Hurricane at home

Right before we were about to leave for Stromboli (volcanoe island) My dad checked his email and saw from Rob and he had said “Let me know if you need anything for your house” and then my Dad was like “What?” and then he checked another email from Ivan and he said “your sunroom is destroyed” and my dad said “Oh no…” So we ended up staying in Amalfi for an extra night unexpectedly because a tree fell on half of our house.  We saw the pictures and we were like “Whoa – that’s weird, and bad!”

August XVII: My adventure to Rome

We started in Gaeta and took a bus to Formia, then a train to Rome Terminus, then a metro two stops to the Colleseum.  We walked toward the Pantheon.  On the way, we stopped and drank from cool water fountains that were shaped like wolf heads.  Wolves are important in Rome because there were two brothers who were raised by a she-wolf.  The wolf let them free, the kids got in a big fight about what the city was going to be like, and one brother killed the other.  The city was named after the brother who won the fight, Romulus.

Italians like to eat their pizza folded in half.  Graeme and I had pizza for lunch and ate like Roman-Italians.  The pizza is very good here because it is where it was invented.  The main difference is that there is more crust,and less cheese and sauce.  It is SO good!  Since it was so good, we eat lots of it and try to decide which is best.

Now to the Pantheon.  The Pantheon is a temple for many gods.  It is the only building still alive today that was still like it was when it was built.  The reason why it is still standing today is that a Pope decided to turn it into a church.  It is still a church today.  We went out of the way to see it first, so that when we saw other Roman ruins we could understand what they must have looked like.

Next we went to get some ice cream.  It was pistachio and chocolate.  Pistachio was my favorite (second to my biggest favorite, coconut).  The first ice cream I ever had in Europe was raspberry, and it tasted like real raspberries, but I have blogged about that before.

Back to Rome.  The a bunch of statues and a bunch of them are nude.  Modern statues are wearing clothes.  We thought the nude ones were pretty funny but surprizing.

We went to the forum next.  There was a temple for Saturn.  Inside, there used to be a statue of Saturn (maybe he was nude).  At Christmas, you could go in there and pour olive oil on people.  Saturn is the god of harvests.  

Moving on to the next spot in the Forum, we saw the Temple of Vesta.  It was taken care of by the Vestal Virgins.  If the vestal virgins misbehaved they got buried alive with a loaf of bread and a candle.  The candle was there to give light but also to burn up the oxygen.  This happened to 22 people.  The Romans were pretty crazy.

Then we moved on to the Colleseum.  The first thing that struck me was the view.  They took out the floor so you can see the underground where they kept the lions, tigers, cheetahs , and the gladiators.  Sometimes gladiators fought eachother, other times they fought animals.  Then se moved on to another spot where the emporer would sit.  It was near the door where the carriages would come out and scoop up the dead.

 They used to all speak in Latin.  Now they speak in Italian.  The date that I wrote this (above) is in Roman Numerals.  Sometimes the old houses have a date, and I am the one who has to read it.  I is one, V is five, X is ten, L is fifty, C is one hundred, D is five hundred, and M is one thousand.  I figured out that this year now is MMXI.  

Today we are resting. We are going to Pompeii tomorrow.

That is it.

If you want a postcard, repond to me and send your address on email.  I will write you a postcard that I got (20 postcards for 1 Euro).  That was a very good deal.  In Majorca, I got one postcard for 75 cents.  

07 July: Gibraltar

Today we landed in Gibraltar.  There were a bunch of huge tankers with smaller ones putting big blocks on them.  (editors note: the big blocks are shipping containers).  The first thing we did was go inside the city wall where you could see lots of shops.  Some of the roads were flat. But others were windy and the sidewalks were under construction.  The roads were so narrow, you had to dodge the cars.  But that was OK because it was easy for us to dodge.  The cars seemed to go by without caring about anyone else.

On the sail to Gibraltar, we were going almost 10 knots.  Usually we only go 5 knots.  That is the fastest that our boat has ever gone.   There is only one road to Gibraltar but it is hard to get through because the airport runway goes over the road!

Tomorrow I hope to go the the underground city of Gibraltar and go into the Castle.  After the Castle, we might even see wild monkeys.  Otherwise if we are not it town and on the boat, it is usually pretty boring.  Even more boring than school.

Bye,

Aethan



4th of July in Cadiz, Spain

Our marina is kind of plain.  The town is 1/2 mile away with very small streets with more motorcycles than cars and trucks.  Today we went to town and went to a market first (it is a fresh produce/meats).  After that, we went to a park where Graeme made a friend with a little girl his age.  The thing I miss most about home is my own space, but in our room on the boat we have a blanket for a wall dividing our bed in half.

All the streets are made out of cobblestones and tile that are put in by hand.  It is pretty neat, but it is very hard to ride scooters on it.  To get here (Cadiz), we sailed for two days and two nights from Sines (Portugal).  I was seasick for the entire time, but the medicine helped. 

IF you get a fruit ice cream here (like rasperberry), it  tastes EXACTLY like the fruit from the vine.  The pizza is different.  IT is very thin.  My favorite drink here is pineapple juice (pina nectare).

Did you know that there is a huge seawall around this city where people fish off of? 

 I can sort say some words in Spanish.  My dad's spanish is really good, my mother's is not as good as my dads.

Write me soon at our email (ccubitt@yahoo.com) if you want to send a private message, but if you want to post a comment it is good too.

28 June 2011

ive gone on a three huor walking tour where i saw a church wher  a disagreement lead to killing 40 thousand gews

did you know cork is l leather (from trees