Entering The World of France

It's full day number one here in France. Coming from Hawaii, it took quite a while to get here, plus all of the time zone changes. We went from Hawaii, to LA, to Germany, then finally, Nice(pronounced Niece) France. It's a whole other world down here in the south of France. The people, the food, the rules, and especially the language. You hear so much stuff in America about how almost everyone in Europe speaks multiple languages, especially English. But that's not really the case here. You get a few people in restaurants or other food related services that speak some English, but a lot of people in the markets and cafés or bakery's, don't speak English. And if they do, it's only a little bit. So far today we woke up and walked around Mandelieu-La Napoule, the town we're staying in. We ended up grabbing some pastries from the Oasis Hotel Bakery and heading down to our Lee's yacht at the harbor(she's the one letting us stay in her house). We ate on the boat, delicious pain au chocolats,(chocolate crossaints), brioche, chocolate tarts, quichè and fresh peach. We hopped in her tiny car and headed into Cannes(Can). At this time, the Cannes film festival is coming to an end. We weren't there for that though, we wanted to go to the market. It was a huge pink building with beautiful columns, packed to the brim with stalls of fresh produce. There was everything from olives to fish to fruit and beyond. We immediately noticed steep prices in some of the foods and decided they were trying to rip off the more clueless tourists. We bought a few things and walked around a bit before deciding to cruise around Cannes in the car for a bit. We went to the Pointe Croisette (Point Cwah-zet) which, if you're looking at the bay, is on the left side. We headed down the coast a bit before driving back to La Napoule, looking at the shops and villages. My mother crashed as soon as we got home after going to the supermarket. Dad and I sat out on the kitchen terrace, eating olives, cheese and drinking wine. Well he was drinking the rosé. The two of us decided to cook garbanzo bean pasta for dinner. We got amazing French bread from a shop across the street. All in all, my first full day in France has just been mind blowing. Au revoir - Siena

It's That Time Of Year

Happy Holidays! That previously planned outer island trip didn't happen over summer which is why I haven't updated. But as Christmas approaches I decided to give an update on the trip for the summer of 2014. We will be going for about three weeks, to France and then Italy. This Winter Break I will be updating more with some travel tips for Hawaii, since I live here I hope to be very helpful. I hope you have a good Thanksgiving.
- Siena

The Beginning

Let's start where I'm starting, Hawaii. Green slopes, dotted with palm trees, sandy beaches with crystal blue waters. Hawaii truly is paradise. Swimming with turtles is unbelievable and hiking the lush mountains is breath-taking. I live on one of the more busier islands, but it's still no New York City [not that I would know yet]. One of my life passions is definitely traveling, nothing gets me more excited then the thought of flying to a new place. I also love to write, so blogging about traveling seemed like a good course of action. I've traveled by myself a lot, I'm still a minor, so I am treated like one, but it is lots of fun. I've visited Michigan, California, Florida, Colorado, and Canada. I guess you could say I've visited Illinois since I was stuck in the airport there for 8 hours once, but I usually don't count layover states. Anyways, I am planning to travel a lot this year. I'm going to an outer island in Hawaii to go camping with my family. It's going to be lots of fun, for half the time we'll camp in the wilderness and the other half we'll stay in a hotel I think, the dates or details aren't exact yet. Sometime in April or May my family and lots of friends will be having a big camping trip on our island, we usually do that once or twice a year and it's tons of fun! In 2014 I'm going to Italy, France and the UK with my parents on a 3-week long trip. In France we'll be sailing down the coast in my mom's friends huge boat and in the UK we'll visit her other friends. In Italy, we're going to go to Siena, the town I was named after and I can not wait. I also might get to go to Maui that year. I know my parents are hoping to go to New York sometime in the next few years and I can't wait for that, they went a few years ago, but I didn't get to. I'm also hoping to go skiing with my uncle and aunty possible in the next couple of years but I don't know for sure. My friend from Texas might be coming out to visit this summer or we might meet half way in California or Arizona, he just really wants a change of scenery, so California's beaches might be the best. So this is where I'm starting, Hawaii, let's see where I end up.
Siena, signing off.