Sunday 13 May 2012

Aquatic awesomeness at the Monaco Aquarium.


Written 11th May 2012

I had so much fun at the aquarium! When we got to Monaco we drove around a bit (and went on the track for the Formula 1 Grand Prix) and then we found a car park. We had a stroll through a garden and looked at the flash boats and roof top gardens of the people of Monaco while we ate lunch.

This is the outside of the aquarium.


Here are some flash boats and roof top gardens.






I shared some of mine with a mate. He was a very good catch. 
That's him in the background.


Next we went to the Aquarium. It was awesome! The fish were all so interesting and beautiful to look at. Like moving underwater flowers. There was lots of interesting information to read about them as well. Steve and I both enjoyed ourselves. I took lots of photos of the fish. It was cool to get up close to them and observe what they were getting up to. The Sea Anemones and Corals were so pretty too. I liked seeing the cute little Clown fish (like Nemo)


and also the Shrimps cleaning the Moray Eel.


My favourite fish was the Yellowstriped Fairy Basslet. It was pretty.



There were so many fascinating fish to watch I could have gawked away at them all day. As it was I was way slower that Steve but I always do everything slowly so he's used to it! (If your gunna do something you may as well take your time and do it properly I recon. :) ) Here are some more cool fish pictures.
















After that we creeped our way up the hill out of Monaco, which was jammed up with traffic coming to watch the Grand Prix. Then we drove to Italy. We are staying in a campsite on the coast tonight. It is so weird though because the whole thing is cobblestones! Out tent site is cobblesones. No grass at all! You can't peg your tent down. Im not sure what you would do if it was windy. As it is I'm glad we bought the air bed!


It is hard to adjust your brain to a new language. I was pretty good at saying the things I knew in French. People kept talking to me in French hard out when I said Bonjour and other things to them. Like the other night we went to get dinner and the waitress lady came up to us and said hello and I said Bonsoir (say “bon-swar”) and as I said that the lady stared talking to us in English. Then she stopped and changed to French and stared rattling on and said something like “Sorry, I thought you spoke English, blah blah blah...” And I had to interrupt her and say (in English), “No, no, you were right, we do speak English”. And things like that have happened quite a few times. Anyway, in Italy so far I am useless because I don't know many words and I can't switch my brain off from French so fast! Ah well. Might get it sorted by the time we leave!

Guess what we saw yesterday when we were coming off the beach? It was so funny. There was a guy riding his bike along the bike path and he had a back pack on and standing on the back pack and his shoulders was a dog! Like a reasonably big dog! It was so funny! Wish I got a photo to show you but I was too busy laughing and staring to take one. :)

Another funny thing I have been meaning to tell you about is when we tried to pay for a road toll. We went on a peage for the first time coming own from Paris and when we got off the machine would not accept any of our credit cards and we didn't have enough cash. We had to push the intercom button but the lady did not speak much English. She lifted the barrier and let us through (after Steve had slowly spelled out his name and address – so funny!) and she said we had 10 days to pay but didn't tell us how or where. So we are pressing the button and saying “Where do we pay?” but she had gone. The next day we continued our drive down south and the following day when we reached our destination I tried to go and pay for the toll. We weren't sure where to go but in New Zealand you would go to the post office. So I went to the post office. The people there all just stared at me in astonishment when I tried to explain. They were looking at me like “Why would you come to the post office to pay a toll! It's a post office, not a toll office!” So funny. Luckily there was a customer there who spoke good English and she told me where I could go.

Anyway, Steve is reading up a storm and I am going to join him.

Arrivederci from Italy! (Say “a-ree-ve-der-chee”.)

And ciao too. (Say “chow”.)

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