August 15, 2011 – Procida, Italy
We saw a volcano and it was active.
The volcano is called Stromboli. We went by boat and it was dark. It is 924m
high and that is big.
There
was another volcano and it was called Vulcano. We hiked up to it. And there were hot
springs but they were gross. By the way the volcano was stinky. The stink was from the
sulfur.
August 2, 2011 – Croatia
The first people that
settled here were Croats in 500 AD. It is 56,542 sq KM. This is slightly smaller than
West Virginia. Did you know that it was once Yugoslavia? But now its Independence Day
in June 25, 1991.
In Croatia we had a
lot of fun playing in the clear water. It was fun playing and swimming in the water. Martin
even jumped from his spreader. I learned how to dive. It was fun playing with Martin
and my family.
We played a lot of Uno.
We had a sleepover with Martin. And Martin and Dad raced in Wii. Grant and I
played Lego and we had a lot of fun.
We
saw folk dancing and an old fountain. There was a big fireworks show. We walked around
the walled city. There was a really bad 3D show. We picked a lot of berries on our 5
mile walk. We ate a lot of pizza and cevapcici (Croatian Meatballs). There was a naked guy on a jet ski.
It was fun playing
with Martin in Croatia.
June 2011 – Greek Architecture
We saw Greek buildings in Turkey. There were three types of columns. The Doric
is the most plain. The Ionic is famous for its scrolls. The Corinthian is quite fancy.
The Doric and Ionic columns were seen in Greece. The Corinthian were seen in Rome. The
columns held up the roof. They were built with marble. The marble is called Elgin marble
but I have no idea why they call it that.
The largest and most famous Greek building is the Parthenon.
They put sculptures in the buildings. The Greeks built temples, theaters, gymnasia, and stoas.
They carved with hand tools that were better than our tools today. They use pulleys, ropes, and
shackles to lift parts of the buildings.
May 10, 2011 - Israel
In Israel, we went on a trip to the Dead Sea. The
Dead Sea is 1300 meters under sea level. Because it was really salty you could float on top of the water. You
could even run on the water (not really). It was so salty that all of the rocks had dried salt on them and looked white.
The salt burned our skin a little bit so we showered right after we got out of the water. Then we had to change in the
car. It was hard to change. We had a fun trip to the Dead Sea.
