On Tuesday morning we went for a walk near the river on Silom Road. It was very chaotic 🙄.

We had a lot of Thai street food. We had Pad Thai with Chicken and Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashew Nuts.

We also went to the Assumption Cathedral which is one of the oldest Catholic churches in Bangkok. In front of the cathedral, there is a statue of Pope John Paul II.

On Wednesday we went by an express boat to see Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. There were a lot of brilliant decorations on the temple with golden elements.

Every temple had an image or statue of Buddha. The Grand Palace is a place where ceremonies are held in the king’s honour. The king’s former residence was there. We also went to two museums. One about the queen’s clothes and the other about the king.

We also went to Wat Pho Temple with Bangkok’s largest Reclining Buddha.  I wonder how long it would take to build? The temple was very impressive!

We watched some very interesting ceremony in the temple!

On Thursday we visited Wat Traimit temple which has the biggest Buddha made of gold in the world. The interesting thing was also the temple itself.

Later we went to busy streets of China Town. We had lunch there with Coconut milk to drink. The food was great!

We also enjoyed watching the crocodiles in Wat Chakrawarachawat temple. There were three reptiles and they all opened their mouths. It was a bit scary…

…we also met a local monk there.

After almost 5 weeks we are heading back home to Australia. It is the end of my holidays but I really miss my dog and want to go back to school. See you all on Monday!

On Saturday I went with my family to a Wild Life Park.  We saw some deer, wild pigs, wolf, birds and even wallabies! We went for a nice walk and we got to feed the animals. One deer was particularly nice to us. He followed us for our whole walk, too bad we did not bring it home😁. I really enjoyed it!

Sunday was our last day in Germany. I was very sad to leave my family😥😪! Now we are heading to Warsaw and then to Bangkok. I’m relaxing at the airport …

On Monday we arrived in Germany to visit our family living there for a week. I met my aunts, uncles, and cousin. My great grandpa and grandma were visiting Germany at the same time as well.

On Wednesday my family organised the 88th birthday party to my great grandpa. The birthday was at a Chinese restaurant. I really enjoyed the food and especially dessert! My favourite meal was honey soy chicken and my favourite dessert was fruits with ice-cream. I had 3 scoops!

On Thursday morning I went to school with my cousin. I participated in 4 lessons. They were Religion, English, German and Mathematics.

There are some differences in my school in Australia that I noticed. The students do not have uniforms. They have 30 and 15-minute play time instead of 45 minutes and 30 minutes like at B.S.P.S. In my school you do sit on the floor and there you do not. The school building has two levels, therefore, there are stairs. The last difference I found was the school has Religion. I also got homework in German class.

On Friday my uncle, my cousin, my dad, my brother and I went to a soccer match between VFL Bochum and Armenia Bielefeld. The match was in the league Bundesliga 2. During the match, I heard a lot of off supporters but mostly there were VFL Bochum fans because it was their home ground. The stadium was small but the game was interesting. In the end, Bochum won 1-0. I was very happy because I was supporting that team. One of the players on VFL Bochum is an Australian national team soccer player Robbie Kruse. He is the vice Capitan of the Socceroos.

On Saturday I went mini golfing with my family. All the courses were different. Some required long shot skills and some short shots that need to be accurate. There were 18 courses and I really enjoyed course number 12. It had two triangular prisms and you had to get the ball in the middle to get into the hole.

After mini golfing, we went to a restaurant and ate traditional Curry Wurst and hot chips. It was delicious!

Today we visited the Vatican City. The Vatican is a small country with the population of 1000 people. It is not just a regular country because it is led by a pope. The pope is also the head of the whole Catholic Church who makes political and religious decisions. The name of the current pope is Francis and the first one was Saint Peter.

The most important church in the city and in the whole Catholic world is St. Peter’s Basilica. The church is massive. It is the biggest in the world. There are tombs of previous pope’s underground. I saw a tomb of a Polish pope John Paul II.

St. Peter’s Basilica has a dome on top which is 136 meters high. Inside there are many decorations made of gold and a lot of beautiful statues. In front of the church is St. Peters square where people from all around the world gather to see the pope.

The Swiss guard has protected the pope since the 15^th century. Their uniforms are yellow, red and blue. There are 135 guards serving the pope right now.

We walked down the main street of the Vatican City. There were a lot of embassies of other countries. At the end of the street, we visited a castle called Castle Sant’Angelo. The popes used to live there in the past.

We also saw the Treasure Museum of the Vatican. My favourite things there were the old coins with previous popes on them, some from hundreds of years ago. But overall everything was very old and great to see. I loved the day and had a great time👍!

Today my family and I went for a very long walk through the old town of Rome. We saw the di Trevi Fountain which is the most popular fountain in the city. It was built in the 18^th century. This fountain shows the sea god Oceanus’s chariot being led by Tritone representing the moods of the sea.

We also saw the Spanish Steps, built in the 18^th century. It is a very popular tourist attraction in Rome. On the top, there is the Holy Trinity Church.

We visited my favourite building in Rome – the Pantheon. It is a 2000-year-old temple and now it is a best preserved ancient monument in Rome.

The first and the second king of Italy have their tombs there.

We also saw Piazza Navona. It is a beautiful square with three fountains in the heart of the historical centre in Rome.

I really enjoyed watching great street artists there.

We saw the Palazzo del Quirinale. It is a residence of the president of Italy. Before it was the pope’s summer residence and then it was given to the king.

We also saw the Vittoriano Museum documenting Italian unification and the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Today we went to the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Those places are the oldest parts of Rome.

But I got to say I think the Colosseum was the most interesting.

One thing I learnt was that there were tunnels under the battlefield for gladiators to prepare before their battles.

The second thing I learnt was that gladiators usually were slaves, war prisoners or criminals. Free people that wanted to be famous rarely choose to be gladiators.

The third thing I learnt was that gladiators fought with other gladiators or dangerous animals.

The fourth thing I learnt was, gladiators who won the fight were very well rewarded and the gladiators that lost died. If the gladiator was afraid to die he could ask the emperor to save his life and show mercy, but the emperor did not have to agree with it.

The fifth thing I learnt was they can choose their attack and defence weapons before there battles.

The last thing was the gladiator fight was very popular in the ancient times but in the 6th century they were forbidden and from that time the Colosseum had a lot of other functions. Currently, it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Rome and the whole of Italy.

We also saw some important churches in Rome, for example, Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

 

Today we spent our last day in Naples. We saw The Catacombs of San Gennaro, Basilica of Santa Maria Della Sanità, The Catacombs of San Gaudioso and The Fontanelle Cemetery.

Our tour guide told us that the first catacombs were created in Naples in the 4th century.

The first Christians were buried there but their bodies were removed and placed in the 19th century in The Fontanelle Cemetery.

The places that I went to were very old, interesting and mysterious. I have never seen anything like that before.

In the afternoon we travelled to Rome in the super high-speed train again!

Today morning my family and I went to see the volcano Vesuvius. To get there we took a special bus that got us close to the top. Although it was a very hot day, at the top of the volcano it was freezing. Everywhere we could see dried lava stones that were the signs from previous eruptions. From there you can see a wonderful view of Naples!

But unfortunately, we could not go to the very top to see the crater of the volcano due to strong wind.

Today the Vesuvius has nearly 1300 meters above the sea level. When it destroyed Pompeii, it was twice as big. The last time the volcano erupted was during the second world war in 1944.

In the afternoon we went to a different pizza restaurant to enjoy the local kitchen. We went for a long walk across the city and we saw the most important places in Naples. We visited Porta Nolana which was the gate to the city in the 15 century.

We also saw Basillica di Santa Chiara from 14 century and Chiesa del Gesú Nuovo from the 16 century.

It was a really fun day!

Today we woke up refreshed and ready for the next adventure. We took a train to Pompeii to see the ancient city that was destroyed by a furious volcano called Vesuvius in 79 AD. The site has been recovered from cold lava by archaeologists.

There were houses, shops, coin sorters, temples, arenas for gladiators to fight and theatres. Some buildings are still in good condition!

Tourists can see there some bodies that were covered in lava as well. When the eruption took place about 2000 people died. The city was big and rich at the time. It was interesting to see the famous Pompeii.

In the night we ate traditional Italian pizza, the best in the world!

I also had the occasion to see how the pizza was prepared and how it was backed. It was fantastic!

Today we said goodbye to Greece and flew out from Athens to the capital of Italy – Rome. In Rome, we took a super high-speed train to get to Naples.

The train ride took an hour with the speed of 300km/h. After I visit Naples I will come back to Rome!