My Holiday

WOW.  It is our last day of our holiday.  How amazing!  We are sitting in Starbuck’s coffee shop in Kuala Lumpar and they have free internet access  so I am writing this while sipping a coffee and eating sugar pretzel donuts.  We have had such a great time and there was so much I did not get to write about.  For the last 3 days we have been in a great hotel in KL. Our room was on the 19th floor and the first 10 floors are a shopping mall.  It is huge and there are so many shops and we still have not seen everything.  There is also a huge theme park in the shopping mall  with an enormous roller coaster and many other rides that  Oliver and Alix werent on all yesterday afternoon.  We aree about to go to the bowling alley which is also in the complex and we could also go to the IMAX theatre if we had time.  We haven’t gone outside yet except to go in the fantastic pool which is on the 15th floor and huge with fountains and water spouts and bubbles and lots of fun.

It is now 1pm and we are not getting picked up until 6pm to go to the airport so we are going to have a walk and then go bowling and do a bit more shopping.  We are looking forward to getting home.  I have had enough of living out of a suitcase and moving around every couple of days.  I am not looking forward to having to make beds and clean the house and make dinner and do the washing and all the other things that will be waiting for back at home.   I

It has been quite a while since <i have had access to the internet.  We are now in Finland with my friend Nina.  It is much cooler here thank goodness.  Today was about 23 degrees – just right.  Yesterday we left at 10am and caught a large ferry type boat to an island in the Finnish Archepeligo. There are about 10 000 islands in Finland.  The one we went to was 5 hours away in the ferry.  Once we got there you could walk around the island and have a guide talk about the large lighthouse on the island.  There is a school on the island with only 3 children attending it.  They wanted us to live on the island so there would be some more children for the school.  There is one shop, a motel, a library which is open once a week and lots of little holiday cottages.  There were 14 friends with us for this trip and we were all staying in little cabins on the boat overnight.  HOWEVER, just our luck, at 10pm the cabins started to FLOOD!!!!  Oliver and Alix thought we were sinking!!  Anyway a pipe had burst and all the downstairs flooded.  At 10.30pm we had to pack our bags and got shifted out to backpacker type accommodation.  All very exciting.  The next day we left at 1pm to head back to Turku which is where we are staying in Finland.

Isabelle, in Paris we did go to Euro Disneyland.  It was a great place but there were way too many people.  Most of the rides had a one and a half hour wait which did not make it much fun.  It was also very hot.

Jack, in London we spend a lot of time on the red buses and we did take the brown route like you mum told us.  We had a great time in London and visited Hamley’s which is a 7 story toy shop.  What a great place.  We also went to Harrods and had a look around but most things were way too expensive so i didn’t buy too much.  

It is one week until we get home.  The time is going very quickly.  We are all still very tired and worn out from too much walking and talking and seeing.  We are not eating as much as we did in Italy.  Fnland food is very different.  I don’t think anywhere in the world has better food and gelato than Italy.

We are now in Paris in France.  After a two hour flight from Italy we arrived in Paris and it was only 24 degrees.  It was so good to get away from the heat.  Last night we went up the 300 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and stayed up there until 10pm.  All the city lights came on and also the lights on the Eiffel Tower.  There was also a bit of a light show for 10minutes on the Tower.  It was all pretty amazing.  Oliver took his sketch pad with him and did a great drawing of the Eiffel Tower. Lots of people took photos of him.  He was very impressed.

I havent had the use of the internet for a while so I am sorry I havent been able to add to my blog.  I am using an international keyboard which is a bit different so sorry about any extra symbols.  I cannot find the apostrophe!!

Today we arrived in Vencie.  <How amazing.  We have been in Florence and Rome over the last week and spent a lot of time walking around, touring, seeing and of course eating.  Oliver keeps complaining that hos feet really sore.  It is very very hot here.  About 38 degrees each day.  The problem is that it is 38 at about 9 oclock in the morning and still 38  at 8 oclock at night.  We go out in the morning and then come back to the air conditioned hotel room at about 2 and rest till 6 and then go out again. We do not eat dinner till after about 8.30pm because it is way too hot.  There are so many tourist everywhere.  All the cities we have visited are so busy.  The traffic in <italy is amazing.   There does not seem to be any road rules.  Cars, buses, trucks and tons of vespas are all over the place.  I dont know how there are not more accidents.  Oliver and I have been thinking of you all this week back at school.  <hope you are all having fun.

For the last couple of days it feels like all we have done is eat and rest and visit relatives.  It has been very hot, about 37 degrees, so you do not feel like doing much.  It is really hot by 9am and does not cool down during the night.  Dinner is not eaten until about 9.30pm which is very hard for us to get used to.  Last night we we went to a great pizza restaurant but we didn’t leave home until 9pm.  By the time the pizza arrived Oliver was asleep. 

Today Uncle Antonio organised a bus for all the family to take us to Pompeii.  The bus arrived at 7am and we were in Pompeii by 8.30am.  First thing we did was to go and have a drink and the best slice of pizza ever.  Naples is where pizza was first made and it is still known as the best pizza in Italy.   I think I would agree!  A guide was organised to take  us through the ruins of the city of Pompeii which was completely buried by a volcano thousands of years ago.  The guide could speak Italian and English which was great.  After Pompeii we had a 5 course lunch is a beautiful restaurant.  The bus then took us for a drive to Sorrento and we had time for a bit of shopping at the markets.  Oliver found motorbike which he just had to buy!  We all had a fantastic gelato – Oliver had watermelon and magnam, Alix had bounty and marshmellow and I had Watermelon and creme brulee.  There were about 50 flavours to choose from and it was not an easy choice.  The watermelon was fantastic.  We then looked through a magnificent church and at last made our way home.  We got back home at 8pm and then had dinner at 9pm.  We were all very exhausted but had a great day.

Today we went to the wedding of a cousins of Mr Risi’s.  We left home at 10 in the morning and spent one hour eating at the brides house.   Thee church was at 11am and went for about one hour.  Then the bride and groom had to walk down the village street cutting the ribbon and drinking wine and having lots of fun.  The whole street was full of cars honking their horns and driving all over the place.  It was amazing.  Then we went to a restaurant and ate 10 courses of food from 2pm until 9.30pm.  None of us could eat all the food.  And then out came the most amazing wedding cake that looked like the Eiffel Tower.  We didn’t get home until 10.30pm.  Another exhausting day full of food!

We got picked up at Rome at 7am by my Mr Risi’s two uncles.  It took us about one hour to drive to their house in Cassino.  It was 30 degrees when we landed in Rome and all Oliver wanted to do was go for a swim but the relatives live in a village on a farm and you do not have pools and it is about 1 hour to the beach.   We had a great lunch of pasta and chicken and salad and potoatoes and biscuits and then we all had a huge salep

Our holiday has started.  We left home at 9am and had a great ride in a limosine to the airport.  Our first flight left at 2pm and was for 8 very tire  hours.  it was a really good flight,  I watched two movies.  We then stopped at Kaula Lumpar for 5 hours.  By now it is midnight at home and we are all very, very tired.  Our next flight took 12 hours and was very rough and took forever.  At last after about 30 hours we arrived in Rome.  Yes!!!!!!

Michael got home today from Hong Kong after being there for 4 weeks on buisiness.  He has walked in and emptied his suitcase and then repacked it.  I think our doggy Honey wants to come along as well.  We are all going to miss her.  Thank you so much to Mr and Mrs Blackman for looking after her while we are away.