Neopia Central, 4th Day of Month of Relaxing

Well, I live in Neopia Central, so this is where we started out. There's a lot of shops here, so we got ready for our trip by going on a major shopping spree! First, we went to the Health Foods Store to stock up on tasty snacks. When you're traveling, your immune system is weaker than normal because of the stress and unfamiliar conditions. That's why it's important to eat healthy whenever possible!

After that, we stopped by the Book Store and I bought some interesting novels to keep me busy on our trip. Take a look at some of the books I got:

After we packed everything we needed, Zochelle and I headed to our first destination....Kiko Lake.

Kiko Lake, 5th Day of Month of Relaxing
Kiko Lake is just a few hops away from Neopia Central, but has a completely different atmosphere--beautiful and quiet. Neither of us can breathe underwater, so we took a Glass Bottom Boat Tour. Sitting back and enjoying the beautiful coral seaweed gardens of Kiko Lake was the perfect way to start off our vacation.

Roo Island, 6th Day of Month of Relaxing
Roo Island is quite possibly one of my favorite places in Neopia! The place is teeming with happy blumaroos who are bouncing around with big smiles on their faces. We had lots of fun playing Dice-a-Roo and riding the Merry Go Round. I even got a chance to meet King Roo, and he let me take these cool souvenirs home!

Terror Mountain, 10th Day of Month of Relaxing
Up next on our itinerary was Terror Mountain. I have no idea why they call it that because the place is not terrifying at all...more like terr-ific! (bad joke, I know.)

Happy Valley is this quaint little place at the base of the mountain. Zochelle and I went ice skating and participated in a snowball fight. Afterwards, we stopped by the Slushie Shop for a sweet treat.

Then the two of us went to explore the Ice Caves. This place is amazing--huge icy caverns deep within a glacier. Everything glistens in the sunlight. We went to visit the legendary Snowager, but when we saw that he was wide awake, we quickly ran away in fear!

After a long trek, we finally reached the top of the mountain. By then we were both tired, cold, and hungry, so we found refuge at Taelia's house. The nice snow faerie let us rest near the fireplace and gave us a helping of soup that warmed us from the inside out...ahhhhhhhh. But then, she asked us to get these super-expensive and rare items for her! So we were like, "Nuh-uh, Taelia, you go and get your super-expensive and rare items yourself!" Well, we didn't really say that, because that would be really rude. But seriously, we don't have enough neopoints to help with something like that! So we graciously thanked her for the meal and left. By then it was getting dark so we decided to call it a day.

Tyrannia, 14th Day of Month of Relaxing
Am I the only one who thinks it's totally weird that even though Tyrannia is right next to Terror Mountain, the climate is TOTALLY DIFFERENT? Just a few days ago, we were freezing our mittens off, and now I feel like I am roasting in the sun. Zochelle and I wanted to get a bite to eat for breakfast, but all we could find was weird food like these.

There wasn't anything we would willingly eat, so we headed up to the Plateau. As luck would have it, there was a Giant Omelette just sitting there, ready to be devoured! So we both took a piece (cheese and onion for me, bacon and broccoli for Zochelle) and munched down a hearty breakfast.

After breakfast, we decided to mingle and get to know the locals. It was kind of hard to understand them at first, but we quickly picked up on the accent. Listen to this conversation I had with a tyrannian chia:

Me: Ugga ugga?
Chia: Ugg.
Me: Ugga!

Wasn't that enlightening? You can really learn a lot about different cultures by talking to the locals.

Later, we decided to explore the Layer of the Beast. We've heard stories of a terrifying creature that lives in the cave...When we ventured in, we came face-to-face with...
Haha, I'm not telling! I guess you'll just have to check it out yourself to see :P

Meridell, 23rd Day of Month of Relaxing
There is just so much to do in Meridell. First Zochelle and I went to say hi to our favorite faerie, Illusen. She is so super-nice! After that, we played Cheeseroller on the hills behind Illusen's Glade. Basically you try to roll cheese down the hill as fast as you can. Sounds really weird, but it's actually super fun and challenging (Zochelle won every time...)! When we were done with that, we visited the Turmaculus. He was sleeping, but I heard that he sometimes eats petpets when he wakes up in a grumpy mood! Scary! I don't have a petpet, but I've always wanted one, so I headed on over to Ye Olde Petpets. Take a look at some of the petpets I saw there:

There were some really cute ones, but none that I liked enough to take home with me, so we moved on.

It turns out, Zochelle is related to Sinsi the ixi (isn't that cool? I wish I was related to someone famous...) so we visited him and played a few rounds of Shapeshifter. That game is really tricky!

You know that Grumpy Old King who lives up in the Meridell Castle, right? Everybody lines up and takes turns telling him jokes. Here's the one I came up with:

Q: What should you do if you're a team of acrobatic Aishas that eats with Balthazar?
A: When They're offering him a tin of aubergine Chomby Kacheek sandwiches!

Yeah, I know, lame, right? The king thought so, too, and that was the end of that.

So after my complete utter failure at the King's palace, we headed to Meri Acres Farm. It's kinda smelly here, but you can Pick Your Own berries, which was pretty fun (although somehow I ended up with a basket full of rotten berries and dung) and Guess the Weight of the marrow (my guess was nowhere close). It was a long but fun-filled day in Meridell.

Brightvale, 25th Day of Month of Relaxing
The next day we traveled to the neighboring kingdom of Brightvale. Brightvale is a land ruled by the wise King Hagan. He is known worldwide for his knowledge and wisdom. I thought that this would be a great chance to learn new things, so I spent the morning studying at Brightvale Books. Afterwards, we tried to meet King Hagan at his castle but he was off on his study session. In the afternoon Zochelle and I decided to roam around the kingdom and observe the sights. Brightvale has beautiful stained glass windows, here's a few of our favorites:

By the end of our visit I was really tired from walking around so much, but when I heard where we were going next, I immediately perked up because I've ALWAYS wanted to go to...

Faerieland, 3rd Day of Month of Swimming

Faerieland is this really gorgeous place high in the clouds! The first thing we did was visit the Healing Springs. All the traveling has made us feel a bit run-down, but the nice water faerie healed us in no time. When we told her it was our first visit to Faerieland, she pointed out some tourist-friendly places to visit. Her only warning? Stay away from Jhudora's cloud. You know, that big purple, scary looking one. Yeah, I kind of already knew that. Afterwards, we went to watch the Poogle Races. We bet 300 np on Poogle Three. During the race we cheered so loudly that my throat felt sore afterwards...and Poogle Three came in LAST! Can you believe our luck?

For lunch we stopped by the Faerie Foods store and picked up these tasty tidbits:

Faerie cuisine is so light and tasty! Immediately after lunch I stopped by the Bookshop to pick up some faerie cookbooks so my sister, Angie, can make some for me at home ♥

We realized that we were running low on neopoints, so Zochelle and I spent the rest of our day at the Faerieland Employment Agency, completing various odd jobs. We made a hefty sum, definitely enough to keep as happy for the rest of our vacation.

Faerieland is such a beautiful place, I wish I could stay here forever! Hey, what if I was painted Faerie? Then I'd have wings and I'd be able to flitter from cloud to cloud. I would look like this:

Eh, not bad, but I think I'll stay Starry for now ♥

Haunted Woods, 8th Day of Month of Swimming

Ummm...okay, this place is beyond creepy. It's all dark and foggy and I have a eerie feeling that someone is watching me...

As soon as we arrived, we felt the ground shake and the Exophagor popped up from nowhere! He asked us for food, and when we told him that we didn't have any, he looked really angry, so we ran away in terror...right into the branches of the Brain Tree! We screamed and started running again and ended up in the Deserted Fairgrounds...there, we stopped to catch our breath. My heart was beating so fast! We stayed in the fairgrounds and played a few games...Test Your Strength, Bagatelle, Coconut Shy...but we lost, at everything! How is that possible?? The games MUST be rigged! Zochelle and I left in a huff.

After some wandering around we ended up in a place called Neovia. I don't know how to describe this place, it has a quaint charm but there's something very eerie about it...nevertheless, we had a warm meal at the Crumpetmonger and tried on some clothes at the Tailor's...but the thing I was most excited about? The Neovian Printing Press, which carried news from all over Neopia, as well as travel brochures! I bought everything, of course!

So it looks like our trip to Haunted Woods wasn't a total waste. But if the esophagor tries to sneak up on me again, I'm running the heck away!

Lost Desert, 14th Day of Month of Swimming

The Lost Desert is dry, sandy, and really, really HOT. The sun beats down without mercy. Zochelle and I decided that the best plan is to do all of our sightseeing in the evenings, when the weather is cooler.

We decided browse the shops of Sakhmet first. There are various stalls selling things like exotic foods (most seem to be made of sand, but are surprisingly flavorful), pottery(the word on the street is that Osiri's urns are the best), and petpets(I almost took home a Nuk, but then he bit my paw!).

The next night, we decided to explore outside of the city walls. We visited Coltzan's Shrine and played Tug-O-War with the locals. Then we visited the city of Qasala. We had a delicious Qasalan dinner there, here's what we ate:

Eating is my favorite way to get accustomed to different cultures!

All in all, the Lost Desert is an excellent place to visit...if you can stand the heat.

Pirate Ship in the middle of ???, 19th Day of Month of Swimming

The last couple days have been totally exciting...but kind of boring at the same time.

Let me backtrack. Our original plan was to head east towards Altador, but due to a split-second decision, we are now going the completely opposite direction. A pirate ship docked on the shores of the Lost Desert. While they were loading cargo, Zochelle and I snuck aboard...that's right, we totally stowed away on a pirate ship! It was kind of a rash idea, I mean we had to leave most of our belongings behind and who knows what will happen if we get caught, but we totally went for it. After all, it's the spontaneous things like this that makes life so interesting!

Still, hiding in the cargo hold is really, really boring. It's dark, cramped, and I have no idea where we are going...but my best guess is that we are heading towards...

Krawk Island, 23rd Day of Month of Swimming

Yup, Krawk Island. We somehow managed to escape the ship unnoticed (man, those pirates are stupid!). Roaming around the island, we've noticed that the citizens here are quite...questionable. I don't think we'll stay that long...I mean, we don't have any dubloons so we can't really do anything anyways.

I did spend some time looking at the petpets at the Pirate Pet Shop...here are the ones I saw:

Mystery Island, 25th Day of Month of Swimming

Well, since we're already here we decided to completely scrap our itinerary and go to Mystery Island. But how to get there? Zochelle suggested that we swim there, so I had to gently remind her that Mystery Island is nearly 80 miles north of Krawk Island (it said so in the brochure I bought in Neovia.). Fortunately, there was a boat leaving for Mystery Island that day, so we kindly asked the owner if we could hitch a ride (we decided not to stow away again, the cargo hold can be really stuff you know!).

Mystery Island is every bit as great as I thought it would be--the weather is clear and sunny, the locals are friendly, and there's plenty to do! We spent the morning playing volleyball on the beach, then we took a Tiki Tour, enjoying the beautiful sights nature had to offer--lush foliage, Techo Mountain, the clear ocean waters...then we spent a few relaxing days doing absolutely nothing, just lying on the beach, sipping iced tea. Ahhhhhhhh, this is the life!

Lost City of Geraptiku, 5th Day of Month of Hiding

Zochelle and I decided to go explore the Geraptiku, which, um, turned out to be a not-so-great idea, because we got lost in the Deserted Tomb for THREE DAYS, and we didn't even find any treasure. It was very frustrating, and now I'm hungry and cranky.

Maraqua, 7th Day of Month of Hiding

Yes, despite our inability to breathe underwater, we managed to spend the day exploring Maraqua (don't ask how, just accept the fact that we went there, okay?). We went to some of the shops and had a lovely meal at Kelp, a fancy restaurant.

Shenkuu, 14th Day of Month of Hiding

Shenkuu is a merchant town situated high in the mountains north of Altador. The scenery is amazing--waterfalls cascading through a thick layer of mist, the ornate architecture and exotic decorations. We decided to try some local recipes for breakfast:

After breakfast, we visited some of the shops in the area, like Fanciful Fauna, where I met the cutest little critter!

As soon as I entered the store, a juma pranced on my back and stole some starberries that I kept in my knapsack...that little rascal! As soon as I saw her, I knew that I would be taking her home with me. I just can't resist her playful charm! I named her Jillian and I promised myself that I would take very good care of her.

That night, we visited the Lunar Temple to observe the brilliant night sky. Our vacation has been amazing so far, and I am kind of sad because it's nearing the end. There's still one more place to go, though, and that's....

Altador, 19th Day of Month of Hiding

Altador, the legendary land. The first place we went was the Hall of Heroes, where there are statues of the famous people of Altador. We met this eccentric yurble there, who seemed to have anger management problems. Poor guy.

Then we headed to the Atadorian Archives, where many books and scrolls are stored. Fascinating! I hope that one day, I'll be able to read every single book in there! Then Zochelle, Jillian and I visited the Colosseum and marveled at the sheer size of the building. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the shops. We bought some souvenirs for our family back home in Neopia Central. I have to say, the food here is excellent! These were our favorites:

So there you have it. It was a fantastic adventure around the world, but it's time to go home with a new friend (Jillian!) and some fantastic memories.