My last holiday blog

Here are a few of my last pictures. Here are wind generators, they have them all over Europe. On my way from England to France I went through the Euro tunnel and on the way back we took the ferry over the English Channel. The last picture is of the coast of England. See you at school Monday, I am flying back to North America today. I will be somewhere over the ocean when you read this!

Mona Lisa

We woke up in Africa this morning 25 degrees and then traveled to Paris this afternoon 9 degrees. We were late, so the plane just about left without us. We we're shopping and didn't hear them say our plane number. When we got on the plane we had to wait a little bit. After we took off they served breakfast we had a crêpe, a pancake and a bread cookie thing, orange juice, cheese and yogurt. It was really good. As soon as we were in Paris we quickly went to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. The room was filled with people wanting to see her. She was in a bullet proof glass with guards everywhere. Did you know that in the Louvre if you looked at each picture for 1 minute it would take you 4 months to see everything. If you walked down every hall in the Louvre its 16 km's.

More Marrakech

Olives anyone?? Olives here are freshly picked off of local trees. They have red ones stuffed with peppers, black ones, green ones and yellow ones. Before we came here my dad was the only person in my family who liked them, and now that they are freshly picked my mom and my brother like the red ones. My dad still likes the green ones. The most green olives he ate in a day was 375! You can buy 2 kg's for 5 dirhams about 65 cents Canadian.
Before we went to the Sahara desert I got some henna done,it goes up past my wrist. My mom and I have matching henna. It tickled when the lady put it on. We went and she was beside the orange juice stands so my Dad and my brother had orange juice while I got henna.

Sahara desert

Today we went to the Sahara desert. We rode on camels to get out there, and slept in Bedoin tents. I thought riding the camels was pretty scary because you are up really high. The camels made funny grunting noises and pooped a lot! My Dads camel foamed at the mouth and then walked over and rubbed on my Mom, gave her a big stinky camel kiss! We all laughed, she thought it was gross. After we got down from our camels, and put our bags into the tents, we went out and played in the sand. It was fun, the sand was piled up in dunes and when you stepped on it after a few minutes your footprint were gone. The wind moved the sand around like blowing snow. We were playing in the sand when dinner came. We ate a Bedoin meal of couscous, meat and vegetables (pumpkin, cucumber, potato and ocra) all cooked together in a tajine. Its a ceramic pot that you can bake with. We had mint tea and soup to start, and then they gave us fresh oranges for dessert. After dinner drummers came and sang songs. I named my camel Ginger because of her color, my mom named her camel Doris so she could sing Doris the camel has 1 hump, and my dad named his Melmin. In the morning we had a traditional breakfast of juice, tea and bread. After breakfast we loaded back onto our camels and went to meet our bus to take us back through the mountains to Marrakech.

Africa

Here's some random shots of Morocco. The Atlas mountains, look like the Pine pass and have snow all year long! Many of the peaks are half as tall as mount Everest.
These are Berber houses, this one is called a Kasbah. They are made from grass, mud and camel dung. The toilets are holes in the ground! The Berber people are a nomadic tribe that travel at night, much the same as Bedoin and Tworig.
Africa was nothing like I imagined.... It was better, so many sounds, smells and people. Oh ya and CRAZY drivers.

To Essaouria

This is the beach in Essaouria. The town is separated into two parts, the old part, called medina which is surrounded by a castle wall and the new part, that has been built up around the beach. If you want to go from the old part of town, to the new part of town there are only three exits. How we got to Essaouria was by a taxi, it took two and a half hours. The taxi driver had to stop for around 20 mins so he could pray. We also went to see what could be made from Argon oil. It comes from a tree, first they pick the seed pods off, and then they have ladies that crack open the pods to get the seeds then they put the seed into a rock and spin it to crush the seed, the oils are then separated from the meat and finally you can make food or cosmetics. It was really interesting. After we got to Essaouria and found a Riad we went and explored the town. We found how to get out to the beach, it has 3km of sand! It was really fun to play at the beach!

This and that

Today we are traveling from Marrakech to Essouria which is on the ocean. Here are a few things I haven't posted yet. I am holding a bread stick and feeding the birds in Paris at the Notre Dame Cathedral. There was man doing it and asked if I wanted to do it, I said "yes." Another picture is of some snake charmers that my mom got busted taking the picture of and had to pay 100 Durham. She was trying to get another picture up closer and they caught her! Here is a picture of the orange juice stands, they also make lime juice and grapefruit juice. Its so delicious we drink around 10 a day! At the market you can see the Mosque, which is an Islam church, there are cactuses all over the place, they are huge. Every hour there is a chant that comes over speakers throughout the country for people to pray to Allah. They must face Mecca (the holy city) when they doing it, and there are pictures all around showing the direction. We also have been to the Saadium tombs, this is were the royal family is buried as well as people who have worked for them and close friends. Some of the tombs are long and skinny and others are wide, this is because they do not cremate people. Their faces must face Mecca, so they might be buried on their sides or there backs. There are three special rooms, one was for the kings mom, another one was for children and the last one was for the king. They have beautiful carvings in the walls which were made out of sand, cement and a plaster. We went on a walk and found a Bedoin spice store, in there they have so many spices and they showed us how to use different things for medicine. An example is if you put black cumin in a small cloth and rub it on your hand it smells like Vicks rub. I will show you when I get home.