It used to be freezing but now it is hot hot hot! ...oh and did I mention hot? If I go out - hm. If I go out it feles like I have a thin layer of cement all over me. If they are bare my feet fry.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Hot Days
by Celeste
It used to be freezing but now it is hot hot hot! ...oh and did I mention hot? If I go out - hm. If I go out it feles like I have a thin layer of cement all over me. If they are bare my feet fry.
It used to be freezing but now it is hot hot hot! ...oh and did I mention hot? If I go out - hm. If I go out it feles like I have a thin layer of cement all over me. If they are bare my feet fry.
Silly Tourists
by Ruby
We went to Pisa [in Italy] and went through the market. The market was big and crowded. It had toys, sweets, clothes, jewlry, and pets. We walked to the leaning tower, it was shorter and wider than I expected.
All the people had the same stuped idea... here are some pictures.
We went to Pisa [in Italy] and went through the market. The market was big and crowded. It had toys, sweets, clothes, jewlry, and pets. We walked to the leaning tower, it was shorter and wider than I expected.
All the people had the same stuped idea... here are some pictures.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Traveling in Italy
Ruby says:
Napoli was big and loud. We saw Pompeii and Herculaneum and it was HOT and sticky and we were tired at the end of it, but it was worth it. Then we went to Pisa and saw the Luminaria. Luminaria is a candle festival. Pisa was quiet and comfortable. Going up in the Leaning Tower was scary.
The day before yesterday we went to England from Pisa. We took a bus to the airport and we flew to England. When we got to England we took a bus to a train and the train got us to a car which got us to our aunt and uncle's home. We met the dog Erith! We had a busy day!
Celeste wants to talk about the bus ride from Pescara, where the ferry from Split arrived, to Napoli, where we were going to see Pompeii. She says:
Broken Bus
Wons we were driving along in a bus then in a flowery meadow by the side of the road our bus went bumpady bump and stoped. The pepol who owned the bus caled another bus.
P.S. Wen the bus broke down I sat on it and lisened to my head phones.
The replacement bus came in record time - only 40 minutes - even though we were high in the mountains.
More about Roman ruins (including pictures) when we get home, after Wednesday.
Napoli was big and loud. We saw Pompeii and Herculaneum and it was HOT and sticky and we were tired at the end of it, but it was worth it. Then we went to Pisa and saw the Luminaria. Luminaria is a candle festival. Pisa was quiet and comfortable. Going up in the Leaning Tower was scary.
The day before yesterday we went to England from Pisa. We took a bus to the airport and we flew to England. When we got to England we took a bus to a train and the train got us to a car which got us to our aunt and uncle's home. We met the dog Erith! We had a busy day!
Celeste wants to talk about the bus ride from Pescara, where the ferry from Split arrived, to Napoli, where we were going to see Pompeii. She says:
Broken Bus
Wons we were driving along in a bus then in a flowery meadow by the side of the road our bus went bumpady bump and stoped. The pepol who owned the bus caled another bus.
P.S. Wen the bus broke down I sat on it and lisened to my head phones.
The replacement bus came in record time - only 40 minutes - even though we were high in the mountains.
More about Roman ruins (including pictures) when we get home, after Wednesday.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
BOOM!
by Ruby, (about a 4 am thunderstorm after two weeks of very hot weather)
The night before last, I woke up in the middle of the night. It was dark and raining. But worst of all there was thunder and lightning. A flash came through the shuttered window every 5 seconds. The thunder cracked every 10 seconds. I stayed awake a long time before I fell asleep again.
(PS. the birds sang the whole time)
Lightning images thanks to SkyChasers
The Riva
A poem by Ruby
Oh, you must see the Riva,
Off away in Split,
It is grand and not covered
With dusty sand,
Smooth limestone floors it well,
'Tis by the ocean and the sea,
The waves lap against the shore,
But when I love the Riva most
Is when the sea gulls soar.
Oh, you must see the Riva,
Off away in Split,
It is grand and not covered
With dusty sand,
Smooth limestone floors it well,
'Tis by the ocean and the sea,
The waves lap against the shore,
But when I love the Riva most
Is when the sea gulls soar.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Water-fals
Waterfalls at Krka National Park
One day we took a bus to some water-fals. They tumbled and crashed. They wher AMAZING. I coldint belev my eyes. We went swiming in there water. Isint that amazing?
Ruby in Venice
Before we went to Venice we read Daughter of Venice, which is a great book about a girl living in Venice in the 1500's, and has wonderful details about what it was like to be aristocratic and live in a palazzo. And, especially, about how being a girl limited your life (of course the heroine breaks the rules and has adventures). It was a great book, and we actually got to go to the palazzo the girl was supposed to live in, which was extremely interesting.
Here is what Ruby says about the journey to Venice:
"The City of Venice is an island. It used to be a country but then it became part of Italy in the 1800s. The city has no cars, only boats. The boats go through canals.
In Venice everything is old, there are no new buildings. A lot of the buildings have Venetian archways. Venetian archways usually have points at the top. The points have a curvy look. There are two kinds I have seen, one has a bump and one has no bump.
In Venice there are a lot of palazzos (fancy houses).
We went to Venice but Celeste and dada stayed home. First we went to the ferry building and got on a ferry called "Marco Polo". We slept in a cabin at the bottom of the ship. We realized that we had to wait 6 hours before a bus came to take us to the next town. But a nice lady gave us a ride in her car. We caught two trains and finally got to Venice.
We got out of the train and walked through a half glass room. We walked out and we saw the the grand canal. There were gondolas passing, and shops selling beautiful masks with feathers.
We went over an old bridge, and through many confusing alleys before we reached our hotel."
Here are some pictures from our trip:
Here is what Ruby says about the journey to Venice:
"The City of Venice is an island. It used to be a country but then it became part of Italy in the 1800s. The city has no cars, only boats. The boats go through canals.
In Venice everything is old, there are no new buildings. A lot of the buildings have Venetian archways. Venetian archways usually have points at the top. The points have a curvy look. There are two kinds I have seen, one has a bump and one has no bump.
In Venice there are a lot of palazzos (fancy houses).
We went to Venice but Celeste and dada stayed home. First we went to the ferry building and got on a ferry called "Marco Polo". We slept in a cabin at the bottom of the ship. We realized that we had to wait 6 hours before a bus came to take us to the next town. But a nice lady gave us a ride in her car. We caught two trains and finally got to Venice.
We got out of the train and walked through a half glass room. We walked out and we saw the the grand canal. There were gondolas passing, and shops selling beautiful masks with feathers.
We went over an old bridge, and through many confusing alleys before we reached our hotel."
Here are some pictures from our trip:
Our cabin on the ferry
Eating at the restaurant on the ferry
Hooray! We're here!
Some of the mask stores are extremely fancy.
Taking the Traghetto to get across the Grand Canal where there is no bridge
A palazzo with the windows Ruby talked about above
The most amazing art store display we have ever seen!
This looked like the little square with the tiny buildings from the movie The Cat Returns.
We took a tour (only the two of us!) inside the workings of the famous clocktower, which tells the time on a 24 hour clock face - but ALSO tells the zodiac, the phase of the moon, and the month!
Ruby putting a message into a Bocca di Leone, a very special Venetian thing - but we won't tell you about it, you'll have to read Daughter of Venice to know about it...
Feeding pigeons in San Marco Square - they are very tame, and very eager for the food you can buy!
A lot of the buildings in Venice have this kind of red wash on them, and the wash wears away, making everything look wonderfully old - which of course it is!
This amazing palazzo had been made into an art museum. It cost $20 each to go inside, but we begged the lady just to let us go on the stairs for free, and she did. Phew! Even the stairs were gorgeous.
Another palazzo on the Grand Canal -all covered with amazing mosaics, which you can't see here. The little glass pieces that the pictures are made of flash in the sun when you get closer!
Ruby on the tiny balcony of our hotel room the last night we were there
This giant clamshell was one of two holy water fonts in a cathedral in Rijeka, the town at the top of Croatia where we caught the ferry home.
Maybe you can go to Venice someday too!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Exploring Marjan with Ruby and Celeste
by Auntie Natasha
I had particularly wanted to see the hermitages, after reading about them on this blog. So yesterday we set out to climb Marjan-- that's the name of a large hill that forms sort of a peninsula beyond the main part of Split; it's mostly parkland, including a botanical gardens and a zoo, and one side of it has housing on its lower reaches, including the apartment where Ruby & Celeste live. So we can basically walk out the front door and down the road a bit, and then we turn left and start climbing an impressive series of steps with stone balustrades.
After a few turns, like a giant's staircase, the steps lead up to an incredible viewpoint where you can see all across the city and the harbour. There's a cafe there, too, but we didn't stop because we had already packed a terrific picnic lunch-- our morning at the open-air market collecting food is another whole story!
We admired the view and then started walking along a long path that runs all down a ridge of Marjan. There were lots of interesting trees and flowers along the path; several different kinds of yellow flowers are in season now, and there's a plant Ruby calls "giant asparagus" that looks like asparagus spears six or eight feet tall! I have no idea what that plant really is. The whole way along the path, we could see the ocean on our left side. The left edge of the path dropped away quite precipitously, and we thought that in America there would have been a safety railing for sure.
Celeste suggested that we play "20 Questions," so that occupied us for much of the walk. We guessed a couple of animals: Croatian jumping snakes (!) and a platypus; a couple of vegetables: olive trees and lemonade; and a couple of minerals: signposts and chimneys. Celeste really stumped us with that last one; we couldn't figure out what's usually made by people but sometimes naturally occurring, way bigger than a breadbox, too hot to touch but not used for cooking, and visible from our trail, and finally we all gave up and she had to tell us.
By that time we had reached a hermitage built right into the mountainside! Unfortunately photographs really don't do it justice, because they flatten out the perspective. What I liked best about the hermitage is the way that the part humans built blended right into the mountain-- I could hardly tell where one stopped and the other started. Some of the stone making up the walls was a little more squared-off than the rest; that was the only way to distinguish what had been built by people. And then there was a stained-glass window, built right into the mountain, too.
We were pretty hot and hungry by the time we got to the hermitage, and it was lovely and shady there, so we sat down and ate our lunch. Food always tastes more delicious after you've walked a long way. We had bread (they make a terrific bread here called "peka"-- I don't know how to spell that) and roast chicken and olives (not salty at all-- I've never tasted olives like that) and green beans and apples and cherries and chocolate. Ahhh, very good lunch. We threw the apple cores and chicken bones over the side of the mountain, before we realized that the path continued on below us! Fortunately we didn't hit anyone. And we all rested in the shade.
After that we started on down the path. The walk down seemed much shorter and cooler than the walk up. On the way down we passed a little church that was tightly covered with notes people had written-- I think they were prayers or wishes, but I couldn't read them 'cause they were all in Croatian. We were heading for a beautiful little beach, a spit of sand sticking out into the ocean and sheltering a curve of calm water for swimming in.
The beach turned out to be prettier from above... When we got there we found quite a lot of trash mixed in with the pebbly beach, and cars parked on the beach, and people crowded quite close together, and jet skiiers coming too close in for my comfort. Still, the water felt great on such a hot sunny day! We all waded, and then Ruby and I swam out a bit. The water was so calm that I forgot it was ocean and was surprised when it tasted salty. Ruby and Celeste found some great shells, including both a live sea urchin and a dead one. Ruby took the skeleton out of the dead one; I'd never seen that before, a symmetrical five-sided structure.
Thank you, Ruby & Celeste, for showing me Croatia and giving me such a fun time! I'm looking forward to more adventures...
I had particularly wanted to see the hermitages, after reading about them on this blog. So yesterday we set out to climb Marjan-- that's the name of a large hill that forms sort of a peninsula beyond the main part of Split; it's mostly parkland, including a botanical gardens and a zoo, and one side of it has housing on its lower reaches, including the apartment where Ruby & Celeste live. So we can basically walk out the front door and down the road a bit, and then we turn left and start climbing an impressive series of steps with stone balustrades.
After a few turns, like a giant's staircase, the steps lead up to an incredible viewpoint where you can see all across the city and the harbour. There's a cafe there, too, but we didn't stop because we had already packed a terrific picnic lunch-- our morning at the open-air market collecting food is another whole story!
We admired the view and then started walking along a long path that runs all down a ridge of Marjan. There were lots of interesting trees and flowers along the path; several different kinds of yellow flowers are in season now, and there's a plant Ruby calls "giant asparagus" that looks like asparagus spears six or eight feet tall! I have no idea what that plant really is. The whole way along the path, we could see the ocean on our left side. The left edge of the path dropped away quite precipitously, and we thought that in America there would have been a safety railing for sure.Celeste suggested that we play "20 Questions," so that occupied us for much of the walk. We guessed a couple of animals: Croatian jumping snakes (!) and a platypus; a couple of vegetables: olive trees and lemonade; and a couple of minerals: signposts and chimneys. Celeste really stumped us with that last one; we couldn't figure out what's usually made by people but sometimes naturally occurring, way bigger than a breadbox, too hot to touch but not used for cooking, and visible from our trail, and finally we all gave up and she had to tell us.
By that time we had reached a hermitage built right into the mountainside! Unfortunately photographs really don't do it justice, because they flatten out the perspective. What I liked best about the hermitage is the way that the part humans built blended right into the mountain-- I could hardly tell where one stopped and the other started. Some of the stone making up the walls was a little more squared-off than the rest; that was the only way to distinguish what had been built by people. And then there was a stained-glass window, built right into the mountain, too.
We were pretty hot and hungry by the time we got to the hermitage, and it was lovely and shady there, so we sat down and ate our lunch. Food always tastes more delicious after you've walked a long way. We had bread (they make a terrific bread here called "peka"-- I don't know how to spell that) and roast chicken and olives (not salty at all-- I've never tasted olives like that) and green beans and apples and cherries and chocolate. Ahhh, very good lunch. We threw the apple cores and chicken bones over the side of the mountain, before we realized that the path continued on below us! Fortunately we didn't hit anyone. And we all rested in the shade.After that we started on down the path. The walk down seemed much shorter and cooler than the walk up. On the way down we passed a little church that was tightly covered with notes people had written-- I think they were prayers or wishes, but I couldn't read them 'cause they were all in Croatian. We were heading for a beautiful little beach, a spit of sand sticking out into the ocean and sheltering a curve of calm water for swimming in.
The beach turned out to be prettier from above... When we got there we found quite a lot of trash mixed in with the pebbly beach, and cars parked on the beach, and people crowded quite close together, and jet skiiers coming too close in for my comfort. Still, the water felt great on such a hot sunny day! We all waded, and then Ruby and I swam out a bit. The water was so calm that I forgot it was ocean and was surprised when it tasted salty. Ruby and Celeste found some great shells, including both a live sea urchin and a dead one. Ruby took the skeleton out of the dead one; I'd never seen that before, a symmetrical five-sided structure.
Thank you, Ruby & Celeste, for showing me Croatia and giving me such a fun time! I'm looking forward to more adventures...
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Ruby and Celeste Have a New Cousin!
Ruby and Celeste's uncle Paul is now the proud dad of a 6 1/2 pound baby girl! Auntie Paula gave birth to her last night while we were all asleep (though it was daytime where she was). We can't wait to hear more about it! Yay, Paul and Paula!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Ruby's Travel Guide - #1: Packing
Always take:
- Antibiotic ointment (in case of cuts or infections),
- More books than you think (you often get through them very fast),
- Paper and pencils, in case you get BORED,
- Music player (in case you're bored of drawing),
- Extra jacket (in case of cold),
- A snack (in case of extreme rumbling from the lower part of the body).
Also, you need to know how to fold.
A t-shirt:
You fold a the shirt in half so the sleeves are together. Then fold the two sleeves onto the chest. Then fold it down.
PS. You do the same with any shirt.
Next, pants:
Fold them in half. Then fold them down.
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