Greece - I'm not too sure Friday 1st october 2010 "Where are we sleeping?" - "In the Garage."

On Tuesday 28th September, we set off from Croatia to try and catch a ferry back to Italy, land of the quote 'you can check out, but you can never leave'. We were all annoyed of going back, not only because we had already spent nearly a month there, but because we had spent money taking a ferry to Croatia when we could have just taken one to Greece.

We left Makarska around 10:30am, and it was a glorious day. As we three girls are children, we didn't find it fair that we had to drive on such a nice day. So we put on our snorkeling gear, (weird as it may sound-) and sat in a silent protest in the back which was to make the point we wanted to snorkel. So, after about 2 minutes of protesting (well done protesters), we stopped at a deserted beach to go in the sea. Edie was the one who most wanted to snorkel, but if you know Edie well, you can probably guess what she did when we arrived:

"What are we doing?" she asked,

"Stopping at a beach so you can snorkel, like you wanted to," mummy replied from the front.

"But this isn't the right beach,"

"It's the same as the other beach, just further down,"

"No it's not - that sea is different, I can tell. Look, there's sea weed"!

"Darling, that's a blade of grass,"

"It is not! I'm not snorkeling, so you might as well turn around now and drive on!"

By this time, me and Beth had changed into our swimming gear and we were going into the water. Edie was arguing with mummy about it being the wrong beach, and she refused to go in. Unsurprisingly, 15 minutes later, she came into the water and was having the time of her life. Typical! We did have fun though, and there were some fish but it was cold, so we moved on after about half an hour of snorkeling.

We drove all the way to Dubrovnik from Split, and brought tickets to catch the ferry to Italy the next day. We stayed at a campsite that night, and mummy didn't have much fun.

On Wednesday morning, we had to drive to the ferry port in the morning, but mummy wasn't feeling well. On Tuesday night, she was complaining about stomach pains and they got worse on Wednesday. When we drove to the town which had the ferry port in, we had to stop because mummy felt really ill. She was in a lot of pain, and we suggested we should get her to a hospital, but she didn't want to go. She went to use a public toilet, and we quickly drove to the ferry port car park. We told her to stay there while we went and had a drink at the cafe which had WIFI. We did emails, then mummy came and joined us. We thought she had appendicitis, but she was feeling much better and said she had been reading a health book in the van, and it said, from her symptoms, that she just had a small bug. As she was feeling better, we took a taxi to the old town and had some lunch - a sandwich by the harbour, which was very nice.

We didn't stay in the town long, because the shops were too expensive to do shopping, and we wanted to go back to the van so we were in time for the ferry. When we finally boarded the ferry, we went straight to bed because it was really late. We asked mummy if she would be OK, and her reply was "I'll be fine - but if I'm not in bed and one of you wake up, I'll probably be on the deck getting some air".

When we woke up at 6am on Thursday, we asked mummy how her night was: "Terrible, I woke up at about 2am and felt sick so went on deck. I should never have done that, because moving made me feel more sick. But when I got on deck, I sat there and kept drifting off. I then woke up and was sick in a life boat thing because I couldn't make it over the side in time". Lovely. Breakfast was included on the ship, but we didn't eat much after that piece of information and avoided any life saving objects.

We drove off the ferry into Bari in Italy. Italy hadn't changed at all from how it was about a week before. We didn't have much to do that day, but we did book tickets for that night to board another ferry over to Greece. The ferry that we booked for that evening was incredible. We were going to cross to Greece with a company called 'Superfast'. But their office was closed until 9:30am, we were there at 9am. Mummy spotted another ferry company which was like a cruise ship. It was called 'Ionian King Ferries', and had a swimming pool and we could sleep in the campervan in the garage! It was the most random thing I had ever heard of! While we killed time waiting to board the ferry at 5pm, we went driving around Bari. We were trying to find an IKEA because there were loads of signs pointing towards an 'IKEA'. The sign posting went along these lines: 'IKEA - 10km'. We drove 10km in the direction it told us to. Then 'IKEA - 5km', we travelled 5km in that direction. We knew we were getting close then suddenly, 'IKEA - Arrivederci'. Right, we turned around and followed the directions again. But still, it said that we were driving away from IKEA. It was so annoying seeing as we were following the right directions. We were all really hungry and were building our hopes up for IKEA meatballs and chips. After a long half hour of trying to find it, we were about to give up, but we decided to try once more. Amazingly, over the horizon appeared a blue and yellow sign which read the golden word 'IKEA'! We got our meatballs and chips (which were very tasty) and we drove back to the ferry port. We boarded the ferry at about 5pm and looked around the ship. It was incredibly posh! It was practically a small cruise ship, and it had an escalator! Unfortunately, the swimming pool was empty and we gathered it was empty because it was the end of season and the holidays were over. But it was a nice ferry anyway, and we sat in the bar and had some drinks. I'd be lying if I said it was cheap. A carton of drink was about €4! We made the most of it. I was feeling really sick that night, so I didn't eat tea which only consisted of doritos and a sandwich. I was quite annoyed I had to miss out on the doritos though! I wasn't sick, so we thought that it was the diesel fumes from the cars in the garage. We had spent about an hour down there getting the beds ready. But the excitement didn't end there. When we decided to go to the garage and sleep, the main doors were locked. We had to ask a member of staff to come and help us out. He opened a small door and showed us where there was a door open. Turns out it was right next to the big ropes where they moor the ship. When we were in the garage, the guy took us to the open door so we knew where it was. As we had to weave in and out of cars, we saw a couple that were in there car and the guy had his leg out of the window. Suddenly, the member of staff started shouting at him! I thought it was because he had his leg out of the window because I couldn't understand what the guy was shouting. I then saw that the man in the car had a cigarette in his hand and the member of staff was pointing at the 'No Smoking' signs. Turns out that he was shouting at the man because he was smoking! It was actually quite scary and the staff member took the man out of the garage. We had no idea what happened then, so we just went to sleep. I must say, sleeping in a ferry garage is quite relaxing as the engines make a nice humming noise that lulls you to sleep.

On Friday the 1st, we arrived in Greece, hoping that that really was the last time we would see Italy. The first night in Greece, we stayed in a small hotel which had WIFI. I'm not sure what the town was called, but it was a nice hotel any way. I spent most of the time on the computer doing ICT coursework. There was one room with three beds and another room with a double bed. Obviously, us three girls slept in the triple room and the parents were in the double room. Before I went to bed, I switched on the TV, and a show I would never have guessed would come on, came on. It was the Greek version of the X Factor!! It was so random! There were 3 judges and they were at the auditioning stage of the show. I quickly turned it off and went to bed before I got engrossed in the show!

A quick review of the night on the ferry: I did get woken up a couple of times due to an alarm going off, but apart from that, I slept quite well. I recommend the Ionian King, when you think you've seen it all!

Croatia - The Dalmatian Coast Monday 27th September 2010 "Retreat - I see fish!"

Saturday, 25th September is a date we will always remember as the day we left Italy, safe in the knowledge we shall never return! We started off the day by packing up a wet orning, as the rain did not stop coming down - even when we were leaving! When we finally did leave, we went to a town that had a launderette, which we needed badly because all of the clothes we washed on the Friday smelt musty because they didn't dry properly. We spent about an hour and a 1/2 in there, but we finally had clean clothes! While we were doing that, daddy went to buy a internet dongle because he was sick of no WIFI. €49 gone, but eternal WIFI! We had another kebab for lunch (our new favourite!) and drove to the ferry port! We had booked a ticket for an overnight ferry to Croatia that evening, but our cabin had no shower or toilet! It was actually quite scary, because we got on the ship and it looked exactly like Titanic! It was really scary, and because we booked last minute, our cabin was above the bottom floor - if not on the bottom. I felt really sick that night, but I was fine and got to sleep quite quickly. We got woken up at 6am, and I only got 7 hours sleep because we were watching a movie! So when we got off the ferry and into Croatia, I slept most of the time! We were welcomed to Croatia with heavy rain which wasn't very pleasant. We actually had to drive up lots of mountains, and the rain was so bad we could hardly see anything. It was quite scary, so we went slowly!

We arrived in a town called Makarska, I think, and we found an apartment as we didn't want to camp in the rain. It was a great apartment, not only did it have a shower and toilet, it also had an oven! We had fish fingers and potatoes the first night! It was great!

It turned quite sunny and hot in the afternoon of the Sunday, so we went to the beach which was about a 5 minute walk down the road. It was a pebbly beach and the sea was very calm and clear with massive mountains surrounding the coast! When we went into the water, it was really warm and there were fish swimming around our feet! We were scared first, but then we brought 2 snorkels and went snorkeling and saw loads of fish. There was also a massive drop off about 7 - 8 meters from the shore. If you've watched 'Finding Nemo', it's just like the drop off in that film. You couldn't see the bottom, and me and daddy floated over it, but we didn't stay for long because it was so scary. Me and Beth went snorkeling up and down the beach, and about 30 different fish followed us, it was so sweet.

We ended up staying in the apartment for 2 nights, and on the Monday, we did about 3 solid hours of school work, I did it on English. The best thing about having to do the work was that we got to go to the beach in the afternoon to do some more snorkeling. But it started raining, so we didn't stay for too long! We did buy some souvenirs on the way back to the apartment, and the main things brought were clackers. Some of you might know what they are and could possibly have a pair, but if you don't, clackers are two plastic balls on a piece of string connected to a metal ring. The string is split into 2 with one ball on each end and you hold the ring and move your hand up and down to make the balls 'clack' together. If you practice, you can learn to take the balls over your hand for the balls to clack up and down. It's easier to work it out if you have a pair! We treated ourselves to a proper roast dinner on Monday night, and it was lovely! We had chicken, potatoes, carrots, courgettes and for pudding we had ice cream. We counted that as our Christmas dinner for this year. It was very tasty, and we savoured every bite. For any one who knows Beth is a veggie, she had an egg. Just so you're not worrying!

Italy - Ancona Friday 24th September 2010 'Rome' if you want to

We left the great bungalow on Tuesday 21st, and we were sad to drive away from a shower and air conditioning, I can tell you! We have traveled over 3000 miles so far on this trip, and have been traveling for over 2 months. Before we left the bungalow, the van had had 2 problems. A puncture and a problem with the fuel filter. Well, when we were driving away from Florence, mummy offered to drive and we all swapped places. I sat in the front and daddy went in the back with Beth and Edie. We were about to drive through a tunnel on the motorway, when we heard a very loud noise coming from the front left of the van. We had another puncture. It's weird, how both punctures we've had have been cause by mummy when she was driving. Hm. Any way, she made daddy drive through the tunnel into a safer place to at least put stuff in the tyre that inflates it a bit more. While he and mummy were emptying the boot and putting the stuff in the tyre, me Beth and Edie sat on a grassy patch that was a bit higher than the van. We played a game that passed the time, and the game rules were as follows. We would wave at truck drivers, and if they honked their horn, we'd score one point. But if they waved and honked, then we'd score 2 points. When we were driving to an even safer place to change the tyre, we had scored 30 points! One truck driver actually honked, and blew a kiss whilst on his phone! Brilliant! We eventually pulled in at a ticket place, and we changed the tyre. We're not letting mummy drive again! It was a pretty weird journey, but we made it to some campsite in the middle of no where which had a major ants nest under the ground. We slept quite well, though which was the main thing.

On Wednesday, we spent nearly all day trying to find a spare tyre for the van. When we finally found somewhere which sold our tyre size, daddy went in there to get it while we stayed in the nearby town. While daddy was paying for the tyre, his i-Phone fell out of his pocket and broke! Me and mummy were really sad because we now can't play poker! So daddy has now switched to an old Nokia which is so last year! But the annoying thing about his i-Phone breaking, is that when Daniel was in our bungalow, we asked to take a picture of him for daddy's website. He did the funniest face, it was like he was posing but sort of pouting at the same time! It was so funny, but we don't have it any more which is a real shame! That night, we had to framp. We were driving around at 22:00pm, trying to find somewhere else to framp. We were parked in a car park outside a police and fire station, so we were really safe. We were all settled in bed when mummy said "I don't feel safe". If I'm honest, I didn't feel safe because there was a road next to us and loads of cars were screeching. So at 22:00pm, we were driving around finding somewhere else to framp. We did in the end, at about 23:30pm. But that night, there was a dog opposite us, and I went out to go to the loo, but the dog started barking really loudly and was literally running at the gate to try and get out! It was so scary, that when I ran back to the van in my PJ's, I tripped over the curb and twisted my ankle really badly! It really, really hurt! The dog didn't stop barking through the night then - I wasn't very popular!

We went to Rome on Thursday which was incredible! We took the train at about 9:30am, and arrived in Rome at about 11:30am. It wasn't a bad train journey, but I could smell the toilets which was horrid. It was no Orient Express!

When we got off the train, there were loads of people trying to give us leaflets that had information about open top, hop-on-hop-off tour bus that went around the main sites in Rome. After about 20 minutes of saying a very stern 'no', we actually decided to go back to one of them and get a leaflet. It seemed as if we were getting a tour of the city by a black guy who worked for the tour bus company, because he took us around this massive square telling us random stuff - one time he actually took us into some place to say hi to a mate and show them his watch! We finally shook him off and got on the bus. Even when we were in the line to the bus, there were people coming up to give us a leaflet on the tour buses! There were more people trying to sell us hats, when they could plainly see we were wearing hats.

The bus people gave us some headphones which we used to listen to the history of the city, which was pretty good. The bus was going around 12 stops in total, but we only got off at about 5 or 6. The first stop that we got off at was the Colosseum which was amazing. It was massive, and some parts were still in tact which was incredible after 2000 years of standing. We were walking to the line to go inside the Colosseum, and there were stalls selling souvenirs and little models of the Colosseum. There were also men walking round with fluffy dog toys which played really annoying music while their ears flapped up and down! Honestly, what is the point? When we finally made our way through a sea of fluffy, singing, flappy eared dogs, we got inside the building. It was more incredible on the inside than it was on the out. It went up so high, and the amount of people which would have been able to fit in there was incredible. It was like being at Webley, but without shouting, cheering and the occasional swearing. We learnt that 'sand' in Latin is 'arena'! Bet you didn't know that. And I bet you didn't know (unless you've watched 'Gladiator'), that there are corridors underneath the ground where the gladiators would have fought. It was a shame, because over the year, earthquakes have knocked some of the wall down, but the rest is all in tact. There's even some marble seats left from when it was built!

We then went to see the Pantheon, which, incase you don't know, is a Catholic church now, but was a pagan church. This means it was a church built before Jesus Christ, so the people worshipped mother earth. It was amazing, because it has a hole in the roof for the sun to shine through, which was the peoples God at the time. We only went there because down a road nearby was a post office, and we were there to collect a letter someone had sent to us - except they didn't have it. Daddy has read the book 'Angels and Demons' and apparently there is a big scene in that book with a fight going on in the Pantheon. So he wanted to go inside, so we did and we enjoyed it very much!

By now, we were not only tired from walking around a massive square trying to find the post office, but we were really hot. It was boiling that day, and the sun just wouldn't go in - so we treated ourselves to a €2.50 ice cream, and it wasn't even that good. Hey, we were in Rome, what do you expect?

Our next sightseeing destination was the Vatican City, which is actually a country, but it's called a city because it is probably the smallest country in the world. I'm not sure though because I'm terrible at Geography and I haven't looked at a world map. We went to St. Peter's Square which is where the Pope lives, and it was really pretty. There's basically a massive building with a big wall joined on which is built in a circle shape. There are two massive fountains and some big pillar in the middle, but I didn't look up to see if there was a statue on top because it was too bright. The time was 16:00pm and daddy wanted to go inside the Pope's house (which was the massive building) and look at the art. We were told to walk all around the wall protecting his house which goes through Vatican City, and had the other end of the building is a door leading into a museum. That was one big building! It took us about 15 minutes to get to that door, and that was walking at a fast pace. We got there to find that it was shutting and we couldn't go inside. So we walked all the way back to get on the bus and go to Trevi Fountain, which is what I wanted to see all day after the Colosseum - the others didn't seem that bothered about going! We arrived at the fountain and it was really busy. The fountain is amazingly beautiful, but there was a sea of people to get through to see it. There were rows of benches carved into the stone, so we stood on those and took loads of pictures. I'm glad we went and I think the others were glad when they saw it too! We threw a penny over our shoulder into the fountain which means we're going back to Rome. Apparently to go and see the city again, but I'm only going to get my cent back!

It was getting late, but there was a church which claimed they had the remains of Jesus Christ's manger, and we wanted to go and see it, but the bus stopped at about 6:30, so we couldn't. On our way around the city on the bus, we saw the Alter of the Nation which is a massive white palace with loads of statues around it, it was very pretty. We also saw the carriage racing next to the Colosseum, so we do want to go back to the city and look at more architecture. It was a very busy day, and we wrapped it up with a kebab which was the first kebab of my life, and it was lovely! We arrived back at the van at 23:30 and drove out to a motorway which was being built and was deserted.

On Friday, we left the motorway-to-be quite promptly, as the builders started work early and a guy drove up to us and looked as if he was going to ask us why we were there, so we got out of there quickly! Not a bad night there though, which was good. We were supposed to be driving halfway to Ancona that day to catch a ferry to Croatia on the Saturday, but every town we stopped in had some pasta festival or was to mountainy, so we ended up driving to a town which was 1/2 an hour away from Ancona. We were staying in a 3* campsite which had no WIFI, so me and daddy spent 45 minutes going around the town trying to find a WIFI zone. We failed as it was like stepping into a medieval town where no one knew about technology or spoke a word of English. We had a thunder storm that night, which wasn't popular as we had done loads of washing with the campsites washing machine (I know, the town has a washing machine but no WIFI!) and we had to get it in from outside where it was trying to dry. We all slept in the tent that night, and the rain just kept on coming down. It wasn't very pleasant, but I guess there are good days and bad days.

Italy - Florence Monday 20th September She went to get some beans and came back with a German guy!

When we left Pisa, we drove into Florence, knowing each and every mile we were getting towards Rome more and more. (We all quite wanted to go to Rome at this point!) When we left Pisa on the Saturday morning, we drove down to the Florence city centre. We were driving around for ages trying to find a tourist information or a hostel or something, but parked the van instead because it was gridlock in the centre. We walked into a square and finally found a tourist information! They told us where 2 hostels were, but they were both full. We saw some apartments and they were all full too. We sat down at a cafe where they said they had free WIFI, which we wanted. They did have free WIFI, but being Italy, only one person could go on at a time. And this woman was on Facebook for the whole time we were there, when we had no where to sleep that night! After a couple of drinks, me, daddy, Edie and Beth went to 'Florence Dungeons of Torture and Death'. Sounds spooky - don't be caught out. Tim Burton has been there, but even he didn't look very interested when they took a photo of him. In fact, he was looking away from the camera! We decided to go in and see what there was to see, which wasn't a lot! We got a headset with information about what happened in Florence many years ago. It was OK if you wanted to learn about Florence history, but it wasn't like London Dungeons which is awesome. It was just telling us about the Plague in Florence and the food in Florence and various other things. But the guy talking on the headset wasn't English, but he wasn't American either, but he said words really weirdly. For example he pronounced 'saliva' saleeva', he pronounced 'the Plague' as 'the Plarg' and just couldn't speak properly! It really got on my nerves! After looking around the 'Florence 'Dungeons' of 'Torture and Death", we went and met mummy who had found somewhere to sleep. It was a campsite which was on a hillside and sounded all right. We drove over there, and I waited in the car as mummy, daddy, Beth and Edie went to get a pitch. They came back with towels, a remote thing and a big key. I asked what was going on and they told me that we had a bungalow for €80 a night! Bargain. The best thing about it (apart from having a shower and toilet) is that it had a massive air conditioning thing! The weather was really hot, so we used it loads. Actually, the first night we were there, there was a massive thunder storm, so we went out side and watched it. It got quite annoying as it went on all night, but I got to sleep quite quickly which was good.

We filled Sunday with doing lots of school work and chilling out - literally as we used the air con loads. We were going to go down to an Abbey which wasn't far from the campsite, but we didn't as we just wanted a relaxing day with no traveling. The campsite had a pool, and Beth and Edie went in and made up some random dance! It was quite funny, and they had the pool to themselves!

On Monday, we actually went into Florence, but went into the centre. We had a really nice day, but there was a lot of walking involved. We didn't want to take the van into the centre, because it would have cost a fortune to park, so we got the bus in. The bus stop was ages away from the campsite, well, it seemed very long in the heat. There was no shade at all, and I already had a headache - not a great start to a busy day! When we finally got to the bus stop and into the town, we went to the Leonardo de Vinci museum to look at his inventions. On the way to the museum, we saw loads of people selling stuff illegally and going up to people, seeing if they wanted to buy something. Random! The de Vinci museum was really good, and they had loads of his invention plans in. We learnt loads, and we saw lots of his inventions built. We learnt that he invented: the catapult, the tank, the bullet, buoyancy aid, escalator idea, aircraft idea, a way to turn a spit without having to have a man turning it and lots more. After we walked round the museum, we wanted to see a massive cathedral that was in the centre. When we were walking down the street leading up to the cathedral, we could see the tower which was quite big. When we walked around the corner, this was our reaction: "whoa, look at that!", "gosh, that's incredible!" and "yeah, that horse is really pretty!". That last quote may not make any sense, but when we all saw the size of the cathedral (which was massive!), Edie was looking at a horse and carriage! Of all the things to be looking at! But seriously, the size of the cathedral was amazing - it was so big that you couldn't fit it all in the picture when you were trying to take one! We queued up to go inside, and it was actually quite disappointing on the inside. There were nice statues, and there were nice paintings, but it was really plain. The cathedrals in Piacenze that Franco and Francesca took us to were more impressive on the inside. There was a big dome at the end of the church though, and it had a really cool pattern on the ceiling. It was an optical illusion of people climbing out of a balcony! We did look in a brochure and it said that there used to be lots more furniture, but they took it all away for some reason, and put it in a museum that was in the crypt. You had to pay to go down there, so we didn't bother going down.

After looking at the cathedral, we walked to a famous river which had houses built into the side of a bridge! It was so random! People did used to live there, but there are now loads of jewelry shops. The jewelry was really, really beautiful, but so expensive. I better start saving if I want to buy a necklace there. We took the bus home after that, and my feet really ached! I don't know if you ever have this, but if I walk loads in one day and sit down, my feet get a fuzzy feeling! I'm so random! That evening was really random too. We were going to have a mix of things for dinner, including baked beans. Mummy volunteered to go and get them from the van, and a 2 minute job turned into a 25 minute job. We were about to send out a search party, when she finally came back, saying "clear up, a German guy called 'Daniel' is coming round - his dad's Croatian so he can give us tips. Oh, and he talks a bit!" She was right about that - he wouldn't stop!! We got about an hour and a half into the night, when daddy had to start dishing up our paella. Now, paella is one of my favourite foods, and since we arrived back at the bungalow, I was really looking forward to some paella. We had already had paella the day before, but there were 2 portions left over. That was going to be for me and daddy, until daddy said to Daniel, "oh, do you want some paella Daniel?" I looked up from the computer straight away at daddy, and he was already cooking an omelette for mummy, but she decided she wasn't hungry. Now, if you know me, you'll know that I love my food and I really wanted paella! Daddy then said "Ella, you'll be fine with omelette won't you?". Seeing as I was sitting in the same room as a guest, I didn't want to make a fuss, so nodded. I ate my omelette in silence, well, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have been able to fit a word in to be honest. He did give us some good tips about Croatia, but then randomly started saying how he hated 'Marmite'! Random. He also said that he was a trucker, but he didn't look like one. Any who, he left around 22:00, so we couldn't watch a movie! I was quite tired any way, so was happy to go to bed. It was a random evening!

Italy - Pisa Friday 17th September 2010 The Leaning Tower of Pizza...uh...Pisa

On Wednesday, we went to our new Italian friends house,Stefano's parents for dinner. When we arrived, we met Stefano's parents - Franco and Manuela, and his two sister - Francesca and Chiara and of course, we saw Stefano and Federica. We all fit around their table (with a bit of a squeeze) and sat down for 9 pizza's. That's right, you read it correctly, 9 pizza's that Franco had made!! We started off with some really lovely dough filled with cheese thing, and then started our massive main course! They did it well, because we had a piece of every pizza, and if you wanted more, you could have more. The pizza topping ranged from margherita to courgette! How cool! Apparently, he had been making the pizza's all day! How good of him! We had a really good evening talking and laughing about random stuff! We also asked the Milani family where they would rather go - Venice or Rome? Franco was the only one who said Venice, so we decided we would go to Rome. That was our evening in a nutshell. Chiara and Francesca showed be, Beth and Edie their Golden Retriever, called Buch - after the musician! Turns out that the Milani family have all been to the UK and really liked it! But it was weird, because Federica, Stefano, Chiara and Francesca all spoke really good English, but Franco and Manuela couldn't! So practically, all through the evening, various people were translating different things! It was random! it got to about 22:30pm, and when we mummy and daddy said 'well, we better go, the kids better get to bed', they asked us if we wanted to stay the night! How incredible, the majority of people in the house had only known us for a couple of hours and they were asking us if we wanted to stay in their house! That would never happen in England! Well, we accepted (because we knew that there would be a bed!) and stayed at their house for a night. We said 'good bye' to Federica before we went too bed, because she we wouldn't see her before she went too work the next morning. We had an excellent nights sleep, although I fell out of bed! Francesca gave her room up for us, and there were three beds, so the kids got the beds and the parents got the mattress from the rock 'n roll bed in the van! Hehe! Yeah, so the beds were really low, and I woke up in the middle of the night on the floor! So I looked around to check no one noticed, and gingerly crawled back into bed. I got badly bitten in the night, though, by annoying, little mosquito. I hate mozzies, I always get bitten a number of times, not one! It's so annoying.

Thursday was a pretty busy day, because we had breakfast as normal, and the Francesca told us that Franco had got in touch with the Deputy Mayor and they wanted an interview with us about what we are doing. We said goodbye to everyone (apart from Franco and Francesca, because they were showing us where to go) in the morning and went into the town centre. The place where we had the interview was INCREDIBLE! It was really posh, and the room we did it in had a massive chandelier and velvet chairs. Every place had a microphone, and we got to sit at the front talking to loads of journalists looking at us! We had a professional translator, who turned out to be half English, and that made it a lot easier! At the end of the interview, the Deputy Mayor gave us a couple of gifts, which was a DVD on Piacenza and a material shield thing with the flag printed on which could hang from something! It was all very nice! Then when we got out of the town hall, we were greeted by a TV journalist and camera who wanted an interview as well! The journalist was more worried about her fashion than her job! Seriously, she had a crop-top, a designer scarf, designer jeans and sunglasses! It was amazing! We then went and looked around the town with Franco and Francesca, and they took us into two cathedrals which were amazing! They were incredibly decorated and really massive. There were gold statues of Jesus Christ and Mary, and the alters at the end were massive. The weird thing was, the cathedrals looked really plain from the outside but really beautiful on the inside. They showed us the crypt as well, and there were over 100 pillars and every pillar had a different decoration. There were two pillars which just had a minor difference to the decoration, but were still different.

We went to have a drink after looking at the cathedrals, and Francesca asked if we wanted to go back to the house to have fresh Italian pasta for lunch! It was very tasty too. Eventually, we left their house at about 15:00pm, and drove away from our awesome friends! We drove towards Pisa and stopped at a campsite that we saw and stayed there over night. We all agreed that the Milani's were the kindest people we had ever met!

On Friday morning, we left the campsite quite late, at 12pm actually, so we drove to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Edie was sick last night, so we went to bed quite late! I couldn't sleep either because it was raining ALL NIGHT! It wasn't like freak heavy showers, just steady rain all night through. It was so annoying. So I got too sleep at about 1:30am and woke up quite early because of the light out side. Not the best nights sleep!

When we arrived in Pisa, it was quite scary because when we were trying to park, there were black people showing us where the parking spaces were for money. It was really scary, because one kept coming up to us to sell things. Mummy eventually gave in and brought a bracelet off this guy! He was quite nice though! When we got to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it was actually much smaller than I thought it would be, but I guess on pictures it looks bigger. It was also surrounded by palace's and churches, which I didn't expect to be there! Of course, we did all of the touristy things of taking pictures and looking like we're pushing it / hugging it / holding it up etc. It was a very funny 30 minutes! We then went and took a closer look at it, and it looked much straighter from most angles - well, at least not leaning over as much. We did take lots of pictures though, and I brought my first souvenir - a key ring which says 'Pisa' and the Leaning Tower is the 'I'. That went straight on my back pack! So we had a very eventful couple of days, but probably the most unexpected in the trip so far.

Italy - Somewhere between Alessandria and Parma Tuesday 14th September See ya Alessandria!..... oh damn!

On Saturday 11th, we actually had the hire car for another day, and we were going to drive down to a lake, but Beth and Edie made a big fuss about driving for about 1 hour and a half, so we drove to a famous river. We were going to rent a small boat, like a punting boat, but when daddy, Beth and Edie went to check out the boat hiring places, guess what? They were all private, surprise surprise. They went to a small boat hiring place first, and it was closed for their four hour lunch break. So they went to another down the river side, that was private. They told them to go to the boat hiring place they had just been too! So after our picnic lunch (in a park, not a boat), they went back to the first boat place, and the man (who was finally back) said that that place was private and they only rented out boats to people in a private club! Typical Italy, every where's either private or too much money! So we drove back to the hostel to find a baptism party going on! Random! I guess there was a big church next to the hostel, so it sort of made sense!

Sunday was very much the same as the other Sunday's - a complete ghost town. But when we were driving on Saturday to the river, daddy got a text from Jon Wheater (my godfather) saying that the Grand Prix that weekend was ninety minutes away from where we were staying! Mummy and daddy really wanted to go to see the race, but it would have cost about €500. So we passed on that idea, but we did find a bar which had the race on on a TV, so that was fine. It was a very dramatic race if you didn't watch it. Lewis Hamilton crashed in the first half our!! Jenson Button came second, so all in all, not too bad. The day was relaxing (well, I guess the previous two weeks have been relaxing as well) but we weren't calling the garage about the van, although I wasn't holding my breath that they would fix the van on the Monday!

When Monday morning did come around, daddy actually decided to sacrifice his day at the pool, to go to the garage for the whole day. Then at least he would tell them to crack on if they weren't fixing it! Turned out, they did fix it and we had it back by 5pm that night! Woo hoo! During the day, me, Beth, Edie and mummy went back to the cool pool, and no one was there! There was one guy sunbathing on a deck chair, but the pool was deserted. Except it was quite cold - but we had good fun anyway! We all arrived back at the hostel around 5pm that night, and it was good to see the campervan was back in full swing! We decided to stay at the hostel another night, because it would have been pointless driving for an hour in the night.

So Tuesday the 14th was the day we left Alessandria! It's a shame, because I was just starting to like it - not! Any way, we drove about an hour out of Alessandria, to hear the same noise it was making the last time it broke down. So we drove down some random country road and stopped so daddy could look at the engine. He noticed that there were some air bubbles in the fuel pipe, which of course, isn't meant to happen. So we rung our local mechanic (again) and told him the same noises were happening and the air bubbles in the fuel pipe. He told us what to check and if they were all in order. They were. So we kept on driving at a steady pace and, as if by magic, a VW garage turned up! And it was REALLY plush! It was the most posh garage I have ever been to! It had Porsches, really plush Golfs and Audi TTs! It was incredible. Any way, a guy came along, (who looked very much like Hugh Laurie) and looked at the van. About twenty minutes later, he came back to tell us that it wasn't the turbo, but the fuel filter in the fuel tank! So we spent about loads of cash for nothing. When he change the fuel filter, the van ran smoothly. Typical - Alessandria is RUBBISH.

Any way, the day only got randomer. As we didn't want to over do the van driving it, we didn't go all the way to Pisa. We sort of stopped halfway in somewhere called Paderna and 'framped'. It's daddy's new word combining 'free' and 'camping' to equal 'framping'! It's catching on! Start using it! Any way, we pulled up outside a church practically, in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, if you looked all around, there was field after field, a small house and then another field. Hardly any cars drove past. We pitched up with the small tent for the bags and popped the roof up and at 20:45, we had pasta. At 21:00, a car pulled up the other side of the church, but we didn't see who got out. As we started to think it was just the vicar grabbing a cassock or something, ALL of the church lights went on. As mummy and daddy had a whispering fight with mummy telling daddy to go and talk to them, another car pulled up. More people went in to the church and mummy just got to say: 'right, you go ask them if we can stay here or we leave', loads more cars came into the car park where we were. Daddy went and asked a woman what was going on, and she told us there was a choir rehearsing for a wedding on the following Sunday! Seriously, what are the chances? Any way, we actually went and listened and met the bride and groom, Federica and Stefano. The choir were INCREDIBLE and they were all so friendly. Federica and Stefano spoke really good English, and it juts got more random. At the end of the whole rehearsal, Stefano asked us if we wanted to go to his parents house on the Wednesday for dinner with him and Federica! What nice people, you meet someone for 45 minutes and then invite us for dinner! You would never get that in England. Just a little added thing - Stefano's a dentist and federica an English teacher at high school. So we thought that we would accept their invitation and went off to sleep in the van after a very unexpected evening!

Italy - Alessandria/Genova Friday 10th September 2010 Over a week in Alessandria

We reached the mile stone of being in one place for a week on Thursday 9th, and we went over a week by a day. We were all hoping we'd only be in the hostel for 4 nights! We estimated wrong. We were all getting a bit depressed and sick of salami sandwiches, so were trying to find some cheap restaurants to eat at. Of course, we failed. Because Alessandria is so popular and everyone wants to go there on holiday, so all of the restaurants are really expensive for basic food. Although we did find a couple of cafe's that did pasta and a drink for €5. So we ate there one day. On Wednesday, we were really bored because we were supposed to be in Croatia by that time. But something really cool happened in the evening while we were watching and episode of Outnumbered. We finished and all got into bed when I saw some flashing outside. They were really bright flashes, and mummy saw them as well. She got up and looked to see what it was and there was a massive thunder storm going on, but it wasn't over us. It must have been ages away, because we could see the lightning really well through the clouds, but we got no sound of thunder claps what so ever! It went on for ages, but didn't come over us at all. So that was interesting any way!

On Thursday, it was just a repeat of the previous days to be honest. The only funny thing that happened was when we went to get a coffee in the middle square. We were having a drink out side a cafe when this guy in white came up too our table behind Beth. He told us to be quiet and not tell Beth he was behind her, which is random enough! Beth is really scared of people acting weirdly in costumes, she'd even get scared of dressed up characters from a show that wander around our shopping centre in Banbury! So when she got tapped on the shoulder by this white man, she got really freaked out! She jumped and went a pale colour and didn't do anything. Turns out he was a beggar! He was dressed really badly and his face paint was more grey that white! He showed us all a plastic cup to put money in, when he didn't even do anything cool! The other funny thing was, Beth couldn't even relax walking home, because we walked around a corner and he was there so we had to dive into a book shop! We're steering clear of random white people now!

Friday 10th was mummy and daddy's wedding anniversary, so we decided to hire a car and go down to Genova which is South and on the coast. We drove down and it took about 1 hour and a half, and we arrived to see clear blue sea, loads of palm trees and lots of boats in the harbor! We went and parked up and then walked over to the harbor to see what boats were there. Turns out that there was a massive Clipper! In case you're not aware of a 'Clipper', it is a very big pirate looking ship which has lots of riggings, looking out points (sorry, the name of those things just slipped my mind!) - ah, mummy just told me. It had riggings, crow's nests (thanks mummy) and lots more pirate looking things, including cannons! It looked like they were filming something there as well. So if a film comes out in England about pirates filmed in Genova, let me know because I saw the set! It was a really beautiful boat as well, with a big mermaid on the front! It was the make of boat that Christopher Columbus took to America when he went traveling. But I don't think the ships would have been in such good condition in pirate times! When we looked at the Clipper, we were walking back to the car when we came across and Indian praying session! they all had their shoes off like they do in India! It was incredible. When we got back to the van, we drove out to find a beach. We found loads of beaches, pretty blue sea, nice waves but they were all private! €7 each just to go on a pebbly beach, that's right, not sand, HOT pebbles! All of the beaches were like that which were private. Eventually, when we did find a free one, it was exactly the same as the private beaches as in it was pebbly, no shade, lots of people. Oh, and the only reason there were lots of people was because the free beach was about 25m LONG! I'm not even joking, it was ridiculous. But me, Beth and Edie went in the sea and it was really warm! The good old Mediterranean that goes out about 3 meters and then has a massive drop. Not the best beach that we've ever been too I must admit. But it was a nice day out any way.

Of course, when we got back to Alessandria to find a restaurant, there were none open because Friday night in Italy means 'bye bye nice Italian made lasagne and hello cocktails'! We ended up eating at a pizza place down our road which wasn't too bad. I mean, what's wrong with being the only people there and a big TV showing Star Trek in Italian while we're eating? None of us actually got a pizza in the end. Me, Beth and daddy got a nice, but buttery risotto, Edie got tomato, but olive oily pasta and mummy got pasta with weird fish meat. All that cost around €80, and on the next night (Saturday), we got a sushi take away which cost €30 less! Alessandria's a great city, isn't it?