Europe days 19-26

Day 19: Continued

Next we went to visit the Barsottis and Chelinis, who live in adjoining homes. It was really cool to see where my great-grandparents lived! Not many of the relatives spoke English, but my dad and grandmother were there to help out.

Dinner was lots of fun! One of my relatives, Irene, speaks pretty good English. Actually, most of the people that I sat with did speak pretty good english. Because of that, and my little experience in Italian, I was able to communicate with my cousin Melissa, who is about my age. Irene and Stefani have an adorable three month old son. He's the newest member of the family!

Day 20: Lucca, day trip to Florence.

Today Mom and I took a train to Florence. We got dinner and I sketched the Medecci Palace. On the way back to Lucca, we met a model from Brazil.

There was a concert next to our hotel, the band was Blink-182. We were able to see from right outside the lobby!

Day 21: Ceva, Italy

Ceva is about a three hour drive from Lucca. I read Eragon, I'm almost done! We went through about 125 tunnels; try holding your breath for 2 miles! Yeah, I can't.

When we got to Ceva, we had about an hour to rest and get ready for the family dinner. We had a 10 courses, we had a cake that said something in Italian with our last name, and an American and Italian flag next to each other.

Tomorrow we leave for... Como, I think.

Day 22: Costa (family), drive to Como

When we were leaving Ceva, we went to Costa to visit family before we left. We had lunch with them, then walked through the town (one street with old buildings), and Guido showed us his garden.

On our way to the hotel here in Como, we got a little lost. I'm really tired... yeah. More driving tomorrow.

Day 23: Como/ drive to Isltwalt

We went to the lake house today! I got to stand where they filmed the scenes in AOTC. It's beautiful, and there are a bunch of places to explore.

We drove thru the Alps to Switzerland (MAJOR CAR SICKNESS!! DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH THE ALPS!) Iseltwald is a very pretty town. We are staying on the lake, which is a beautiful blueish- green.

Day 24: Iseltwald, Switzerland

Dad, OB and I went to a model train show. It was actually pretty cool. Other than that, I read ( finished Eragon) and went on TLF. I tried to update my blog, but my iPad deleted my post. Ugh.

Day 25: Iseltwald

Rented a motorboat.

Day 26: Drive to Genova, Switzerland

On our drive, we stopped at a chocolate factory. It was a really fun tour, which showed the history of chocolate, then how they make the chocolate good. We bought TONS of chocolate, mostly for friends. We leave for home tomorrow!

Day 27: Home (aka: a 21 hour plane flight)

Well, I must have missed a day somewhere, we were in Europe for 28 days, this flight being the 28th.

I watched quite a few movies, and my favorite episodes of ATLA on our way back to America. We were in business class, so we had chairs that completely transformed into beds!

When I stepped out of the last airplane, it was about 8 pm. Wh had flown into the local airport, which is only a few minutes away from home. The sun was setting, and I could smell the ocean.

That song "This is home" was one of the first things to pop into my head.

Moms parents came to see us, and the Jessi picked us up and drove us home.

Now what am I supposed to do now that we aren't traveling? Well, in two weeks I volunteer at our churches VBS, then cousins on my moms side come to visit (thank God they speak English;)) then her brother comes to visit, and then off to CVI to meet my TLF sisters! On the weekends in between all of that, we will probably go up to our second house. When will I have time to work on my Ahsoka CVI costume?
Yay! I get to watch LOK tomorrow!
.........

This is where my journal for the trip ends. Next week I am volunteering for VBS, and the dress for my Ahsoka costume came yesterday! Because can be expecting pictures from our trip to be up by next Sunday. Actually, I'm thinking about making pictures from trips it's own page... Idk.

Have a fantastic summer, everybody!