Holiday Slideshow

This is a slideshow of my 8 week trip I went on. I got about 10 photos of each country and put them in a slide show. Then I added some music. I did it on Stupeflix. Go to the link to make your own slide show.

I'm Back From My Holiday- But I Didn't Blog About Scotland!

Well I'm back at school and I'm straight back into learning. Our topic this term is Visual Arts. Any way, while I was traveling, I completely forgot to blog about Scotland, which was the main country that we stayed in.

CASTLES:

There are so many Castles in Scotland! We went to 2. They were Eileen Donan Castle and Brodie Castle. Eileen Donan castle is located near the Isle of Skye in the UK. You can access it by walking across a bridge to an island where the castle is built. The island is on a huge lake. Inside the Castle is awesome. There are all these staircases spiraling up through the castle walls. They made a bit of fun for the kids by hiding fake skeletons and witch heads in tiny cupboards throughout the castle. 

We went to Brodie castle with our grandparents. This time we didn't just wander aimlessly through it, we got a guide to take us around. This one seemed a little more modern because it had all the old furniture and beds in it. The guide was really good because he told us the whole story of the Brodie family and what the paintings meant. 

FAMILY:
The whole time we stayed in Scotland we were staying at my grandparents house. The whole point of going on our holiday was to see our family. My grandparents garden is so awesome! It is actually quite big and it has a badminton net. It is a maze of hedges and sheds. Our cousins live in Elgin, which is an hours drive away. We only went there twice. There is only one of our relations that I haven't mentioned yet. My uncle. He lives in Aberdeen which is ages away from where we were. We were in Lumsden, a tiny village that is basically one street. And it is in the middle of nowhere. But it has awesome walks! My cousin, my sister and I went walking of by ourselves over the hills.

ENGLAND:
In the middle of all this, we managed to do a trip to England to see my mum's old friends. We saw the Kelpies, which are huge horse heads and they look absolutely awesome! You can climb up inside them and look out through the gaps. Then we went to another friends house. They had 3 dogs, 2 horses/ponies, 4 cats and they are looking after one pony. The last friend we visited was from Trinidad but they had come over to England. Their daughter has just had a baby and when we went over it was only 2 weeks old!

OVERALL:
Scotland is an awesome place. I loved getting to know my relatives better and to check out a different country. Scotland is a lot like New Zealand but there is a bit more countryside and tiny villages in the middle of nowhere.

Spain- Pals and Barcelona.

Well, we knew one thing for sure. This was another scorching hot country. We wandered about the airport a bit before getting in a car and driving in the direction of pals. Pals is a small town near Barcelona. We are going to be staying in it for a few days before heading on towards Barcelona.

We eventually arrive at a beach in a little town called Callela. This is the best beach I have ever been to! It had crystal clear waters and it was so nice to escape the heat by diving in. We spent a few hours here before zooming off again.

The days in Pals were spent mainly at the beach. We went to loads of beaches and had fun at mostly all of them. At one of them, I slipped and gashed my toe on the rocks. That wasn't very nice. Slap bang in the middle of Pals is a small Medieval village. We walked around it, admiring all the old buildings and shops. Then we sat down at a small café to have a drink. While we were sitting there, a small band consisting of A Trumpeter, Guitarist and a cellist started to set up next to the Café. You would think this was just an ordinary busking event but no! I think they were professionals because they were selling their CDs and they sounded really good.

Anyway, the time came to move on to Barcelona. When we arrived at our hotel, there was an amazing view of the Torre Agbar. It is a huge tower, that is a bit like a long dome. It is humongous! We went for a walk that night to see the Sagrada Familia. Now, one very famous person in Barcelona is Antoni Gaudi. He has built the Sagrada Familia, the Torre Agbar and many more! The Sagrada Familia is a colossal cathedral. This is one of the most famous buildings because Gaudi died in the middle of building it. The people in Barcelona are trying to finish it. It is very hard though because while they are building the rest, bits of it need repairing for it is 100 years old. By the time we set off again, it was dark and we could see the Torre Agbar from miles away. Why? Because it was lit up with powerful red blue and yellow lights. We only stayed in Barcelona for three days and we all felt that it Wasn't enough. Advice for going to Barcelona: Wear a T-shirt and shorts and stay for at least a week!

France, Chamonix!

11:00 pm, we arrived at the house we were going to stay in. It was pitch black. As we got out of the car, I heard a door slowly creak open. Then, a clattering of paws on the gravel and Coco the dog was licking me all over! Coco loves to lick. She will lick almost anything! Dave and Caro, our friends, followed Coco out. My sister and I were put in the basement bedroom. It was really cool. The next day the real fun started. We got up and met Charlie for the first time. Charlie is our friends little baby. He is so cute!

We did a LOT  of things in France. We went to an animal park, we went up a gondola and did a walk up a mountain, we went to the public pool three times, we went swimming in a huge lake with bouncy stuff and we went to an amazing sweet shop! On the last day, I did rock climbing up an actual cliff! It wasn't too high though. After that we clipped on to a zip line (Flying fox, but without a seat) over a small lake! It was a bit low and I got completely dunked in the lake. It was freezing!

In the middle of all this we spent a day in Italy!(Which  is my favourite country!) We visited a castle, a cathedral, ate some delicious gelato (Italian Ice cream) and PIZZA and then we went to the pools. Oh, and I forgot to mention IT WAS WAY TOO HOT!!!!

The Start Of My Trip!

Well, after having a delicious croissant at the airport, we were on a plane. It was a small one but still a plane. My sister and I stared out the window as we took off. It made me feel light headed. After one hour we arrived in Auckland Airport. It was so huge! We got on a Singapore Airlines plane. This time the plane was even bigger then the last one. We took our seats and I stared at the back of the seat in front of me. There was a TV screen with it,s own pull out remote and earphones. There was also foot rests, a fold out table, cushions, blankets and drink holders. On the TV you can watch movies, play Games and listen to music. When our food came it was amazing and they gave us ginormous portions. It is ten hours to Singapore. 

When we arrived in Singapore, it was 10:00pm NZ time and 6:00pm Singapore time. We waited for a taxi. When the taxi came, we stepped out the doors and got hit full in the face by a blast of heat. I knew it was hot In Singapore, but I didn't know it was that hot! The taxi took us to our hotel, The Holiday Inn. As soon as we walked in the door of the hotel, I knew it was going to be one of the poshest places I had ever been to. The staff collected our luggage and we went to our room. Ten minutes later we were in the hotel pool. It was slightly heated but the air was way warmer than the pool. We ended up going to bed at 12:00pm NZ time.