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Daddy and Mama wanted to go to a coffee shop, so we strolled down the streets of Prauge and found one called original coffee. Original Coffee had succulents, coffee, and red, sandy dirt from Namibia.

A succulent

Clara’s tiny coffee

The red Namibian sand

As we were walking along, we saw a gorgeous mural.

We also found a bike pole with a flower painted on it.

We got on the bridge across the river and over an island. The bridge had beautiful views.

The view from the bridge.

We kept making our way to a resturaunt where Sam and I shared Frech Toast. Then we proceeded to a wal where they had drawn graffiti all over.

Playing by the wall.

We Found ourselves near a cathedral, so we went inside.

The cathedral

We climbed the steps to a castle with another breathtaking cathedral.

 

 

 

 

We climbed 300 steps to the top of a bell tower attached to the cathedral. The views from the bell tower were incredible!

Walking up the steps

 

 

 

 

On the way down from the castle, Sam and I had fruit smoothies. In a park, a woman put her homing pigeon on my hand. As we were walking through the city, we saw a beautiful building that had a sighn on it that said “I am not a church.”

 

The building

There was a huge croud just to see a clock strike two.

A bit of the croud.

The clock.

We came back to te apartment and then to the nearest coffee shop. At the coffee shop, I had cheesecake. Back at the apartment, Sammy and I pretended to be nuns

Us as nuns.

For dinner, we tried to eat at a vegetarian restaurant, but scince the resturaunt was all booked, we had to order take-out instead. While Daddy received our dinner, the rest of us walked to the island in the river. The river was gorgeous.

The river

The river had balls that you could roll around in on futility on the river. I wonder how the people inside could breathe.

The balls

We walked back to the apartment, ate dinner, and enjoyed our last evening in mainland Europe.

 

We paked our bags and got on the subway to the bus stop. At the bus stop, we put our bags in boxes and left. We took another subway to the Summer Palace, a huge palace that Mozart preformed his first symphony in (read “Magic Treehouse Midnight on the Magic Flute.

The summer palace had a greenhouse, a garden, a yellow Palace, an old building, and an amazing waterfall.

The greenhouse

The Garden

The yellow palace

The old building

The fountain with the old building in the background

On our way out of the garden, Sam was lagging behind. The we heard Sam exclaim,”There's a rinocerus in the bushes!,” and shure enough, there was. The rinocerus had orange hairs on its ears, and belonged to the oldest zoo in the world. We took the subway back to the bus station.

The subway

The bus was light green and was double decker. We found five seats all in a row on the top floor. Some times, you could walk down the stairs. It is fun to sit on steps and look at the freeway whizzing by. When the bus finally arrived in Prague, we took the very inefficient Prague subway to our apartment, where we received it. Then we went to dinner and Chech food, witch is dumplings.

 

 

 

Wien is the German word for Vienna, the capital city of Austria. This is the city we were in, and it had coffee shops. This was upsetting, for I do not like when we have to stop for coffee. We drove to a coffe shop and had breakfast. In the middle of it, Daddy went off to return our rental car. That left us to walk around. We came to a plaza in between two identical buildings. One for Archeological History and one for Natural History. We came to the building with archeological history and walked strait up to the ancient Egyptian room. They had mummified animals and tall statues. They even had the real William the Hippopotomus!

A sarcophagus

A mummy

Me next to William the Hippopotomus

An interesting interesting boulder

A roman centaur

The catholic paintings

When we stepped outside of the building, Daddy was there waiting for us. Clara was free, so she left us and explored the museums of Vienna. We headed across the plaza and entered the natural history museum.

The natural history museum.

We walked up the stairs and met at where they had put a diorama of an ostrich, a casawary, and an emu. It is very satisfying seeing those fake birds in a museum having seen all 3 different types in the wild.

The casawary

The emu

The ostrich

Through out the animalia section of the museum, there were animals I had and hadn't seen.

Animals I had seen before in the wild other than the three big birds

Peacock

 

California Condor (these live in the skys and hills around Santa Barbará) Sorry about the glare

Guinea foul

Wallaby

Kangaroo

Koala

Marmot

African Elephant

Giraffe

Black rinocerus

Common zebra+hertmans Mountain zebra

Kudu

Gemsbok

Elephant seal. These live on the islands right off of SB.

Jackass penguin

Crocodile

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Termite mound from Namibia

Monarches on a eucoyliptus branch, influenced by a Santa Barbará county park in Goleta, the same town in witch Mama works

Hercules beetle

Housefly

Toebiter

Tridachna clam

Deer

Mouse

Coral

Animals I haven't seen

Puffin

Vampire bat

Echidna

Platypus

Pengulin

Capabera

Hippopotomus

Galapogus tortoise

Gila monster(cactus in the background!)

Cealacanth

Shark

Tarantula (hopefully I'll see them in October)

Spider crab

Vestimentiferan worm

Throughout the museum, they had extinc creatures such as dodo bird skeleton and a taxidermed Tasmanian Tiger

Tasmanian Tiger

Dodo skeleton

They had pictures and dioramas of animals dead or dying because of humans. We can be so cruel and murderous sometimes. If you love animals like me, I advise you not to look at these pictures.

Rinocerus after its horns were removed by poachers. This picture may have very well been taken inside the boundarys of Etosha National Park, in Namibia. The rino is killed by poachers so they can sell the horns to American and Chinese people who think it cures cancer. Their minds are cuckoo. Rino horns are made from the same stuff that fingernails and hair is made of.

Basket of shark fins. The Sharks are caught, their fins are cut off, and then the poor live sharks are dropped back into the ocean to suffer a painful death.

The shark is caught in a net and gets cut open on the ropes.

Impaled fish. The fish is harpooned and impaled through its flesh so it sadly perishes a terribly painful death.

Caught mollusks. These mollusks are caught in boxes and they dry out and suffocate out of the water. Imagine if your eyeballs dryed out and you couldn't breathe. Who cares if they taste good?

The museum also had a parasite section they showed a scabby dog not unlike the cats at the Dubrovnik hotel and a red blood cell with a blue thing attached to it.

The dog

The cell

Outside the museum, we walked to a sushi resturaunt with 6 live cats! The cats roamed around the resturaunt and climbed up the wooden structures the waitresses had put up for them.

 

As we were walking around, we saw the most beautiful cathedral I had ever seen.

 

We had an apel strudel and a cakeish tart while Daddy had a beer.

Daddy and his beer

We entered the cathedral and it was as beautiful on the outside as it was on the inside.

In the cathedral.

Outside of the Cathedral. Mama took us on an architectural tour of downtown Vienna. First, we saw a modern building.

The modern building.

Next, there was a tower celebrating the victims of the Black Death.

The tower

The tower had an angry baby angel on it that you wouldn't want to mess with. It was setting fire to a wrinkled old man.

The baby destroying its victim.

Lastly, there was a church.

We met up with Clara and walked to a museum, but we couldn't find the entrance, so we went to the horse drawn carriages. The carriage we took came around Vienna and back to the horse drop off. The Panama and Ecuador embassies of Austria are in the same building.

Clara's ear and the streets of Vienna by horse-drawn-carriage.

We stopped at a playground where Sam got hurt on the see-saw 3 times. The playground had a bus and Daddy thought that they guy driving it was made to drive it.

The bus and the guy. Can you see the guy?

We walked through the streets of Vienna and to a resturaunt where Daddy had another beer.

Daddy's new beer.

They also had funky chairs.

On our way out, we stopped to look at the sculpture outside the museum of modern art. It was called “The Italian,” and it was a bronze sculpture of a person with a long nose throwing up.

The sculpture

We took the subway back to our apartment.

The subway.

 

 

We woke early and drove out to Plitvice Lakes National Park. We parked and walked to the ticket desk, 1 kilometer away. Our original plan was to take the bus to the upper lakes, but the woman at the desk said” I have no key. You get bus and map at eight.” We borded a boat across the lake.

The back of the boat.

Plitvice had waterfalls, pools, and fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then took a boat to th lower lakes. There was a huge line there.

 

We kept walking around and went through a cave. At the other entrance to the cave, we took the bus back to the car, and drove to Vienna.

 

 

 

 

On our way to Vienna, we were stopped in traffic because someone needed to smoke their cigarette before they looked for their wallet in the trunk. One time, paying a toll took one person 1 minuet and it took us 15 seconds. Luckily, the first toll was near a castle.

The castle

The traffic.

When we finally got into Austria, we ate dinner at Café Erde ( see Graz Austria). It wasn't 'till 11:30 that we got into Vienna.

 

We looked out the window and 2 huge cruise ships were parked in the harbour. We heard bangIng from the cruise ships and Daddy said it was the passengers trying to get off their disease trap. We were not worried about the crowds, though. We were done with Dubrovnik.

 

The two cruise ships.

We kept driving through Bosnia and Hercegovina and Croatia until we got to a fruit stand.

The fruit stand

We chose to drive along the coast, wich was said to be the most beautiful stretch of the Croatian coast.

 

 

 

 

We stopped in a town with the ugliest church I had ever seen.

The ugly church.

We kept driving along the coast.

 

 

We reached Split, and drove to the parking lot that we parked in when we had an apartment in Split. We strolled to the place where the people fed the stray cats and had Ice Cream. We walked to the palace, scince Mama hadn't been there. Once we had seen the top, Daddy wanted to go to the basement where Game of Thrones stuff was was filmed. The basement was used as a sewer during the time of the Romans.

 

 

 

On our way back to the car, we saw a strange picture and we fed the stray cats.

We drove to a town near a beautiful national park called Plitvice. We would see that national park in the morning.

 

Daddy left early to go on a Game of Thrones tour, and we took pieces of cheese to a stray cat that lives near a fancy hotel called Hotel Grand Villa Excelsior. The skinny cat was glad to have our cheese. We walked to the grocery store and bought a large bag of cat food. Our mission was to go to the coffe shop, feed stray cats, and walk the walls of Dubrovnik. After we had taken our drinks, we walked down an alley and we're glad to find 2 cats to feed.

 

Feeding the cats.

I held cat food in my cup.

As we were walking along, we saw a calico cat being bullied by a big shaggy black cat. When we fed the cats, the black cat ate all of the food. We were also near a resturaunt when we found a cat under one of its tables.

Feeding the cat under the table.

On our way to the top of the wall, we found a shady garden with bowls of cat food for the stray cats. There were 4 stray cats there.

On the wall we saw many things, including a basketball court that had been twisted. Can you find the red submarine in the 1st picture?

 

 

 

 

 

New roof

Old roof

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked down from the city walls and went back to cat feeding all the way back to the harbour, where we had delicious ice cream. We walked back home and ate lunch back with Daddy. Then we went swimming at the beach. After the beach, we headed back to the harbour. We caught the yellow submarine and Sam drove. While we were waiting for the submarine, we saw a pirate ship.

The submarine

We were the only people on the submarine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We fed a cat,had dinner, and went to bed when we got offthe submarine.

 

We started to walk into Dubrovnik. Dubrovniks grey walls and red roofs were distinctive in the morning sun.

The water was clear and there were many agaves.

In Dubrovnik, We had chocolate scones at Café Glam and picked up sandwiches to go so we could have lunch on Lokrum Island. At the harbor, there were 4 departing boats, so we were lucky when we got on to the one to Lokrum. The boat had great views of Dubrovnik and the surrounding countryside.

 

The water around the island was clear and blue.

On the island, Sam and Mama took forever in the gift shop. When we finally got going, we found a peacock.

We walked through the walls of an old monistary, witch had cacti. It also had a maze to run through.

 

Sam in the maze.

The succulents.

We headed through the orchard to the botanic garden. On the way, we saw a pea hen and a baby pea cock.

In the olive orchard

 

In the botanical garden, they had invasive plants from other metetterainian climates. Some of wich came from Santa Barbará and Cape Town. They had a lot of succulents!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also saw a pea cock on our way out of the botanical gardens.

 

We walked to the other side of the island and to a beautiful trail.

At the top of the hill, there was a French Fort.

 

In the French Fort.

On top of the Fort, there was a gorgeous scenery.

 

We walked down to the water, where we swam in the calm blue water and ate lunch on the terribly rough dolomite (the same rock we sat on to watch the rinos). While we swam, we saw 2 submarines go by. We walked through the pine forests back to the olive grove where we had ice cream. After we were done, we went down to the beach and swam in the rough not-as-pleasant waves. While we were coming out of the water, I cut my toe deep in some dolomite. At the pier on the island, there was a pea cock making crying noises and nibbling our toes. There also was a timid black bunny. We got on the boat and took it back to the mainland. Back in Dubrovnik, we walked to the other side of the city.

Then we walked down side streets asking if they had any dinner. We found one that did.

Clara's food.

My food.

Sams food.

The city had a show of lights…

 

 

 

Daddy went down to the car and narrowly escaped getting a parking ticket. We walked across the parking lot and got in the car and drove off towards Dubrovnik. We had to drive over hills wich was boring because it all looked the same.

Eventually, we got to the sea. We were stuck in traffic because we had to drive three kilometers through a sliver of Bosnia and Hercegovina. That gave me the chance to take pictures.

 

 

 

We could see the Bosnian town of Neum along the coast.

Neum

Can you find border control in the background?

The part of Bosnia and Hercegovina we saw was gorgeous. At one point, we stopped so Clara could pick up rocks for her friend.

 

 

 

 

 

At the next border control, I saw a pretty tree.

The flowers were everywhere on the ground.

Back in Croatia, we entered Dubrovnik on a bridge. This is where we were to see Mama. When we entered the town, we saw a midievil tower.

Driving down the bridge.

The tower

At the apartment where we were to see Mama, we found Mama, two cats, and a view.

The view.

Mama told us all about Sweden. She even bought us candy and tiny trolls made out of stones. We wanted to see old town Dubrovnik, so we we walked to a clocktower. This is where we would meet in two and 1/2 hours. We walked with Mama through the tight alleyways to a cathedral, an ice cream shop, a jewelry shop, a playground, and a woman who put birds on our shoulders.

The clocktower

The alleys

When we met up with Daddy and Clara, we had seen 6 stray cats. We ate at a sushi resturaunt and walked back home to our apartment. Dubrovnik turned yellow in the setting sun. By the time we got to our apartment, we had seen 13 stray cats!

There were 3 blue fires by the end of the wall. Can you find them?

 

Today, we put on our swimsuit and walked to the car. We drove through the Mediterranean scrub like we did in Cape Town and Santa Barbará to a tiny town on the sores of a lake. In the lake, there were many boats. The boats were to take us across the lake to Krka National Park. We caught the 3rd one to the boardwalk to the waterfalls. We had to pay to get on the trail, and for the bathroom, wich Sam had to use. The waterfalls were touristy, but beautiful.

 

 

 

The water was clear, so we could see all the fish. There were thousands and thousands of fish!

 

There is a frog in the picture.

Then, we swam in the pond below the waterfall. The water was shallow in some parts, but deep in others. In the lake, there were many islets with bushes and trees on them. One of the most far out islands had a colony of ants living on it. There were also spiders there too. The ants there were trapped there and the island was all they would ever see.

Playing near the islands.

 

 

On one of the right offshore islands.

We had some yummy pancakes that we saw being made before our eyes. On our boat back to the village, we saw a couple swans.

 

 

For lunch we ate at a restraunt with toys. The streets down that town were amazing.

Then, we drove back down to Split. In split, we left Clara and walked to the palace. In the palace, there was a cathedral and a temple for Jupiter. I wonder why they encourage two religions there. I wonder witch one the person who built it was.

The Cathedral

Jupiters temple (I expected a picture of a planet).

We walked back through the palace to a resturaunt where we got ice cream. We also got Clara. Clara went to get her picture taken with gladiators. Then, she took Sam and I to get our picture taken with Gladiators.

Our pictures with Gladiators

Sam wanted to buy a soccer scarf like the locals wore to the soccer game, so we went to the store that sold them. A stray cat had given birth to a litter of kittens under the store's floor. The shopkeeper looked after the kittens and so did the mother.

One of the kittens.

We walked to a seafood resturaunt. I got peach juice and Sam got grape juice. Sam looked like he was drinking wine.

After dinner, we played with the kids in the courtyard.they all spoke Croatian except one kid, whom we used as a translator.

The child with the black and yellow striped shirt was our translator.

As we were walking through a plaza, we saw a place where there were trays of milk, water, and cat food. There were 8 stray cats there and more were coming. People were feeding them this food. One family gave us some of their cat treats to share feeding time with. A girl broght a cat ballon to the spot.

The cats.

 

Daddy tried to get cash from the ATM machine, but it didn't work. He tried it 3 times, but it still didn't work. On the way to our car, we saw a dirty diaper on the street.

The ATM machine

On the way out of the city,we drove through the industrial area.

The hills were prettier than the city.

 

The dirt was as red as Namibia.

The mountains got rockier.

Sam and I each had two Mozart Balls.

Eventually, the landscape looked a little bit like central Namibia( See “Back Into the Desert” ).

 

 

 

Sam got mad at me for taking pictures so he tried to block my picture.

Once, we saw a lake.

Then we came to the sea. It was in a town called Šibenik, along the shore of the bay. The shore across the bay was covered in trees.

 

We walked into the city through narrow alleys to a resturaunt with slow service. Every other shop had ice cream. Sam and I had spaghetti for lunch. After lunch, we walked over to a cathedral with a gruesome crucifix. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

 

In front of the cathedral

Then, we went to the fortress through more narrow alleys.

Inside the fort, we got lemon ice cream. We also saw the Adriatic Sea.

From the top of the fort.

The fort

We kept driving to a city called Split, were we stayed in the second oldest building in Split. Daddy and Clara wanted to see a soccer game, so we had to go and wait in a line to buy tickets. In the stadium, the fans were obvious. They all started beating drums and waving hands. Then, they waved flags and put a tarp over everybody. Last, they lifted their scarfs up.

1 st

2nd

3rd

Daddy nicknamed player #5 on the white team “The Goon.” Can you see him?

The Goon is the one who the guy with the Orange shoes is pointing to.

At one point, I thought a fire had been started in the crowd. Then I realized that it was a flare.

The teams tied 2-2.