Fun in Florence

Berlin's Christmas Market

Last weekend we went to Berlin and it was FREEZING.  So instead of walking everywhere we took a hop-on hop-off, double-decker sightseeing bus around the city.  We saw many interesting places such as squares, museums and obviously the wall. One thing that Berliners know how to do is celebrate Christmas.  All over Berlin there are outdoor Christmas markets with vendors selling sausages, ornaments, cookies, pork sandwiches, chestnuts and beer.  Many of these markets have little merry-go-rounds and ferris wheels for the little kids.   

Getting Our Visa to get into East Berlin

The other thing that I found very interesting was going to see the remainder of the Berlin Wall, which separated East Berlin from West Berlin.  In those days when the wall was up there was a guard who gave people slips called visas that are like passports so that people were allowed to go to the other side.  When we were there someone dressed up as a guard did the same thing.  We went to 2 museums one called Checkpoint Charlie which we went to at night so I wasn't very interested in it, and the other one was called the Berlin Story which was a history of Berlin. 



This past weekend we were in Florence where my Zia Maria and cousin Giovanni live.  We went because Giovanni had his 4th birthday party with a whole bunch of his tiny friends at Zia Maria's school.  Simona and I got to see a two friends named Bianca and Caterina who are Italian, but like Zia Maria their moms are Canadians living in Florence, so the girls speak English.  Caterina doesn't really speak a lot of English but Bianca is fluent. 

Giovanni & his Buddies - Cute eh!!

At Giovanni's birthday the four of us were considered "the big kids", so the 4 of us played in one of the classrooms with a pretend kitchen and we drew and coloured . . . (even though that doesn't sound big kidish) but we still had fun.  At the end of the party when everyone started to leave it was just me, Simona, Caterina, Giovanni, one of Giovanni's friends and the parents. At my aunts school there is a bunch of these cushy pillows and this big tube, so we put the pillows side by side and jumped off the tube and landed on the pillows.

 We would try to do these different jumps each time, it was so much fun!  After we played in the dress-up area and put on these wacky costumes that we showed the parents. Unfortunately it started to get really late and it was time to go home. We left Florence the next day which was Sunday. 

Checkpoint Charlie

I had a great time in Florence and I loved seeing Giovanni and my aunt.
I can't wait till we go back to Florence for Christmas.


Ciao,
Maddy