We saw friends and we saw waterfalls. It sprayed a little water but it was fun. We saw horses and one horse tried to eat my hand. We saw a horse show. We got to pet them and it was really fun. We saw geysirs. They smelled like eggs. We saw a really big one and it was fun. We went to a little park and me and my friend saw a beautiful place. I called the flowers "celebration flowers". It was really fun. - Sofia Aug 3, 2012 Journal Entry. So after a good night sleep we met Lenny and Maddie at their hotel just a few blocks away. It was so good to have a friend my age on the trip. We took a day tour through Reykjavik Excursions, the same company that took ... read more

"At that volcano we hiked up and took tons of pictures and videos. When we got to the top we saw a volcano with a little volcano inside. It was so funny. Then we went to a beach. I became a mermaid in the sand. Vitor caught a crab. We had lots of fun. Then at night me, dad and Vitor went to a pool. I went in it and the others didn't. Then we went to a restaurant and we saw my friends mom, Carmen." - Sofia Another good breakfast at our hotel and with our same driver, we were off for another full day. First stop was a volcano "Bocaron" which was basically right in San Salvador. A beautiful drive up and we reached the spot where we needed to hike a bit. It ... read more

It was pretty. The thing I loved most about Paris was the Eiffel Tower. It was very tall. It was sparkling at night. We went up to the tippy top. - Sofia When daddy was planning this trip he found out that we could not make it back from Romania to the USA in one day and we would have to spend the night in another European city. His choices were Madrid, London, and Paris, and he felt that even though had been to France before (Nice last year) that Paris would be the best layover for less than 18 hours since it had the EIFFEL TOWER. I have see that in so many books, cartoons, and pictures, so I already knew about it and was very exicted. So early afternoon after a change of planes ... read more

We went to a hotel. We went up more than a thousand steps to go to Dracula's real castle. I was a little scared. Vlad Tepes is not Dracula. He does not bite people on the neck. He is a hero in Romania because he saw mean people and put a stake up their butt. - Sofia After 2 really fun days in Sibiu it was time to go see Dracula's Real Castle. By this time in the trip I really began to understand that difference between Dracula and Vlad Tepes. I learned that Dracula from the movie (book) was a vampire who sucked blood and was not real. However, he was based on Vlad Tepes whose father was nick named Dracul and he had the nick name of Draculea. Daddy told me that he learned ... read more

We went into Vlad Tepes house where he was born and is now a restaurant. We ate there. We went up a bell tower and I found my name. - Sofia On the way to our next destination, Sighisoara, we stopped by 2 small towns on the way to our next stop Sighisoara. The towns were Prejmer and Harman and both had really cool fortified churches. These were Saxon churches that were surrounded by huge walls to protect them. They were more like fortresses. Really cool looking. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ It was now time to go to Sighisoara, the birth place of Vlad Tepes aka "Dracula". This was another medieval town. We stayed right in the center of the old town at Burg Hostel. We had planned to stay 2 nights here, but daddy heard there were a ... read more