Athens: In Athens we went to the Parthenon and climbed the Acropolis. I liked it. Nadine poked herself in the eye. My dad also had his birthday in Athens. We ate at a delicious restaurant where our waiter was a guy in his early seventies and we called him cowboy beeslayer because he liked cowboy movies and when a girl got up from her seat because she was scared of a bee he ran over yelling “do not worry!” and he smacked the bee really hard with a menu. It was funny. He also said that my face was very clever. My favorite thing was the Happy Train. It was a little train with a happy face on it and it took us everywhere around Athens. I also got a really cool slingshot so now I can do damage from a distance. I had a dream one night that I was shooting rocks at the Parthenon and that is what compelled me to get the slingshot. Our first hotel room smelled like fish. A complex mixture of cod and sardines. An intoxicating smell that filled your lungs with a foul stench.
Hank: Georgia
Georgia: Georgia was amazing. We were there with our friends Natella, Max, and Katya. They and their family were so nice and we were able to stay in Natella’s brother’s apartment. Her brother’s name was Bachuki and he and Natella took us to so many wonderful places and fed us amazing food. My favorite food was the dolmas that we had at a vineyard in the mountains that Natella’s cousin took us to. They were also so kind that they invited us to celebrate Bachuki and Natella’s father’s birthday where they welcomed us. One of the coolest things was swimming with dolphins. YES DOLPHINS. They even set that up for us. My dolphins name was Daisy. She jumped and spun and let me ride her around the pool. You could even pet her like a dog as long as you did not touch her blow hole or eyes. It was fun like eating a sesame role bun. Bachuki’s apartment was near the beach boardwalk and the town square. They had a small soccer field of sand on the boardwalk and I got to play soccer. The beach which was on the Black Sea was rocks so you could not really body surf. But it was great any way.
Hank: Rome
Rome. A wondrous place of beauty and floral hills. Just kidding. That is definitely not how I like to rite. Do not fret my loyal blog viewers for I have not yet changed quite that much on this trip. (Yet). Rome was very cool though. We did not stay in Rome but about an hours train ride out of it. The people we stayed with were so nice and they even took time out of there own day to show us around the country side. The mountains are a really dark green color and the small towns are beautiful. We went to the Pope’s former summer residence which is in a very small town called Castel Gandolfo. It over looks a pretty volcanic lake that many other towns sit on. Our hosts took us to a wonderful pizza place where I had a pizza with mushrooms, and sausage, and cheese OH MY. The pizza had really thin crust. We went to the colosseum. It was really cool but our guide liked to hear himself talk and dad did not think that he really knew what he was talking about due to an old Japanese man who seemed to love asking our guide really tough questions in which case the guide would just avoid the questions and keep on talking.
Hank: Florence
Florence. “Bark, bark, bark.” They must be at the main gate. “Ya Frank ya.” My ruthless canine companion and I raced down the narrow hallways of the Medici palace. I saw a flick of cape race through a door and then we were upon him. The thief glared at me. He was the first to ever manage a feat so great as to break into the Medici palace and city court room. It was guarded by many guards. All Canine controllers because of its wonderful history.
The Medici family took residence in the city hall. The father was the duke of Florence Italy. The oldest son would be the father’s successor and the second oldest son would become a cardinal. The palace is huge with a larger than normal court room and huge tapestries on the walls and even covering the ceiling. Of course my residence is not nearly as grand but I do very much enjoy it. It is a second story apartment with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. It has a small kitchen and living room. The apartment is located about twenty kilometers out of Florence in a tiny town called Le Valli. There is lots of room for me and Frank to run through the fields and we very much enjoy it.
Hank: Paris
Paris was to big and Nadine picked it out. It is not a good place for children. The museum of natural history was pretty cool with all the animal skeletons and stuff but I did not get what was so amazing about the Louvre. The Mona Lisa looked just like all the other paintings in the museum and most of the statues were of naked athletes. The zoo was pretty cool and I saw my first Fallow deer. It was weird because the Oxen had darts stuck in them. We went to the arc de Triumph and you had to go through a tunnel just to get there. Our apartment was really nice and the subways were pretty cool to. Then a monkey jumped out of its cage and claimed me as its master and so I became the monkey rider of Paris. Me and my monkey, Dung slinger kept through the streets fighting evil all day. The bad guys cowered in fear when they heard the screech of the baboon of justice and his fearless rider swinging through the streets slinging dung and fighting for justice. Our roost was the tower of eifleness and our throne where we sat relaxing in the sun when the bad guys had been dealt with was the top of the arc de Triumph.
Hank: Krakow
Krakow is a great city and reminds me a lot of Austin. It has about 1,000,000 people and has a big population of about 100,000 students who are attending the many universities. My favorite thing was the Wieliczka salt mine. You could actually wipe your hands across the wall then lick them and you would taste salt. The coolest thing down in the salt mine was the underground cathedral. It is the biggest underground cathedral in the world and it was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. They even hold masses in it. We were over 300 feet below ground in the mine. The guides showed us how the miners moved around the salt after it was mined. The miners actually had horses 300 + feet under ground to help them transport the salt. The last horse was removed in 2002 from the mine so it was fairly recent. Our apartment was on the second floor of a building that was located right on the main market square. We went to one stand in the market square where they roasted quail and had mixed vegetables, although the best thing about it was that they squeezed their own fresh orange juice.