España

Madrid- Zaragoza- The Pyrenees

I have been in Spain for just over a week now nearing the end of the second week :o (a combo of my memory and uk:eu adapter plugs has made this blog malarkey a bit tricky), it's gone by so quickly, hence no related blog posts.

Vogue fashion nights and house parties in Madrid. Successful completion of my first week at school with a unexpected dose of public speaking to parents! The week ended with a peaceful weekend in The Pyrenees. Oh and lots of yummy tapas! I couldn't really dream for a better beginning to my year in Spain!

View from my hostel in Madrid, which was fantastic!

Chapters

This is a note to say that this is the end of my Tanzanian chapter and now the beginning of my Spanish chapter.

Sere na, kwaheri, badaye (Swahili and Masai words for good bye) 

&

Hola! 

Outside the classroom and other happenings

This post is basically a stream of photos that I love. Taken throughout my trip which I think are beautiful and say a lot about the country, a mixture of nature, wildlife, humanity and culture.

Children

The Maasai of Lake Natron

Lake Natron is a place in Northern Tanzania, populated by the Maasai tribe. The area is one of outstanding natural beauty: The Great Rift Valley passes through the area and the sodium lake is home to flocks of the magnificent flamingo.It's also home to the active volcano Oldonyo Langai. The land is very arid and vast, what one may envision the Tanzanian planes to look like.

African Safari

I was lucky enough to have my mumma and her partner come to visit me for a few weeks in August, I got to experience all the wonders of Tanzania which people regularly travel to see. It was strange acting as a 'tourist' and being treated like one in the fancy safari camps, viewing the spectacular and infamous African wildlife, sunning on the beaches of Zanzibar and getting lost in the maze of the streets of Stone Town. Of course, it had to be done!

These photographs don't do the awesome African safari justice, mainly because a photo cannot relay the atmosphere of the plains but second to that my compact camera couldn;t quite capotuyre the magnificent scenes. None the less here are some of the best of my three day safari across Ngorongoro National Park, Tarangire National Park and Lake Manyana, I was luckily enough to experience this side of Tanzania with my mum :)

Elephants!

Coastal Tanzania

I got the chance to visit the beautiful island of Zanzibar. 

In order to show my mum and her partner the 'real Tanzania' I suggested that we travel to the island by bus and then ferry. The experience was interesting, let's say! The bus journey began in Arusha in a relatively empty bus station, after 12 long hot, bumpy and noisy hours on the bus I think my parents had had enough! Taking a long distance bus jouney in Tanzania is not for the faint hearted but it's definitely worth it if you want to experience the local way of life and see organised chaos in action! We arrived in Dar Es Salaam at night, which wasn't the most pleasant experience, dark, busy, potentially dangerous and no idea of where we were going! However we managed to find a hotel and stay the night before we caught the ferry the next morning. The ferry was a calm and enjoyable ride and we arrived to this paradise...

Loved ones...and learning Maa language

Those who are still on my desktop background, still come into my dreams and still cross my my mind every single day. 

One little boy called Lemboris and his family