The Road of Hell

Today we drove to a place called Paestum, which took a while to get to, but it was worth it when we made it there because it was super pretty. And there were a bunch of things that were like mazes there! Paestum is the ruin of a very old Greek town. It has probably the best kept temples in the entire world - and I am not exaggerating. The temples looked as if you could use them today.

When were done looking at the temples, we went to a place that was a lot like a maze where I played hide and seek with my Mom and my brother, but it was actually the ruins of old Greek houses. Then we had a picnic under a big tree where we right sandwiches, chips and soda right by a temple.

While my father was at the museum, we bought him a birthday cake because it was his birthday, and we had the best gelato I have had in my entire life.

On the way back to Nerano, we took a road, that should have been called the road of hell. It was super super narrow, and sometimes we were behind a bus, then another bus came, and we had to go back many yards to let it pass. Sometimes it took 20 minutes to get a few feet forward. That road was the coastal road on the coast of Amalfi. Then we drove up the hill to a small town called Ravello, where we also got some meat to grill at home. But then we arrived home too late to cook because the road was so hard to drive on.

Magma Chair

Today we walked to Ieranto Bay. It is a tiny, unusually isolated little beach, in a bay where the Romans thought there were sirens. It was at least one hour and forty five minutes to walk, but it was still OK because the path was really nice. There was absolutely nobody at the beach and in the whole bay which looked totally uninhabited.

I found a little area made out probably of million year old magma that I more or less claimed as mine. It even had a bathroom (which was a little hole) and a living room, and a thinking chair. And also a place to put your stuff.

Most of the time I was climbing on the rocks, and skipping rocks on the water with my brother. On the way back, instead of coming up the way we came, we climbed up a path that was so steep that we had to use weeds as pulleys to get ourselves up. When that was finished, we took an easier path than what we came on which was going through a bunch of olive fields. But it was very hard for my little brother who was very tired and thirsty, and hungry.

For dinner we went to a really good local restaurant called Charlotte.

Hot Spot

Monday we went to Pompei, which I thought was really really cool. On the houses for which they knew who had lived there they wrote the names of the people. First we just looked around at a lot of houses in various streets, and then my Dad told us about what certain places were, and we even saw a few "fast food" places from 2,000 years ago. We saw wine tasting places and restaurants and bars from the Roman times.

I liked the big houses best, because many times there were a bunch of walls and passage ways and, as I have said before, I love mazes:-) We also saw old graffiti from the Roman times, which is basically carving pictures and words into the rock. Another thing we say was that, on each street, on the ground, were smooth little grooves that chariots had been going over for hundreds of years and made. We also saw some really nice paintings of mostly birds and animals on the walls of many houses.

Then we left and had lunch at a restaurant near by. Then we went back home, but we stopped in Sorrento to get some gelato and look at the view. The view was really nice and it showed the whole bay of Naples, and there were cruise ships and barges. You could also see Mount Vesuvius, which is the volcano that destroyed Pompei.

Not to mention that this was probably the hottest I ever got in my entire life...

South by South East

Friday night we drove to the airport in Beauvais and left for Italy. We landed in Rome. When we got there it was very late and we took a shuttle to our hotel which was pretty nice. The next morning, my Mom and Dad went to rent a car with my brother while Linda (my new baby sitter) and I stayed and ate breakfast at the hotel. Then we drove to Nerano, which is a small village further than Sorrento, which is further than Pompei, which is further than Naples.

On the way there we only stopped twice: the first time to go to the bathroom, and the second time to get some money from the bank and buy some food and sandwhiches.

The place where we stayed at was called Olga's Residence, a very nice house which is probably the only modern place in the village. It had a really nice swimming pool (though the temperature was probably below zero...). Our place had two stories, and a tiny narrow staircase up to the roof which was a perfect place to sunbathe.

Right after we arrived we left again to get my brother some medicine we had forgotten at our apartment in Paris. First we went to a village called Termini to find a pharmacy, but apparently it was closed although we waited almost an hour because it was supposed to be open. Then we went to Sant'Agata and there the pharmacy was open.

For dinner we walked to the beach, at a place called Marina del Cantone, where we had some pretty good food.

Today my Dad and I went swimming in the pool. Well, I did not really go swimming: I just jumped in and jumped right out. But then I jumped in again, because my Mom and my brother wanted to see me jump in. The my brother took a nap, and my Dad stayed with him while Linda, my Mom and I went to a private beach that was reserved only for us. Then my Mom made pasta for dinner.

Notre Dame de Pompidou

The other day I went with Adin, Jennifer and my brother, to Notre Dame de Paris and the Pompidou Center (which in Paris people call Beaubourg).

First we took a little boat, called a bateau mouche, which travels on the Seine and takes you to certain places around Paris. We got off at Notre Dame de Paris. When we got here we stood outside for a while, just looking at the outside and the famous big round stain glass window. When we got in all the windows looked different, because from the inside you can actually see the pictures on them. We also saw many retables (they are long wood carvings that tell a story) and statues from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Then we got back on the boat, and went along to the place closest to the Pompidou Center. It is a giant art center but it's really weird because most of it is made out of glass and all the heating pipes, water, air conditioning, etc. are color coded and instead of being inside they are outside the building like the exoskeleton of a bug. That particular day by chance it was the last day of construction but it was still closed so we could not go inside. We went to a statue garden outside and got some hot chocolate. After that we went back home.

Eiffel Tower II

Yesterday we went to the Eiffel tower for the second time. This time we went at 10:00pm after my brother had been put to bed, so that he would not feel bad about not going. I went with Adin and Jennifer.

First we were only going to the second floor. Then Adin and I wanted to go all the way to the 3rd and very top floor. It was about a 45mn wait to get tickets to get to the first floor (second American floor, 1st European floor). We took an elevator to the first floor, then an elevator to the 2nd floor, then an elevator to the top. It was really, really fun up there, but Adin and Jennifer did not like being that high, so we went down quickly.

On the way down we took an elevator down to the 2nd floor, then down to the first floor. It took us a long time to find the elevator on the first floor, but when we finally did it took a long time to get there, but for some reason the doors did not open for a long time, so we finally took the stairs. But I have to say that I think the stairs were a lot more fun.

Le Louvre: Beetle Art

Today we went to the Louvre with Adin and Jennifer. We saw the remains of a hidden castle under the Louvre.

Then we went on through some of the art galleries in the Museum. There was a really disgusting worm creature, that was reall super, super long, maybe seven or eight yards long, or more, that had the head of a human being, and that was going through a fake graveyard. It was so realistic you could even hear it and see it inhaling and exhaling.

We also saw these cool art things that were made out of beetles, but the light reflected out of them in such a way that they looked like they were the colors of the rainbow. And you could not tell they were beetles unless you looked really really close.

There is only one thing there that I did not get to see that I wanted to. It was the stolen crown of a King of France that they found in a garbage dump many, many years later after it had been stolen. But I forgot to look for it.

The Adin is Coming! The Adin is Coming!

My friend arrived a couple of days ago from California! He arrived Thursday, and I actually was surprised to see him because I thought he was supposed to arrive really late in the day. I was super happy to see him! While I was at school, he seemed to have fallen in love with my dart guns. So we ended up having a lot of dart battles.

Yesterday we went to the Jardin des Tuileries, where we played on the trampoline a lot, and I finally mastered doing back flips on it. Then we also played a lot of soccer (football if you are British) with my Dad. After that, my brother decided to go to the merry go round, and we are not going to. Then we saw there was a cup that turned when the merry go round went around, but yhou could also turn it very fast with a wheel that was in the center of it, so we decided to go and make ourselves dizzy. Then I made myself a little bit too dizzy and nearly threw up on it. Right before we left we saw a little ice cream stand so we got some ice cream. In the picture above you can see me do an unsuccessful backflip.

Today, we went to the Eiffel Tower. Bu the lines were so long to get there we did not go up at all and just looked at it from close by. We'll have to go there another time. Then we had lunch at a Romanian restaurant, but instead of getting some Romanian dishes we just got roast chicken:-). This being because there were no Romanian dishes on the menu - but, still, even if there had, I think I would still have gotten roast chicken...

After lunch my Mom took my little brother home, and we (Adin, my Dad, Jennifer who is Adin's Mom and I) walked to the Invalides. It was really nice. We looked at a bunch of cannons first. Then we went to see the tomb of Napoleon. Then we saw a huge museum there on World War I and World War II. All in all I thought it was a really good visit.

Then we had to walk back really quickly to meet my Mom because we were going to the Passover Seder at my Grandma's house.

The Revenge Of The Burritos

Last night we had home made burritos to make up for the horrible ones at the Mexican restaurant. This time they were pretty good. Except for the beans which were only good if you didn't put to much of it in. That was the revenge of the burritos.....

But since we have so much I think we'll be eating it for many many dinners to come. We even had so much that we made sandwiches with to eat at the school picnic that was today! And Adin if you're reading this, considering the fact that you are coming on Thursday, I hope you like burritos!

WBE (worst burritos ever)

Last Saturday we went to a Mexican restaurant that my mom had seen. It smelled really good on the inside and the guacamole and chips were good so we started to think that it was a good place to go to but as usual we didn't know just how wrong we were.

Everyone except my mom got burritos con carne.

When we got our burritos we found out that they were just the lousiest tortillas filled with chili con carne. In other words they were the worst burritos ever.