MY
BEST ADVENTURE II
By Kameron Pollock, ICC
Kid Travel Writer
My
mom and I are still traveling in Europe. The
last time I wrote to you, we still had 9 months
to go. The last two months have been as incredible
as the first two! I have so many thoughts
to tell you. I have so many new European friends
- this place is awesome! And the best part
of it all is that there are so many more things
I can learn. My favorite part about this trip,
though, is that I’m happy for my mom that
she is doing something that she has dreamed
about all her life.
The
first thing I want to tell you is there are
so many cute boots in Europe! Italy and Spain
are filled with shops of fun boots and other
cool stuff. They even sell stuff from the
USA. Oh, and back to the boot thing, I may
even buy some. I can’t decide whether I like
the furry ones or the black leather ones.
Or there are boots with shiny decorations
on the outside. There are too many to choose
from. My mom says that we should keep looking
until the perfect pair show up. That didn’t
happen yet, but I’m hopeful.
There
were great things in Italy other than the
boots. I saw beautiful horses and ate bread
with delicious dip. The owner of the restaurant
even let me go into the kitchen to watch him
make it! That was definitely one of my favorite
things. We may even get to go back there so
I can have some more. I’ll be REALLY happy!
Of course, I was amazed by the Duomo in Florence.
My mom and I climbed to the top of the dome.
There were SO many stairs in skinny hallways
with many people. At the top, you have to
climb this very steep ladder to get outside
where you can see the whole entire city. It
was so beautiful that my mom took pictures
from every direction. We walked around the
outside of the dome a couple times before
going back down all those stairs.
We
traveled from Italy to Spain on every kind
of transportation, except a boat. Thankfully,
we were prepared this time and brought food
for our long trip. The last time we took a
long trip, we didn’t bring any food and the
trains didn’t have any food either! Granada
is different from the other places we’ve been.
In the afternoons everything closes for people
to eat lunch and then go to bed! I haven’t
taken a nap since I was little; but even the
adults take naps in Spain. Many afternoons
when everything was closed, my mom and I would
walk to this river where there were probably
one hundred cats. Some Spanish people told
me that the river’s nickname is the River
of the Cats because ever since they could
remember, there were cats living there. Throughout
the city, there are many little places to
explore and every place we went, there were
cats. When I’m an adult, I want to have a
lot of cats and dogs. In Europe, people even
bring their dogs into the stores and restaurants.
The bad part is that the dogs go number two
right on the sidewalk. So far, I haven’t stepped
on any!
You
can’t even believe how much walking we’ve
done. Well maybe you can, but I can’t! Some
days we even walked for 6 hours! My mom doesn’t
like to take the bus because she would rather
walk. She says that there are so many things
that you don’t see when you’re on the bus
or the train. I think you see everything,
but you just see it a lot faster. Even though
I would rather take the bus, I’m glad my mom
makes us walk all the time because it’s healthier.
In fact, I like to race my mom down 5 flights
of stairs while she takes the elevator. I
always beat her to the bottom with enough
time to hold the door open for her.
My
mom says that soon we’ll be going to a place
in Italy where you have to ride in a boat
to get to places instead of driving in cars.
I can’t figure out what that will look like,
but she says we’ll be getting some kind of
ice cream there too. I know exactly what that
looks like! If my mom will let me, I’ll eat
some for you too. I’m having a great time
and can’t wait to tell you more great things.
Ciao for now!
MY
BEST ADVENTURE
By Kameron Pollock, ICC
Kid Travel Writer
I'm
Kameron and I'm 8.5 years old. My Mom and
I are from Florida, but right now we are in
Europe. It's been my mom's dream to travel
here. We've been here for a month and a half
and the trip has been wonderful. I never knew
I would get to do anything like this – like
being in Europe traveling for 11 months. I
never knew that it would happen. It is going
to be a lot of fun for 9 more months.
We
spent our first month in Germany. If you go
to Germany and you don't speak German, it's
really fun to learn. I loved the food there.
They have this kind of sandwich that's called
a döner – it was good and not so much money,
so we ate that a lot! And they have pretzels
that have salt on them which are really good
too. We have soft pretzels in America too,
but these were saltier and much bigger. Some
other things I liked were the schnitzel, the
cartoons, the playground by the castle, and
the human sized maze called the Irrgarten.
One time I cheated to get to the middle first!
Shh, don't tell my mom. The schnitzel tasted
like really good fried chicken, but it's really
pork. Something I didn't like so much were
the naked statues because who would want naked
statues in the middle of town! My mom says
it's because it's “art”.
August
was a good month to go to Germany because
there were festivals every weekend. They were
a lot of fun. I got to ride on a little Ferris
Wheel, which I've never done before. Me and
my mom had fun every day. We also got to go
on a boat in Berlin. On our way to the boat,
we got to see a building from the old days
that had tanks in front of it.
Now we're in Italy. We took 3 trains to get
here and I got to stay up almost all night.
Can you believe that? I'm only 8.5 years old!
If you're taking the train, you may want to
plan ahead and bring your own food. Me and
my mom were starved! When I looked out the
windows of the train, it looked really plain
until I saw the beaches. Now that was beautiful.
We sat across from some really nice people
on the 1st train. The 2nd train we sat really
close to other people and my mom let me get
some sleep lying on her chair too. Things
that I am excited to get to do in Italy are
to ride the double-decker bus and horses.
There were double-decker buses in other places,
but we didn't get to ride one yet. There’s
so many more things that I can learn, but
I'm just at the beginning.
There’s one special thing I want you to know
about my life: I love to sing and I love to
paint. On the first train to Italy, we passed
some beaches in France near Nice, and they
were so beautiful! I may even paint a picture
of it. Oh and one more thing about Europe:
did you know there's McDonalds everywhere
here? That’s great news! I can’t wait to tell
you what’s going to happen over the next 9
months!
On
to Osaka!!!
By Nanga'ah Ndumu
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My
roommate Danielle and I, getting a bite
to eat before going to the Osaka Dome.
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Last
May of 2003, the S.S. Universe Explorer docked
in Osaka, Japan and I stayed for five days.
My first day in Osaka, I went to a baseball
game in the Osaka Dome with my roommate. However,
that wasn't until later in the evening. Before
that, in the early afternoon, I just walked
around the shopping area for a few hours until
it was time to go to the game. Then, my roommate
and I met up at the ship to go to the game.
Before we went, though, we were hungry, so
we looked for a cheap place to grab a bite
to eat. We found a place a few blocks from
the ship that was on the way to the subway
that had good food at a decent price. For
the equivalent of about $6.00 USD, we got
a bowl of rice mixed with vegetables and meat.
It was simple, but hardy and filling.
The Osaka Dome looked very much like any other
Professional Baseball stadiums, except that
most of the characters for advertisements
were of course Japanese characters. And of
course the announcer was speaking Japanese,
so I was basically following the game only
by actually watching it. What was interesting
was that Japanese music wasn't played, but
instead, popular American music was, such
as 50 Cent, and some traditional baseball
songs. Besides watching the game, I also made
some new friends with three Japanese men.
We struck up a conversation, and afterwards
they bought me several souvenirs to remind
me of my baseball outing (a stuffed animal,
a baseball balloon, etc). They spoke decent
English, which is good, because my Japanese
skills were sorely lacking. They said it was
to welcome me to their hometown. They ended
up riding the subway back with me, and we
went to a club with some other students. I
didn't stay for that long, but it was fun
nonetheless.
The
second day in Osaka, I bought an all day pass
for the subway, and just went exploring the
whole day. Half of the time, I would just
get off on a stop, and not have any idea of
where I was going or what I would find. One
of my favorite spots in Osaka is Shinsaibashi,
which is downtown. It is a huge downtown shopping
area, with just about every type of store
imaginable. I walked around there for hours,
until my feet hurt a bit and I was hungry.
I used this opportunity to go to an Internet
café so that I could rest my feet, and catch
up with my family and friends back home. After
spending the whole day riding the subway and
walking downtown, I grabbed a quick meal,
then headed back to the ship.
Some
friends wanted to go out, so we went to a
Karaoke bar. It was much different from the
ones in the states. A group of people basically
rented a room where there was a TV and a selection
of songs to choose from. Then for the next
hour or so, we just sing all together (basically
to each other). There is no audience, or people
joining in and cheering you on (except for
the people you came with). It was quite the
experience. Later on we went to a club. I
still don't know what traditional Japanese
music sounds like. So many of the clubs played
American music. This club played Hip Hop and
R&B, with a bit of salsa. I didn't realize
that our music was so popular in Japan!
The
third day in Osaka, I took a bus trip to Hiroshima
to see the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb museum. It
had much the same effect on me as the Nagasaki
Atomic Bomb museum that I had seen a few weeks
earlier. It was harrowing, depressing, but
nonetheless educational. However, to be honest,
there wasn't really a need to see both Atomic
Bomb museums. The fact that I had already
seen the one in Nagasaki was enough, because
they were so similar in content. The trip
cost me $85.00 USD (for admission and transportation,
since it was a few hours away), which would
have been totally worth it, had I not visited
the Nagasaki Museum (for $5.00 admission).
However, the garden that we visited after
the museum was gorgeous. It is called the
Shukkein Garden, and it was like a little
piece of Zen Heaven with bonsai trees everywhere.
It was beautiful, serene, and so calming.
If I had something like that in my backyard,
I would probably spend the majority of my
free time at home there.
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At Osaka Dome w/ Danielle
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My
fourth day in Osaka was spent visiting the
Osaka Castle and seeing the Cherry Blossom
festival. I didn't take a tour of the inside
of the castle; I only saw the outside. At
one point, I sat down on one of the benches
that was provided, and was petting some dogs
that a friendly Japanese man had. After a
few minutes, I decided to resume walking,
and upon standing up, discovered that I had
sat in some gum. I heard a ripping sound and
turned around to see it glaringly white, on
the back of my dark gray pants. I tied my
black jacket around my waist, and went to
ask someone where the bathroom was (Toire
doko desu ka?). Inside, I must have looked
a sight as I twisted and contorted my neck
and arms, trying to pick and dabble at the
gum on my backside with a damp paper towel.
After a few unsuccessful minutes of this,
a young woman about my age came in and saw
me struggling. I tried to communicate my helplessness
in the situation by pointing to the gum and
throwing up my arms in despair as if I didn't
know what more to do. She nodded sympathetically,
and spoke Japanese, motioning for me to just
wait right there. I had few options since
not only did I have the gum stain, but now
a wet area where I had tried to remove it.
I didn't want to walk around Osaka for the
rest of the day like that. I was already standing
out since I wasn't Japanese, or even Asian,
so why attract more attention with a big white
mark on my backside? And I didn't want to
walk around with my jacket still tied around
my waist, and I didn't feel like going back
to the ship to change. So what else to do
but wait while she got some help?
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Day 2, downtown
Osaka (Shinsaibashi)
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A
few minutes later, she came in with an elderly
Japanese lady who also clucked sympathetically
and started speaking Japanese. None of the
ladies spoke English, and I memorized all
of about 10 Japanese phrases. I pretty much
just pointed to the gum. The younger woman
had to leave, so I thanked her for her help
(in getting more help) by saying Domo arigato.
Now it was just the elderly woman and I. She
examined the gum some more, then tried to
wipe it with a damp paper towel just like
I did. Again, I must have looked a sight with
me slightly bent over leaning on the wall,
and a strange woman trying to wipe gum from
the back of my pants. I have to say, I felt
more than slightly foolish. When that didn't
work so well, she made a motion for me to
take off my pants and give them to her. I
thought I had misunderstood what she meant,
so I just stared at her. She did it again,
motioning for me to give her my pants, she
would clean them, and bring them back. I hesitated,
so she motioned that she would take off her
apron and I could wear it in the meantime
(she worked at a nearby food stall). I still
hesitated, but then I relented. I mean, she
was trying to help, and what was she going
to do with my pants anyway? She wasn't running
some scam to rid unsuspecting foreigners of
their pants! So after these and more thoughts
ran through my head, we traded pants for apron,
and I waited in one of the stalls. She brought
them back about 10 minutes later, with most
of the stain gone. I was so happy that I could
walk around now without the stain, that I
kept bowing and thanking her. She kept bowing
and telling me that I was welcome, so for
a few seconds, we were both just smiling and
bowing to each other!
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On
the bus, on the way to the Hiroshima
Atomic Bomb Museum
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After
that adventure, I decided to hop back on the
subway and go to the Cherry Blossom festival,
where I spent several hours. It was so beautiful.
The flowers were in full bloom, in pink and
white. There were hundreds of people there,
taking pictures, eating, shopping, etc. There
were so many vendors and food stalls. At the
suggestion of a nice Japanese woman (who thankfully
spoke English), I tried some Okonomiyaki (made
of cabbage, fried egg, squid, and what looked
and tasted like Canadian bacon), and Tokoyaki,
(little round balls of octopus meat). They
both sound strange, but were actually delicious.
After spending a few hours there, I took the
subway back to the ship and went to bed. I
was exhausted.
My final day in Osaka, I shopped for last
minute gifts, music for myself, and most importantly,
food. Again, the late-night munchies are not
relegated only to college students on land.
I had a blast trying to guess what I was buying,
and the ingredients. I was also fascinated
by the products that Japan had, but the U.S.
didn't. For example, there were strawberry
and also banana flavored Kit Kat bars. I had
to bring some back for my family and friends
to try.
My
days in Osaka were exciting, fulfilling, and
adventure-filled and the best memories I have
are of the amazing, helpful people that I
met.
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A
building that was bombed during
the attack at Hiroshima
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A
monument at Hiroshima with paper
swans that visitors leave (to
symbolize peace)
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A
sign at the entrance of the Hiroshima
Atomic Bomb Museum
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