Giulia's Continental Adventures

              Trains  We left Valencia to go to Barcelona and then France. We travel by trains that are mostly fast trains. Most of the time we do schoolwork on the trains. I have even done a few math tests on a train.  All the trains are different, some have Wi-Fi, some don’t, some have comfortable seats, some have good views, and some have reclining chairs. Most of the time the scenery is farms but sometimes we see mountains. Unless we are in a tunnel which happens quite often. There are all different kinds of farms: animal farms, orange farms, tree farms, dairy farms, vegetable farms and fruit farms. Sometimes there are abandoned houses or scorched houses. It looks really cool. We have been on trains for a total of two days, ten hours and thirty-two minutes. We have been on 31 trains and gone to 29 different places so far. The longest train we took was five hours long from Innsbruck to Venice. The shortest train we took was from Florence to Pisa which was about an hour long. 

  Bioparc  We went to the Bioparc in Valencia. The Bioparc is like a zoo but with a lot more animals and some cafes.  When we got in, the first thing we saw was the flamingos or as they are called in Spanish flamencos. They were not as pink as flamingos I had seen before. I think they had a restricted shrimp diet because they were mostly white and the chemicals in shrimp is what makes the flamingos pink. We saw a lot of animals but one of the best was the meerkats (pictured below.) They were super cute, and fluffy looking. They were running around and digging tunnels. There was one just sitting on one of the high rocks watching the giraffes and birds. The type of bird was called the sacred ibis. It is called that because it was the sacred bird of the ancient Egyptian god of knowledge, Thoth.  There were also gazelles. The meerkat liked to look out and when we came back later he was still staring out but in a different spot. The way they sit is super cute like they are humans. They sit

    Madrid We went to Madrid for two days because it was Owen's birthday and he wanted to go. The train ride was two hours long from the new Valencia station, so not that bad. I spent the time watching Netflix and doing math. We arrived in Madrid at around 12:30.  We checked in at the hotel which was pretty cool. We were all hungry so after half an hour of just hanging out  we tried to find a mexican restaurant because we all like tacos 🌮. I had dos quesadillas. They were quite good dad and Owen had five mini tacos each and we got two bowls of nachos, one with cheese and the other with guacamole, which was amazing. After that we grabbed our raincoats and sweatshirts and went exploring. There were so many Christmas decorations and also a lot of Statues of Doña Margarita Maria of Austria inspired by the painting Las Meninas by the artist Diego Velázquez (it is in the Prado Museum which we went into and saw the painting.) My mom really liked the statues. It started to pour on us and

    Science museum Valencia. We went to the science museum or as it is called here: the Museu de les Ciències. We went two times. The first time we went, we all went and we explored two floors but did not finish the third floor. My favorite part of that day was the music exhibit. There was a piano, a drum set and a guitar. The instruments were really cool. Then there was this one drum that was connected to a metal tool that you put your hands on and it senses your heartbeat and beats the drum to match your heart. My heart was pretty fast already but then I ran around for a few minutes and it was like a beat every second. It was super cool. The next time we went it was just dad, Owen and I since mom was in Mallorca, an island located off the coast of Spain. We mostly stayed on the third floor. Though we did spend some time on the second floor to see my favorite exhibit (see more below) My favorite part of that trip was the Mars exhibit or the telephone booth. The Mars exhibit had a

  Spain  When we got to Spain, we were in Barcelona for three nights. We were there with mom’s friend. While we were in Barcelona we went to an event where people make human towers. There were three teams: blue, green and light blue. The bottom was a bunch of people holding up two or three guys then it kept going up till there were kids climbing. The first two kids held up another kid who then got climbed over. It was weird but cool. We went to Valencia next. Valencia is a city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the third biggest city in Spain. We went to one of the old gates of the city and we climbed it which was kind of scary as I have a fear of heights. The steps were super big and on the stairs to the first level on one side there was no wall or railing for about half the steps. When you got up the first two flights of steps there was another set of steps that divided into two different sets leading up to the two towers. We all went to the one on the right; but once dad

                                                Torino    We went to Torino or Turin for three days. Turin is a city that is located in the upper part of Italy or the top of the boot. We got to Turin on Halloween. When we arrived in Turin my dad’s second cousin Gianni picked us up from the train station. Gianni has a car so we got to ride in a car for the first time in over a month; we stuffed all our luggage into the trunk and dad sat in the front seat while I was stuck in between my mom and brother.  Gianni had booked us a bed & breakfast near his house. On the way there he showed us his kids' school and other places in his town. When we were done putting our stuff inside the B&B he drove us to his house and introduced us to his kids Davide and Francesco. Davide is almost eight and Francesco is five. They mostly spoke Italian but Davide could speak English if he needed to. Since it was halloween we gave them chocolates and later I played them a halloween song (Spooky scar