Archive for ‘Roaming’

Posts about our travels…

Plitvice Lakes National Park

Yesterday we drove from Budapest to Croatia. We stopped at Lake Balaton on the way.  At our campsite we had roast chicken for dinner. It was yummy. Genevieve and I also made shapes with our aqua beads. I did a butterfly and Genevieve made a car.

Today we went to Plitvice Lakes National Park. The leaves were all yellow and brown. There were lots of waterfalls and we walked on wooden paths around the lakes. There were lots of fish in the lakes too.  Then we took a boat and at the end we took a bus back to the start. It was very beautiful. We got an ice cream too.

Then we drove to Rozac campsite.  It is on an island near Split.  Genevieve and I went swimming in the sea. It was warmishly cold!

 

 

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Budapest!

We have had a day and a half in Budapest. It has lots of beautiful buildings. The first afternoon we walked along the river Danube and looked around Pest.

We went into St. Stephen’s Basilica – it had lots of fake candles and big paintings and mosaics.

Today we walked into Pest again and saw the Parliament buildings. There was a memorial to the 1956 Uprising. Lots of people were killed by Soviets. There were bullet holes in the stairwell.

Then we crossed the river and went to Buda. We climbed a big hill to the castle.  We had pizza for lunch, and I had a strawberry icecream.

There are lots of statues in Budapest. We did a lot of walking. (about 35,000 steps!!!)

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Latvia and Lithuania

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We had a nice time on the beach. We drew a castle in the sand. Daddy did some work on the car.

Then we did a drive through Latvia, through the Gauja National Park. We had lunch, then walked over a big bridge. The trees were all yellow and orange and red. Very pretty.

The next day we drove to Riga, this is the capital city of Latvia. In Riga we had a yummy breakfast of pancakes with curd, sourcream and jam. We walked around the town and saw lots of pretty buildings and statues. There was a cat house that had cats on the roof. Then we went to a market and we bought a massive watermelon. Daddy really liked the market. (It used to be a WW1 Zepplin hangar). The market was really big. There was one hall for fish – it was smelly. One hall for cheese and nuts, one for meat, and one for bread and veges.

After Riga we drove to a new country, Lithuania. We stopped at the Hill of Crosses. There were thousands of crosses, some big and some small.  We learnt that the Soviets destroyed them and the local people would sneak back and put more crosses up. There were thousands of crosses.

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Estonia

After Finland we took a ferry to Estonia.

We stopped at a campsite at the Purita marina that was used in the 1980 Olympic Games. There was even an olympic torch still burning.

We did a walk around Purita, and saw lots of men fishing for herrings. We found a sandy beach and a forest of pine trees. Genevieve pretended to be a wolf. We also found a ruined convent. The crosses were a bit creepy.

Then we went to the old town of Talinn. It was very wet. We walked around the cobbled streets. We went into the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.  There was a lot of incense, and gold and silver paintings. We looked at some shops, then we had a pizza lunch!

Now we are camping under some pine trees, near a beach.  It is very beautiful.

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Russia

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We were very excited, as we went on a cruise ship to Russia!! The ship was called Princess Anastasia. We had our own cabin with 4 beds. We had a buffet dinner with lots and lots of food and we played exploding kittens. Genevieve won the first game.

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In the morning we were in St. Petersburg. We had to go through passport control and got a stamp in our passports.  Then we did a bus tour with a guide called Yuta. We had lots of stops to take photos. We saw a sphinx and Daddy bought a russian hat. It is very warm.

We saw the Flying Dutchman on the river Neva. And we saw the old port, and the cruiser Aurora. It was used in the Russian Revolution.

We saw the Church of the Spilled Blood, but only the outside.

We saw the Field of Mars and the eternal flame.

We saw St. Isaac’s Church. It had massive doors.

Then we went to the Winter Palace.  This is where the Tsars used to live, and is now a museum.  There was so much to see.  Famous artworks and even the rooms had beautiful painted walls, floors and ceilings.  It was amazing. My favourite was the peacock clock. Daddy liked the ceilings, Genevieve liked lunch. Mummy liked the lapis lazuli table, it was blue.

We bought a matryoshka doll with 7 dolls in it, and a smaller one with 3 dolls in it for Genevieve and I to paint ourselves! Then we went back to the boat and that night we went back to Helsinki.

 

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