets and when we got in we saw some really weird fish that looked like shells. They had a whole bunch of bazaar fish like the ones that look like tree sea horses and dragons all at the same time. After the Underwater World we took a bus to a resort that was supposed to have fun mini golf on a mountain. So we went in but couldn’t find where the clubs and stuff were so we looked around. We walked all the way to the top and found a family playing so we asked them where to get them and he said all the way to the bottom so we walked back down and me and my sister played and had lots of fun. But the bad news was when we got back to the ship we found that it had broken down and we had to stay in Singapore another day.

We got on a bus and went around the city of Colombo , Sri Lanka , it was a very very poor city. The bus took us around the city and it was quite nice.

The bus ended up at the bazaar shopping place and it was truly bazaar! When we got out everyone wanted to touch Danikas face so my dad put her on his shoulders but they still would reach up and touch her with there germy hands. When we were driving around the city we saw about twenty bunkers and armoured houses with loaded machine guns and also some rocket launchers. They were making sure that the terrists that were after all there money would not come near it but they were very close to the ship so everyone was scared. After the bazaar we walked 2 blocks to the train station and it was a dangerous place so we payed a taxi driver to drive us to a hotel to have lunch and a swim in the pool so he dropped us off but we didn’t like the hotel so we walked across the street to another one that was way way way way nicer. So we ate lunch at a buffet and then went to a big swimming pool and had lots of fun. After that we headed back to the ship and saw tons more bunkers and when we were going to the gate we saw big spikes blocking some of the gates so no car would smash threw. When we got to the ships area we had to go threw a special way and we walked by a little ticket booth that had a bullet hole in it! And a guy wanted to sell us bunnys that he would high with his hand and we said no so he dropped it 4 feet. We got back to the ship and my mom went shopping and as I am writing this second it is Danikas birthday!

We came into port around 10am, but people could not get out until 10pm. Immigration checked our passports and another ship was in the docks, so we waited until 7pm until it left, at dinner time. We watched the ship leave and it almost hit us. We also saw a submarine that was supposedly driving around our ship since 3 pm for security.

At midnight my dad went out to do his internet junk at a nearby hotel and we stayed back at the ship doing boring stuff. The next day we got off the ship and nervously ran to our tour bus and on the way the smells were extremely smelly. It took us a while to get out the gates but when we got out we headed for the huge laundry village. When we got there all these locals begged and sold stuff and we finally got through the crowd but one little girl kept on following us and waving the whole time even when we weren’t looking at her. When we started back to the bus the girl was still following and Danika says “Hey I made a new friend” and finally the girl gave us her final 100 waves and we got back on the bus. We bought a little elephant with real rubies and crystal built into it for a little more than a dollar American. After that we headed to the 2^nd stop a museum that was actually Gandhis home! Ghandi was a man who stood up for the Indian people and he was a non-violent man who starved himself for peace. His death was dated 1948. He looked freaky because he wore a sheet and was very skinny, if I ever got to meet Ghandi I think I would sort of like him. His house was really small and thin. The best part of the museum was the miniature wax museum and one of the stories was that a white lady on a train complained about Ghandi sitting in the first class section so they threw him off the train. I think he was thrown off because of his skin colour. We got back on the bus and headed to another museum. It was in a huge temple but it was sort of boring except for the animal part where they had all these hunted animals behind glass, like tons of birds, rhinos, tiger, deer, bear, huge and deadly fish, and killer snakes and rare lizards. The rest of the huge museum was statues and old pots and stuff.

My dad wanted to walk to a hotel about 3 blocks away from the museum which kind of made me feel scared and nervous. I felt this way because of all the scary people and there were so many beggars in this area and freaky looking people. When we got out on the street everyone came to us and tried to sell us junk and beg for food and money. It made me feel weird. My dad said to me that this was the poorest place he had ever seen, but I said it wasn’t. Sri Lanka was a little worse, it’s just that Mumbai had way more beggars on the streets. The people in Sri Lanka had nothing at all, almost like these people, but kind of different. The people in India had super nice cars and hotels that we don’t even have at home. We made it to the Taj hotel ALIVE!!!!! The walk from the museum was kind of cool because we walked down the middle of the streets, and ran away from crowds of beggars just like we were running away from the police, like we were criminals almost.

The hotel was very, very, very, nice. First we went for lunch at a Chinese restaurant called Golden Dragon and we only ate 4 small dishes and some pop and it cost us more than $100 American! So after, headed out to the pool and it was big with 2 lions spraying out water. It was soooooooo fun! Outside the Taj was the Gateway to India that looked over the Arabian Sea . The Gateway to India is the gate where all the important things from ships come in. Around the hotel there were tons of dingo dogs that looked like they were dead and even more people selling these big junky balloons that were like $30 of their money. After we got in a cab and we stopped at an intersection 2 homeless kids about my age walked up to my closed window and started talking to me in their language and it seemed that they wanted me to come out and I think they also wanted my hat and shirt probably because they had old rags on.

Mumbai was very, very, dirty and poor but had lots of unbelievable buildings and cars but it was a very good experience.

I hope one day when I’m older I’d like to come back and experience all the other cool things of Mumbai , India .

I am very, very sorry to say that today March 30, 2005, the Queen Elizabeth 2 got a may day call from another freighter ship saying that one of their crew members was seriously injured and after 20 minutes by the time a tender boat got there he had died. The rumour was that he was painting and fell off a ladder a couple stories and died from his injury. Everyone was very sad and shocked that this had happened but we tried and we failed our mission. They say that if he was alive they would of took him to our ship and a helicopter would land and bring him to safety.

We almost did not get to go to Dubai because of high winds called shamal. The waves were too big for us to go into port but we had 600 passengers and a new captain to pick up so I knew we were going to get in. Dubai is a very rich and wealthy place. It is because it has the only 7-star hotel and really nice cars and no one is ever begging. The first thing we did was we got in a taxi and drove to a hotel that had a seven star rating and was called the Burj al Arab but I was feeling car sick and we were not aloud to go in. The hotel was right beside a big water park on a little mountain called WildWadi and it looked so cool with all the 70 mph slides and stuff. My dad said we should walk to somewhere nice so I could get my mind off it. We ended up at this really different mall that was pretty much outside. We saw a real racing motorcycle in a miniature version and it’s the newest thing and its called a pocket bike but it doesn’t even fit in your pocket but it goes super duper gooper mooper flooper hooper fast for a little toy bike. After my dad finished doing his 400,000 pictures (not that many but a lot) we got in a taxi and we went to the Fairmont to eat lunch and go swimming. When we got there, there was a formula 1 car and it looked like a rocket car. We went up to one of the restaurants on the ninth floor and the hotel was absolutely stunning by the way. The restaurant was extremely fancy and I had pepperoni pizza and it was awesome! We got these little fun books that said things about Dubai and I will tell you right about now…….. 7 hours later ok here we go……… ………..The Dubai creek divides Bur Dubai and Deira. The president of the UAE is H.H. Sheikh Zayed. The ruler of Dubai is Sheikh Maktoom. The UAE is made up of seven Emirates. The national bird of the UAE is the falcon. The national animal is the camel. Souk in Arabic means market. Dubai has 2 seaports/harbours. The traditional dress for men is called Khandora. The traditional dress for ladies is called Abaya. Whew that was long and my wrist is starten to hurt, are your eyes startin to hurt? Well…. never mind I really need to finish this stinking story so I better get going again…….. Ok back to the hotel ……LOADING…… After lunch we went to ask if we could go in the small swimming pool and they said 180 us $ please so my dad just walked away but then he thought he could get a discount for being a member of the Fairmont so he went back and payed $83 for me and my sister to go swimming and if you can believe it, it was tooooo cold so we barely went in at all but I met a friend anyway and there were a whole bunch of rock bands at the pool from the U.K. and I got to meet Justin from Darkness and the manager of the band. I didn’t know if Darkness was famous and boy they were! They were part of the soundtrack of Bridget Jones Diary’s. I know this is really late but I forgot to say that before we got to Dubai we went up on deck at night and saw Iran ! We might come back to Dubai cause its tooooooooooo coooooooooooooooooooool.

We first went to a place called Muscat and I liked it even though it was small and there was nothing to do at all except buy stuff. We got off the ship and got on a bus and it took us to the souk which means market in Arabic. After we got off the bus and we got on a taxi and asked him to drive us around Muscat so he did. We passed this huge sand castle and I mean a real castle made out of sand and bricks that went all over Muscat and after about ten minutes we were back where we started which meant we were finished so now you know how small Muscat, Oman, is. So we went shopping in the souk that was really different but big. We got to this little shop that had the traditional wear of men in the UAE and Oman which is a little hat with designs and a long robe that looks like a dress but it’s really cool. So me and my dad got it from a really nice man. Everything was old or expensive though they were very nice. If I ever go back to Muscat or the place you will be finding out about soon, I will get the last thing you need for the khondora clothing which is a little scarf that you can wrap around you head or neck.

So now you can see why Muscat is a pretty nice place with all the nice people and clothing except for one man who hit me and my dad on the legs with his cane so he could get through. WHAT A RUUUDE MAN!!!!!!

We then went to a place called Salalah (2 days later) and it was really awesome! We planned to go around Salalah with our friends (10 people altogether) in a little van but he didn’t understand and didn’t come. So we took a bus out to the gate and we got out and 1 of our friends went to the police station to ask for some transportation for 10 while we stayed in the piping hot weather. I got a little too hot and went into the air conditioned police station as well. After a while the 50 taxi drivers sitting out in the street heard about us wanting a van for ten people and they got really angry at the police and kept coming in and yelling at the police for letting us do this because they really wanted money and so they could take us. They wouldn’t settle down so some of the police came out and wrote most of them tickets and after 30 minutes of madness the van arrived and we got in. Our friend was born in Egypt so she could speak the language which got us to all these places. So give a special thanks because she made our day special. As you know Oman is pretty close to Egypt which means there are more camels here then anywhere else in the world. And we got to take pictures of them but later I will tell you something amazing about them. The man who drove us spoke no English as you can see. After we got out of the little town of Salalah we headed into the desserts and up into the mountains. On our way to our first stop there were tons and tons of camels and we saw one in the middle of the road, it was dead as a doorknob with its head missing and its gore and flesh all around it. The first stop was in a deserted area and here is the really cool part………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….IT WAS A CAMEL FARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we got out and we were allowed to pat the camels and one of our friends told me to come and pat the one he was patting and he said “its not going to bite, don’t worry at all” and right when he said that the camel constantly tried to bite his hand and he said,” never mind”!!!! All the camels really did was stand there and fart and burp and one of our friends tried some camel milk and they said it tasted good but after they didn’t look too good. After that a guy with a cane came out and started chasing the camels into a valley. I bet 10000000000000000000000000000000,90987 dollars that you didn’t know that camels could run really fast like horses. Oh ya and forget about all that money cause I don’t even have 1 quarter of it!! After that we went up a big mountain with twisty and ziggy roads and I bet you half a penny that you didn’t know that some countries drive on the right side of the road some countries drive on the left side of the road but in this country you drive on both sides of the road so when you went around sharp turns there could be a head on collision just like we almost did. Our second stop was a little area with caves all around it and a big body of water. My dad was about to take a swim until we spotted a hidden sign that said something along the lines of “don’t swim in here or else you will die” don don donnnnn!!! Good thing they spotted it out eh?

And there were 2 guys swimming in it having a great time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After that stop we went back into Salalah and went to an Omanian food restaurant and when we got in a guy who spoke no English (once again)led us to a room were we would eat and he shut the door and you had to sit on pillows on the floor and it was an amazing meal. And it was only 5 dollars each for 9 of us and there was tons and tons and tons take away one tons food. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm makes me feel reaaaaallllly hungryyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After the reallyyyyyyy good food we went to a little street market and I got a free gemstone necklace and a toy gun and bow and arrow. It truly was a coooooooooooooooooooool street. After that we hurried back to the ship so it wouldn’t leave without us.

Today we went to Jordan a country that is between Israel , Iraq and Saudi Arabia . We could see Israel as it was only a minute away. The day started when we were on a bus out of the terminal and these taxi’s started chasing us because they wanted money so we all got off and a big argument started between the bus driver and the taxi drivers. We crossed the road to a really nice taxi driver named Rushdi with a 4x4 jeep and we asked him if he could take us all day to Petra and a hotel for 50 but we paid him more at the end. When we started we saw really nice mountains and dessert and he noticed us admiring them so he said he would take us there too. We had to wait 2 hours till we got to Petra and all of a sudden we stopped at a little corner store and Rushdi got out and came back in 1 minute later with about 20 chocolate bars for me and Danika. They were really goooooooood! They were caramel chocolate bars mmmmmm!!! One hour later we arrived at little Petra because big Petra was too long of a walk. So we got out and went through the gate and we found our selves in a rock village that was 2000 years old! It was amazing and nobody else was there. Back then they lived in little rock caves and cooked over little fires. We got to go inside the little caves and up their little rock stairs. The place was really cool and quiet. We took many pictures as you can see. And I found very old rocks that I still luckily have. And there was also big rock temples and smashed up paintings on the wall. So we all had a very good time there but eventually it was time to leave to the next stop. The next stop was probably one of the nicest place I’ll ever go. It was called Wadi Rum a plain and rocky dessert. How we got there was quite bazaar because we pulled up to the middle of the road and then turned into a little farming village and turned out of the village and into a really sandy area and kept on driving. We saw flowers and we saw the big dessert rocks getting closer and closer and found our selves in the middle of a dessert. We drove for about 30 minutes and stopped at 2 big rocks and of course I got out and started to climb the really big rock that was about 30 feet and I got to the top and the wind almost blew me right off my feet. It was really cold in the dessert you know… a bit too cold. After that we went to the world’s largest natural made bridge and got a picture standing on it. It was quite hard to climb it because of all the large and steep rocks on it and they were also blocking the path to get up it. After that Rushdi drove us to some guys that let us ride their camels for 5 minutes or so in circles in the dessert and they sure smelled bad. My dad’s camel almost bit my leg right off and when they sat down and got up they were hard to stay on that’s for sure. After that Rushdi drove us a little bit and then stopped and looked at me and said ”its your turn to drive!” So I hopped onto the driver’s seat and almost drove better than Rushdi! I probably learnt it from all those videogames I’ve played in my life? And I drove for about 5 minutes and then it was my moms turn!!!! And she almost flipped the dang thing over! So now I can say the first time I ever drove was in the middle of a dessert in Jordan . Rushdi drove us farther into the dessert and stopped again and said Nikolas, go climb that mountain of sand by running up it without using my hands but my mission failed so he took us to a littler one and I still couldn’t do it. When were driving we thought we saw a lake and we were very sure it was a lake. Rushdi told us it was a mirage. A mirage is when the dessert plays tricks on your eyes especially when you are thirsty.

I realyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy liked my trip today and i am definitely coming back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got back to Aqaba and went for a great lunch while my dad went to the internet café.

The first thing about

Egypt

I have to tell about is how dangerous it is. We left the ship in a convoy of 20 buses and there were over 20 S.W.A.T and police trucks, motorcycles and cars securing us throughout the tour. The tour we went on was called Pyramids and Lunch on the Nile . We went through tons of dessert for 2 and a half hours until we got to the pyramids. Our driver was absolutely crazy, probably because we all woke up at 6:00 am. The whole way he would speed at like 90 mph and a cop on a motorcycle kept on speeding up to the bus and he probably was saying, “Are you crazy!!” And he would try to speed all the way to the front of the line.

We finally entered Cairo and we were almost at the pyramids of Giza . 1 hour and a half later………. O.K. maybe we aren’t that close……..15 minutes later……… Ah, here we are at the pyramids of Giza that are 45 hundred years old!!! Bum bud a rummmm!! So we got out and took pictures from a high cliff. After this, he would actually take us to the pyramids….STARTING UP BUS……Leaving…….. Here we are!!!! We got out of the bus and followed our guide into the second pyramid because it’s the only one you can go in. If you look at the pictures on the site you will see a medium sized pyramid with white stuff at the very tip top. We waited in line for a minute and finally got to the front and headed down to the entrance……..tick. .tock…… And we bent down and went through the pyramid and it was boring. There were tons and tons of people though. We had to bend down the whole entire way because the ceiling is as tall as Danika, but we stopped right by the middle and headed back because Danika and her 2 friends were too scared. And my mom didn’t come because she is claustrophobic. When we got out of the pyramid, we were quite late for the bus and my mom was no where to be seen. After we looked for her for 3 minutes we heard STEVE!!!!!!! My mom yelled from a far with some Egyptian head ware on, “I NEED MONEY!!!” She yelled again so my dad ran over and started arguing with her. And we went over and met the salesmen and my dad only had a 20 $ bill and it was only $1!!! And the bus was about to leave so my dad gave him the bill and asked for change but he just gave us more and more stuff because he knew we were late for the bus so we just ran to the bus and got in right when the doors shut. So this wasn’t a great tour because we only got 10 minutes at each stop. After that we drove to the great Sphinx and all it really was was a big block and a big lion type head and paws. My mom gave me a lucky charm that she got from those guys that ripped of my dad and its now a necklace. And we bought some more head were and I got a blue one. After the Sphinx we stopped at a jewelers shop for 20 minutes or longer. And I got a little 18 carrot gold necklace hook on that has NIK written on it in Hieroglyphic which is the ancient Egyptian writing and its little symbols. I got it for 50 American bucks and on the back it has the key to life which means live for ever and it has the Egyptian good luck symbol. After that we headed to the Nile River that is the longest river in the world. We got there after 30 minutes and got on a little ferry. It really was a floating restaurant with 8 armed guards with machine guns hidden in their suites. Every time we went under a bridge the police closed it off until we left. We ate really good food and it was a buffet with a really good band playing. The river was quite dirty but filled with small and big fish. Did you know that the Nile goes all the way through Africa and even more places?? Didn’t think so. We sailed through the Nile for 1 hour and a half and got back to were we started and got off the boat and back onto the bus. We had to stop about 15 minutes later in middle of a bridge so the other bus could change buses because their bus wasn’t working right. So after 5 minutes we were on our 2 and a half hour trip back to the ship. It seemed that the way back felt like 24 hours to me but eventually we made it back and waited in line and listened to a band play and got back to the room and boom non of us fell asleep!!

I liked

Egypt

and I might come back to see the Mosques and the other pyramids. Next time I am going to see the pyramids longer than 10 minutes.

It’s 5pm and we just entered the Mediterranean Sea after spending all day in the Suez Canal . The Canal was cool and there was a war between Israel and Egypt and Israel had a smaller army than Egypt but

Israel

blew up there whole airport and won. Along the way we saw soldiers and blown up vehicles and also destroyed buildings. Most of the canal was Egyptian army bases that had about 15 soldiers in each building. We came across a memorial for World War 2 that was shaped like the end of a gun. The Suez Canal is very long and interesting and it would be O.K. to go through again. It only took us about 10 or 11 hours to go through.

We went to a town called Marmaris on the north coast of Turkey . The town was really dirty and crazy. People were screaming and yelling in very weird voices. Motorcycles would speed through the markets. So I didn’t like the city but I liked what we did. We went to the market and I got a game boy game called the legend of Zelda a link to the past and it’s awesome. After that we took a taxi into a deserted town and went to a hotel but it was everything in it was closed. And it was also in renovation. Everything closed between 1 and 4 and then everything opens (in the hotel) but we left anyways. On our way for something to eat we were stopped by a salesman so we went into his clothes store and I got a hoodie that had the word SPITFIRE on it and a flame head and it’s really cool. After that we went to another hotel and every thing was closed in there as well but we went to a little shop and got 2 bags of chips and some shampoo and when we got out of the store I couldn’t help but opening a chip and eating some because I was really hungry but my dad got mad. Since we were all sooooooooo hungry we got to go to………………………MCDONALDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and it was deserted as well but it was opened. I ate 2 cheeseburgers, a thing of fries, an orange fanta, some of a chocolate bar and that’s it. That’s a lot. After that we hopped in a taxi and drove back to the ship. Now you see why I liked what I did. I might come back to turkey when I’m 100,000,000 years old, but maybe before that.

We got off the ship and my Dad started talking to a taxi man to see if he could take us around. We chose that taxi and the man’s name was Salvatore and the first place he took us was Pompeii . I found the next bunch of stuff from an encyclopedia:

“Pompeii, ancient city of Italy, in the Campania Region, built at the mouth of the Sarnus River (now Sarno), a few miles south of Mount Vesuvius, between Herculaneum and Stabiae. The city was founded about 600 BC by the Oscans, who were later conquered by the Samnites. Under the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla it became a Roman colony in 80 BC and later a favorite resort for wealthy Romans, reaching a population of about 20,000 at the beginning of the Christian era. It was also a place of considerable trade and was the port town of Nola and other inland cities of the fertile valley of the Sarnus. The city was much damaged by an earthquake in 63AD and was completely demolished in79AD by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius that overwhelmed the towns of Pompeii , Herculaneum , and Stabiae. The eruption also changed the course of the Sarnus and raised the sea beach, placing the river and the sea at a considerable distance from the ruined city and obscuring the original site.”

The first thing you see before you get into Pompeii is a huge volcano called Mt. Vesuvius and you also see a whole bunch of little destroyed brick houses connected together. These are the ruins that were destroyed by a flow of lava and an earthquake and the lava killed the whole city (over 20,000 people was the population at the time 2000 years ago).

When we got there Salvatore brought us inside a shell place were they carved really nice things on shells big and small. After that we went over to the entrance of the now destroyed ruins. We got inside and headed to the interesting and big places. It was like the worlds biggest castle without a roof. There really only was little no-roofed houses that were stores way back when and big building that looked like temples that they used for the court of law. There were 2 mummies in glass cases that were so old that they were covered in rock and they looked like as if they died when they were boxing because their arms looked like one arm was about to punch and the other arm looked like it was blocking. And you could see their bones and their teeth and it looked like they were about to jump out and eat you right up. And when we were walking by walls we saw about 4 lizards climbing them. This place was about the size of a real city or town. After Pompeii we went to a stall and got some freshly squeezed orange juice and it was good. After that we went to a place called the Adalfi Coast and it was all mountains and rocky beaches but it was still really nice. It was really steep as well. After the coast we went to Sorrento and ate lunch at a pizza parlor. I ordered a pepperoni pizza and it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even my dad had the best pizza he ever had, and even though my dad’s pizza didn’t have cheese on it because of his allergy he still loved it. After the pizzas we went for gelato (Ice cream) and I chose a really good fruity one. Even my dad had some ice cream so he was in wonderland. After we ordered and got our ice cream and we went out the back door and we were in a new world. A thin little alley with shops along and motorcycles and scooters zooming by. After that we hopped in the car and went for a drive. Have you ever seen the movie The Italian Job because it’s about stunt cars racing through Venice and Sal drove just like that. He almost hit cars and people he was going so fast but we made it back to the ship alive. He said he learnt that stuff from Playstation2 and he was like, older than my dad!

I just read the guest book on our web page and I would just like to give a really really really special hello and thanks to Mrs. Johal and my class and also I’d like to say hello and thanks to Mrs. Strilive and her class. My cousin is coming here tomorrow and I am really excited. Micheal if you are reading this than im really really really really really really really really really really really excited and me and you are going to have sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun in this beautiful place. Now this is what is around this place……5 swimming pools, a theme park, a lot of water parks, bowling and I think a video arcade and the beach. I’m lucky that we are living in this beautiful area and not in another stinky old weird town. The language Espanola is extremely hard. All I know is hola and grassies. All the people know English a little tiny bit but some do know English. The town house we are in has a cold floor so you always have to wear you shoes except in bed. Life in Spain is quite nice actually. Getting away from all the other tourists except you guys. The weather is quite cold if you can believe it. We went on a drive for 14 hours and it was like torture for kids. .So I hope you all have a great time in Canada and everywhere else you are from.

The first thing I saw was poverty. We got on a bus and headed to the ferry terminal. We had to get up at 5:00am for this tour!

We got to the ferry terminal and it was not very dark anymore. We waited a little bit and then went into the terminal. My dad got me and my cousin each doughnuts. They were really good but bad was about to strike. We got on the boat and had to wait 2 hours of boredness, but finally got to Africa and got off the boat and continued on to lunch.

The starting of our journey to Africa was quite nice with all the scenery and buildings. We passed by caves and drove on large mountains roads. After that we stopped at a large palace and looked at a cactus from Mexico and a tree from Saudi Arabia . The owner of this palace was from Saudi Arabia as well. We got back on the bus and continued on to our place to have lunch. Lunch was going to be in a grand tent with a band playing and it sure was cool. There were even more camels for people to ride around on. At the gate there were two guys on horses with rifles and then a drummer and two dancers stepped out and did some cool things. The lunch was awesome and it was couscous and taco meat and also soup. Well, the music was playing, people came up and started dancing. We got back into the bus and went onwards to the shopping bazaar. We went in a little shop filled with rugs and antiques. When you walk up to something they would say, “Oh, I’ll give you this for 30 euros” and on and on and would not leave you alone. After, we walked down an alley and homeless salesman would be worse then the licensed salesmen by aggressively stopping us. After, we went to a pharmacy and were talked to by a funny scientist and he showed us his unbelievable powder medicine. He said that some can help with all sicknesses, like diabetes and cramps in all places and some give you better memory and more energy. After, we made it through the big crowd of evil sales people and back into the bus and back to the ferry terminal alive. I might not go back to Morocco but I’ll go back to Africa someday sometime.

We went to this big rock called Gibraltar and it was really cool. We got on a bus and went to an area where we went on tours. We went on a tour that took us around to some areas. So we got on a little bus and went to the entrance but had to wait because an airplane was landing. After we got in the front gates we went to a little ocean pier that had a view of a mountain with a 100 ton gun. On the sides of the mountain there were holes from canons. There are a lot of very old buildings in Gibraltar which makes it a very nice place. Did you know that Africa and Europe were joined way back when but an old legend says Hercules separated the two when he was hunting for a golden apple? We went to a cave called St. Michaels cave. It was really cool with all its stalagmites and rare rock. After the cave we went to a little area with a whole bunch of wild monkeys!

The monkeys were actually little tiny apes with no tails. They really act like humans because of how smart they are. I took a picture with a really depressed monkey who kept on giving me dirty looks. Some of the monkeys would jump on top of the other little tour buses and ride. When they see food they can be very vicious about it with their very sharp teeth and their powerful jumping power. One person who came on this tour took a picture with her arm around the monkey and was bit twice. We went to our next stop which was another little area with some more monkeys. We saw a man with a food bag and a little monkey zoomed over and took it but luckily dropped it and we found out it was his camera. Soon after a lady walked over to a little group of monkeys and the 2^nd smallest one jumped on her and she was very frightened. After monkey mania we went to a little square and had lunch and went shopping and had a very, very nice time in Gibraltar .

Today we went to a really cool museum on bull fighting. I got to stand in the middle of the dirt arena and sit on some of the chairs/benches in the stands. Bull fighting is a very dangerous and cruel sport. The Object of the game is to make the bull run through a red cloth and right when it goes through it, you throw a sword in it’s back. Bull’s are very attracted to red so it’s pretty easy to get him over to you. The museum we went to was right under the stands. This arena had the very first bull fight way back in 1785. In the museum they had used clothes with blood still on it and horns of some famous bulls. This was a great experience.

On the 27^th of April 2005 we arrived in Algarve , Portugal . We stayed in the Sheraton, Pine Cliff Resort and stayed for 4 days. There are 4 swimming pools, a golf course, Porto Pirata which is a little kid’s fun park, mini golf, an arcade, a Junior Activities center, tennis courts, and the most beautiful beach. Including some restaurants, and the nicest areas. The hotel lands are very big and beautiful. It’s in the middle of no where but it’s worth the drive. We had the best time there and will hopefully go back. This hotel should be the best hotel in the world. Our toilet in our first room was plugged so we moved to number 270 on the 2^nd floor and it was the same room as the last one. Our rooms were average sized, 1 queen bed and a cot. Not very good for bouncing, but still pretty cool. The arcade was really big and fun and I pretty much went every night because my nice dad used tons of euros just for me to have fun, thanks dad. I wasn’t allowed to be registered for Porto Pirata because I was too old so I went to the junior activities. It was cool and fun and I pretty much went once a day. I played mini golf a lot and I played basketball with my mom and dad and I had a private tennis lesson. We went swimming in the indoor pool and you have to wear these caps in indoor swimming pools all over Portugal for sanitary reasons. I went boogie board surfing at the beach and there were really big waves and I even saw a couple real surfers.

On May 1^st 2005 we arrived in Lisboa ( Lisbon in English) at 2:30 in the afternoon. Lisboa is the capital city of Portugal so it’s really busy. All you can hear is sirens and honking. The day we got there it was like a ghost town. Everything was closed except for a little coffee shop where we ate lunch that same day. We stayed at another Sheraton but it was a regular hotel. The next day (today) we went through the city again site seeing. We went to that coffee shop again for breakfast\lunch. We had scones and some crepes and 2 chocolate muffins. We walked around the city a bit again and then got on a bus to go to a castle. We went on bus number 37 and he was absolutely crazy. He would speed up little alleyways and he was driving so crazy he hit the side of a building. Amazingly we made it to the fortress alive but surprised. The fortress was called ST. GEORGE’S CASTLE and here are some little tips on it.

“The St. Georges castle rises up on the highest hill of old Lisboa where the first known fortification to be built dates back to 138 BC. The thousands of visitors that flock to the Castelo Sao Jorge enjoy a unique culture and fun experience. The castle and its residential area is today a place of outstanding originality combining the cosmopolitan area of the castle with the hubbub of life in one of Lisboa’s oldest parts.” Now here is something quite interesting. “The Ulysses Tower-Dark Chamber……Installed in the castle, in the Ulysses Tower , where the Royal Treasure was once kept, is the Periscope, an optic system invented by Leonardo da Vinci in the 16^th century. It allows us to have a 360 degree view of Lisbon in real time.”

We came back to the area where we started and we went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. And we listened to some awesome music and we bought some stuff. I got a Hard Rock Café Lisbon baseball cap and it’s really cool. I didn’t really like Lisboa because it’s really busy, dirty and there is quite some poverty.

This one is another one of the millions they have taken in front of the Grand Palace, Madrid

On May 3^rd 1200 BC, just joking, we arrived in Madrid Spain and we are staying in the 4 star Crowne Plaza Espana. It really should be a 6 star because it’s really nice. We have 2 rooms but the one I’m writing in is the biggest and it’s me and my moms, hahahehehahaweewee (cough, cough)!! Madrid is like Lisbon, Portugal …….busy…….crazy……lots of sirens! There are lots of accidents and honking but lots of police. There are also aloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot of ambulance about 5 times a day or more, just like the one I’m hearing right now. Except here the buildings are cleaner than the ones in Lisbon . The food is pretty much the same in each restaurant, it’s…….Chicken, Seafood, Steak, and Paella. The best restaurant we’ve ate at is the Xi Maria. We went to an art gallery and all the art is not a copy it’s actually done by the artist. There was lots of art from a man from Madrid named Francisco de Goya. He is quite a good artist and it’s easy to notice his art because it’s blurry, and mostly dark and creepy. The pieces of art are very old and are mostly paintings of Jesus when he was being crucified or when he was alive and it was pretty interesting even though I don’t really understand them. I got a hat that says MADRID on it with a bull on it and it’s an authentic real Madrid hat. After that we went to a store where they were selling medieval armour and swords. My mom even showed me a real grenade and I could of afforded it. They even had axes, spiked clubs and guns from the old times. They were so cool! We just bought 4 tickets to see Real Madrid play soccer and we almost have front row seats. I don’t think David Beckhem will be playing because he hurt his leg but it will still be exciting. Hey Conor, if you are reading this e-mail me your favorite soccer team please.

I have to continue my Madrid ,

Spain

story. We decided to take a subway to a theme park in a place called Baton. We waited 3 stops until we got there. When we got there (not in the theme park yet) the town was very quiet and deserted but there were still some people there. When we got to the front gates the guy did not speak any English at all. So we had some troubles getting in but eventually we got in. When we got in, the first ride we went on was a mini train that shows you around the park, well, the little kids section. After we went on tons of rides but our mom went on 2, I think. We walked to the extreme part of the park and some of the roller coasters went so fast they sounded like a jumbo jet. After, we ate some O.K. food and then went on more rides. One of the rides was an air plane one and you could control it to go up or down just like a real one.

We went to a football game between Real Madrid and Real Racing S. C. and it was really cool. I got a scarf that says Real Madrid on it and it’s cool. Going into the stadium made me sort of nervous. Cars were honking sport tunes and people were yelling. When we walked in we asked someone where our seats were and he took us to the 2^nd to bottom row. And all of the sudden I felt a sneeze coming on so I huffed and I puffed and achooo!! And when I looked up the game had already started and there wasn’t even a warning I don’t think. My dad says that Ronaldo #9 is the best player and he is pretty good but I like Beckham.

My dad filmed a clip of Ronaldo having a break away and missing an empty net. Real Madrid won 5-0 but I wished the other team scored at least twice. When I first came to Madrid I really did not like it, but it got a little better. By the way I am continuing this story in Valencia , Spain and soon heading to Alecante , Spain .

I am doing a story on Bullfighting as part of my school work and will tell you what I learnt and saw. All the big words you see were taken off the internet when I was doing my research.

If you are not familiar with corridas de toros (bullfights), here is what happens in order, so that you can decide by yourself whether you want to see one when you are in

Spain

A corrida starts with the paseillo, when everybody involved in the bullfight enters the ring and presents themselves to the president and public.

Two alguacilillos on horseback look up to the president's box and symbolically ask for the keys to the puerta de los toriles. Behind that door the bulls are waiting. When the door opens and the first bull enters, the spectacle starts for real. It consists of three parts, called tercios ("thirds"), the separation of which is signaled with a bugle call. There are three toreros-bullfighters (the better-known word "toreador" is actually never used in modern Spanish)-in each corrida, each being allotted two bulls. In the first tercio the bullfighter uses the capote, a rather large cape that is a pinkish-mauve colour on one side and yellow on the other.

Now the two picadors enter on horseback, armed with a sort of lance. The second tercio is la suerte de banderillas. Three banderilleros must stick a pair of banderillas into the charging bull's back. In the final suerte suprema the bullfighter uses the muleta, a small red cloth draped from a stick. He has to show his mastery to dominate the bull, and to establish an artistic symbiosis between man and beast. The corrida ends with the torero using his sword to kill the bull.

On May 8, 2005 we went to a bull fight in Valencia ,

Spain

and this is what I saw. Right when we got in the stadium trumpets whistled, “rum pum de dum” and a whole bunch of so called tercios walked in and bowed. They walked to the side of the arena and practiced. They first took of their jackets and then more music came on and these knights that are called alguacilillos came out and also some police and men that help. Then the music stopped and a gate opened and out came a big angry bull with 2 ribbons stabbed into its back. The tercios came out and the bull charged at them and some guys would sit down while the bull charged which is hard to do because you have to move when it runs through their capote. Then the alguacilillos (the knight type guys) run over and rams the horse a couple times while the guy stabs him with spears. Then guys with 2 of those colorful spear type things come out and do a little dance and taunt the bull and then they run over to it and stick them into the poor harmless thing and you can always hear a dreadfull shing!! sound when it goes in and the crowd cheers and screams Olay!! Olay!! And then the main character comes out and poses with his muleta in is hands and shows off his strength. He is the one who finishes the poor bull with a sharp sword while it chokes up blood and moans from the terrible pain. And he makes it get tired making it run through the muleta tons of times but soon he stabs and kills it with that sword and then sticks one through its brain and he gets a standing ovation for his strength and he shows off once more. Then two horses tie a rope around its feet and drag it around the stadium and roughly drag it out of the ring. We left right after and everybody gave us dirty looks because there were 3 more bulls to kill. When we got back to the hotel my mom said she heard someone say that one of the tercios was almost trampled to death but it serves him right! I would not like to go to one of those again because it was so terrible, but I am sort of glad I went.

In Alicante City there are lakes and mounds of sea salt. The mounds of sea salt are about 35 feet high. Alicante is one of Europe ’s largest salt producers and when we drove through that area all you could see was mounds and mounds of thick salt. And you could also see miles and miles of man made ponds of sea water shaped into rectangles. We were driving to our friend’s house when we witnessed all this but I was so excited I really wasn’t paying attention so now I have to get most of the information off the internet. The salt here is actually really good because it’s really, really salty and much larger crystals then back where I miss really bad, HOME!!

We have been in boring Alicante for a week now and other than the salt this place sucks. I am going to tell you about Alicante ’s salt and how it’s found and made.

Alicante province is home to a number of salt water lakes/lagoons. Many of these are host to wildlife, considered to be nature reserves & therefore protected. Others are worked for their salt deposits, exported for many uses all over the world, even as far as New York (to salt the roads).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers this part of

Spain

(Costa Blanca-Alicante province) to be one of the healthiest climates on the planet. The major reasons behind this are both the mildness of the climate throughout the year, & the low levels of humidity in the air. A major contributing factor to this low level humidity is the drying effect of the salt lakes.

As a result people with conditions often aggravated by the cold & damp, such as arthritis have found the climate here beneficial, & many of them seeking to move/purchase holiday homes in the area in later life. Since Roman times people have flocked to the region in order to visit some of the many spa’s & healing centres dotted around the coastline. Many of these spas offer skin healing treatments using the mud of the salt lakes, which is said to aid in the treatment of conditions such as eczema.

Covering over 3,700 hectares the reserve includes both the La Mata & Torrevieja salt water lagoons. The Torrevieja lagoon is largest at about 1,400 hectares & the La Mata lagoon about half that size. The rest of the reserve is down to pasture or scrub land. Connected to the sea by 2 artificial channels (Acequiones) & each other, the Mediterranean flows through to this shallow depression & then warms in the Spanish sun. The water in the Torrevieja lagoon is allowed to evaporate & the salt collected (1 million tons per year).

The salt marshes & reed beds are used by over 100 species of birds, feeding on the small crustaceans & larvae that live in this highly salty water.

Sea salt, obtained by evaporation of sea water, is a salt used as an ingredient in cooking and in products such as cosmetics. Its mineral content gives it a different taste from table salt, which is mostly sodium chloride that is either purified from sea salt or made from rock salt (halite), a mineral that is dug from mines. Table salt also sometimes contains additives, such as iodides (as a dietary supplement) and various other agents. Various areas of the world produce specialized sea salt, including France , Ireland , and Cape Cod . Sea salt produced in Hawaii may have a distinctive red-brown color derived from iron-rich volcanic soil present as an impurity. One common use of sea salt is in premium potato chips, (my favotite chips usually have tons of this type of salt on them). Sea salt is generally more expensive than table salt.

In several countries, including China and

India

, sea salt was the sole source of salt. Regulating the sales of sea salt was highly profitable for the governments. About 110 BC, Emperor Han Wu Di of China started the monopoly of the salt trade, making salt piracy a crime worthy of capital punishment. In 1930, the British government of

India

imposed a salt tax, which led to the famous Salt Satyagraha from March 12 to April 5 when Mohandas Gandhi led thousands of people to the sea to collect their own salt rather than pay the salt tax. (I remember Gandhi getting thrown off the train, but I don’t remember anything about this).

Sea salt is thought by some to be a healthier alternative to table salt, since it lacks artificial chemicals used in processing. Sea salt, however, does not contain iodine (what ever that is), an essential nutrient.

At first I sort of liked Alicante but now I just wanna get out of

Spain

!!!!! I think that Vancouver is the best place to be so I’m really homesick right now and probably for the rest of the trip.

Andorra

is one of the smallest countries in the world. It is so small it is not on the globe. There is only one road leading in and out through the whole country. Today we went to the mountains that are covered in snow and ice and it’s outside a little city called Ordino. We even saw a couple skiers speeding down runs. Me and my sister played in the snow but we didn’t have proper snow gear on. We are staying in the Crowne Plaza in

Andorra

la Vella. We have a room that is special. It’s called a theme room and the theme is a Pirate ship room. It has a sword and 2 guns strapped to the wall and a treasure map made by an artist. It also has bunk beds and I get to sleep on the top bunk and my sister sleeps on the bottom. And the best thing for me is………… an XBOX and you can rent out games at the reception. Right now I have Halo and after this I’m going to play it with my dad. This place (

Andorra

la Vella) is crazy because of the extreme emotional everyday traffic and you can barely breathe because of all the car exhaust and smelly pollution. The people here and in

Spain

don’t like us much because we speak English. All the French make fun of us like when my dad went up to a snack bar and said “one donut please”, a French family sitting behind us said doonut?? Ha ha haaaaaaaaaaa! And they never want to speak or help us. One waiter said at a restaurant that they hate Americans because they force the Spanish and French to get off planes because of their culture and skin colour. I think this place is cool because once you get away from the everyone not liking us and the main city it’s really nice. I would like to come back here after I learn French and Spanish and then pretend I am the same culture.

The first thing we did was struggle to get out of bed and then we went to pack our suitcases into the car. Then we ate breakfast and got ready to finally say goodbye to Spain . After breakfast, we got into the car and drove to Alicante airport to fly to London . We drove for about 30 minutes and then we were there. So we loaded a cart full of our luggage and walked into the airport and headed to our gate. We waited a while and then we got on the plane. They went thru the safety plan and finally we were in the air in our British Airways flight to London . We flew for about 2 hours and we met this very nice man from London and he told us everything we needed to know about one of the oldest cities in the world ( London ). We talked all the way until we landed in (you know what because I’m tired of saying it) and had to walk down a small staircase to get on to a bus that would take us back to the terminal. When we got back to the terminal we headed straight for the train that would take us closer to our hotel. We went on the train and waited 1stop and then got off at the south terminal and got out of the airport and took another train to the area we are supposed to be in and after that (toooo many “after that’s” don’t you think?)we hopped in a taxi and drove to the hotel and it was the same hotel we stayed in before we came to London (Express by Holiday Inn) but it is nicer. Our room is really nice too.

I have to start on the next day because my dads getting really angry so I should hurry. So, we woke up early again and struggled to get out, we wanted to see the sights and museums around London . So we looked around town for a ticket for going around town on whatever you want to ride and we finally, finally found where to get one. I think it was 10 pounds for the whole family, not bad. The first thing we tried to find (it was very hard to find) was Buckingham Palace which is where Queen Elizabeth II lives but right now she is in Alberta, Canada. The royal family was there and they were giving out medals but we didn’t see them we only saw the people that were awarded. There was lots of police and people around the building but no one was allowed in. The palace is really big, it’s like the size of a hotel. There were those guards that would stand still for a long time no matter what but these ones marched around every once in a while but I can understand why.

After that (woops I said it again he he he?)we went to the Winston Churchill war rooms which is where he hid when London was being destroyed by Nazi bombers! Winston Churchill was the prime Minister of Britain at that time.

World War II broke out in September 1939 when Germany marched it's soldiers into Poland . Britain and France got mad about the invasion of Poland by declared war on Germany . The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR ) and the United States joined the British and French war in 1941. Chamberlain invited Churchill to become a member of his war cabinet. Churchill was again first lord of the admiralty (What ever that means?), and during the next eight months he did his best to build up the navy, especially in the field of anti-submarine warfare.

In 1940 the German attack on Norway ended public confidence in Chamberlain (not sure what this means but it was in the book). On May 10, the day the Germans launched their surprise invasion of Holland and Belgium , Chamberlain resigned, and King George VI asked Churchill to be prime minister. Labour and Liberal leaders readily agreed to join Conservatives in a wartime coalition government. Churchill set the tone of his leadership in his first report to the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." It was only the first of his stirring wartime speeches, which knit the country together and inspired people around the world.

My parents have explained this stuff to me. but I still don't understand it all, getting really bored.

Sir Winston Churchill was prime minister of Britain during World War II, Churchill roused the British to stand against Nazi Germany . The sight of Churchill, with his cigar and two fingers held in a “V” for victory salute, he called it “their finest hour”. In the end the United States and entered the war after Japan made them mad and the U.S. kicked some serious butt! This whole war thing was interesting and boring all at the same time, so I won't bore you with a long war story.

After the Winston Churchill War rooms, we went to the Rainforest Café but the food was different and it wasn’t as good as the one that was once back home in Vancouver but I like it anyways. After that we went to a premier of a movie called House Of Wax and I was gonna see Paris Hilton (whoever the heck she is) and some other famous actors but we bought tickets to go see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on stage so we had to leave but it was so totally worth it! We had to walk to the theatre and sat down in front of the stage. This show was supposed to be absolutely unbelievable but it was waaaaaaaay past that! The show was the best ever! And it was like the car really could fly. The characters looked exactly the same! Everybody loved it!!!!!! It was awesome!!!!! After all that fun we took a bus back and asked the driver to take us to our hotel but he forgot. It was funny, and after we made friends with him and his name is Addi and he is from Nigeria , Africa and he is really nice. He said he really liked Toronto , Canada . He said he is moving back to Africa with his daughter and wife. We are still in London as I write this. I like it quite a bit.

Today we got on a train in the Waterloo Station right by the London Eye. The Waterloo Station is very big and contains many train tracks. We were going on a EuroStar train to Brussels , Belgium . The train we went on was a high speed train and looked like a very, very, very long futuristic jet plane. It was a 2 and a half hour drive through England , France , and Belgium until we got into a certain part of

Belgium

. We went through a very, very, very, very, very long under water tunnel that took at least 22 minutes. Here is some info about the under water tunnel.

Channel Tunnel, tunnel 50.4 km (32 mi) long, carrying a rail link under the English Channel between Cheriton, near Folkestone , Kent , and Coquelles, near Calais . The tunnel, one of the greatest civil engineering projects of the 20th century, has an ultimate design capacity of 600 trains per day each way. Drive-on/drive-off shuttle trains, operated by the Eurotunnel Company, carry cars and trucks. The journey takes 35 minutes. Each shuttle travels at 130 km/h (80 mph) when under the sea, is 800 m (2,625 ft) long, and carries up to 180 cars, or 120 cars together with 12 coaches. Freight shuttles can carry 28 trucks.

There are actually three tunnels: trains travel in two running tunnels 7.6 m (24.9 ft) wide, one on each side of a service tunnel 4.8 m (15.7 ft) wide. The undersea section is 39 km (24 mi) long. There is 195 km (120 mi) of track in all, including 45 km (28 mi) in the United Kingdom terminal and 50 km (31 mi) in the French terminal. Maintenance and emergency services use the central tunnel, and, if necessary, passengers could escape into it on foot in the event of an emergency on board a train.

Eurotunnel has a concession from the British and French governments to run the tunnel until 2052, charging railway operators for access. Through-trains for foot passengers are operated by Eurostar, a joint venture of the British, French, and Belgian national railways. Eurostar trains travel at up to 140 km/h (87 mph) in the tunnel and take three hours to travel between London and Paris .

When we got to

Belgium

we quickly rented a van and got directions to the Holiday Inn we were going to stay in. We had to drive for a very long time until we made it alive. When we got to the hotel we ate dinner and we just came back now. So far

Belgium

is pretty nice and I could stay here for a little bit.

We went to Gent , Belgium and got a room at the Holiday Inn. That night we went into an old market town and struggled to get a parking spot with our rented van. Gent is a pretty old city and everything is from like the 14^th century. We walked through the market and looked through a couple shops and when my mom was done looking at all the 1000 cloths and shoe stores we went to a 5 floor toy store. There were hundreds of people walking the streets so it was hard to get around. We took a motor boat tour around Gent and the city is so old that your neck would be sore after looking wherever the tour guide would say. On the left we have the shnoo bloo temple soup kook, on the right we have st. jj ble blat e ta tea and so so so so so so on. I really don’t want to write this so I’ll just go on to the next story…………………………

Sooo, we drove our little van for 1 hour until we got to a little city with a bit too much people called Brugge. It’s pretty much exactly the same as Gent . Red roofs on houses just like Gent (which I didn’t tell you sorry) but 2 times the people. There are even older things too. We went to a church across a busy square right by our hotel (which is the Crowne Plaza that is really nice) that claims to have a few drops of Jesus’s blood. It’s a really small church and the music reminds me of a haunted house. There are 2 really busy squares but there is one that is just packed with tourists mostly from Europe or Japan . There are lots of horse drawn carriages that can easily run you over a couple times.

The coolest thing about Belgium was the Gravenstien medieval castle that is known for doing terrible haunting tortures and death sentences a long time ago. There was an exhibit on and in glass displays there were weapons and armour. We went down into the torture and stable room that was definitely haunted. Here are some tortures they did way back then: They would put them on the stretching board and fill their stomachs with water until they would burst. They would sit you down on a high upside down triangle and put weights on your ankles which would really hurt if you were a man. They would cut off your feet and hands and then hang you. They would lie you down on a board and drop a heavy blade that would chop your head off and it would drop in a bag which they would put on a stick to frighten pass-biers. Sounds terrible hey? Imagine being a victim?

Belgium

and the medieval castle were really awesome and maybe I would come back.

I went to the Canadian Centre at Juno Beach for the anniversary of the WW II allied invasion onto the beaches of Normandy 61 years ago. We went to the centre at 11 am and watched the ceremony celebrating the day the Canadians stormed the beaches. We watched the Ceremony outside when it was raining and they gave us 4 poppies and 4 crosses that had the names of soldiers that died on the beach, they were for us to stick in the sand of the Juno Beach shore and remember them. Me and Danika were both holding and waving Canadian flags while the ceremony was on. After the ceremony we met a cool veteran named Yvon but his nickname is Blue so that’s what we called him. He drove the first truck off the boat and he said he had to run over his own men to get the truck out of the area. He drove all the way from Normandy , France to Black forest , Germany to transport Canadian troops. He was driving through the war in Juno Beach and was under heavy fire from Nazi’s so that’s why he ran over his own men. It was so cool meeting a veteran that fought on D-Day.

After the ceremony we went to Pegasus Bridge which was a bridge that was taken by Nazi troops and liberated by the British Army. We went through the museum and walked on the bridge and we saw bullet holes from a German fighter plane on the top. Around the bridge they had vehicles used in the war set up and even a glider plane replica that was really cool. The tour guide was told by a veteran that was at Pegasus Bridge that he saw a tank come out of a plane at 2000 feet. The soldiers had to start the tanks and the jeeps before the planes landed and one of the tanks was left in gear, so when the soldiers started it, the tank drove over the pilots and out the front of the plane. Everyone died because the tank fell 2000 feet and the glider crashed.

After, we went to Utah Beach and Omaha Beach and while we were in Omaha Beach we went to the American war cemetery and there were 10,000 crosses in perfect rows and a view of where it all happened. After that huge cemetery we went to a church where a soldier’s parachute had got caught high up on top and was eventually killed by Nazi’s and he stayed up there frightened for one night thinking that someone would come and save him but no one did. They put a fake parachute up where he got caught to show you where he was. I’m glad I came and learned about the WWII and I will come back with “my” family hopefully. Normandy also really reminded me of Vancouver so I will be sad to leave.

Normandy is the place where D-Day took place and some battles in World War II. We have gone to the beaches where the Canadians battled at and there are still some blown up pieces of items and we even went into 2 small bunkers. 45,000 Canadians died in World War II. Many of them died in the town we are staying in now and on the Canadian D-Day beach. The beach the Canadians fought on is called Juno Beach . The beach the Americans fought on is Omaha and Utah beach. The beach the British fought on is Sword and Gold beach. After we went into the Canadian War Museum and learnt about some things. We saw some clips of the War and we also saw some used gear and weapons. Some of the info was kind of sad and we also saw some helmets, guns, ID cards and some other things dug out of the beach after the war. The museum is really nice and all the used items in one of the exhibits were 60% of a man’s war collection! That’s a lot of stuff!! After the museum we drove to the Canadian War Cemetery and it was very neat and clean. There were grave stones going on for like 2 acres on and on and it would take you a day or 2 to read all of them. A lot of them were 25 years old or less. If they were not that old they were 30 and up and had a loving family. Imagine your dad promising he would come back but never did, I would still be waiting for him now. That’s really sad and I feel sorry for all those lonely moms and kids. At least some came home and met their families once again.

The “Next Day” we went to a bigger Canadian War Cemetery that had 3,000 Canadian graves! It is called Cintheaux and just like the other one it was surrounded by big maple trees with big maple leaves which I did not tell you about in the first story. Behind the Cemetery was a huge field that had 100’s of real red poppies growing on it. Actually most of the areas outside of Caen (where we are staying) are humongous patches of plain farm land. After that we headed to Gold Beach where the British fought and we went to a 360 degree movie theatre that had 9 screens and we watched real footage from the war and it was cool. Right after they showed footage they quickly showed you what it looks like now. After that we went for lunch and watched some people race down on army jeeps playing tons with their sirens and we heard bag pipes play and tomorrow we will go to the D-Day anniversary, so it will be 61 years when D-Day was fought.

A lot of this war stuff was really hard to write in my own words so I wrote it just like in the books my parents are forcing me to read. arrrrg!

World War II was a global military conflict. It was the most devastating war in human history. More people died in this war than any other. The war began in 1939 when

Germany

was angry at Anglo-French coalition. Soon it included most nations of the world. It ended in 1945. In the last stages of the war two new weapons were introduced: the long range rocket and the atomic bomb. In the main part of the war they used the same or more improved weapons used in World War I.

Germany

, Italy and

Japan

were unhappy with the outcome of World War I. The French and the British disagreed about a lot of things and they were not sure they could defend the Peace settlement. The

U.S.

were angry at the Europeans so the Americans went into isolation.

In the early morning hours of September 1^st, 1939, the German armies marched into

Poland

. On September 3^rd the British and French surprised Hitler by declaring war on

Germany

but had no plans to help the Polish. Man for man the match was pretty much even but the Germans had much better vehicles and aircrafts than the Polish had. By Sept. 20^th almost all of

Poland

was in German or Soviet hands. I am still reading about the war and am going to keep learning more.

We got to Paris by driving from Normandy and got stuck in stinking traffic. Me and my sister didn’t care because we were too excited thinking about getting a hotel in Disney Land . We sat in traffic for about 20 minutes enjoying the view of the Eiffel Tower . Finally we got out of the traffic and started our long drive to Disney Park . We arrived in the area of Disney Land and went into a gas station to get gas of course. We were looking all around at the awesome castles, a hot air balloon and the Wild West theme scenery. We could see our hotel in the distance which was the Holiday Inn (what else would it be?). Finally, we arrived at the “Holiday Inn” and loaded our luggage onto a cart. When we walked in our jaws dropped to the floor (in happiness!) because the hotel was more like a double over sized circus. Well, that’s what it was because there were pictures of old circuses all over the walls and everything was called something from the circus like “Ringmasters Corner” which is a kid’s buffet and movie area with the buffet restaurant right beside it. There was also an awesome arcade and a games area. This hotel gave us the feeling we would be happy for the rest of our lives. The pool was huge, our room is pretty much the biggest of them all because it’s called the “kid suites” and we get a circus bedroom all to ourselves and it has a bunk bed and a T.V. that has an English cartoon channel so it’s like heaven for us!!!!!!!!! But we are not going to Disney Land for a couple days because my mom and dad want to keep on going to Paris for 3 days. So we dropped off our jumbo rental van and got on a train into the city. We waited about an hour on this freaky subway that smelt like marijuana and some people looked at us like we were a side dish! But finally we got to where we wanted to be and got on another train and waited about half an hour and got out in the city of Paris .

We got out onto the streets and went straight to the Louvre which is the most famous and largest museum of them all. It’s famous because it holds 2 famous art pieces, one is the original Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo de Vinci and a statue called Venus de Milo and I don’t know who did that. We went through the museum looking at all these 1000 year old antiques and some papers written by Pharos. It was pretty boring for me and I was also very tired. So at the end when we left I was quite happy until I remembered that we have to do it again 3 more times. After, we went onto a double Decker tour bus and I had a temper tantrum over headphones because they didn’t stay in my ears. I felt like throwing them off the bus and into the ocean and my mom did to. After, we went to a small French restaurant beside the Seine River . The food was trebien (very good in French) and we left them a very good tip. Then we took those 2 freaky subways back to Disney Land .

The next day we took one scary subway train (thank goodness) to the city of Paris once again and walked to the Opera house and caught a bus to the Eiffel tower and waited in line to get a ticket to go up it. We waited for a little bit and then we went through the entrance and waited in line for an elevator. When it arrived like 20 people packed in and we were swooshed in the side, it wasn’t very comfortable. We stopped 1 quarter of the way up and packed out of that elevator and waited in line for like 20 minutes for another one and some people were smoking in line. And when it was our turn along with 22 other people we all packed into one again and were even more uncomfortable. We got to the middle and did that exact same thing all over again while we looked at Paris far, far down. Finally, after being even more uncomfortable we got to the top and looked down at the busiest city in the world. After about 15 minutes we headed all the way back to the bottom of this huge structure and got back on the tour bus. We got to the Seine River and ate some sandwiches. After that we got back on the bus for the hundredth time and went to the cathedral of Notre Dame walked around and then ate at a little restaurant and the guy who served us looked like Cat in the Hat. After all that we went back to the train station and took another long train ride back to Disney and had a look through Disney Village .

The Berlin Wall was a wall that divided Berlin into 2 sectors. We went to the Berlin Wall and saw only one long strip of it blocking East Berlin from West Berlin . It is badly damaged and covered in citizen’s graffiti. In 1989 they destroyed most of the wall and set people free to their family and friends. The East Germans, who were at that time controlled by the Russians, built the wall. They built the wall to put an end to the ever increasing flow of people leaving East Berlin and going to West Berlin . The wall was the very first ever to divide a country and to surround the major parts of a city. When the wall was built on the 13^th of August, 1961, the East German government told East German citizens that it would only be temporary.

The first barrier was a barb wire fence and then slowly was made into 3.5 metre high concrete sections. On top was a thirty-five cm diameter pipe. The wall reached a total height of just under 4 meters. On the East Berlin side, beside the wall, there were armed guards that shot anyone who tried to get over. There were also trained German shepherd guard dogs as well as watchtowers and bunkers. This id followed by electric fences that when touched, set off alarms. This wall blocked all forms of transportation: roads, railways, subways and waterways. Houses that were in the way of the construction of the wall were evacuated by force, doors and windows were bricked up and some families were separated.

Checkpoint Charlie was the well known border crossing between west and East Berlin . It was located between the American and Soviet sectors. After World War II, Berlin was divided into 4 sectors: French, British, American and Soviet. Checkpoint Charlie was the sight of successful escapes and not so good escapes.

On the 18^th of October 1989, Erich Honnecker was forced to quit as head of state. On November 9^th the wall was unexpectedly opened. Families were brought back together as they were before. Over 1,000 people lost their lives, almost all of them were shot to death, including 37 members of the border troops or police.

We are having a lot of fun actually being able to go into the park. If you read my Paris story it said that we could not go to Disneyland because our parents wanted to go to Paris for 4 days!!! Well, that’s over with now so we are free to go every single day we are here. My 2 favorite rides are Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted House. My favorite land is Adventureland. It is a tropical area with some pretty cool grass huts. The park is pretty big and it is really new. Pirates of the Caribbean is a log flume-type ride. You go through all these blown up places and a couple wars over drunken pirates and before you know it you are speeding down a waterfall.

I just remembered……I have another favorite ride I like, Go-Karts! These Go-Karts aren’t the ones you are thinking of. These ones are on a track but you still have to turn and do all the stuff you do in a real car. They all have real roaring engines too!

We went to the other park: Walt Disney Studios! The first exciting thing we did was a Behind the Magic Tram Tour and it shows you how they use special effects in action movies. The first crazy thing they did was we drove into a little building type place and there was a semi-truck with a big fuel tank and then we heard a voice call, “3-2-1-take 1, Action! Then our tram got stuck (on purpose) and we started rocking back and forth and then the fuel tank of the semi-truck caught on fire and then everything was burning! Finally, two gates opened and let an avalanche of water rage out and put out the fiery canyon.

We drove out of the special effect scene and into another. We heard the roaring of a dragon and the fake city that the tram was stopped in caught fire. While it was still burning we drove away. We drove beside some windows that had some clothes and vehicles used in movies.

The tram came to a stop and everyone got off and we went to watch the Disney Cinema Parade. It was a parade with lots of characters from Disney. After the parade we went to the Armageddon Movie Scene ride. We stood in a room and then meteors started destroying everything around us. It was pretty cool!!!

Now beware…….this next information will make someone like me, who loves awesome action…….pay millions of dollars to see this spectacular show……..it is called……..ehem, eeeh emmm,………THE STUNT SHOW SPECTACULAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s a bit too awesome!! The cars were so cool and they were doing cool stunts like the Matrix Movie. They were showing the things that they do for action packed movies. The car stunts they were doing were like ballet except way more exciting and way cooler. My favorite part was when they were using a very talented stunt man named Mika. It started with Mika getting a top secret letter and some criminals saw him get it so then all you could hear was a machine gun firing and then two motorcyclists dressed in black raced out and went after Mika! First Mika ran up to a building and shot the guy with the machine gun off a roof (the guy landed on a big cushion) and then ran into a motorcycle store and then there were a few moments of silence. Then Mika drove out of a glass window and the chase continued and then a couple jumps off a ramp and then Mika jumped and grabbed onto a swinging net going over a body of water in front of the crowd and jumped back on the ground. Then he shot the ground with his (cap) gun and then fire was blocking the road but a motorcyclist came speeding out and fell off his motorbike and slid through the fire and then pretended to die. He was wearing fire proof clothing covered in gas.

After that, I got 2 autographs. One from Mika and one from a motorcyclist and I even got to sit on his bike. After the crazy show we went to a dinner show called The Legend of Buffalo Bill and we had a blast! The day was great and went very, very well!

We drove into the Czech Republic from Berlin , Germany and had a bad first impression. We thought it would be a nice city but we were a little wrong. It was pretty dirty and it was one of those cities where people sometimes look at you like you’re a side dish and you probably are one in this city. We were staying in a Crowne Plaza and it was really nice. It had its very own park and also had awesome food. We had a bit of fun though. Everybody here lives in little apartments because they barely have any money. They have very good ice hockey players here and one of them is a Canuck. Marek Malik is from Czech Republic . While we were here Jaramir Jagr was in town. We went on a tour of the city and went to some cool places.

In 2002 Czech Republic and

Poland

suffered a huge flood. The flood reached Prague and the height the water reached was 3 times my size. Our guide told us to be aware of pickpockets because we were going into busy areas. We went onto the St. Charles Bridge and it was quite old. It was in the area were the flood was. I think it was made by Charles the 4th. It crossed a big river so the bridge was pretty long. Only people were aloud to go on the bridge not cars. We walked by a policie (police) station and got to a medieval village with a huge castle type church (it’s in the picture above). The church was half Gothic and half regular. It was half and half because one part was just cleaned and the other was unclean. The village was pretty cool. There was also a big president office building with a 100 yard long hall. After our tour ended we went to a pizza restaurant for lunch-dinner. It was pretty good and after that we had special taxis that were like reckless drivers and they sped us over to a market and we had lots of fun. I probably won’t come back here because it’s a bit too dangerous but Prague was pretty good after all.

“Dachau Concentration Camp, is a place where selected groups of people are confined, usually for political reasons and under inhumane conditions. Men, women, and children are confined without normal judicial trials for an indeterminate period of confinement. Camp authorities usually exercise unlimited, arbitrary power. Although many kinds of facilities have served as concentration camps, they usually consist of barracks, huts, or tents, surrounded by watchtowers and barbed wire. Concentration camps are also known by various other names such as corrective labor camps, relocation centers, and reception centers. In World War II more than 6 million people died in German concentration camps, but there have been other camps throughout history.”

Well, it was not exactly a desert, I just called it that because it was scorching hot and you could kind of see a forming mirage. What they did to the innocent people was the worst things they could to anything or anyone. They would hang them, starve them to death and when they died they’d burn their bodies to ash or throw them in a pit. Adolf Hitler and his terrible, horrible army made this treacherous camp in 1933 and in 1939-1945 the horrible horror started. As you see in the picture below, the camp was closed and lucky survivors were freed by the American army.

The camp was huge and what they did to the poor people made me very, very angry. Luckily, war crime trials sentenced 36 SS Nazi guards to death. What they did as you know made me very angry but I’m glad I went there and learnt about it and I hope nothing like this ever happens again.

Right now we are in Sundsvall , Sweden staying in a cottage on a farm with our friends but it took a long time to get here. First we drove for a while in Germany and all of a sudden my mom said, “there’s something in my leg!”

We pulled up to a gas station and my mom said “it’s a tick!” so we asked the person working at the gas station where the nearest doctor is but instead we went to the hospital. A tick is a small bug that jumps on to your skin and sticks its head into where ever it wants to and sucks your blood and it gets bigger and bigger. If you pull out a tick and the head stays in then you could get certain diseases. By the time we found the hospital it was about the size of an apple seed. We took her in and we had to fill out all these sheets and show our passports and then they took her to all these different offices. Finally they found the right one and me, Danika and my dad went to wait in the car. We waited about an hour and finally she came out and got into the car. Luckily they got it out without the head falling off but there is still a chance of disease.

After my mom told us what they did we continued our long drive to a ferry terminal. At this point we had almost been driving 8 hours until we got to our destination where we had to wait an hour on the side of the entrance so a lady could help us. After the wait we bought a ticket and drove on the ferry. It was an overnight ride so we got to stay in cabins. The cabin smelt but it was good enough. There was quite a lot of thing’s on the ship like a Cinema, a couple slot machines and games, a kids play place, an entertainer, a bar, a buffet, a large store, and a couple other places. After a great Swedish dinner we slept until seven in the morning and then got packed up to leave the ferry. After we were done packing and double checking for other stuff we headed down back to our car. The ship came to a halt and everyone drove off and we started a very long 12 hour drive. Finally we got to a gas station where our friends were going to pick us up and we were so happy to see them. They drove us to Cecilia’s parent’s farm where I am writing this story. When we got there we were in heaven with our own Swedish cottage and the nature that surrounded us. They even have someone’s horses that we are allowed to pet. It is like the olden days out here and we are all having great fun. On the second day they took us to a little waterfront cottage in the big forest.

Houtan even allowed me to fish in the river and Cecilia showed us how to make what I call a berry kebab. We got back to the farm and just relaxed out in the lawn. I would rather sit on their lawn then be in Disneyland . It is so nice and I will be sad when I leave. Luckily we still have a little more to stay! On the third day we went to a very cool Swedish half zoo half pioneer town and had a great time. After that we drove up a mountain to the Tarzan Adventure Park that is a kid’s obstacle course through a large and fresh forest. I never had so much fun for a long time! We had to travel through the forest climbing steps up and down and balancing also using a lot of team work. There were so many fun things we did at the adventure park it would take hours to unleash it.

A special thanks to our friends Houtan and Cecilia for making our stay super fun!

I went to Oslo , Norway and wanted to learn a bit about Vikings. Actually, my ancestors were Vikings. So far I’ve learnt that Vikings are not very good because they mostly sailed in their long ships and slaughtered citizens in little villages. Usually, they destroyed Christian churches and other buildings that represented God. Most Vikings came from Sweden , Norway and Denmark and later

Iceland

. All Vikings were not united because Danish Vikings conquered England , Ireland and

Scotland

. Swedish created civilization in

Russia

. Norwegian Vikings went to America and

Ireland

. Vikings spoke a tribal type of German. My ancestors were Norwegian Vikings but my grandma (my dad’s mom) knew most of the other facts but my dad should have listened to her more. So now I don’t know any of the facts.

We walked around the city and saw quite a bit of interesting things. We saw these little breakable troll figurines sometimes dressed in Viking gear. I even bought a Viking rune stone that gives you luck of any kind you choose. Oslo is quite a dirty and scary city that has a “I’m gonna beat ya up” type vibe. It was pretty cool and I’m glad I went and I could come back. I know there isn’t much in this part of the story but we didn’t do much.

We went to a little haunted street called Shambles and found out about a Ghost hunt every night at 7:30 pm. We then went for dinner and finished just in time to get to the starting point (start of Shambles Street ). After a few minutes a darkly dressed man came along and shouted “I’ll be back!!!” and walked further into the cool street. A few more minutes later he came back with a huge group of people from the other starting point (end of Shambles). Then he shouted “if you are with the ghost hunt then follow me!!” We all walked down a wide street and we stopped once again and bought our tickets. He then took us to a corner and slammed a metal stool on the ground and started warning us about us knowing that anything could happen in a very loud and dark voice. What this was all about was that he would take us to the front of all these freaky houses and tell us freaky and horrible stories about them. Each one was so dark and creepy I stayed in the middle of the group. Some had too much details and some were to bloody to even think about. Then at the end of the night he took us to an Italian restaurant and we acted like nothing was wrong and then we all went to a big window and screamed “blaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!” but nobody seamed to care so we walked a way and dreadfully ended our night of horror!!!!

In London we went to the first Hard Rock Café ever made but unfortunately the restaurant caught fire a couple weeks before we came. Luckily we still went into the store and the vault museum. We had this really cool guide that was from St. Louis and he even turned off the security alarm so we could touch rock stars guitars and cloths. We were the only ones in the vault room so it was cooler. The best thing was that I got to sit on Jimmy Hendrix’s couch and hold his used guitar!

We even saw Elvis’s Karate robe (black belt) worn by him. We had a great time and will go back sometime to eat.

At the time we were in London it was just after the frightening bombings so there were so many police out on the street they could destroy an army of super strong mutant alien super robots!!! They had all these high tech weapons and vehicles. Some police trucks look like they were carrying nuclear weapons. We also saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace but it wasn’t too grand at all. We are coming back later after the trip and will visit our most favorite spots in the city.

We went to Scotland and saw Glasgow , Edinbourg, St. Andrews, Inverness, Loch Ness, Ft. William and then we drove around a lot.

I really loved it here because of all the cool castles, they were so old and very big. The one problem with Scotland is that my whole family was in a bad mood and my little sister had farts so stinky they could kill a Dragon. I’d say my favorite thing to do was discover the destroyed castles and cathedrals.

In Glasgow we did not see much at all except we saw the remake of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and it was sooooooooo funny.

In Edinborough we saw a huge parade and it had all kinds of people in it like Korean dancers marching bands and a couple bag pipe bands and much more.

In Inverness we stayed at a B&B and it was very nice. The man and lady that owned it were even nicer. The man was a jockey and he told us stories and showed us neat pictures. We drove along the Loch Ness and saw fake Loch Ness monsters. In Fort William we stayed at another really nice B&B at it was good as well.

The best thing in a castle is when you find a destroyed staircase and investigate where it would have led to. You should even try climbing up a destroyed tower and see how many floors there would have been. Like I said ruin buildings are my favorite to discover and examine. I sure hope we see tons more!

We came to Ireland on a ferry and went straight to the holiday inn in the center of Belfast city. We stayed in the hotel for only 1 night and then drove to Dublin . Once again we stayed in a holiday inn and discovered the city. For dinner that night we went to the hard rock café and got a couple t-shirts. After Dublin we drove to killarney and stayed in another holiday inn (too many holiday inns!) for 2 nights and then drove to Waterford and (finally) stayed in a best western. After that we went to the Waterford crystal factory and bought a tour around it! It was so amazing!!!!!!!!!! We got to watch the men make vases and drinking glasses. Now whenever I see something made by Waterford crystal I will really respect it. It looks like such hard work!

After that we went to the blarney stone and got to kiss it. It gives the gift to speak but my sister already has THAT GIFT.

THE STONE WAS AT THE TOP OF A FORTRESS AND WAS PRETTY HARD TO KISS. I GOT A CERTIFACATE AND A LAMINATED PICTURE FOR PROOF. AFTER THAT WE WENT TO THE FERRY TERMINAL AND CAUGHT A LITTLE FAST FERREY OVER TO WALES AND I MADE A COUPLE FRIENDS. WHEN WE GOT TO WALES (ALMOST 2 HOURS) WE GOT A ROOM IN ANOTHER!!!HOLIDAY INN!!!

The second daY WE WENT AND MET OUR FRIEND (WHO IS A PRIEST) AND VISITED HIS HUGE HOME BESIDE HIS CATHEDRAL. THE NEXT DAY HE TOOK US FOR A BIG SIGHTSEEING TOUR OF WALES . THE VERY BEST PART WAS WHEN HE TOOK US TO AN OLD COAL MINE WHICH IS NOW OUT OF SERVICE AND IS NOW A MUSEUM. FIRST WE WAITED IN LINE AND THEN THEY GAVE US HARD HATS WITH LIGHTS ON THEM. WE ALSO GOT VERY HEAVY SAFTEY BELTS AND THEN THEY STUFFED OUR GROUP INTO AN ELEVATOR AND WE MET OUR GUIDE. ALL THE GUIDES WORKING THERE ARE EX-MINERS SO THEY NEW QUITE A BIT. THE ELEVATOR TOOK US 300 FEET UNDER GROUND TO THE OLD MINE. IT IS ACTUALLY CALLED “BIG PIT” FOR SOME REASON.

THE TOUR GUIDE SCARED MY MOM BY SAYING THAT IT COULD COLLAPSE AT ANY TIME AND THEN WE STARTED OUR DANGEROUS TOUR. IN OUR TOUR WE WALKED ANOTHER 100 FEET DOWN. BY THE WAY, THEY USED HORSES IN THE MINE TO PULL THE COAL THRU THE MINE. THEY ACTUALLY HAD A COUPLE HUGE STABLES TO KEEP THE HORSES IN. THE MACHINARY THEY USED WAS SO HEAVY AND THEY EVEN HAD TO BEND DOWN TO 2 FEET HOLDING ALL THEIR EQUIPMENT FOR UP TO 14 HOUR SHIFTS. KIDS FROM 6 TO 11 HAD TO WORK DOWN IN THE DARKNESS WITH RATS RUNNING AROUND THEIR FEET AND OPENING DOORS FOR PASSING MINERS. I NEVER KNEW MINING WAS SO DANGEROUS AND MANY PEOPLE WOULD DIE DOWN THERE. WHAT AN EXPIERENCE THAT WAS AND I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER IT THAT’S FOR SURE. I SURELY RECOMMEND IT FOR ANYONE AND EVERYONE.

We are in Cape Town , South Africa and my dad wanted me to learn about Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela was a man who wanted every person to be free regardless of their skin colour. At that time the Africans were being arrested for fighting for freedom. Even teenagers were beaten with sticks and then put into prison. Nelson Mandela was luckily not arrested at this point. At first he tried to be peaceful but it did not work. So his group called the ANC started fighting back in a bad way. They did some things against the law but I can understand why. No one should be treated like that. Mr. Mandela was actually a boxer and in my opinion was pretty good. The police and the government were after him so he was on the run. But one night he was caught and sent to an island where all the other arrested Africans went. The island is called Robben Island and the whole thing is a harsh prison. He spent 18 years on Robben Island and a total of 27 years in later prisons.

Today we went to Robben Island to see the prison museum. The only transport is boat and it is pretty far away from shore. Our tour guide was a man named Mr. Sparks and he was a real prisoner on Robben Island for 11 years. He was convicted of terrorism and was taken from the ANC. We got to see Mr. Mandela’s original jail cell.

The picture above is Mr Sparks who was in prison with Mr. Mandela for 11 years, he was really nice.

The Asian and East Indian were treated a tiny bit better then the black only because they got long pants and jackets plus shoes. The blacks wore t-shirts and shorts and no shoes nor socks even in the rain or the winter. The way they sent messages was 1 of the most surprising. What they did was they would be able to play tennis for a short time and they would put a message in the ball and then hit it to the next section of the prison. Then they would open it reveal the message and hit the ball back without anybody seeing. The prisons such a horrible place so do not think it was one bit good. The tortures for disobeying rules. There were 3 punishments you would either be beaten, starved and I think if you were caught with unknown studying items and other thing that I forget they would not be able to study for 4 years. The prisoners had a bucket for a toilet and 3 blanket’s for a bed sheets and a pillow and their windows were holes with bars and they froze to death in the winter and rain because they had no glass windows at that prison. When Amnesty International and Red Cross and the rest of the world saw what was happening they forced them to release only the political prisoners and that included Nelson Mandela. The most important thing that happened was black South African’s were aloud to vote a new president and they voted Nelson Mandela. Since he was president (5 years) he changed not just South Africa but the whole world. He is still living and he 84 years of age but seems pretty young. If I ever met him it would be a great honor!

OK, where do I start, ah ok how bout today for example. This was one of our most fantastic days of all game reserves. Why, because we saw 5 lions and three cubs (baby lions) and a cheetah and many elephant and also a dazzle of zebra or 200 and even chacma baboons and vervet monkeys!!!!!! We also saw hippo in the lagoon in front of us!!! The biggest lion of the pride we saw was walking in between cars and practically rubbing against them. There are also crocodiles on the river banks!! Only 500 from our African bungalow, its ok there’s a fence in between. We also saw the most dangerous animal of the big 5, the buffalo which we are pretty used because we have seen so many at the other parks. but they do give me the heebi jeebis! The bad thing about Kruger (the park I’m talking about) is that there is malaria and we aren’t taking any chances at all so we are sprayed with terrible smelling bug spray every day!! It sucks! So far we have stayed in 3 camps and tomorrow we are heading to our 4^th.oh ya, before I forget there were also the tallest giraffes in Kruger and they were so interesting and beautiful. This park is bigger than some countries we’ve been through!!! Ok now I will tell you about the first park we stayed and it was a private reserve, it’s called Aquila . Now this park was a good park to stay in first before any others because it had an “ok” amount of animals and I’ll name off a few. There were only 4 giraffe 3 hippos hundreds of ostrich’s leopards (which we didn’t see) and lots of zebra and wildebeest. Also lions but are growing up in another section but we saw them any ways. At our camp there were caged areas with animals like baby lions and in another they had crocodiles but whenever we went to look at the lions they would always look at danika!! But one night danika didn’t want to look at them so my dad asked why and she said “I do like them but I wish they didn’t want to eat me.” And she wasn’t kidding!!!! Aquila also has a large family of rhinos which also gave me the creeps because of the way the mother with the baby acted when people were around.

The next national park we went to see was called addo and was known for its many elephants. We arrived and saw a huge tortoise right by the front gate!!! But that was barely a start because when we went on a safari we were astonished!!! It was just so amazing to see real African elephants right in front of you!!! One elephant with big tusks came right behind our safari truck and some yahoos even drove closer to this huge monster. We were all thinking he was going to flip us but we were lucky because he was only curious. They also have many types of deer and antelope in every park and especially kudu (except for Aquila ) but anyways back to addo. Addo has at least 400 elephant, that’s quite a bit isn’t it?!!? I think they should also be known for there many dirty warthogs because they have quite a bit. Ok now I should tell you about South Africa ’s many bazaar foods. First of all I should tell you that I have so far eaten ostrich and kudu and they taste just like beef. But the most bazaar thing is their biltong. It’s simply dried meat and salt, but I saw something that would taste horrid and it is……ehem……eheemmm……….ELEPHANT BILTONG!!!!! DOSENT THAT SOUND AWFUL?? WELL I THINK IT DOES. SO FAR WE HAVE OFFICIALLY SEEN THE BIG 5 WHICH IF YOU DON’T KNOW YOU SHOULD LOOK IT UP!!!!! IM SOOOOO GLAD I CAME TO SOUTH AFRICA AND IT IS MY MOST FAVORITE PLACE ON THE WHOLE TRIP SO I’LL COME BACK.

Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world. It also has Australia 's deadliest snakes. The island is roamed by dingo dogs and once cattle. It has neat sea life like we saw off the peak of a big mountain called Indian Head. Sea life includes sharks, turtles, whales, dorphins, exotic fish and the ugly and rare sea cow. We saw sharks munching on fish and much, much more! The island also has the Maheno ship wreck. The Maheno was a passenger ship until the war when it was converted to a medical hospital and then after was converted back. Soon it retired and the Japanese bought it for scrap metal. When they were towing it, it got caught in a cyclone and the Maheno became unhooked and drifted onto the shores of Fraser Island . We got to see the ship wreck and it was very rusty and old. When you go to Fraser Island you better have a huge 4x4 because the roads are made of sand and are about 5 metres deep. If you still don't have a clue what Fraser Island is, then I should explain. Forty percent of the island is tropical rainforest and the rest is regular forest. Some of the trees have quite amazing stories and different styles. One tree that we saw was 4 metres in diametre and they said it was 800 years old. They said that was just the start because they had trees that were over 2000 years old. We saw all these trees as we travelled on our tour bus, our tour bus was a monster bus!!!! At one point we got stuck driving down the beach and all the men pushed it out. One of our stops was a big lake right in front of a mini-sahara with huge sand dunes. All we did at that lake was run down the sand dunes and dive into the water. Then we stopped at another huge crystal clear lake and had a blast! I could just keep doing it over and over again.

Lindeman Island is actually owned by Club Med which is a world wide resort built for kids. Of course, that’s where we stayed. Club Med always has a stage, a restaurant, but not always something for kids. This one had tons for kids like 4 swimming pools, a games room, a kids club, flying trapeze, bungee bounce and much, much more!!! The kids club was the best of all though. Yes, I did do the flying trapeze but totally messed up. The bungee bounce was o.k. but I messed up again. I made some good and bad friends. I was in 3 shows, the circus show, the French dance and the Spanish dance!! In the circus show we did a Men in Black action scene. I also did 2 kayake trips off Lindeman’s tropical beach. The buffet has a different culture of food each night. My favourite nights were Mexican and Asian. Club Med is all inclusive so you can eat and drink whenever you want! There is also beach volley and ping pong. There are lots of exotic fish and shells everywhere in the crystal blue ocean. The Island is kind of like a mini rainforest. There are lots of parrots on the island. The kids club was open daily and I went all the time. The club was at the top of a mountain with a high playground. The club was beside the bungee bounce and trapeze. When we left on the ferry all the staff came down and waved good-bye. I was sooooooooo sad to leave the Island . I loved it so much, I have to go back!!!!!

CAIRNS IS A BIG CITY ON THE NORTH-EAST COAST OF

Australia

. Cairns is surrounded by marinas and harbours. It is also very hot in the city and can get quite unbearable.

We took a tour to 2 exciting places, tjupukai cultural park and hartleys crocodile adventures. The cultural park was a piece of land owned by the tjubukai tribe. They started off with a welcoming demonstration and dance. This tribe used didgeridoo a lot and was very cool. They showed us their bush medicine and food. They used large snail shells to cut shavings from their food. There was a specific nut they used when crushed in water and drank it would stop diarrhea from too much fruit. They showed us how to throw a boomerang and a spear. Their spears were different then other spears. It was very interesting and I’m glad I went.

Hartley’s crocodile adventures was the most exciting thing we did. First we went to the snake show and learnt a little about dangerous snakes. She showed us

australia

’s most venomous snake. One drop of that snake’s venom can kill 50,000 mice. After the snake show we went on a boat tour through the crocodile river. He lowered a rod with chicken and the crocodiles jumped to get it! It was amazing!!! After that we saw the crocodile attack show! It was like steve the crocodile hunter but live. Hartley’s crocodile adventures was very cool and very interesting. I liked ‘em all!

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living thing in the world, bigger than the U.K. !!! We went to the outer part of the reef and it was called Agincourt Reefs. Our pontoon was by the continental shelf. It’s where the reef ends and drops down very far!

Our pontoon included a cafeteria and a snorkeling area. In the snorkeling area there was a harmless type of shark called the White-finned shark. In the snorkeling area the fish are not one bit afraid of people. We went on a submarine tour through the breaks in the reef and saw 2 big turtles.

The Outback is a large bush land and desert located in Central Australia . It contains many lizards, snakes, kangaroos and lots of cattle. It also has many different types of insects. We took a 3 day tour to the Outback and it was a great adventure.

Our first stop was Mareeba Park Falls which is a big waterfall and a lookout point. Our next stop was lunch at a place called Ravenshoe. We had a good lunch and then continued to our accommodation in a quiet town in the middle of nowhere called Hughenden. Then we went to a ghost town called Winton where Waltzing Matilda and Qantas was created. Then we went to a town with a population of 5. We stopped there for a washroom break and then went through more desert. The roads of the Outback are dirt and covered in road kill and cattle pooh.

We then took a walk down to Python Gorge. When we got to the bottom we saw 2 huge pythons. One was 3 metres long and the other one we didn’t know because it was coiled up in the rocks. After that, the owner of the land showed us some aboriginal art that was at least 1000 years old.

After driving for a while we arrived at the best stop for dinner and our accommodation. While we were driving onto their cattle station we raced the daughter on her horse and she won! It was close though! When we arrived I fed their pet kangaroo and the girl showed me and Danika a grand tour of the station! It was so fun!!! After that we had a great dinner and then had a good nights sleep. The next morning we got up at 5:30 and some people were late. We ate breakfast and got on the bus after having such a great experience! After driving for a couple hours we arrived at the border to the Northern Territory and took pictures then kept driving. A while later we arrived at a gas station for lunch. After more driving through more desert we arrived at a 5 metre tall termite mound!!!! It was so high!! After that we stopped in an aboriginal community and had a break. And that was our 3 day adventure.

I am quite happy that I have traveled with my family. Though, I do think 11 months is too long. My 3 favourite places were Japan , South Africa and Australia ( Hawaii was cool too). I could live in Japan , it was really nice. I did not like Spain very much because they were not very nice to us!! I will never forget the last bit, Lindeman Island and Hawaii . I am sooooooooo glad I went on this trip, it was a great experience. When I get old enough I am definitely going to go on another trip and see more of the world.