I kissed a rock and I liked it.......

A week ago we hopped on a ferry to Ireland. We landed in Dublin and we spent two days there. There was a pub with live music, and a cool interactive museum about the medieval and Viking history of Dublin.

Then we went to Doolin for a night. There I got this cool Irish drum called a bodrán 

(pronounced boar-on) that you hit with a double sided drumstick.

We then proceeded to Galway, where we were sort of just killing time. There was a cool amusement park there, and they had this really fast ride that went around in a circle while tipping you sideways. In short, I screamed. A lot.

Then we went to Killarney. In Killarney, we went on this massive 11 k walk. My legs are STILL HURTING! The next day we went on a horse and Carriage ride which was also cool.

On the way to the ferry that was going to take us back to London, we went to Blarney castle. At Blarney castle you can kiss the Blarney Stone. That's right, kiss the Blarney Stone. As legend has it, if you kiss the Blarney Stone you get good luck.

Now we are on the way to London, to catch the Eurostar train to Paris.

Ancient Donkey Kong

I have a feeling this is gonna be a big one, seeing as I haven't posted in ages!

A couple of days ago, we went to Madame Tussaud's, which is really big in England. It's a big building and inside there are lots of wax statues of famous people that you can take pictures with.

It was pretty awesome. Here are some pictures.

   

      

   

There was also a Marvel superheroes 4D experience there, (and if you think I would miss that then you don't know me) which was really cool.

The next day Dad and I went to the James Bond car museum. Lots of the cars were just decked out with missiles, machine guns, and wheel spikes. One car even had skis so it could ski down a mountain! Here are some more pictures:

    (This is the ski car)

    

   

   

Okay, if you were wondering why the post is titled 'ancient donkey kong', now you will be granted enlightenment, because two days ago we went to the British Museum. There were lots of interesting things there, so here are some pictures:

 

   

   

   

 

Now you may be even more confused about the title of the post seeing as I still haven't explained it yet, but that's okay because that was my plan all along. 

The post is called Ancient Donkey Kong because I saw an egraved stone that looked like the original donkey kong game.

 

   See! How can those people climbing up the ladders not look like Mario from the first donkey kong!

Harry Potter Studios

A couple of days ago we went to Oxford and Harry Potter Studios.

Now, you would think Oxford University would be super boring.

Most of it was.

But, I did learn that loads and loads and loads of scenes from the Harry Potter series was filmed there. The great hall, the library, most of the Hogwarts castle and a bunch of other random stuff was filmed there. They also filmed scenes from hundreds of other movies there too:if you have seen X-men days of future past, the scene in the pub was filmed in Oxford.

We also went to Harry Potter Studios. It was really cool seeing all the things they filmed in the movies, and how they created stuff. To make unicorn blood in the philosopher's stone, they used glycerin under a mirror, and hagrid's whole head is just a mask over a robot. Not to mention seeing the Hogwarts castle model that they use for wide shots of just the castle. There was so much stuff in the gift shop. I wanted to buy it all! We did buy some wands though. I don't have any pictures, so I'll just show you when I get back.

Historical stuff

This post is for people who want to to hear about things I've actually learnt on this trip.

A couple of days ago we went to Hampton Court Palace, which is where lots of kings stayed. It was a special medieval day where we got to see jousting! It was pretty awesome seeing the how the Knights would battle it out for the approval of their King. There was also a place where you could shoot a crossbow at pieces of wood. I WAS SO CLOSE! They also were cooking meat by turning it over on a stick above the fire. We also learnt the history of King Henry VIII, who stayed at the palace in the summer.

How to have an awesome day in London

Sorry guys that was a lot longer break than I first expected. Whoopsie! I'm sorry but I had to endure the torture that was such an incredibly amazing play. In case you haven't read my last post, (shame on you) we got tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two! (The incredibly amazing play as referenced before) But more on that later in the post. I still have to fill you in on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

I'm sorry to say that if any of you thought that Tuesday was going to be really exciting and blood pumping, there will be no compensation. If you guys remember the horrible first day in London, well that was yesterday, so...... We did not do much on Tuesday. We sort of just walked around looking at stuff like Big Ben and the London Eye.

Wednesday was much better. We walked around looking at lots of shops. (I got new shoes) And we found the markets were conveniently located very close to the theatre where we are whatching Harry Potter (now you probably don't care about the shoes). We took lots of photos.

Now for yesterday. Yesterday was Thursday, and Thursdays are always good days. We went to the Sherlock Holmes museum and that was really cool.

That's the end of my post, bye.

Why are you still here? There is nothing else to read. Shop's closed, mate.

Oh did I forget about the most important thing?

Here is the bit you've all been waiting for..........

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD: A REVIEW 

This is the best play I have ever seen. It is the best out of all the books and movies. Not only was there a good story but there was also humour, Scorpius Malfoy, awesome special effects and Scorpius Malfoy! 

Now I know what you're thinking 'but Nate the Malfoys are stupid annoying socks that just generally suck!' And yes if you were talking about Draco and Lucius, ( even auto-correct could not help me with spelling his name) then you would be right because Scorpius is nice and funny. He is the best character in the whole Harry Potter series. I'm not going to say much more because you don't want spoilers (excepting my cousin Zoe), but just be excited for when the book come out, because you will love it.

How to have a terrible first day in London

Here's a short Singapore recap

Day 1: we went to Sentosa, a small island incredibly close to Singapore. There we went to a awesome water park where we got to see manta rays! We also went on a luge (which is like a toboggan),and a cable car ride.

Day 2: this was spent basically killing time until the plane ride. We went to see some markets, where it was weird because you could annoy them until they made the price lower for something you wanted to buy. The best thing about the whole day was that we went to a DC superhero cafe. It was really awesome. There were wax statues of Batman and Superman, as well as all kinds of awesome memorabilia that you could buy!

So anyway, here's the bit you were probably all waiting for: the bit where I tell you how to have a terrible first day in London.

First, eat as much plane food as you can (I'm not just talking about the stuff on your plate, I'm talking about taking stuff from other people's plates as well).

Next, spend most of the time spent on the plane watching DC tv shows instead of sleeping as much as your mum told you you should.

This is what I did. And the combination makes something called 'really bad jetlag'. It's a scientific term that means you get not only really tired but also causes you to spend you first day in London vomiting. In short, it is not fun.😔

If you're thinking 'oh, I reckon Nate's going to lead up to something incredibly awesome and so amazing it'll blow my socks into the earth's atmosphere', then you would be right. (I don't think anyone could be right in this instance) 

There is an upshot to this story, and it is that (wait for it, wait for it)........

We got tickets to see Harry Potter!!!!!!!!!

And no if you were actually thinking that we got tickets to meet Harry Potter you are wrong.

I'm talking about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the stage production.

Queue the screaming with jealousy and rage.

 I think it's time for a break. You get up off your couch, and you go out and buy a cookie, while I start writing my next post. 

Plane Food = Yum

Yesterday we got on a nine hour flight to Singapore. IT WAS AWESOME! The plane food was really good (even better than normal). There was a funny moment where we were in a airport magazine store and we were just killing time waiting for the plane, and I saw the weirdest toy ever, so I asked dad to buy it. 😃