Have a Cuppa!

Good Heaven's Teacakes!
                                           

Ridiculously iconic pic of Big Ben

Caught washing dishes by the telly          

Hyde park trees

     We just spent the week
London, England, one of my favorite places in the WORLD!  To boot, we stayed in the same ADORABLE flat that I lived in 2 years ago, when I made my first video, London Wisely.


      I felt very nostalgic and had fun remembering things I saw when I was little.  It was a blast, even though it was a little stressful.  Happily, I got to unwind with leisurely strolls through Hyde park, the humungous splotch of nature in London's urban jungle.  Dogs romped freely through grass.  Trees as far as the eye could see, and the smell of a fresh cut lawn.  It was the kind of landscape that would make the laziest slob want to jog every day.  My favorite part of the public garden was the Princess Diana Memorial Play-Park.  It was enormous, with a nearly life size pirate ship, winding paths to secret gardens, a whole aisle of swing-sets, death-defyingly wobbly bridges, it was more like 8 play-parks smashed together in one.  The well loved princess also has a dedicated path around Hyde park and a fountain.

In my flapping AWESOME Watson hat

       In London, we saw many different bits of theatre, going to a play nearly every day.  Some of the names I can recall were, Matilda, Emil and the Detectives, and the horrifying, white-knuckle, tear-at-your-face like-you-want-it-to-fall-off play, Ghosts, by Henrik Ibsen.  Feel free to look it up and cry you eyes out :)  In a quick trip to Baker St. I visited the Sherlock Holmes shop and took some photos in which I look like a boss (left).

In the Great Hall, Totally Psyched 

      When I returned to Britain, I did some of the things that I did last time.  However, this year I was bent on going to The Making Of Harry Potter exhibition at Warner Bros. Studios!!!!!!!  This awesome exhibit holds nearly all the actual sets for the Harry Potter films and explains how they staged all the cool bits and special effects.  I got to walk through Diagon Alley, see the detailed storyboards, and look at all the animatronics and masks used for the creatures in the movies (like Dobby or the Goblins).  At the end, everyone got to see the huge model of Hogwarts that took no less that 40 days to build!!  If you can tell from my excessive amount of exclamation points, I thoroughly enjoyed the proceedings.  When the tour was done, we explored the overpriced gift shop, and I bought myself a chocolate frog.  It was a splendid day out.

Outside the Dursley's house

      This week's Post Post Contest winner is.....my Aunt Debbie again!  She said that I would she London through a new eye, and I did!  Note: I didn't go on THE London Eye, a huge ferris wheel, but she is still correct if she was referring to my thinking. Auntie, you are, for the week, a tasty chinese cookie.  Everyone else, today I am.....back  home (wahhhhh) so be sure to predict how I will cope :)

Yours Hungrily (for carrots),
Liv

P.S. Has anyone else been wondering why the pictures in this post are so small and difficult to see?  Squint no more!  After lots of thinking, re-positioning photos, and yelling like chimps, me and Pop-sicle discovered that when you click on a picture....it........gets.......bigger!  So you're welcome, and be sure to use this to your disposal when you read my next posts :)  Cheers!

Oh, speaking of photos, all photos and video by my Dad, Wise-Owl Films! Love you Pops!

Six Hundred Steps and Scary Scampi by a Secondary Seaside

Oh my, I'm almost back in my own country!

         Believe it or not folks, I'm already one week away from being back at my own house in C.A.  Part of me will be happy to get my little angel back and see my friends, but the other part of me is DEVASTATED!  I feel like I did hardly anything at all, wonder why I ate so much gelato, think that I should have been more inquisitive, the regrets of any traveler nearing the journey's end.  I am also a bit guilty that me and my Dad did not get as many videos out as we should.  Hope that you enjoyed the ones we did make :)

   
  However, At least this week did not go to waste.  It was actually rather busy.  Early this week I went to Il Duomo and climbed all the way to the top.   I was too busy wheezing to count every step, but I think some book said there were about 600 stairs all the way to the pinnacle of Brunelleschi's masterpiece dome.   Up inside the dome, me and Dad took pictures of the fresco on the dome's ceiling.   On the lowest place on the dome ,where we stood awestruck, "Hell" was depicted.  It was horrid and terrible place, with people being skinned alive and women eating themselves!  Higher, in the middle, was earth and heaven.  Saints looked down on the human race from clouds, apparently judging their capability to ascend.  On the uppermost layer, sat the Gods, or the many ways that God was thought to be seen. Now here is the coolest part (at least for me).  The very tippy top of the dome could be only seen from where the priest would stand.  Whatever was up there, presumably the "One God", could only be seen by him, saying that only the priest could converse with the divine, and translate his/her words to the people.  Cool right?  Next time you have a message, say it with architecture!  At the end of the walk there was a beautiful but crowded vantage point.  On the way back down, we got to see the painting a bit closer before heading back down to earth (Phew)!

  That's not all I did however. Just the day before yesterday, me and my parental units ventured off for a night in the Ever Sinking City.  That's right folks,Venice!  The land of canals and people who eat every part of the shrimp.  The shrimp variation there is called "scampi", and they sell the entire things boiled, still with the eyes in them.  They have pinching claws and they scared the bleep out of me!
In Venice there are no cars, as most of you know.   Everyone travels by canals.   For people who are into the cliché, I didn't take a gondola because they cost about 100 euros per person.  Yipes!  I did however, take a water bus.  It went along the Grand Canal and was very crowded.  I sat in the back with my parents so we could see the water up close.   We went just after Carnival'e ended and there were costumes being sold and  every other store sold masks, and I'm not kidding!  EVERYWHERE!  It was crazy and I wondered how the place makes any money when Carnival'e season is gone!?

This week I am going to London, and then (sniff) going home.

See ya later Alligators,
Liv

P.S. This weeks winner of the Fortune Cookie of the Post Post Contest is my OTHER aunt, Aunt Debbie, who said I had a long climb ahead of me. Auntie, this week you are a delicious Chinese Pastry that I eat at panda Express or Chinatown in San Francisco!  To everyone else, if you want to be next weeks winner,  predict what I will do in London, my favorite place in the WORLD!

Rome: A Casual Trip back in Time :)

    Me:  Outside the Colosseo (that's what Italians call the Colosseum


Buona Serra folks,

    Sorry I haven't written in a while, I went to Rome this weekend and I couldn't take my laptop with me.  The title above is actually a pretty good description of what happened.  Even in the downtown area near the train-station, where I stayed, you couldn't (how do I put it) throw a stone without hitting an ancient ruin, or five.  Nearly everywhere in Rome had a history that dated back at LEAST 300 years or more.  We got off the train from Florence (with some study abroad students of course) on Friday, Europe time, and put our things in a swanky TWO star hotel before heading out.  The AIFS people took us to the Colosseum for a tour. It was nice and sunny and...okay I'll give it to you strait: there was a rainstorm. The only one I have ever had that was worse (in my experienced eleven years) was on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, where it was so wet, when you fell in the mud you would be washed off the moment you got up!   I like to say we started out going to the ancient arena for leisure, and ended up cowering inside it for cover.  However, I guess a twist of fate helped us because the moment we began walking around the outer areas and the seats, the rain stopped :D   <--- joyous emoticon (just in case you want to know).

   Oh, and speaking of words that end in 'us', on our trip, we also visited my good latin-speaking chum (yeah right) , the Pope!  On Saturday we visited his own little country (The Vatican City ) in the middle of Rome. We looked at some of the museum, walked out into the torrential rain to look at the garden, strolled about the Sistine Chapel, and dropped our jaws at the awe inspiring St.Peter's Church, all accompanied by our chirpy Italian guide.  The last place mentioned is the biggest church in the world, large enough the Duomo and Notre Dame to fit snuggly inside (if you maybe snapped off a buttress or two).  Me and my family visited the Vatican again on Sunday, to actually SEE Pope Francesco do his morning address for us and 10s of thousands of people assembled in St. Peters square.!

My adventures were fun, as always, but I'm glad to be back in my wee little Florentine apartment :)

Buono Viva to all,
Liv


    Sitting in St. Peters Square...Waiting for Papa Francesco









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Inside St. Peters Basilica

P.S. This week my dad and I go on a journey and to climb the Duomo.
No one won this weeks "Post post" competition, so here's your chance.
Make a prediction on something I will do this week and write it in the comments section.
If you win...you will get a mention on my post next week.

Ciao,
Liv