We woke up this morning exhausted, but extremely excited to go back to Siena!! After quickly packing all our stuff for one last time, we headed down to the amazing buffet breakfast! After stuffing ourself with food, we checked out and packed the car. We were off to Siena! The drive to Siena was 5 hours in total, so pretty far! We stopped at an Autogrill in Modena along the way to grab some lunch. Back in Italy, where a slice of pizza and a coffee is 1€. We got back on the road, and drove home, via a huge supermarket near us so that we could grab some dinner for tonight. We finally got home, and unloaded all our luggage! It brought back so many memories! Mum and dad signed some paperwork, and then we were off to our rooms to unpack. All my clothes and bits and pieces barely fits into a gigantic suitcase that is almost taller than me. I then spent the next 4 legitimate hours unpacking and decorating my entire room. Mum did hers, and Audrey’s room, and Polly sat on he couch and did nothing. We got to the house at 5:30, and I finally finished at 9:30pm, exhausted in a sweaty mess! I couldn’t sit until I had everything finished! This was the last late night we were going to have in a while cause school starts soon, so we decided to watch a few Glee’s while eating salad for dinner. The trip was absolutely incredible, like a dream come true! I’m excited to be going back to school tomorrow, as well as wishing we could stay home forever. :).
Day 62: Interlaken/ Lake Lugano
We woke up early enough this morning for Mum and I to squeeze in a bike ride. We got the bikes from the apartment, and started riding into town before we realised that the brakes didn’t work, Mum’s tyres were flat, and my chain kept slipping on the bike. We ended up riding for 10 minutes, taking photos for 40 minutes, and then rode straight home. Not the most successful! After quick pastries, we left Interlaken and headed to the waterfalls in Jundfrau. We parked our car in the train station, headed into town to pick up bikes so the five of us could go on a family bike ride to the waterfalls. Mum had an e-bike, Polly and I had regular bikes, and Dad had an e-bike with Audrey on the back; it was super cool! We rode for about an hour, with stopping along the way to take stunning photos. It was an absolutely stunning ride! We then got to the waterfalls which was spectacular! We got the lift up to the top, walked up to a few more and then walked all the way back down. The force that the water was pounding down was incredible! We rode our bikes back to town, had some lunch and got in the car by 1 o’clock to head to Lake Lugano. What was meant to be a 3 hour drive ended up being close to a six hour drive, and we arrived at 7 pm at night. There was SO much traffic! The drive through the Alps was spectacular! We arrived at the beautiful hotel in Lake Lugano. We checked in and got settled, before heading out for dinner. Polly was exhausted, so stayed in the hotel while the rest of us headed out to find some dinner before heading back and getting an early night. Lake Lugano was completely Italian speaking, which was bizarre for me! We found a cute pizzeria to eat at which was delicious! This is our LAST NIGHT on this trip!! Tomorrow we are heading home to Siena. Yay!!!!!
Day 61: Interlaken/ Gruyère
Day 61: Interlaken/ Gruyère
We woke up this morning at about 7am, and dad was out on a run. When he got back, Audrey wanted to go for a walk, and mum was invited too, so Polly and I stayed back at the apartment to play games together. The others got home at about 9am, soon to play games, and watch GLEE. We then drove all the way to Gruyère to the Callier chocolate factory! We arrived at 12:30pm, and went straight to the chocolate factory tour. It was really interactive and we walked through eight different rooms explaining the history of the chocolate and the chocolate factory. There were lots and lots of tasting to be done! We then had lunch in the cafe and at 2:30 pm we went to our chocolate making class. We said it was Audrey’s birthday, so she managed to get three extra blocks of chocolate from the chocolate maker and everyone wished her a Happy Birthday! We all made chocolate bars and chocolate animals which was really, really fun. We left the chocolate factory at 4 pm very full. I made a chocolate pig with smarties and sprinkles :)). We then drove to Gruyere so that Ben could go to the aliens museum with Audrey while we waited in the cafe for him. We then drove home the one and a half hours to arrive back in Interlaken at about 7 o’clock at night for a supermarket dinner and TV watching.
Day 60: Interlaken/ Berne
Day 60: Interlaken/ Berne
Today was Audrey 7th birthday! She slept in until 7am, which was an absolute miracle. As soon as she woke up, she frantically unwrapped all her presents, which she loved! We then sing happy birthday and ate the cake that I baked for her. We left the house at about 10am for breakfast. We found a cafe with flat whites and have avocado on toast:). After breakfast, Audrey and Polly spent ages at Clare’s buying jewellery and hair accessories, while I was next door buying shoes. For some reason, we were all pretty tired today so we headed back to the appartment to have lunch in the room and watch ratatouille. We left the house at about 2pm in the afternoon to head for the zoo that Audrey wanted to go to. It ended up being very hot outside! At first, we couldn’t even find the zoo. We went to the playground and the petting zoo. We finally found the zoo which was very large! We only had half an hour to see all the animals before heading to the bearpit. We finally made it to the bearpit five minutes late. We could not find the entrance and I felt very faint so went to get some water and we decided not to go to the bearpit in the end. We also realised they only did tours in German! We headed to a nice hipster racklette and fondue restaurant where we had a very early dinner but it was delicious. We then headed home to finish watching ratatouille, and we’re all asleep by 9:30 pm.
Day 59: Kaysersberg/ Interlaken
We woke up, bright and early this morning after having had great sleeps in the super comfy beds! At 6:00, Audrey and dad were already out of the house, and had gone to a bakery. The lovelyLandlord of the house baked is a cake yesterday, so when we woke up, we enjoyed tea and cake. Before Audrey came back, mum and I quickly wrapped all of Audrey’s birthday presents for tomorrow. When the others came back, we started packing, and watched some GLEE. Then, we checked out, and the landlord even remembered that it was Audrey’s birthday tomorrow, and bought her a present. We loaded the car, and then went for a walk in the town. It is literally like a fairytale or a movie set! Every house has beautiful flowers hanging off it, gorgeous designs paired on them, and calves shapes. Along the way, we did have a few pitstops. First, we stopped at an amazing bakery to grab pastries. Then, we went to a gingerbread shop which smelt amazing inside! Finally, we stopped off at a baking store that had all sorts of handy kitchen and baking gadgets. We got back in the car after taking some nice pictures. We drove 20 minutes to a nice restaurant where we had lunch. Soup, pie and ice cream. Then, we drove another 5 minutes to a World War I museum which I was not looking forward to, although dad really wanted to go. It ended up not being nearly as bad as I expected, I quite enjoyed it actually! We were then off to Switzerland! The drive was three hours, and we almost managed to complete it without any stops. When we were about to cross the boarder from France to Switzerland, I made mum and dad pull over so that I could had 1 foot in each country. It was awesome, and there were even stoned layer down on the ground. In Basel (where we crossed the boarder), we were so close to Germany, I really wanted to go for a few minutes, but it was 20 minutes out of our way. We drove the extra hour, and arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland! We found and got settled in our apartment, bought supermarket dinner and watched tv then prepare for Aud’s bday. At the supermarket, I bought Audrey a packet cake mix to bake for her birthday tomorrow! I made the cake, while mum got presents ready. We did all that while watching ratatouille which was Audrey’s movie choice.
Day 58: Paris/ Kaysersberg
After we’d all woken up a bit, Mum, Polly and I packed all our luggage, and headed to the patisserie on the corner on the street for breakfast, while Audrey and Dad headed to Purgeot to pick up our new leased car. The car turned out to be a lot smaller than we thought we booked, but we managed to squeeze all our luggage into it, and hit the road! In total, we drove 6 hours, and were already in Alsace by 11am. On the way, we did stop at McDonalds for lunch, which is Audrey’s all time favourite. We arrived in this stunning fairytale town at about 6:30pm, to a stunning house where the host had made a kugelhopf cake and had packed the fridge with juices and milk. We all headed out to a divine dinner nearby that lasted for 2 hours. It was a Michelin called Winstub du Chambard. We indulged on local drinks, venison, sausages, spetzel, Ginea fowl, ice cream and lots of fun!
Day 57: Paris
Day 57: Paris
Today’s our final day in Paris!! It started off with all of us (except Pollly) leaving at 8am. Mum and i were on bikes, and Audrey & Dad were on a scooter. We headed to see Notre Dame, covered in scaffolding after the horrible fire. The building had so much detail, and was incredible, the fire’s such a shame. We then rode over the bridge for a quick coffee and croissant. The , to an area called Saint Germane for a quick walk through the streets, and finally back to pick up Polly at 10am, as we had 10:30am Louvre tickets. Once again, Mum and I cycled to the Louvre, whilst the others got an Uber. Arriving on time, we headed to the Mona Lisa, which was a huge line, but not as busy as other times of day. It was totally worth it! I absolutely thought it was the best thing ever, however the others did not. We wandered around other parts of the museum for a bit, but by midday were getting hungry so found a super cute cafe at the Louvre, where we all had French cakes and hot chocolate. We then walked around some shops, and headed back to an area near the Louvre. Polly got some awesome Harry Potter boots, and I tried on a few pairs of unsuccessful sneakers. We stopped for an amazing late lunch at an Israeli restaurant of felaffel, hummus, pita, eggplant, salads and more. It was very hot; 32 degrees so we headed back to the hotel, and we’re back by 430pm for a break. After resting for a couple of hours, we decided to head out to Fontaine Guy Lartigue, which was a fountain in the center of a small town. We were set on going to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner, however as soon as we stepped inside, we all could not bare the heat, so we walked to another typical French bistro to eat at. I had quite a bad stomach ache, so didn’t eat anything, but the others all had fish and chips. After some food, Mum and I cycled home, whilst the others got an Uber. We’ve all absolutely loved Paris, it’s going to be sad to leave tomorrow!
Day 56: Paris
Today was a very big day! We all set an alarm for 8am, so we could head to the Eiffel Tower before all the crowds and the heat. Ben had already run there and back before we’d even got up. Mum and I jumped on Uber bikes at 8:30am and rode 40 minutes, 7 km to the Eiffel Tower, while the others got an Uber. It was so exciting when we saw the tower at first glimpse! We met Dad, Polly and Audrey at the tower in the line at 9:30am and made our way up the stairs from the ground level to level 1, having break and then onto level 2 - 674 steps in total. We then lined up to get the lift to the top. We took some photos and then head back down again, which my that stage it was 1130am and we were starving, actually hangry! We reached the bottom, and got some pastries and water which brightened the mood. We then all hired bikes (Audrey and Dad on a scooter) and rode to a creperie for lunch, which were delicious! Dad and Audrey then scootered to Arc de Triomphe whilst we walked there which only took 15 minutes. We were all getting very hot and were getting tired after the epic Eiffel Tower morning. We walked a few blocks down Champs Elysees and then split off to head to Montmartre. Mum and I on a 40 minute Uber bike ride and the others in an Uber. We reconciled at Starbucks opposite Moulin Rouge for a quick refreshing drink. It was already 3pm and we were so tired. A quick walk around Montmartre, up and down the streets and then we all got an Uber back to the hotel while Ben stayed longer to walk around and meet us 30 minutes later. We got back at 5pm and Mum made up nail appointments for us girls, at 6pm so not a lot of time to rest and shower, it was quite a rush, then off to the nail salon. Ben headed to the Barber for a haircut and we had our nails done 6-730pm. We all had great manicures! Polly and I even got nail art and crystals as well! One of the best manicures ever! We met Ben at 8pm at Bofinger which was AMAZING. Fancy, typical French bistro, terrific food and service. We had all the typical foods - snails, french onion soup, bread with loads of butter, steak frites, flamed kidney and for desert grand mariner scuffle, cremebrule and more. I actually friend snails for the first time, and loved them! We were all in bed by 10pm, exhausted! What an amazing but tiring day!
Day 55: Paris
Today’s our first full day in Paris, and I cannot wait! Its 20-30 degrees outside, and the sun is shining. Dad, Audrey and I went out for a walk in the streets of Paris. We found a super cute French bakery, where we grabbed some pastries and sat on the woven chairs. Dad and i shared an almond croissant and it was amazing! No one at the bakery spoke English, so we had to attempt to speak French, which no one really understood;). We then bought Polly and Mum back chocolate and almond croissants. We headed out as a family at about 10 am. We walked all around the 11th District, and some adjoining neighbourhoods to the hotel, stopping for bowls of hot chocolates, mid-morning. We walked some more, then headed for some shade in the park and a playground, but on the way, we got picnic supplies - baguettes, french cheeses, pear paste, olives, fresh fruit and sparkling non-alcoholic apple cider. After our little, French picnic, we headed for the canals but got very tired and hot on thew way. It was already 4:30pm and everyone was fading. Audrey had been desperate all day for a passionfruit macaron, and we went into so many patisseries and boulangeries to find them but no luck. We finally walked to an area with three bakeries and found them at one of the bakeries! All it had were a few croissants, and macaroons. Audrey, Polly and Dad got an Uber back to the hotel while Hayley and I got on the Uber Bikes and rode home...love them! When we arrived back at the room, we had showers, got changed, and stayed in the room to relax a while. At 5:00pm, Mum and Dad headed out for cocktails and people watching. We ended up being out all night until 10pm. Ben and I went for cocktails and people watching. Dad walked to get us at about 8:00pm and then walk to the restaurant while Mum walked straight to the restaurant. We all met up at 8pm for our first French bistro of steak and chips, and crembrule! It was amazingly delicious! Can’t wait for tomorrow!
Day 54: Bergen/ Paris
Day 54: Bergen/ Paris
Today, we’re off to France! We woke up this morning, ready to leave Norway, excited for France. After lazing around for a few hours, we packed all our stuff up, watched a GLEE, and then got in the car. We drove 10 minutes to DHL to send all our warm clothes we needed for Norway back to Siena. After that, we drove 20 minutes to what’s called the biggest IKEA in the world! Our flight to Paris only leaves at 5:10 pm, so we had a few hours to kill. The only reason we went was because Polly and Audrey wanted IKEA meatballs... yes, we’re one of those families now :):). The IKEA was absolutely ginormous, and exceeded all our expectations! After we had our meatballs, we were ready to leave, but were forced to walk through the huge store, to finally get to the exit. We got to the car, after wanting to buy heaps of things in IKEA on our way out. We still had a fair bit of time to kill, so drove 20 minutes back into town, to look at some really nice designer stores that mainly mum and I loved! When it was time, we left the town, and were off to the airport! After driving another 20 minutes, we arrived at the rental cars. We dropped the car super easily with no fuss (which is unusual), and headed to the terminals. We had a bit of drama with our bags, but it managed to get resolved. The flight was running 10 minutes late, so we boarded the plane at 5:50 for a 6:20 takeoff. We were all sad, because this was the last time we were going to be in an airport for the rest of the trip! The flight only lasted a very smooth 2?hours. We got off the plane, and we were in Paris! The airport was quite old and dirty, especially compared to Scandinavia. We’re back in the land of Uber’s, so we ordered a maxi taxi. 5 minutes later it arrived, and we were on our way to our hotel. It was a 40 minute drive, pretty much along the freeway so there wasn’t really much to see. We arrived and checked into the hotel with all our luggage. The hotel is fine, but we’re not going to be spending much time there anyway. After we got settled in, mum, Audrey and I walked down the street to find a sushi restaurant literally at the end of the street. We ate there, and brought dad and Audrey takeaway cause they were too tired to come out. The food was really delicious! By the time we went to sleep, it was 11pm, and we were exhausted! I’m so excited to finally be in Paris, the country of love!
Day 53: Bergen
Today, we had a super local day in Bergen! We woke up quite early this morning, to find mum and dad on the phone to some friends. After breakfast, mum, Dad and I decided to venture out and explore the city of Bergen. We’ve been trying to rent bikes for the whole trip, but it’s never worked out, so this morning we installed the app, scanned the bikes from outside the apartment, and were off! We absolutely love the system; you pay 5 € for the whole day and can ride in 45 minute time chunks. The bikes are bright green, and have a spot for the phone to do GPS! The system’s way better than Sydney because there are special docks everywhere, where you have to return the bikes instead of being able to leave them on the footpath wherever you like. The town is also super bike friendly, and there are bike paths, and ramps everywhere. We rode around the back streets, and discovered the city. We stopped at a lovely local bakery for hot chocolate and chai lattes and shared an amazingly soft skillingsboller (a local Norwegian pastry like a cinnamon scroll). At the bakery, we then picked up a loaf of local bread for lunch. We arrived back to the apartment to Audrey and Polly. We then had a GLunch (Glee Lunch) of fresh bread, smoked salmon, cream cheese, salami, etc. After a small amount of downtime, we decided to drive to the local swimming pool, the Nordnes seawater pool. The view from the pool was beautiful! The pool water was heated to 25 degrees but still felt quite cold. Mum, Polly and I went in the sauna to warm up, Audrey went in the small kiddie pool and Ben jumped into the Fjord which was a freezing 12 degrees. We got home around 5pm. We all showered and got settled for the night. Then, I realised that I needed to head to a shop downtown to change the letters from my message board because some of them were missing. The shop closed at 6:00pm, so mum agreed to quickly ride the bikes there. We both rented bikes, and rode 15 minutes downtown to the store, only to arrive 15 min before closing time. We got hooted at twice because we went through quite a few red lights, and I almost rode into a crane and did go head first into a wall, but we made it! I swapped my purchase, and I helped mum pick out some gorgeous earrings for her birthday. We rode back, and met dad & Audrey in the park near our apartment, as there was the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra playing in the park. There were at least 200 musicians, and 1000s of people having picnics on the grass. We sat on towels, and watched for a while before heading home to Polly for our 9pm dinner of supermarket snacks and GLEE. Lovely local day and lots of time today with mum ;-). Off to Paris tomorrow…Yippee!!!
Day 52: Bergen
This morning, we all woke up super late, but exhausted. For once, we decided to stay and relax in the room until about midday. During that time, we payed games, watched TV, pottered, and had bread rolls for breakfast :). At midday, we all finally got motivated enough to get dressed and leave the house to go into and walk around town. There were heaps of souvenir shops. I have a small collection of miniatures that I’ve collected over the course of the trip, so there, I got a set of small, colourful houses that symbolise Norway to add to my collection. There were also lots of beautiful Scandinavian homeware/stationary stores. There’s a really nice brand called Design letters, and I’ve been thinking about getting something from them ever since we first saw them at the Copenhagen airport. Everything is so expensive but the one thing that I desperately wanted was on sale. I still didn’t have enough money to buy it, and it was about the same price as my lunch would be, so I made a deal with mum and dad; I wouldn’t get lunch if they could buy me this. Successfully, they said yes! It’s this really cool message board that I can hang up on my wall. The only colour they had was navy blue, but that’s the traditional colour here in Norway. They also didn’t have any letters to go with the board, so I had to go to another store 5 minutes away to buy the letters. I was so excited, and couldn’t wait to use it on a daily basis in Siena. After buying Audrey and Polly a few birthday gifts, we walked back to the apartment. We had a very relaxed afternoon back at the apartment. Playing games, watching Tv. We even went down to the supermarket to buy ingredients to back. I made delicious lemon cookies. Dad made a pasta bake for dinner, and we watched GLEE until 10 pm (again).
Day 51: Flathein/ Bergen
Day 51: Flathein/ Bergen
Last night, we all slept so well, are we’re ready for a big drive this morning! We told the owners we were going to have breakfast at 9:00am cause dad had to work, so in the meantime, we played heaps of games down in the common room. At 9am, we got dressed, and headed to the shared dining room, where there was such a cute buffet breakfast! Again, because the food is so expensive in Scandinavia, mum and dad told us to eat as much as we like, which is very unusual. There were fresh hard boiled eggs from the chickens outside, fresh avocado from the trees outside, strawberry jam with the strawberries outside, and fresh apple and cinnamon jam from the farm. It was delicious. Then, mum and dad stayed to do some research about Switzerland, while us three went back to the room to watch America’s Got Talent. About an hour later, we packed all our luggage into our car, and checked out. We were off to Bergen! It was a 3 hour drive from Flathein to Bergen with no stops along the way. We arrived at our beautiful, Scandinavian apartment at about 6:00pm. We soon checked in, and unloaded all our luggage from the car into the apartment. After settling in, and relaxing in the apartment for a while, we headed out to explore Bergen. We walked around a bit, soon to find a huge food market. For dinner, we got fish and chips, and calamari and chips! It was really good! After dinner, we walked back to the apartment, and had a GLEE marathon. We ended up watching 3 episodes, and only went to bed at about 10pm. The apartment it beautiful and the beds are so cosy. I was sure I was going to get a great sleep!
Day 50: ~ Camping ~ / Flathein
Day 50: ~ Camping ~ / Flathein
This morning, we woke up to the sound of RAIN! We hoped that over night the rain would’ve cleared, but it didn’t. Not at all. After laying in our sleeping bags for a while, we completely layered up, and had breakfast under the tarp. After some Nutella bread, we played a few games under the shelter, and then started to pack up the tents and sleeping bags. That must’ve taken at least 1 hour in the rain. We loaded up Gun’s car with all our stuff, and he drove it to where our car was. We left the campsite after taking a few family pictures, and the walked back to our car, via an awesome fishing spot. I was really hoping to catch a fish but unfortunately, I didn’t. We loaded our car Witt all the luggage, and were off to the boat shed where we were going to have lunch, the last meal in this destination. On the way back, we spotted a deer farm, and got out of the car to look at the deer. We met the lady who ran it, and she asked us if we wanted to feed them. They were adorable, and humongous. After that pitstop, we spotted an unmissable playground that we had to stop at. It was like a ninja warrior course with ropes and tires. We got back in the car, and we’re finally ready to go. Mum was saying that her favourite part of camping is when you get in the car after it all, and reminisce about everything you did :). We drove 3 hours to Flathein, which was directly in the middle from where we camped to Bergen, where we wanted to end up for a few days. 6 hours is too long to drive in one day, so we picked a random town in the middle to stay in, and that happened to be Flathein. We drove to Flathein via a 10 minute pitstop to get a hot chocolate at a local supermarket. We arrived in Flathein, ready to sleep in a proper bed and have a proper bathroom. After we checked in, we explored our room, and the whole complex. We’re staying in the attic of an old farmhouse, where the bathroom is a 2 minute walk from the room. The whole room is made out of wood, and is adorable, it’s so Scandinavian! Outside in the garden, there are also 3 cats, and about 20 chickens, which the girls are very excited about. We’re only staying here for one night, but I which we were staying here longer. Once we lugged our luggage inside through the rain, we unpacked and repackaged all our stuff from camping. Earlier, we stopped off at a supermarket to grab dinner. We then ate the food we bought. After dinner, we went downstairs to play some games together in the common room. You would think that we would’ve been tired by now, but Polly and I were very wide awake, so we fell asleep watching America’s got talent.
Day 49: ~ Camping ~
Last night, we all slept surprisingly amazingly, under the windy, and rainy conditions. It was quite heavily raining in the morning, so we staying all cosy in our tents until about 9:00. When the rain finally died down a tad, we got all rugged up, and went to have breakfast. After a simple but tasty breakfast, we got the fishing lines ready, and went fishing in the shallow lake. We had a lure that supposedly catches trout, but unfortunately, we had no luck. Then, mum and I thought it would be a great idea to go canoeing in the rain. As you can imagine, it wasn’t ;). Right near the camp sight, it’s all rocks and too shallow, so for a start, we had to get on our flip flops and push the canoe to a deeper area. The water was FREEZING, literally like ice! Our feet at this point were bright red like tomatoes! We were then going strong, canoeing down the stream, although we had to get out every now and again to push. We got to a really shallow part, and had to push the canoe for at least 10 metres, until we got to a knee-high area at least. I started by getting in the back of the canoe, and then made the horrible mistake of telling mum to climb over the front seat, so she could sit in it. Long story short, we capsized in freezing, cold water. We actually thought we were going to get hyperthermia it was so cold! I managed to get up first, and was too busy laughing my head off that mum couldn’t get up. I quickly moved the canoe and helped her up, and we were soon laughing together. From capsizing, the canoe completely filled with water, we had to flip it upside down to drain it all out. We made it back to the campsite, safe and ... I wish I could say dry. We were absolutely SOAKED. It was raining and cold on top of us just being purely soaked. We quickly stripped off all our wet layers, and were left with nothing really, but kept on a pair of leggings and a jumper. Previously, we were wearing 3 pairs of pants and 5 tops. We sat under the shelter for a while, hoping to dry off. It was very unsuccessful. We then ran to our tents, trying not to get more wet. I literally had no dry clothes except pyjamas, so had to borrow one of dad’s T-shirts, and wear my pyjama shorts. Mum and I lay side by side in our dry clothes, all cosy in our sleeping bags. We pt the hoods on and did them up, so all you could see was our noses. We looked like gnomes. Once we finally warmed up a bit, mum and I got properly dressed, we ran through the rain to the tarp where we were having lunch. Just bread, meat cheese and so on... After some food, mum and Audrey went off together to have a nap, while Dad, Polly and I came into our tent to play games and just chat. Once the rain died down a bit, we walked to a flat, grassy area to play a tennis sort of game that we brought with us from Greece. That was very short-lived, due time o the heavy rain that started just as we began. During the afternoon, we all just pottered and went fishing, played games under the shelter, and went canoeing all in the rain. At 7:00pm, we decided to start to prepare dinner. At this point, it was resining quite heavily so was really hard to start an hour. It took dad about an hour to really get it going. When there was a clear break in the rain, Audrey, Polly and I made s’mores! We tasted marshmallows on the fire, broke off some chocolate, and stuffed it inside 2 Anzac biscuits. For dinner, we cooked meatballs, veggies, and mash potatoes from a packet. Within 30 minutes, the food was cooked and we were ready to eat. It was very basic, but substantial. Throughout the rainy day, many people were wet, and miserable for a while but we managed to survive! I’ve had a great time being out here in the middle of nowhere, although I’ve basically been in wet clothes all day :). To end our fun but wet and adventurous day, Audrey, Dad and I listened to a podcast about ‘Dancing Queen’ by ABBA. We were all so exhausted, we fell asleep within 10 minutes of listening.
Day 48: ~ Camping ~
Day 48: ~ Camping ~
This morning, we woke up after not having a great night sleep, but having a lot of fun! By the time Audrey and I woke up, dad was outside sitting by the fire drinking his coffee, having already been kayaking, fishing, and even caught a fish. This was by 6:30 am. When Audrey and I woke up, we quickly got all layered up, and went to joking dad by the fire. Once I’d woken up a bit, I went down to the water to cut open the fish and to rip all its guts out. It was so fun. I’m the only one in the family that doesn’t eat fish, but I love messing the raw fish. The others finally woke up at 8: 00am, and it was time for breakfast: yoghurt, bread, and cold cuts. After breakfast, we got dressed and packed up all our tents, and sleeping bags. We left that camp site, and we’re supposed to kayak to ... . As soon as we started paddling, the wind really hit us and it was almost impossible to paddle. We were kayaking into the wind. You couldn’t stop for a break either, because you would drift rapidly backwards. After 5 minutes, we had to call it, and didn’t want to go back, so we only kayaked 500m more, to a grassy, forest hoping the wind would die down. There, we did a small impromptu hike in the bush up a mountain. On the way, we saw heaps of animals including sheep walking right in front of us, and at the top, we picked a whole hat full of Norwegian wild berries. After 40 minutes of hiking, we came back down the mountain and had lunch; just the usual. At this point in time, we thought the wind had died down, so we started kayaking, aiming for the boat shed in ... where we originally began on the first day. 1 hour and a half went by with on and off wind, but not too strong. There were 30 minutes of kayaking left, and omg, the wind! It was so strong. I thought that we actually weren’t going to make it, and we were going to be stranded out at sea. I was in my own kayak, so it was even tougher! I managed to get an extremely painful blister that looks disgusting. We FINALLY are at the boat shed, cold and wet, after really fighting the wind for half an hour. Then, we helped Gun load his van with all our stuff, and we followed him in our car to the next campsite. We could only stop 1 kilometre away, so we walked along the gravel path until we got to this stunning lake, where we’re going to be camping at for 1-2 nights depending on the weather. Also, all day, it’s been drizzling and raining on and off. Soon, we set up all the tents and sleeping bags, so that we could snuggle up in there while the rain dies down. 7:00pm came by, and we were all ready for dinner. The preparation takes a while so we were ready to start. After we cooked some veggies on the fire, we poked sticks through the sausages, and held them over the fire until they were nice and toasted. We had nice, fresh hotdogs! After, we boiled some water over the fire, and made hot drinks for everyone, as it was less than 10 degrees. We were all rugged up, yet so cold! For desert, we got ripe bananas, and stuffed chocolate in them. As you can imagine it was deliciously genius! At 9:00pm, it was raining so much, we said goodnight to each other and split off into our tents. To get to sleep, we listened to a podcast about ‘Single Ladies’ by Beyoncé. We were off to sleep.
Day 47: Nordfjordeid/ Trollstigen Camping
This morning, we were all awake by 7am, as we had to pack. We were planning on leaving the cabin by 9am, but we had ALOT of packing to do. For the adventure trip, we needed to seperate everything we brought with, and the bare minimum we need to carry with us for the next few days. After eating our pizza scrolls, we left the cabin, and drove 15 minutes to the car ferry. We have a bad track record on getting to the ferry late, and just making it on, so we got there 20 minutes early this time. The ferry had some stunning views, as to be expected. All the hills look exactly like in The Lorax, but no one else thinks that ;)). The ferry only lasted 15 minutes, and then the next leg of our trip was another 15 minute drive. We finally arrived at the boat shed, where we were starting the adventure trip! We thought there was going to be another group coming with us, but yesterday they canceled, so now it’s just us, which we were SUPER glad about. We met the guide Gun, did some briefing, and got all of our clothes and activities into waterproof bags. Because most of the trip except Scandinavia was really hot, we didn’t shlep all of our jumpers, and hiking boots and gloves etc around with us. Instead, back in Siena, we loaded a whole box that we would need for this one leg of the trip, and sent it to this company. It arrived a few weeks ago, and they’ve kept it since. It’s so nice to be in a cool environment, and to not be sweating 24/7. We then loaded all the kayaks with our bags, the tents, sleeping bags, sleeping bag liners, sleeping mats, and food. I had my own kayak, and the others shared in pairs. Over the 2 hours that we were kayaking, the views were absolutely stunning. It’s crazing that we were kayaking in the fjords of Southern Norway! With having made a few stops on the way, we made it o where we’re going to be canning out tonight. Once we parked the kayaks, he told us that there can be ticks in the grass, bees flying around and adders. Polly hates this sort of adventurous stuff, so was a little freaked out for a while, and would even put her toe on the grass. Audrey has never been camping before, so this is her first time and so far, she is loving it! This place is an old, abandoned farm, and it’s tiny. There is sheep poo everywhere, and you can see many sheep in the distance. We unpacked all the food, and had a quick, cold cuts on bread type of lunch. Then, we made and set up the tents, which is mine and dad’s favourite part. The late risers (Polly and Mum) are sleeping together, and the early birds (Audrey, Dad and I) are sleeping together. The tents are not very big, but we’ll see how we go. Since then, we’ve just been exploring this whole place. There’s also no toilet her, so we have to go on the hill which is not very practical ;). We bought with 2 fishing nets, so we’ve been fishing a lot. After standing there for about 2 hours, Polly finally caught quite a large fish!! I was so impressed! She hooked it in the back, so we could Mønt put it back in the water. She was really upset to have to kill a fish, cause she never dreamt she would actually catch one. I helped Gun cut of the head, and take all the fish guts out so that everything can eat it for dinner. Everyone said I should be a surgeon, because I’m not squeamish. It was time for dinner. We got a fire going, and started off by cooking some veggies. Then, we added some pasta and other bits and pieces to the mix. It was delicious. After dinner, we boiled some water on the fire, and sat around the fire drinking our hot drinks.
Day 46: Ålesund/ Trollstigen/ Alften/ Geiranger/ Nordfjordeid
We all woke up this morning bright and early, having had great night sleeps. We were only staying in Ålesund for 1 night, so once we were all packed, we headed down to the restaurant for buffet breakfast! They had a whole DIY waffle station, which was amazing! Because Scandinavia is so pricey, we had so much to eat, so we wouldn’t need to buy much for lunch. After that delicious breakfast, we went back upstairs to do our final packing, and then to checkout. We quickly put all our luggage into the car, before we walked around and explored Ålesund. The town is beautiful! There are so many cute, small colourful houses side by side, with stunning viewing points and lighthouses you can see the views from. The temperature is great, it’s about 10 degrees here! Although because we’re used to the heat, we had to go to an h and m to get a jumper or something a bit warmer than a T-shirt. Once we explored quite thoroughly, we walked back to the car via a supermarket to get some snacks for the long car trip ahead of us. We got into the car, and drove 10 minutes to a stunning viewing point that overlooked the whole beautiful town. After that small Pitstop, we were on our way to Alften via Trollstigen. It was a 2 hour drive to Trollstigen, which is classified as one of the best drives in the world. It’s a super windy, curvy road that zig zags up the side of a mountain. It’s views from all the viewing points are absolutely spectacular! We stopped at most of the viewing platforms along the way, and looked down at all the waterfalls and small peaks. The windy road coming down the mountain was called the Eagle Road, which was super narrow, but had gorgeous views. We finally made it to Geiranger, after having stopped at multiple viewing platforms! The ferry ride was only 1 hour, but felt like a while! We painlessly drove off the ferry, after have seen the most amazing views, and have sailed through the Fjords of Norway. We then drove another 90 minutes, after having stopped ALOT on the way, to our 2nd accomodation in Norway. We stayed in a small cabin in Nordfjordeid, a beautiful town. We were sick of having street food lately, so we decided to go for doggy Chinese. Even that was expensive, it was $5 for a spring roll! We only checked in to the cabin at 10pm, exhausted. It was vital that we got a good sleep, as we’ve got an epic adventure coming up! So far, Norway is absolutely stunning!
Day 46: Ålesund/ Trollstigen/ Alften/ Geiranger/ Nordfjordeid
We all woke up this morning bright and early, having had great night sleeps. We were only staying in Ålesund for 1 night, so once we were all packed, we headed down to the restaurant for buffet breakfast! They had a whole DIY waffle station, which was amazing! Because Scandinavia is so pricey, we had so much to eat, so we wouldn’t need to buy much for lunch. After that delicious breakfast, we went back upstairs to do our final packing, and then to checkout. We quickly put all our luggage into the car, before we walked around and explored Ålesund. The town is beautiful! There are so many cute, small colourful houses side by side, with stunning viewing points and lighthouses you can see the views from. The temperature is great, it’s about 10 degrees here! Although because we’re used to the heat, we had to go to an h and m to get a jumper or something a bit warmer than a T-shirt. Once we explored quite thoroughly, we walked back to the car via a supermarket to get some snacks for the long car trip ahead of us. We got into the car, and drove 10 minutes to a stunning viewing point that overlooked the whole beautiful town. After that small Pitstop, we were on our way to Alften via Trollstigen. It was a 2 hour drive to Trollstigen, which is classified as one of the best drives in the world. It’s a super windy, curvy road that zig zags up the side of a mountain. It’s views from all the viewing points are absolutely spectacular! We stopped at most of the viewing platforms along the way, and looked down at all the waterfalls and small peaks. The windy road coming down the mountain was called the Eagle Road, which was super narrow, but had gorgeous views. We finally made it to Geiranger, after having stopped at multiple viewing platforms! The ferry ride was only 1 hour, but felt like a while! We painlessly drove off the ferry, after have seen the most amazing views, and have sailed through the Fjords of Norway. We then drove another 90 minutes, after having stopped ALOT on the way, to our 2nd accomodation in Norway. We stayed in a small cabin in Nordfjordeid, a beautiful town. We were sick of having street food lately, so we decided to go for doggy Chinese. Even that was expensive, it was $5 for a spring roll! We only checked in to the cabin at 10pm, exhausted. It was vital that we got a good sleep, as we’ve got an epic adventure coming up! So far, Norway is absolutely stunning!
Day 45: Copenhagen/Oslo/Ålesund
This morning, we woke up quite early, with mum and dad telling us that we have to pack as quick as we can. I’m a pretty neat person, but for some reason it was like my bag exploded, and I had stuff everywhere! When we were all packed, it was about 9:00am, so we went down, to store our suitcases in the lockers in the lobby. Because you can put everything on card in Copenhagen, our goal was to not get a single bit of money out of the ATM, and sadly, that goal came to an end when we had to pay for the lockers with coins :(. When mum was packing, she realised that she didn’t pack the right amount of tablets for the rest of the trip, so before we went for breakfast, we walked to the nearest chemist to quickly get them. After, we stoped of at a pharmacy, we walked to the train station via a 7 eleven, where we got our cheap-ish breakfast. Just as we were walking to the train station, it started bucketing down with rain, so we all tried to run to the station. We managed to catch a train super easily, and we were off to a science museum called The Experimentarium, which was similar to Questacon in Canberra. It was perfect timing, because even before the rain, we planned to go here indoor. It was awesome! I loved all the brain problems, and also all the dissected bodies. After that cool experience, we got the bus to a nice, little village where we gate Danish Scones, and looked at all the designer stores. It pretty quickly started to rain again, so we jumped on another bus back to the hotel, where we picked up our luggage and jumped on another train, which dropped us straight at the airport. The Copenhagen airport is super modern with gorgeous shops! We got to the airport quite a bit earlier than we had to, so mum and I could shop some more. Mum ended up buying a really cool pair of sunnies. I didn’t buy anything at the airport, because I bought an IQ game at the museum. The airport was so modern: all the checking in was digital, you put your own luggage barcodes and Tages on your bags, and you program and weigh your bags into the system, and then you send them down the convey belt. There are no humans, which is awesome!!Our whole journey through the airport went really smooth, which is quite unusual. We thought it was strange how they didn’t even check our passports once. At 5:00pm, we got on our first 1 hour flight to Oslo, Norway. We got off the flight, to see another small, super fancy, modern airport. We felt like we all had to whisper. The floor was marble, and practically everything else was timber. We only had a 1 hour layover, so not much time for dawdling. We all made it on the plane in one piece, just before it started to rain. The 2nd flight to Ålesund was painless and super easy. We got off the plane, and within 20 minutes we had our bags. We then collected our rental car from Hertz, that we’re going to be keeping for 10 days. Dad booked a station wagon, for all the nice drives we’re going to be doing, but all they had left was a station wagon, so he was a bit upset by that, but at least it’s more comfy for us ;). We made it to the hotel mostly dry. Mum had checked in earlier, so it took practically no time. The room is super modern! We’re only staying here for one night, but the view is amazing, overlooking the water! We’re going to 2 Scandinavian countries: Denmark and a Norway. Denmark was more city, and Norway’s going to be more wilderness and adventurous!
Day 44: Copenhagen
This morning, we woke up at 7am, soon to realise mum and dad were downstairs in the lobby working. Mum has gone to a 7 eleven nearby and had gotten us yogurt and a pastry for breakfast. No one felt like leaving the room any time soon, so at 11:00am after watching slot of glee, mum and I decided to go shopping by ourselves. The stores were beautiful, and modern. All the Scandinavian clothes are just gorgeous. Earlier, dad went exercising so it wasn’t like he only left the house at midday. At about 1:00pm, dad convinced the girls to leave the study room, and meet us at an awesome game shop! We ended up buying a few small games that can easily be traveled with. We found a nice, hipster cafe to eat lunch at. As per usual, it was very expensive, but delicious. A kids burger and chips were $25. A few great streets to shop include Elmegade, Pilestæde, Grønegade, and Strøget. Arket is one of our favourite Danish stores, as it’s basically a Danish Muji. At this point, Audrey was getting ver tired, so Dad took her to the LEGO store and some toy stores, while Polly, Mum and I kept shopping. Shortly after, we jumpen on e-scooters, and all met up at the Harbourside, where there were sidewalk trampolines! We walked around to Nyhavn to see the famous coloured houses. We had a quick stop for water, and Danish apple pie. We got the bus home, and grabbed quick dinner at the train station to eat in the room. I got Thai, which was named ‘the best Thai in Copenhagen’ but it was amazing! We got back to the room by 7:00pm, and to bed by 9:00pm after having watched some glee, had showers and played some games. Hopefully everyone’s ready for a travel day to Norway tomorrow! We’ve all LOVED Copenhagen, and this week in Copenhagen, it’s actually Pride week, which has made it all the more interesting!