Monthly Archives: April 2011

Europe Adventures 2011

Khoackie’s Europe Adventure – March 30-April 11:We went on such an amazing trip to Europe and here are some of our favorite photos from our 12 day trip! We went to London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Nice, Monaco, and Paris! On the way back to the states, we took advantage of our layover in Chicago and did some sight seeing in the city of Chicago as well! This trip was definitely a great adventure and we are happy to share our memories with you! To see more pictures, visit our gallery! Enjoy!

Here’s the recap on all our Khoackie Adventures in Europe through the eyes of Jackie (because Khoa was too busy vacationing once again to document this trip)! (These entries are a compilation of our emails to home at the end of each night.)

Day 1 – London:

‘Allo mateys!! We landed safe and sound! When we got off the plane, I wanted to take some pictures and stuff and I got yelled at because they said I’m not allowed to use a camera inside the airport…So I told them I didn’t take any pictures so it was then ok. It took us a really long time to figure out what to do when we got off the plane. We didn’t have a sim card yet so we couldn’t look up directions to the hotel, and the first person we asked was no help and was really mean. So we walked around and went to see how much it would cost for a taxi, and it was 50 pounds (about $80) and it would only take about 35 mins. But that was really expensive and an all day train and bus pass was only 8 pounds a person, so that was a lot better. We finally figured out what trains to take, and it took us 1.5 hours to get off the train, and then we walked for about 15 and then got to our hotel! I think we could have taken the bus… But at least we know now! We bought a sim card with 200 minutes on it, so we can call home everytime we get to a new location. Also, we get all day internet on the sim card for 1lb a day, so that’s really nice too. The room is nice, it’s just like a normal hotel room and we get free breakfast at this place too! The weather isn’t too bad, it’s not raining, it’s just a little cloudy but not that cold either, so it’s good!

So for the pictures that I attached, you can see our hotel room and the view from our hotel room! I took a picture of the money here as well. The next picture is of Hype Park, just the edge walkway of it, and there’s a little lake and I saw some pretty swans! We ate dinner at this sushi place where all the food is on a conveyor belt! It’s pretty cool, the food tasted ok…but it was good experience. We also went and walked around West End and originally wanted to eat there but it was so late all the places were already closed! We did go to Picadilly Circus, it’s the famous multi-intersection street in London, kind of like Times Square in New York, and they have big giant screen advertisements and billboards. There filmed a scene of Harry Potter VII Pt. 1 here too! We then walked to Trafalgar Square where they had a lot of fountains and sculptures and it’s suppose to be really nice looking, but by the time we got there, there was no water and it wasn’t really lit up so it didn’t look as impressive at night. So we decided to head back to our hotel room. There’s also a picture of us in the train station as well. It’s easy to learn once we knew where we were going! Oh and apparently, right by our hotel is the Wembley Arena and there was a big concert going on by a UK Pop Boy Band called McFly? Apparently that band is really big because as we were walking back to our hotel, so many people were leaving the arena since the concert just ended and there was a lot of young teenage girls with their moms haha! And we found out that a lot of celebrities who have concerts there like to stay at our hotel room, like Bon Jovi! Neat huh? We will send more updates as the days go by!

Day 2 – London:

Today we did a lot of stuff! First we got free breakfast with our hotel and the breakfast here is a lot better than most continental breakfasts back at home. It was buffet style and they had all sorts of food, like sausages, ham, bacon, cheeses, toast, scrambled eggs, omelets, yogurts, fruits, potatoes, has browns, cereals, grapefruit juice, orange juice, coffee etc! We couldn’t eat meat, but everything else was good! We went to the London Eye, it’s a REALLY big ferris wheel and you can see the whole city and Thames River below you. We got to see a 4D Experience before we went on the London Eye and it was really cool, like footage and effects in Soaring at CA Adv. Afterwards we took pictures by the Westminster Bridge, Big Ben (the big clock tower) and Buckingham Palace! We then to a Coach bus, the one with the 2 levels and they have comfortable leather seats too, and went to Windsor Castle. The drive was about 1 hr. 25 minutes and we made it just in time to see get into the castle for a tour. The Windsor Castle is the oldest and I think one of the largest castles, and the Queen her majesty herself lives there 2-5 days a week! What was really cool because we got to see most of the rooms in the castle and a when the Queen is staying at the castle; they put up the Royal Flag instead of the Union Flag. So near the end of the tour, we saw the Royal Flag go up, so it was really cool that we were so close to the Queen!!! After the Windsor Castle, we went to Westminster Abbey, and then did more site seeing things like the London Bridge and the London Tower and Bridge! We then also ate some really good vegetarian Indian food right by the London Bridge Tower.

Day 3 – Rome:

Last night we got to our hotel room by 11:30 and then I was uploading pictures and didn’t go to sleep until 12:30, only had about 2.5 hours of sleep, then we had to wake up at 3:15 so we can take the taxi to the airport for our flight to Rome! I don’t know how we didn’t fall asleep rome-ing the streets of Rome but somehow we did it! Going from the airport to our hotel this time was easier because we decided to just spend the money on a taxi because there probably isn’t a train or bus that will go to our hotel since the public transportation system is also very confusing. However, the downfall was that Khoa forgot his back cushion in the Taxi! I told him before we went on the trip not to bring it because I knew he would lose it and that it would be a hassle to carry around everywhere, but he insisted! So what happens? Only 2 days into the trip and he loses it! I hate to say it but I told him so! =P He gave that taxi driver a whopping $20 tip! Anywho, the biggest challenge today was to not let our feet bother us. It hurts really bad from all the walking we’ve been doing for the past 2 days…but we’re managing ok!

Once we got to the hotel, the taxi driver was nice enough to take us to Vatican City since our hotel is really far from central Rome. We didn’t know it was really far, but at least the room is nice and cheap. We went to the Vatican Museum and was really impressed with all the art and architecture there. We also went inside the Sistene Chapel and that was REALLY amazing as well. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside there, but I managed to get 2 video clips…so maybe I can get some screen shots from that footage! We also went inside St. Pete’s Basilica and that was REALLY big and amazing too. There were a lot of bishops doing something at the very end of the Basilica and but we didn’t know what it was, but that was cool to see. We then made it just in time to the Coliseum right before they closed the gates. It was cool to see the inside of the coliseum in person and Khoa was really excited to see that. We got to see the Constantine Arch and the really big monument to Victoria. We then had dinner at an Italian restaurant, well I guess it’s just restaurant over here, and we had really good Prosciutto Pizza and Linguini Pesto Pasta. They gave us free champagne, Khoa enjoyed them both, and we got the Canoli alla Sicilian. The best part was our view though, we sat on the 2nd level right across the street from the Coloseum! Today was really cool, but definitely a big toll on our feet! Time to recuperate our feet for tomorrow! Ciao!

Day 4 – Florence:

Buona cera (good evening)! Today we took the train and went to Florence for the day! We like Florence a lot more than Rome. It’s smaller so it’s a lot easier to just walk everywhere, but it’s also nicer, more friendly and has more of a relaxing feel to it. At first when we arrived in Florence, I was wearing shorts and a long sleeve shirt, but it was really cloudy and chilly compared to the sunny warm weather in Rome. So that really bummed me so we started look for a jacket or something since it was cold. I settled on a cheap scarf that can act as a shawl for 3 euros, and we carried on with our day. 35-40 mins later…it was bright and sunny and hot almost! Good thing I only spent 3 euros on the scarf instead of 20+ on a jacket! So that was a relief!

We visited the Boboli Garden, a really BIG garden with lots of sculptures, grass, fountains, and it is really high in elevation so we had many nice views of Florence. From the garden we went on the famous Pointe Vecchio, which is a small bridge but has lots of stores on the bridge for shopping, mostly expensive jewelry, but they have tons of Gellatio places so that’s where I tried the Nutella (creamy chocolate) Ice Cream, it was nutella swirls mixed with vanilla! Khoa got the Pistachio. Both were very good but my new favorite is Nutella! We then went to the Mercato Nuovo, and that’s just a little plaza that has carts for shopping, but it was mostly all the same type of stuff you can get at Chinatown. There’s a statue of a bronze boar there if you rub it’s nose, they say you’ll be able to come back and visit Florence again some day, so we definitely rubbed it’s nose! After that, we went to the Piazza del Duomo, with is a VERY large church that is still in service today. We got to take a peek inside the church and it’s REALLY big, it can fit 20,000+ people in there! From the church, we went to Piazza della Signoria square where they had lots of statues, including the replica of Michelangelo’s David! Then we went to the Galleria dell’ Accademia where it’s a huge museum of sculptures, mostly done by Michelangelo, and we got to see the original David statue. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures again at that museum, but it was pretty cool to see it in person. Also, that museum had a museum of musical instruments and lots of religious art as well. From there we went back to the bridges in Florence and relaxed and took more pictures, then took the train back to Rome and ate some Panini’s! Tomorrow we are off to Venice!! Arrivederci (goodbye)!

Day 5 – Venice:

Bounjourno (good day)! We woke up at 4am today to get to the airport for our flight to Venice! The flight was only 1 hour 10 mins, so we got to Venice pretty early in the morning, around 8:20am. From the airport we were able to take a Boat Bus that took us to the island of San Marcos so we can visit the Doge’s Palace and the San Marcos Basilica! First off, a Doge is what they call their ruler here, and he was pretty much like a Medieval King during that time period. The Palace is REALLY huge and we weren’t allow to take any pictures inside the actual palace, but it was really cool to see it. All the ceilings and walls are really fancy with intricate paintings and gold trimmings and detailing. There were apartments inside the palace for where the government people stayed, and there was even a prison in there! The prison looked really old like what you would see in the old movies with the stone walls and only a little window, like the prisons in the dungeon of a castle or something. They opened one of the prison rooms so you can walk inside it too, so that was neat. After the Palace we saw the San Marcos Basilica. We didn’t go inside because you have to pay to get in and you couldn’t take pictures inside of it either. We were pretty tired, so we just took pictures of it from the outside.

We wanted to go on a traghetto ride, which is a cheaper version of a gondola, but we were going to take a boat ride to the train station, so we figured it’s pretty much the same thing for a lot less in price. While taking the long boat ride to the train station, we got to see the Rialto Bridge, which is also a famous bridge in Venice and it’s the biggest bridge in Venice I think, and it also has restaurants and shop on it as well. I took a picture of it passing under it while on the boat ride on the Grand Canal! The city is really nice, the water smells though because people sweep cigarette ashes and dirt and other things into the water…but the atmosphere itself is fun. We didn’t stay here too long since we’re tired from lack of sleep and we want to spend more time in Milan.

The train ride to Milan is pretty cool at first because you have to cross the water to get into the mainland of Italy. So we were just on the train tracks surrounded by water!

Day 6 – Milan:

Today was a very busy and good day for many reasons! Firstly, we got a lot of sleep last night so that really helped us recharge our batteries and have more energy for the day. We originally only had 2 things planned to do today before we take our train ride to Nice, but Khoa got a tourist guide from the Hotel lobby so we ended up doing a whole lot more!

We had a free breakfast buffet at the hotel in the morning. It wasn’t as big as the buffet in London, but it was still good. There were scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, yogurt, fruit, pastries, toast, juices, and best of all, Nutella (smooth chocolate) spread! I never ate chocolate spread on toast before, but now it’s the only way to eat toast in my opinion!! It was very yummy! After breakfast we walked to the Metro to go to the S. Maria Delle Grazie Church hoping to see the original Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. When we got there, we found out that you can only go by reservation only and all reservations for that day was full. But we got to take a picture of a copy of the last supper…and it was nice to know we were in the same area where the real thing was…! After this we went to the P. Za Castello where there was a huge Sforza Castle Museums where they had a lot of Michelangelo’s architecture there and it’s a real huge castle fortress with a moat too. It’s all dried up, but it’s still cool to see. We then went to see the Duomo Cathedral, which is the largest gothic cathedral in the world! You can go inside and go to the rooftop of the cathedral and have a really nice view of Milan, but we decided not to do that because of time constraints and we didn’t want to wheel around our luggage and be loud inside a bug cathedral. Our next stop was the Fashion District in Milan right down the street from the Duomo. It was just a few street with big stores like Louis Vuitton, Guess, and other Italian designers, but also H&M too! We didn’t shop there because everything was too expensive, and we didn’t go into the H&M since we have one back at home. We then tried to go to the outlet stores instead. We couldn’t really find it since we only had so much time left to catch the last train to Nice, so we just looked inside some stores only the streets while walking back to the train station. We mostly went on the Metro to get everywhere in Milan, and the Metro system here is pretty good and very easy to understand. I think we’re beginning to be pro’s at learning the subway system now, and it was only 3 euros for an all day pass (unlike 8 euro in London)!

So we didn’t really get much shopping done since almost everything was pretty expensive, or it wasn’t anything too special. So now we had 30 mins to get to the train station! We were walking really fast and the train station wasn’t that far away, but wheeling around the luggage slowed us down a little, but we made the last train departing at 5:05pm! Khoa used the restroom on the train, and he told me that the bottom of the flush hole of the toilet stayed open for a little bit and he saw that the water just went straight down into the ground!!!!!! So I guess next time you’re walking on the railroad tracks…just watch your step…ewww! The train ride to nice is 4 hours to our first stop, then we switch trains to the second train that will take us to Nice, and that’s for another 50 minutes. We got to Nice around 10:25pm and then take a taxi to our hotel since it’s so late we just want to go straight to our room and sleep for the next day! Now we have to switch language mode from Italian to French! Our trip is already half way over can you believe it??? Bonne nuit (goodnight)!

Day 7 – Nice & Monaco:

Today we went to the Park Phoenix, which is like a garden and zoo combined and it was only walking distance from our hotel! It was a pretty nice park, they had a big pond and they had lots of different types of ducks, birds, ferrets, even a peacock! But also, this park specialized in lots of different plants and flowers. There’s a huge pyramid that’s a greenhouse and they had a little waterfall and rainforest environment in there and they had tons of different orchids, hibiscus, cacti, and other exotic plants from all over the world. It was pretty cool. We spent most of our time there, and then took a bus to Vieux Nice (Old Nice) and went to the Cours Saleya Flower Market (Avenue of Flowers ) there. There’s tons of flowers that’s for sale, all different kinds, and they span across multiple streets just selling flowers! Nice is a pretty nice area, sorta like La Jolla in San Diego, but with European buildings. We had lunch there since there’s restaurants on both sides of the Flower Market. I ordered stuffed muscles that had a pesto tasting sauce on it, it was pretty good, and I got khoa to try half a mussle!! That’s pretty good, he didn’t like it, but he survived. After lunch we walked along the Promenade der Anglias, which is the beach along the coastline of Nice. It had a nice view of the ocean and Nice, minus the people on the beach. We then walked to the train station and took a 25 minute train ride to Monaco, and went to the Monte Carlo. We walked along the coastline to get to the Monte Carlo Casino and it looked even nicer than Nice. But Monaco is a pretty rich area, so it makes sense. We then took the train back to Nice and ate dinner at our hotel again so we can get rested up for Paris tomorrow!! The funny thing about the food here in Nice (or at least in our hotel) is that the condiments come in little jars! I attached a picture that I took yesterday, it’s really fancy to have ketchup in a little glass jay than in the little packets. The food is REALLY good at our hotel, so we get something new each time to try more things. Ok, bonne nuit!

Day 8 – Paris:

Bonsoir! Today we flew to Paris in the morning, our flight was at 8:55am, so we got to sleep in a little bit today for once! Once we arrived in Paris, it wasn’t too bad to figure out how to use the Metro system there! Our check in time at the hotel wasn’t until 2pm, we landed around 10:10am, and got to the hotel by almost 11am, so we just left our luggage with the hotel in a locked room with our name tags, and then we started our adventure in Paris. We walked along Blvd. St. Germain and had lunch at this restaurant called Loulou’ Friendly Diner. The food there was really good! We then walked to the Luxembourg Garden nearly. It’s a really big park with lots of trees everywhere and in the middle is a really big pond. There’s the Luxembourg museum there too but we didn’t go to that. After the garden, we went back to our hotel to check in and rest for a little bit, get use to the new paris maps and circle all the train stops to the place we wanted to go, and then we were out and about again!

We went to the Eiffel tower, and took a slanted elevator to the 2nd level of the tower, which isn’t that high up yet, and then we took another elevator ALL the way up to the top summit of the tower! We took some pictures from the top to show you! We spent a long time up there just looking all around us, and it was pretty cool to be really high up and see everything! After this, we went to the Champs Elysees and walked around and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe. You can buy tickets to the Arc de Triomphe museum and go to the very top, but we decided not to because we were lazy to climb 200 steps of stairs since the escalator broke and we didn’t want to spend the money. We then had dinner at a place on the Champs Elysees St., and had REALLY good food there as well! That’s it for today! Hope everyone is enjoying the pictures! =) Bonne nuit!

Day 9 – Paris:

Bonjour! Today was another busy but really fun day in Paris! We got to sleep in a little bit till 9:30am, and then woke up and took a train to Disneyland Paris! It was nice, a little smaller than the one in California, but overall, it was still pretty fun! The big castle is definitely a lot nicer than ours, but we were a little bummed because they covered part of the front of the castle because they’re renovating it. But from what you can see, it looks pretty nice still! We went underneath the castle and you can see the big dragon which is really cool, and the inside of the castle is a lot prettier too. We then had lunch by the castle, and then went on It’s A Small World. It was also pretty cool and impressive like ours. We then went on Alice Curious Labyrinth which is a big maze that leads to the Queen’s castle! Indiana Jones was next and it was ok, ours is better, but it was a neat experience because the atmosphere waiting in line was cool, and the ride itself was a roller coaster. We then went to the Haunted Manor, which is Haunted Mansion and the outside leading up to the mansion was really nice and pretty, I like it more than ours. The inside was pretty similar in format too and the look was also pretty nice! It was scarier than our Haunted Mansion! The Space Mission 2 was really cool. It’s a little different in look, but the ride we felt was better than ours because of the meteors effects and stuff! We also went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and it’s pretty much the same as ours, except Buzz Lightyear had a British accent at the beginning, and the controls can be removed from the cart. The only difference that we were bummed about was that you can’t email the picture at the end, you have to buy it. Also, there’s a lot more Disney characters walking around and they really act like their character too! We saw Chip & Dale, the Queen and Twiddle Dumb and Tweedle Dee and the Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Aladin, the Madhatter walking around, and then all the other characters during the parade! The big castle though is probably my favorite there! It was really worth seeing!

After Disneyland, we stayed there for almost 6 hours, we went to Montmartre, which is like a Bohemian area of Paris that is located on top of a very big hill where a lot of the artists go to paint and get inspired. We first visited the Sacre-Croeur, which is a Romano-Byzantine church. There’s a really long stairway that leads up to the church, and once you get to the top, there’s a REALLY nice view of Paris. You can go inside the church since it is still an active church I think, but you have to be quiet and you can’t take any pictures. It’s really big and really nice and impressive! Right next to the church, there’s a long stairway down the big hill, and this is the famous Rue de Foyatier! Many painters painted these steps and a lot of people would paint on the and do their art along side these steps! Also right to so this is the Funicular, which is a little slanted tram that goes up and down the hill! Luckily, our metro tickets work for the Funicular, so we rode it down the Rue de Foyatier! After this we got dinner back in the Avenue of Champ Elysees at a different restaurant, and then went to take a picture in front of the Moulin Rouge! They still have big elaborate cabaret shows there but we had to go and take a picture in the front since Moulin Rouge is one of Khoa’s favorite movies! And that concludes our second day in Paris! Bonne nuit!! =)

Day 10 – Paris:

Bonjour! Today we went to the Marche aux Fleurs in the little Island on the Seine River called La Cite. We walked over to La Chapelle to take a picture, and then over to the Notre Dame Cathedral. We got to go inside and a mass actually started when we got in. The cathedral is really big and really nice and I was able to take pictures in there! We went to a Crepe place for lunch, called Briezh Café, and the wait was an hour long because it’s so popular! So we did some window shopping while we waited. The food was pretty good, authentic French crepes! It was really tasty! After lunch, we went to George’s Centre Pompiduo, a technological museum where the exterior of the building is all high tech and is too suppose to look like a bunch of wires and tubes and stuff. It’s a really big building so it was pretty to see it, and there’s a pond on the side of the building with weird spinning sculptures too. It was interesting. We then went to a French Bakery called Pierre Hermes and bought some macarons to eat at at our hotel. The bakery was right next to the big Paris Opera house though, so walked there and took a picture in front of it! We got back to the hotel and ate the macarons in like 2 minutes! They’re really good! We then headed out again to see the original Statue of Liberty! I knew it was suppose to be smaller than the one in New York, but it looked still pretty small in person. It’s still big but not nearly as big as what the one in NY probably. Yet it’s still cool to see! You can see the Eiffel Tower from the Statue of Liberty too, they’re not too far away from each other! There’s a nice little island called Allee des Cygnes where the statue is located and it’s right it the middle of the Seine River. There’s a nice walking path there with trees on both sides of the path and benches for people to just relax and enjoy mother nature.

We then got back onto the Metro and went to eat dinner at a place we found online on yelp.com, and it’s a really popular steakhouse. They’re really special because they don’t have a menu, the only serve you bread and a salad, and then steak with a creamy mustard base sauce, and “frits” (French Fries), and they don’t have ketchup. Once you finish your steak, they pull another piece of steak and refill your French Fries for you! They only do that once, but it’s really yummy! The wait was also pretty long, almost an hour, but it was worth it for the food. The service wasn’t that great and it took awhile for us to get our food, but overall it tasted really well! After dinner, we went to Laduree, another French Bakery that’s really fancy and popular on the Avenue of Champ Elysees, and we bought some more macarons for a late snack when we got back to our hotel. Before we went back to our hotel though. We stopped by the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up at night! It’s really pretty and after awhile, it starts to sparkle and twinkle like Christmas lights! We took a picture before it sparkled, I think the picture looks better this way, but it was pretty cool to see it twinkling! Ok, enjoy the pictures! Bonne nuit!

Day 11 – Paris:

Hello! Today was our last day in the wonderful city of Paris! We started our day by going to the Louvre Museum and saw the Mona Lisa amongst many other things! It’s a really big museum so there were way too many things to see, so we just went to a few of of the specific things that we had to see, and went straight to those things. We were probably there for about 3 hours, but you can probably spend a whole week there because there was so much to see. After the Louvre, we went to get lunch at the Avenue of Champs Elysees again, and ate at a restaurant called George V! All the tables inside are faced towards the street so you can people watch. The food was pretty good, we got a French Onion soup, although they only called it Onion Soup =P. It was pretty good! Khoa got a ham, egg, and cheese crepe and I got a roasted chicken with French Fries (or just fries as they would call it=P), and then a nutella and banana crepe!! The nutella crepe was REALLY good! After that, we did some window shopping along the street, and then went to Laduree (the French bakery) for some more macarons and got an isaphan, which looks like a big macaron, but has raspberries in the middle with lichee and cream! It was REALLY yummy!!! The isaphan is probably my favorite French dessert, we ate it in like 2 seconds because it was so good! After the Laduree, we went to La Defense where they had the Grand Arch, which is a GIANT hollow cube! It’s so big that it can contain the entire Notre Dame Cathedral! It’s used as an office building and they hold conventions in there as well! It’s pretty modern though, built in 1989, but it’s pretty impressive! We then rushed over to the Eiffel Tower again to take one last look at it in person before we headed back to our hotel to get our luggage. We checked out of our hotel in the morning, but they let us keep our luggage in a locked up room for us while to roam the city! So we then got to the airport and are back in London! Au revoir Paris!

Day 12 – London -> Chicago -> Home:

Hi everyone!! We are finally home sweet home! Today we took our first flight from London to Chicago where we had a 6 hour layover. The flight from London to Chicago was a little over 8 hours and they gave us 2 meals, it wasn’t too bad, we got ham and cheese omelet with fruit and crackers for the first meal, and then pizza calzone and pasta with candy and crackers for the second meal. Khoa really liked the calzone! I slept a lot during the first flight but Khoa didn’t sleep that much because he wanted to watch a lot of the movies on the airplane. When we arrived in Chicago, the weather was pretty cold and cloudy, unlike the nice sunny weather in London! We got a car rental and went to the city for some sightseeing. We went to the Millenium Park and saw the Cloud Gate, which is a giant reflective bean that allows you to see all the big buildings and the cool cloudy sky above! We then had lunch at subway, oh good old American food haha! We continued the day by looking at more things at the millennium park, like the Jay Pritzer stadium, the Boeing Gallery where they had 2 interesting looking sculptures, the Faces Fountain, and the Wrigley Square. The faces fountain is a big rectangle space with 2 big rectangular blocks with screens on them. The screen shows a person’s faces and it changes expressions every so often, and then they blow out water from their mouth. The water for the faces fountain wasn’t on so it wasn’t as cool, but the images still was interesting. We then headed back to the airport to finish our long journey home!! =) Oh how good it feels to finally be home after a wonderful adventure! We love you and hope you enjoyed our emails and pictures!!