I'm in Vietnam!

This summer my family decided to go to Vietnam on holidays. It isn't the most popular holiday destination, seeing as the only other kids on the flight to Kuala Lumper were Malasian and everyone in my class I think just went to France and Spain. I didn't want to go seeing as we'd have to get up at 6.00 am to go on three airplane flights in one day. The night before we headed off to Dublin airport I had only gotten about 5 and a half hours of sleep. These days I have gotten into a bad habit of not being able to fall asleep before 12.00 am because that is when every teenager is on facebook. Including me and my friends. My sister and Mom told me to go to bed early at around 10.30 pm but knowing that there wouldn't be any point I stayed up until 12.00 and fell asleep at around 12.30. Anyway, I was tired getting onto that airplane to London. I was able to sleep most of it thanks to the fact that my mom bought all three of us (my dad was already in Vietnam for work) inflatable neck-cushions for the upcoming 12 hour flight. I slept for about a half hour of the one hour flight. In London, when we were waiting to board the two-storey jumbo-jet I decided to buy two books on my kindle, in case I managed to read one book and have nothing to do for the rest of the flight. I have read books in a day like I did today! But I watched two movies, which was slightly difficult with the noise of the wind outside blocking me from hearing it slightly, but in the end the flight wasn't as bad as I dreaded. I slept for about an hour and a half on that flight. We arrived in KL at around 1.40 am but we were lucky that we weren't flying to Australia, which some unfortunate people were which made their journey twice as long! After that, we had to fly to Hochi Man City (I hope that's how it's spelt!) which was a two hour flight, that I slept through all of. Finally when we arrived at our destination, we met my dad. When we drove to our hotel, he showed us some places and told us some things. If you go to Vietnam, (or at least Hochi Man City - I haven't been anywhere else in Vietnam yet) there are motorbikes everywhere. Apparently a few years ago the law went from that every family is privilaged to have one motorbike each to that they can have two motorbikes each. The traffic is crazy out here - now I'm hearing the constant beeping of horns that never stops. It's like being in New York. It's just that when you wait for the green man to appear, there are still maniacs breaking the law, who don't really care that you are europeans not used to all of this and just swivel right around you. In Dundalk you might see a few motorbikes on the road. In traffic, maybe two or three. But here on the roads without traffic there'll be at least 20 motorbikes blaring their horns at you. You see families whizzing by. Like today on a motorbike had a mom and dad and two (about) 5-year-olds wedged between. A lot of drivers have mouth cloths to filter out the smog. Some people wear sunglasses too so it reminds me of Michael Jackson when he sometimes went out in public with a cloth covering mouth and nose and wearing sunglasses, because he had BDD. But if that makes anyone wearing a face cloth and sunglasses BDD then that'd mean that like 60% of the Vietnamian population have mental disorders. Anyway, when we got to the hotel we slept for about 4 hours before heading out for dinner. Did I mention that it was my birthday? Well yes, yesterday I turned fourteen. I got to choose the restaurant, which I was quite happy about seeing as my parents tend to be very picky about what food, taking up 20 minutes most evenings (on holidays) choosing a restaurant. And when we decide we want dessert, even then they might want to go somewhere else which isn't as bad because they usually get a coffee or a beer which I choose the restaurant that has the best banana split or chocolate fudge cake (heated) with cream. I chose the closest restaurant to us. There was a european restaurant that had pizza and all the delicious pasta dishes in Italy, etc but we're in Vietnam now. I got Fried chicken wings with rice, which were nice and I think everyone else enjoyed their meal. My family handed me their cards and my sister gave me her present to me. My present from my parents is a new phone (I've had my present phone for three and a half years!). My sister gave me a book about a girl with synthesia who is locked up in a phyciatric ward because she 'apparently' killed someone. The book was really good. This morning when we all woke up to my dad's phone ringing I read more and couldn't get back to sleep. In the end I finished the book. Today we walked all around the city. Everthing is so cheap! They sell copies of dvds and cds for (the equivelent of) 40 cents each! They also sell bags and pencil cases and jewelery for like $1! They use american dollars as well as vietnamian dong (don't ask). We're not buying anything here until we come back here in two weeks time to go on the three flights home. We're going on another plane tomorrow at 10.00 am.

I'm in Vienna!

I didn't know that I was such a celebrity blogger within my dad's family. I thought that the only people who read it were my creative writing teacher and randoms who clicked 'next blog' at the top. Seeing as the only people who bother reading my blog know who everyone in my family is, then I won't bother saying 'my sister' or 'my cousins wife' etc. So we had to get up at 4.45 in the morning to get the plane to go to slovakia. I thought that we were flying over directly to austria, but we weren't. When my dad said that we weren't in the right country, i thought we were in germany because when we went skiing last january, we flew into germany and drove to austria from there. It turns out that we were in slovakia. I thought that slovakia was a city in germany as all towns in austria and germany have names like that. But then Maebh told me that it was a country. And yes, I think I might have heard it before. We went in to Bratislava before taking a bout over to austria. The streets were very big and empty. there would be a few cafés and restaurants but there were a lot of empty buildings and the place was quiet. There were stalls selling souvenirs where Maebh bought a puppet. I collect these souvenir coins, they are a bit bigger than 2 euro coins, mainly gold but some are silver and it will have the name of the place and a picture engraved in it. My dad gave me and Maebh 10 euro each to buy whatever we wanted with it. They sold these coins for 3 euro and these brown cent coins for 1. I bought the cheaper one. I wish i didn't. i have about 6 coins and they are all the same size except this one. We went into a chocolate cafe where they sold chocolates that you pick out like a pick and mix and then they weigh them. Maebh and i got 4 different kinds. My mum dad and Maeve had coffee as that was the only other thing they sold. Finally we went on the boat. it was really fast and very noisey. Maebh and I went out on the deck and got my camera. When you watch the videos we have to yell over the noise to be able to hear us. We arrived in Vienna a while later. We looked around the city for a while, went into a swatch shop and i got new straps for my swatch watch. When we went looking for our hotel we first went to their office. It turns out that it wasn't a hotel we booked into and apartment! They brought us to our apartment and we rested. I didn't though. I was busy on facebook. I was only about 20 minutes. But when we went out later for dinner with Anna, Christine, Eimear, Sally, Liam, Dominic, Liz Steven, Siobhan and I know there was another person there but sadly i don't remember you. Sorry about that! well I think there was another person. I might have got everyone already. Well any way, after dinner when everyone was drinking and smoking outside of a pub I was nearly falling asleep on the table while everyone looked at me pityingly. The next day which was the day of the wedding, we got up and went to a palace on the train. It was enormous but you had to walk so far to get around. we went to the zoo in the back and rushed around. There were these monkeys that were trying to get out of their cage though a gap. You can really tell how miserable the animals are in there. Animals don't deserve to be locked up in cages. There was these two massive snakes in this window sleeping. What would they do all day if they are locked inside this tiny space with only one friend? After the zoo we tried to do a bit of the tour around the rooms of the palace. We couldn't. We only did about four rooms and then we had to leave. I bought a souvenir coin in the shop for 5 euro! they didn't sell any cheap brown small ones. We got back to our apartment and got ready. We showered, changed, did our hair and make-up and I had to upload films on to my computer to make room for the pictures and films that i would be making, much to everyones annoyance. My dad and mum say that i delayed them and that i was holding them back and that everyone was ready except me blah blah blah. We met up outside the museum where everyone was having a drink before the ceremony. I wasn't at baby Lara's naming ceremony so when I first saw her in her buggy with Julie I didn't know who they were until my mum told me. I saw that when people smiled and waved at her she responded by smiling and gurgling. I managed to film most of the wedding. My memory card was full near the end. A few people's shoulders were in the way. There wasn't a preist, there was 2 women, one spoke in german and the other translated it into english. I need to finish now, but I will continue part two later!

It's 13 days later. I don't have much to say really, I went to see eclipse in the cinema the next day and we went shopping. The next morning we left for the airport and we went home. Every time we come home from a long holiday, i don't know why, but I feel really happy to be back. Like I've been away for years, and I have really missed Dundalk. When we arrived in Dundalk and got in the taxi exhausted as we didn't get any sleep on the plane and about an hour's sleep on the bus, it was raining as usual, with everyone holding umbrellas above their head and not wearing sunglasses, the taxi driver had the familiar Irish accent, telling my dad about the Gaelic match with Louth against Meath, the same shops, the same houses I would see everyday, I felt so happy to see, it felt really good to be home. The whole point of this blog is to write about my holiday, and my holiday in America is over now. Maybe I will blog about something new, about starting secondary school, fashion, books, movies,etc. It will give me a hobby that I can use my lap-top for! So this is my last blog before a new one about something different so thanks for reading!

continued on from my last post. If we were to turn the boat around, that would mean that we would be trying to avoid rocks, where there is a strong current. Or that a rock turned us back-wards. Or that a rock turned us backwards and we were stuck between the rocks. Where there was a strong current, there would normally be rocks and bumps, so if your boat floated over a rock where there was a strong current, the boat would most likey go over a rock and SPLASH and you're completely wet!! My Mum, as I said before, got completely drenched, this way. She didn't like it much. But a girl who was sitting behind me and my sister, decided to sit at the top of the boat, where she got wetter than my mum, and she liked getting wet. Everyone was asking my sister and I if we wanted to sit at the top of the boat, and we said 'no!' until my sister did at the end where there was no strong current or rocks. We'd all like to go rafting again, on a class 4, but our guide said that the only class 4s were a full day (6 hours) which is very long. There was a place that there was photographers taking photos of us, getting all wet. You could but one photo of 38 for $29 or them all on a cd fwith coblestoneor $50. We chose the cd with them all on it, because there is a lot of good photos on the cd. After the rafting, we drove to 'Fresno'. There is nothing much in the town, but there is an army headquaters, which my dad accidently drove to, when we went out, looking for a restaurant. We just drove up to the place where the office window is, where you give your ID where my dad asked the man there "Am I in the wrong place?" and told the man that he just wanted to go into town. So he pulled him over and the police came over to get my dad's ID. He didn't have his passport or driver's license, but he did have his job ID in his wallet. They looked his name up and let us go.
Today we drove to Las Vegas, which is the second last place we are going to. We are flying back to Boston on Wednesday. My dad described Las Vegas as "a big 'fake' city". He was right. There is an eiffel tower half the size of the real one, which is over a big fake Paris in a building. There is french restaurants and clothes shops, and cafés that are on fake streets with coblestone roads, and above the shops and restaurants fake upstairs with old fashioned big windows. There even is street lights. And a casino. Maybe the casino is there for people who decide that they love fake Paris so much, they want to actually go there, so they gamble for money. In some of the shops, they sell souveniers saying 'Paris, Las Vegas'. I'm going to move on from the fake Paris. A waiter at a pizza place told my mum that Las Vegas isn't really a place for kids. Maybe he was refering to the fact that there are people handing out leaflets for STRIPPING CLUBS??? Whenever we walk past them, they offer my dad one. Like, in front of all of us. It kind of freaks me out. I'll tell you about our hotel room. Tommorrow we will be moving into a suite that we are all in. But for tonight my sister and I are in a suite all to ourselves! There is a kitchen, a dining room and sitting room all in one room, with two bathrooms, two telephones, two t.vs, two double beds and two lovely views of the wall of the other part of the building. So we can have a double bed all to ourselves and watch whatever we want on tv, etc and go to bed what ever time we want. It's 11.33 pm now, so I'm going to go to bed soon!

continued on from my last post.

If we were to turn the boat around, that would mean that we would be trying to avoid rocks, where there is a strong current. Or that a rock turned us back-wards. Or that a rock turned us backwards and we were stuckbetween the rocks. Where there was a strong current, there would normally be rocks and bumps, so if your boat floated over a rock where there was a strong current, you might end up over a 'hill' where the boat lands, and SPLASH!! My Mum, as I said before, got completely drenched, this way. She didn't like it much. But a girl who was sitting behind me and my sister, decided to sit at the top of the boat, where she got wetter than my mum, and she liked it. Everyone was asking my sister and I if we wanted to sit at the top of the boat, and we said 'no!' until my sister did at the end where there was no splashes. We'd all like to go rafting again, on a class 4, but our guide

Today we got up at 7.15 to go rafting. We had booked a half day which is 3 hours. Because we had never been rafting before, we went down a river that was 'class 3'. In higher classes, you are more likely to fall out/capsize/get completely drenched. Luckily for us, none of us fell out and the boat didn't capsize, but we did get very wet, especially my mum who got completely drenched as she had to sit at the front of the boat. Some of us went swimming down the river at times when you could. I didn't though, I didn't want to get my clothes all wet and neither did my mum as she was already wet enough. Before we went off in our boats, our guide showed everyone how to hold the paddle, what to do if you fall out of the boat, etc. We then all got on a bus that brought way back so when we finished we would end up at the place, and then we went off. We had to practice working as a team, as we had to copy the person in front of us. Our guide would give us instructions of what to do, and she showed us how to turn the boat around. I'll continue this tommorrow, my dad want the computer!

We drove from Angels Camp to Cameron Park today. It was a 4 hour drive. We drove through Yosemite Park. It's the first park to be set up in America. My mum and Dad were impressed by it and thought it was beautiful. We were in that park for about 2 hours. For lunch all we had was some fruit and pretzals in the park while sitting by the river. So we were starving by the time we reached our hotel. We went out for pizza and went back to the hotel and here I am. I haven't got much to say about today so I'll talk about the story I'm writing for my creative writing class. i'm writing a story about a girl who is from Boston and is walking the whole way over to California because her parents have heard about the gold discovered there. I'll be writing more of it after I post this blog. I think I'll give her a friend who dies, like david suggested I do. But I think that that will be difficult to write as I'm not brilliant at putting sadness and feeling into writing. But I'll have to try because if I don't, I'll never get there. I'll go and write my story now!