6/20/2011 22:30 Krumpendorf

This morning Younger than me three, KB, and I went to Hochosterwitz
with my mom. It was KB's last day with us, so we wanted to show her
the best castle around, which has, and i accidentally lied about this
before, 14 gates. It was lots of fun. Then we went to a spar (grocery
store) to get lunch and other supplies for the drive aged of us. We
drove three hours to vienna, and dropped off KB at her hotel, then
drove three hours back. We met the rest of the family for dinner.
Then I wasted the dishes with Younger than me three. The end.

--

Rosie Liddle
"Laughing gives you abs, rock hard abs."

6/19/2011 22:00 Krumpendorf

We checked out of the hotel this morning after breakfast. Then we went
o piazza del michaelangelo and saw the bronze copy of the David. I'm
pretty sure i've seen enough naked statues for an entire lifetime.
Then we just drove for five hours back home. We ate lunch on the road
and dinner at home, and pretty much that was all. Sorry today is so
short, but that's really all there is to say.

--

Rosie Liddle
"Laughing gives you abs, rock hard abs."

6/18/2011ish Florence, Italy

Not so early morning, but not so late either. the breakfast at the hotel-only served in the other building-was rolls and hot chocolate (which wasn't even very good hot chocolate) and crackers. Yeah, not super impressive or anything. After breakfast we went to the museum with the David, as in michaelangelo's david. It was long, so by the time we were done there, it was time for lunch. we stopped at a place that sold us pizza, gelatin, and drinks for a good price. it also had wifi, so i had the chance to check my email real fast, but not really send anything. it was good times and delicious food-did i mention i love italian food? Next, we went back to the hotel to freshen up and then left for the duomo. Story time, Mom was holding a spot in line because she and dad had left a little early to see what the situation was like. Well, my two younger brothers left the hotel slightly before us girls and dad but really at the same time, but they just disappeared, and we thought that we had somehow lost them in the hotel. we were all pretty concerned and mildly freaking out. turns out they just decided to leave and go to the dome ahead of us. Yeah, it was upsetting. We went up to the top of the largest brick dome ever constructed in the largest cathedral in the world. So many stairs!!! (463 i think.) But it had such a beautiful view. But it was also so high and scary. And then we went back town to the bottom of the cathedral. It was very cool. It's all so massive it makes you feel itty bitty. our next stop was the baptistry, which had the coolest mosaics on the ceiling. Next we got some fresh, homed gillatto, possibly the best gillatto in the world. But it was also more expensive than the less delicious stuff. Then we went on some bridges and took pictures. Dinner came next. pizza again, but it was a different kind, and also delicious. then back to the hotel for resting. But we went up to the terrace of the other building (which, by the way is well lit) and took pictures in front of a really pretty view of the duomo. afterwards we got italian hot chocolate. It was so thick we had to use a spoon to eat it. SO good. Then we went back to the hotel for bed, but...KB, younger than me three, and I talked until like 2 in the morning. When we were about to go to bed, there was this buzzer that went off, and we were all confused what it was. We realized pretty quick that it was the doorbell and someone really drunk kept on ringing it for a good 20 minutes. We got up and dead bolted our door at that point and just waited. Then downstairs we heard some really loud people and were concerned it was a fight, but then they started coming upstairs. turns out all these really noisy really drunk people were our next door neighbors. It was pretty loud for quite a while. But now i'm falling asleep.

6/17/2011 Florence, Italy 22:00

I woke up this morning by the phone ringing in a beautiful hotel room with a slightly confusing bathroom. Mostly cuz it had a bidet in it. (pictures to come.) We had a dessert buffet called breakfast and went on our way because we had a 3 hour drive to pisa, and i think you know where this is going-the leaning tower of pisa. but, before we got there, we wanted lunch, so we ate at a gas station cafe that sold us delicious sandwiches, soda, and dessert. after this refreshment, we drove the last 20 minutes into pisa and parked. we walked over to the leaning tower. We took a few pictures outside of ti before it was our time to go in. it was the weirdest feelings walking up those steps. sometimes it felt like i was going uphill, sometimes it felt like i was going down the steps i was actually going up, and the rest of the time it just felt like i was leaning to one side or the other. i did experience vertigo when i was on the outside, but it wasn't excessive, so it was alright. (they let you out on the 4th floor and the top. you can also go up to the very top above the belfries.) Going back down was harder for me-i felt less stable. It was really an amazing experience though. I realized that i know basically nothing about the leaning tower except that its leaning-homework assignment for me; find out why it was built. We also went through the cathedral next to the tower. something i've found interesting in Italy in Italy is that in holy places they enforce modesty. they have pieces of fabric to tie around your shoulders if you're wearing a tank top or your waist if your shorts are really short. Well, after the cathedral, we piled back into the car, ate our gas station dessert, and headed out to Vinci, as in Leonardo de Vinci. We looked at a museum of models of machines he designed. It was so cool! we also hiked the stairs to the top of a bell tower. Lots of stairs. The view up there is so amazing, it looked like a painting. That was all we saw in Vinci, and we started the drive to florence. let me tell you, when we got over the Arno river into florence, we got lost a lot before finding our hotel. this was partially because tomtom got confused and told us to go the wrong way down one way streets. Eventually we got there, but they told us they put us in another building, so we walked over there and went up this kinda scary looking street and went into a dimly lit building up to the third floor dimly lit rooms where we were going to stay. let me just say, i was disappointed. this place isn't very nice, but at least it has AC. (And also a bidet, in case you were wondering about that.) It took us a while to get into the rooms because we had struggles opening/unlocking the doors, and we thought one was dead bolted, but it wasn't. After resting for a little, we went to a restraunt recommended by the hotel people. we started looking at the menu and i'm pretty sure my dad just about had a heart attack, the prices were so high. well, after a few minures, he walked up to the counter and started asking about meal options and came back with a different menu with 4 options each first course and second course. it was all super delicious! I had noodles with a tomatoe sauce and then a curry dish with peas. It was all insanely good and authentic italian food. After dinner we went back to our hotel and went to bed.

6/16/2011 22:00 Verona, Italy

Early, Early morning today. We left at six for venice. We won't have any internet in Italy, so that is why all these posts are coming at the same time. It was a long morning, especially for KB with her jet lag. It was a very long car ride. It was interesting thug. We went through a toll road, but you take the ticket at the beginning and pay at the end. I think it's a little backwards, but I guess it makes sense because they have you pay depending on how long you were on the highway. We took a train the rest of the way into venice. it was hot and humid inside the train, and it smelled weird. It wasn't too exciting. We finally arrived in the city around 10. We walked around the shopping area and over several large bridges-very beautiful marble ones, and made our way to saint mark's basilica and all the other things in that area. We got some gilatto and went into the castle of the dodge. It had beautiful carvings and paintings everywhere. its also home to the largest paining on canvas in the world (7X24 meters). It was interesting to learn that the carvings at the tops of columns were not just decorations, but also political statements. We were all very hungry after that, so we went and ate lunch next-we had calzones of various kinds. Then we went to saint Marks's Bascillica. The mosaics all over the ceiling were so cool! lots of interesting stories about st. mark's body buried there. Then we went to the top of a nearby bell tower, which was really cool. it had a beautiful view of the city, but because of all the buildings, you can't see a single canal from the top. We were all pretty tired by this point, so we went and got some more gilatto and water before shopping for souvenirs (which was super easy, just by the way). We took a bus boat back to the other side of the city and went to a cart where i found my souvenir (a black and silver half mask with a feather on the side-i'm all ready for a masquerade ball). Then we went to a glass shop and that's where everyone else got their souvenirs. we took the train back to where we parked, and drove for another half hour or so to get to verona. we checked in at the hotel and then set out in search of dinner. We got a little lost and eded up finding a Kebab place where we stopped. These kebabs were delicious, but they had some different toppings than we'd seen before, like french fries. We also had sodas, and there's this really good soda we discovered called lemon soda which may possibly be my new favorite. It's italian and delicious. After dinner, we all felt tons better, so we walked up the steps of an old structure on the mountainside for a good view of the city. it was nice and beautiful . Then we went home to bed. PS this hotel was really nice. Really nice. Good sleep.

6/15/2011 20:00 Krumpendorf

Early morning today, but for a good cause. I got to sign up for my classes in the fall. I can't even explain how excited I am. Dad needed to get some work done, so the rest of us went out to Villach. We went to, wait for it, Monkey Mountain (mountain...mountain...mountain...). It was so cool!!! Monkeys everywhere. They were smelly and cute and crazy and mean to each other. I don't even know. It was insane. After that beautiful climax of the day, we went to the relief von Karnten, which is a giant topographical map of carinthia. It was very cool to look at. Then we took the scenic route, meaning we got lost a couple times yet again, surprise, surprise, to the villach start museum. It had old paintings and sculptures and rocks and furniture. It was interesting. After that, we came home for a quiet afternoon. My parents then went to pick up my former across the street neighbor, now to be known as KB (i'm not very creative with the names right now), and I made dinner. Dinner was quite a hodge podge event. (I can't think of the real word to describe dinner that i want to use, so hodge podge will just have to do.) Well, that turned into a quiet evening-not much to tell about.

PS sorry my writing is getting kinda boring, I am usually really tired when i write these things.

6/14/2011 21:30 Krumpendorf

I slept in Late this morning-my dad had to work, so KD was going to take Younger than me two and me shopping. She picked us up a little after noon, and we went to the largest shopping center in carinthia. I bought a shirt fro roughly $10.50, which isn't bad for a shirt in europe (everything is much more expensive here). Then we had Kebaps for lunch. They are SO good! I wish we had more turks in the US so we could have kepaps too. The last store we went to was a cosmetics store and had pink shopping carts. :D We left the mall and went to get italian ice cream, real italian ice cream. Delicious. After that, we went to KD's house to pick up her computer and a paper she needed to scan. We also met her adorable bunny, pancake. He is a beautiful bunny. Because they only have a scanner at their flat, we went there to take are of that. We also had root beer floats, which is a very special thing because they can only buy root beer in an american store in vienna. We headed out again to pick up her mother from work and dropped her off at the gym. then we went to another shopping center and went to Claire's. I was surprised that they had claire's there too. After that, we went home. During dinner, we (meaning mostly I) instigated the telling of our parents' story, which is a very cute story that i have decided i need to record sometime. Das Ende.