Malta to Rome to Hong Kong

KYLE 6.8.09
Hi everybody, Yesterday we woke up at four thirty and had to catch our flight to Reggio/Calabria. We said goodbye to our cousins and left with cousin Joe. At the Airport had to go through customs and left to catch our flight, we said goodbye to our cousin and boarded the plane Air Malta. The flight to Reggio/Calabria was a very short flight and was only half an hour WOW!!. We then flew to Rome to catch an eleven hour flight to Hong Kong. We caught a 747-400 Cathay Pacific plane that flew across eastern Europe and China. It was great even though we were economy class to me and my uncle it was first class because we sat in a row by ourselves and had heaps on movies and tv shows to watch on our screens. There were over 800 cds to choose. We arrived in Hong Kong this morning when we went to collect our luggage unfortunately my suitcase was not there.

UNCLE 6.8.09
The CX flght was the best in all our trip so far. Excellent food, service and entertainment. We arrived at Hong Kong at 5.30 am to a wet and humid morning but took over an hour to clear customs and fill in the swine flu forms. Unfortunately, Kyle's bag did not arrive at Hong Kong. I filed a report with the Cathay Pacific staff at the airport then we caught a shuttle bus to our hotel. It took 40 minutes. We were both very tired and were able to check into our rooms early. When we got the room I noticed that my bag had been interfered with. The zipper had been prized open and my belongings ruffled. We also found a bundle of mail destined to Australia from Italy stuffed into one corner of it. I spent most of the morning reporting the bag tampering to Cathay Pacific, Air Malta, the hotel concierge and our travel insurer. Cathay Pacific took the suitcase away for repairs and it was delivered at the end of the day. Kyle and I spent some time after dinner compiling a list of what he had in his bag. He was upset that the Maltese Monopoly game that his father's cousin had given him was also in his lost in his bag. This is worth over Euro 60. I had a spare change of clothing for Kyle in my bag but "lost" my spare set in his. We will have to wait until the morning for the next Cathay Pacific flight from Rome to land to learn of the bag's whereabouts..

Malta

We arrived in Malta on Wednesday the 22nd with Fr Reginio who was furthering his studies at St Agatha's for his thesis. The Air Malta flight from Rome was one hour but we had a half hour wait at Fumicino due to many aircraft waiting to take off. We were met at Luqa by Joe, Antonella, Louise and Sarah as well as Ninu and Mary. Malta was very hot compared to Rome, New York and LA. The "cousins" met at a pizzeria in Rabat that evening. I caught up with Cousins Mary & France, Martes and Charles (and 2nd cousins Claude & Marina & Sandro), Joe & Antonella (and Louise and Sarah), Brigitte and her son Francesco, 2nd cousins Natalie and her family, Martes and her family, Marisa and her sons Johan and Chris, Jacqueline and her son Alex. We were served many gourmet pizzas and a good night was had by all.

24.7.09
Picked up the Citroen Pluriel yesterday and got a Maltese Vodaphone sim card for my mobile. Spent most of yesterday with Joe, Antonella & the girls and Brigitte and Francesco then we went for a "passagato" last at Birgu. Went snorkelling with Joe & Kyle @ Qawra this morning. Kyle had a great time underwater.

Birgu

Ciklamima

Lunch @ Saracinos Attard 23.7.09

Blue Grotto 23.7.09

29.7.09
Been sightseeing and visiting relatives. We went on the Grand Harbour cruise today in a traditional Maltese luzzu and also on a karrotzin ride. We visited St John's co-cathedral and saw the Caravaggio paintings and went to the Malta Experience. Have been taking heaps of photos but haven't gotten around to editing or posting them on the net yet!

30.7.09
Hi everybody we have a great time staying with our cousins in Malta. Today we went on a boat ride in Maltese the particular name for this boat is called Luzzu. We also went on a karrozin (horse and buggy ride). It was great the driver's name was Paul in Maltese Paul is spelt Pawlu and the horse's name was Toby; how cute ooooooooooh, ciao.

2.8.09
Our time in Malta is almost at an end. We've taken hundreds of photos and have taken 27 hours of video footage. I've compiled a Picasa web album of highlights from our stay in Malta ...

Malta Compilation

Kyle has met his cousins from both sides of the family and has made many friends. It will be hard to get back to our usual routines as we have been living the 'highlife' here in Malta; eating out at restaurants (Kyle has been eating whole pizzas by himself), eating gelato, snorkelling, driving around in our rented Citroen Pluriel convertible and taking afternoon siestas.

Rome

We have been touring Rome extensively since our arrival last Friday. I have taken many photos and am editing these in the limited free time we have and will post these on our Picasa web albums ASAP.

Fr James has been sharing his deep knowledge of Rome with us as we visit the churches and Ancient Roman sites. We have been to St Paul's basilica, St Peter's basilica (we climbed 520 stairs to the dome and cupola and took great shots
of Rome and saw the incorrupt body of Pope John XXIII and the crypt of Pope John Paul II), Fontana di Trevi, the chruch of St Ignatzio, Piazza Navona, Piazza San Pietro, Piazza Venezia, the Pantheon, went past the Colosseum and Circus Maximus,
the Fori Imperiali, the Spanish Steps, Santa Sophia Sopra Minerva (where we saw the body of Santa Caterina da Siena), Monte Cassino (the home of the Benedictine monks and the bodies of St Benedict and St Scholastica), been to the Mercati Portese at Porta Portese, been on the Metro from Vitinia to San Paolo station @ Piramide and have eaten gelato from Giolitti (the prima gelataria in Rome where President Obama's girls visited a few weeks ago).

Will update when we get the time. (Joe)

KYLE’S ROME BLOG
We have been in Rome for 4 and a half days now, leaving to Malta tomorrow {yipeee} Rome is a beautiful city. In the middle of the day temperatures rise to extreme heights and it’s called siesta. Siesta is when you are as hot as a volcano & are about to erupt you lose all the salt from your body and become weak, not only do you become weak but you become extremely tired and fall to sleep even the shops close. There are people who are called gypsy’s and they ask for money. A gypsy can be a woman or a man, I don’t know for sure but I’ve been told. There are also pick pockets. A pick pocket is a very sneaky person now this is how I’ve been told one person puts on a very catchy show they will then get their eyes stuck on the show and suddeny a pick pocket steals your money or bag .
The Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.
On our last day Fr James took us to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. In the Vatican Museum there are many different museums split up into sections. In one museum there are old bibles hand written and some take a whole life to write. The people who write in these books are mainly Monks. Back then they didn’t have proper coffins they were hand made and they made stone sarcophaguses and they have different designs. There was one coffin which had two boys in it. We also did the Coliseum and it was great there was two levels the main level is made of wood & sand, animals were lifted by a elevator to get on an arena, the name “arena” came from the Romans it meant sand.


Museo Vaticano & Cappella Sistina

New York

WAY COOL
We heard this really loud music while we were on the uptown double-decker bus back to Times Square. We got off and wandered over to the Ed Sullivan building and we saw lots of office workers on the street. Paul McCartney was giving a free concert for the David Letterman Show on top of the Ed Sullivan awning. This was way cool. We saw the replay on David Letterman at 11.30pm (July 15th).




Hi everyone,

We've been living life to the full in NY and have come back to Cousin Claude's apartment very late every night. Haven't had much time to blog or edit our photos.

Here's a list of places we've been to so far ....

THINGS WE’VE SEEN:
squirrels, subway trains, yellow buses, yellow cabs, lots of people, street hawkers, a turkey in a NY city park

PLACES WE’VE BEEN TO:
Mass @ Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church Astoria, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue (Gucci, De Beers Diamonds, Sachs, Armani) , Rockerfeller Centre, Central Park, Times Square, China Town, Brooklyn, NYPD Headquarters, World Trade Centre Memorial, Battery Point, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Empire State Building, Madame Tausaud’s Waxworks, the Dakota Apartment building (where the Beatle John Lennon was murdered), Strawberry Fields, the United Nations building, the New York Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim Gallery and Ripley's Believe It or Not.

THINGS /PLACES WE’VE EATEN:
lots of NY Pretzels, NY Diner (half pound NY cheeseburger), Gowasabi Japanese Sushi Bar, Starbucks (Frappuccino), Lunch @ Planet Hollywood, Cypriot take away and Thai take away.

The subway is very hot and the platforms are very old and dirty. I will never complain about City Rail again! Kyle saw some more squirrels @ Central Park and didn't like the shrunken heads @ Ripley's Believe It or Not.

Numberplates and Signs

New York

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Hi everybody, the last 5 days were great. We have had fun in New York and our cousin Claude gave us an American food experience. We will have to do another blog in Rome. (Kyle)

Disneyland 6 and 7th July, Universal Studios 8th July

I haven't been able to get to the net as we've been getting up at dawn and coming back at midnight. Our internet's down in our room so I'm sitting outside the hotel lobby in the warm Californian sun while Kyle is putting quarters into machines in the games room.
(Joe)

More Disney

California Adventure Park

Goofy's Dinner

Universal Studios

Hi every body sorry couldn’t do blog because of getting up before dawn and coming back at midnight. Yesterday we went to adventure park we did the monsters inc ride, Muppet vision 3D a very old show, Bugs life was outstanding everything felt real ,we also did toy story ride which was a game ride which everyone can enjoy, My bestest ride was screami’n the roller coaster I loved it so we went twice the rest was great and amazing. Today we went to universal studios we had the best time except for the house of horror were we walked through a haunted mansion with dead bodies that stunk like 20 year old ham we were walking and a horror movie character came out and chased us aaaaaaaaaaaaaa. We had great fun.
(Kyle)

LA & Disneyland 09

Hi this is kyle. left Sunday afternoon,scared and excited feelings running through my nerves anxious to leave. now in the air on aircraft B747-400, seat number 69A departure time 13:36. 2900 feet in the air and having a snack watching a movie. As we got higher the colder it got the coldest temp. was -58 c. Max altitude was 11600m. Arrived at LAX the time 9:45. Gone through customs no problems. Headed to Disney bus with luggage . drove through the many lanes of the freeway arrived at the Howard Johnson hotel settled in and got out to the hot summers day. Got tacos but the taco sauce was inferno so had a boiling hot tongue. Disney now we were in Disney land played games road rides and watched a parade.

Here are some photos from Uncle Joe's Picasa web album for our trip.

5.7.09
Now settled into the Howard Johnson Hotel @ Anaheim and soaking up the Southern California sun. Was very disappointed with Terminal 1 @ Mascot. It was run down and third world standard. QF11 was delayed for 16 mins due to a satellite link failure. Experienced turbulence over the Tasman then a smooth flight until we crossed the International Date line where the turbulence returned. Sat next to a retired dairy farmer from NZ who was flying to Anchorage to fish for salmon. Great view OF California coming into LAX. Had no problems in passing through customs the border security staff were friendly and efficient. 45 min bus ride to Anaheim. Caught a cab to a drive through Pharmacy then bought Kyle some sandals from Target which was bigger than a Bunnings Warehouse. Made a big mistake in buying tacos for lunch; unbeknownst to me I had ordered the inferno version with jalapeno peppers! Booked Universal Studios tour for Wed, Hollywood tour for Thurs and dinner with Goofy for Tues night. Swapped our vouchers for our Disney passes then took the Disney Express to get a view of the park. Kyle was thrilled with the Space Mountain and Star Tours rides. Caught the night parade and bought hot dogs and Coke for dinner but was shocked at the $25 AUD price. (Have bought snacks and fruit for tomorrow). Skype phoned everyone back home for free. It's been a long day but I'm glad that we adjusted to California time. Will do Disney from 8am to the 9.30pm fireworks tomorrow.

Click here for our first day @ Disney.

I hope we don't end up like this !