Lisbon was a three night stop. We met up with our uncle from England, but he lives in Switzerland now. 
The day after we got there, we went for a walk around the city. We saw some amazing churches and walked through the St. Jorge castle. We also went to a big square with a statue of a man riding a horse, and walked down to the ocean. We walked through an area and were told that they were setting up a huge party that would begin at midnight. That night, the kids stayed at home while my mom, my uncle and my dad went out to the party. 
The next day, we had a lazy morning, buying train tickets and playing card games. That afternoon, we went to an Ed Sheeran concert (we got the tickets for Christmas). It was the first concert I have ever been to and it was amazing! The next day, we took a train to Vilamoura!
Spain-by Amelie
Spain was an amazing two and a half weeks. We finally got to try out our Spanish again. Our first stop was Tarifa, we were there for two nights. We went to the most southern part of Europe and walked around. 
The second stop was in Seville, we were there for three nights. We really enjoyed seeing the beautiful cathedral and going on nice boat rides. 
We also did a cooking class and made paella ( a traditional rice dish) and gazpacho (cold soup). 
After Seville was Valencia, we were there for three nights. There was a super fun park called Goliver park, it’s a giant lying on the ground with slides everywhere. We also rented bikes, drove around the beautiful city and went to the aquarium.
The next stop was Ribero Del duero, two nights also. We went to a lot of wineries and a very big castle. It’s a very small town with fifty people only. 
The next stop, was the beginning of the big Camino de Santiago (a six day hike, 125km). We got up early that morning and set off. The fun part was that you have buy a passport on the first day and collect stamps. Places you can get the stamps are restaurants, cafes, churches and hostels. The last day was tough because it was the longest and we were just so tired, but it was super fun. How good it felt when we arrived! The Camino is religious hike with a huge cathedral at the end. Most people start in Porto and end in Santiago. We started in Valença and ended in Santiago because we didn’t have enough time. At the end you get a certificate if you do more than 100km.
Spain- By Elise
The Camino is a religious hike that we did. the hike ends with a church in Spain. We hiked for 6 days! I barely made it, l was so tired. We started in Tui. We got there by following the yellow arrows. The thing is, you get passports to collect stamps. That was the most fun part for me. After each day you take a shawer. The last day was the longest.
The Gulliver Park is a very big park. It’s supposed to be a giant lying down. there is slides going down his leg. It was really fun!!!
The cooking class was hiding in the markets and very hard to find but we got there. We got into a group with two people. We made paella and gazpacho. The gross thing is we cut a raw chicken.
Fes- By Elise
Our parents surprised us by meeting up with our aunt and uncle. At dinner they surprised us by putting the menus in front of their faces and hiding. We all got confused until they took the menus off of their faces and it all made sense. We arrived in Fes and it was super busy. We got to our hotel (all the people in Fes call hotels Riad) and we accidentally interrupted the person who works there. He was doing his prayer. By the way it was Ramadan which is when you can’t eat until 7 to 8 o’clock pm! Ramadan goes on for a month! I would not survive not eating for a day! There were lots and lots of cats in Fes and lots of meat hanging from the walls. It was really disturbing! The markets were crouded and on Fridays and during their prayer they were silent and not even half as many people as the day we arrived. The tanneries are where you take the skin and fur off of goats and sheeps and make jackets, purses, and bean bags. They call bean bags “poofs”. The tanneries do not smell good- Do Not Go To The Tanneries! It was my birthday there it was the best birthday I’ve ever had with my family! I REALLY LIKE FES!!!
Marrakesh and Sahara- by Anna
Here’s a summary of our three nights in Marrakesh. On the first night, we were surprised by our aunt and uncle. They were hiding behind their menus and sitting at the table of a fancy restaurant. It was such a lovely night to catch up on the past nine months. 
Day 1 in Marrakesh was spent at the botanical gardens and in the Souqs and ended with a good dinner of Tajines and donuts. 
A Tajine is stewed veggies or meat cooked in a cone shaped clay pot. 
On day 2, our uncle and aunt had Hammams, so we spent our day in the Souqs (again) and the stinky tannery. A Hammam is a scrubbing spa and yes, they scrub you everywhere. It is a very naked experience. A tannery is where they make leather from cow, goat or sheep skin. 
The night ended with meeting up with our aunt and uncle at a nice restaurant.
The Sahara had was on my bucket list for a long time. When we arrived after a long day of driving, we took off with our backpacks and we all hopped on our dromadaries. It was a fairly uncomfortable ride but well worth it. As we walked through the Sahara desert, we could see nothing but the little village behind us, sand dunes and others riding dromadaries. 
It was a nice relaxing walk to our campsite. When we arrived, we climbed to the top of a dune and we watched the sunset. Did you know that Sahara means desert in Arabic? So when you say “Sahara desert” you’re really saying “desert desert”. Dinner was salad, Tajines and fruit. The next morning, we woke up at 5am to watch the sunrise. It was so beautiful! After the sunrise, we rode back to the village on our dromadaries.
Luxor, Egypt – by Anna
Luxor was packed with amazing history. When we arrived in Luxor after our overnight train, our guide, Shaima, was waiting for us. We all got in the tour bus and we drove to our accommodation. When we got there, we had an amazing typical Egyptian breakfast of omlettes, yogurt, and bread with all sorts of jams and cheeses. After breakfast, we drove to the Valley of the Kings, a world heritage site. We checked out the tombs of Ramses the 2nd, Ramses the 4th and Ramses the 12th. 
It was so cool to see the the carvings on the walls of the tombs. 
Back in the Egyptian times, as soon as a Prince would become King, the workers would start to dig the tomb and when they died they’d stop digging. The Ramses ruled during the 19th and 20th dynasty. We took a picture infront of the tomb of King Tut, who has a smaller tomb because he ruled for only 10 years. 
He became King at the age of 9 and he is known as the youngest King. We had heard that there is nothing much to see in Tut’s tomb, so we didn’t visit it. We also saw all the tomb’s contents in the museum a few days ago. Next, we went to Hatshepsut’s temple. 
Hatshepsut ruled during the 18th dynasty. She decided to build her temple directly in line of the Karnak temple. Hatshepsut was the only female King. The reason of that is because the next King in line after Hatshepsut’s father was her half brother. At the time, he was too young to rule so Hatshepsut had to married him so she could become King. While she ruled, she didn’t pay attention to her brother, so when it was time for him to rule, he erased some of the carvings in her temple. We had a quick stop to check out the traditional pottery then another to check out the Colossi of Memnon. All that remains are two giant statues of Amenhotep the 3rd. 
The statues used to lead to a temple but it got distroyed over the years. Then it was time for lunch. We ate a delicious shawarma with a lot of different stews. We had a pretty chill evening.
The next morning, the Easter bunny came! 
Everyone was so excited, especially Elise. She wrote a pretty cute note. 
We did a fun little hunt in our hotel room and we even got to try some delicious Egyptian candies. After breakfast, we headed to Karnak Temple of Amun. 
There are over 25 different temples and chapels in the complex. Karnak covers an area of over 100 hectares and approximately 30 pharaohs contributed to building it. This temple was dedicated to the God Amun. Another cool thing about Karnak is that when Napoleon and his army came to Egypt, they carved their signatures in the entrance of the temple. 
The sand level back then was so high that they signed near the top of the pylon (aka wall). It is such a huge temple! In front of the temple lies an avenue of ram headed lions, which is a symbol of Amun. 
Karnak was such an amazing temple to walk through and neither my sisters nor I were ever bored. Next we visited Luxor Temple. 
Once again, just like Karnak, there lies an avenue of Ram headed Sphinx but this time much longer. In the entrance used to be two obelisks but now, only one. The other one is in Paris. Weird! Near the obelisks there are six statues of Ramses the 2nd. The temple was built not only by Ramses the 2nd but by Amenhotep the 3rd and King Necatnebo the 1st who built all the Sphinx at the entrance. We wandered through the rest of the temple listening to Shaima explain everything. Lunch was at a mud brick farm house near the Nile River. We ate solar bread which is like a dough that cooks in the sun, and we dipped it in something they called “black honey” but we were all convinced it was molasses. 
We also had boiled eggs and cheese. It was delicious! The houses in Luxor are built with mud bricks because it never rains and they say it keeps the houses cool. The next morning, we said goodbye to Shaima and we all got on the train to go to Aswan. Oh, I love Egyptian history.
Athens-by Amelie
In Athens, we stayed at my uncle’s friend’s house. We got there in the afternoon.The next morning, we went to the Acropolis and saw one of the most famous ruins. It was beautiful! The pillars were huge and the designs on the part of the roof that was left were beautiful! After that, we went to a big rock that was super slippery because of all of the people who had walked on it. It had a beautiful view of the whole city. 
We went for a walk around Athens and saw where the first Olympics were. The next morning, we headed of to Morocco!
Dead Sea, Jordan-by Anna
The Dead Sea was a very fun experience. The Dead Sea is situated in between Israel and Jordan. On our drive back from Jerusalem, our plan was to stop at the Dead Sea on the Jordanian side. When we got there, there were some people walking around covered in black mud. It is thought that Dead Sea mud is really good for your skin. We all decided that we wanted to try it out. When in Rome? 
At first the mud felt weird, but then I got used to it and it actually felt good. My mom, on the other hand, did not love the feeling, but thought it would make her look 20 again. My dad looked hilarious in the mud- he somehow got some on his teeth. I don’t even know how that happened. 
Once the mud dried, it felt like cement, so we all hopped in the cold Dead Sea. It was so salty that we could float! It was similar to the Laguna Cajar in Chile, but much saltier and much, much bigger. 
At one point, I decided it would be a good idea to hug my knees, but I by accident rolled over and dunked my face. Good one, Anna! It was stinging my eyes like crazy. The pictures were funny and so were we. Near the end, we got given newspapers so it looked like we were reading in the sea. 
Did you know that the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth? It is 450m below sea level. Swimming in the Dead Sea had been something I’d wanted to do for a long time.
Cairo-by Amélie
Cairo might have been my favourite place so far. The Sphinx and the Pyramids made it that much better. We flew from Ammon at 11:00pm, we were so tired when we got there, so we went straight to bed. The next morning, we looked out our window and realized the last night it had been so dark and we did not even realize that we were right beside the Sphinx and Pyramids! We had our first breakfast in Egypt (pretty much the same food as the other middle eastern places) with a beautiful view. 
After breakfast, we packed up and headed out with our tour guide to see the Sphinx and Pyramids. They were amazing! We spent about two and a half hours meandering around the area and riding camels past the Pyramids. We also went inside the Pyramids, it was so cool! 
After that, we went to the Egyptian museum. We saw a real mummy and we actually got to see there faces. We also saw the coffin of King Tutankhamun (the super young king) and all his jewelry. After the museum, we went to the downtown of Cairo and saw a lot of churches and mosques.
That was the first time we were in Cairo, the second time, was after the trip in Egypt. We got there early in the morning. When we got to our hotel, we had breakfast. Then, Elise, my mom and I had a nap, while Anna and my dad went back to the Sphinx and Pyramids. That afternoon, we took a boat around a little area and the people who worked there would redo a scene from the Egyptian history on the island. That night, from the balcony of our , there was a light show on the Sphinx and Pyramids. the next day we headed of to Greece!
Aswan- by Elise
We got ready for the felucca, which is a type of boat. We went on a tour around the island and we saw some old parts of the city. It was so hot! After we went down to the river and got on the Felucca, that we were going to stay at over night on. We started to go for about an hour and then we went swiming in the Nile River, it was so cold! but refreshing! The second stop, was where we were going to spend the night, we got ready for bed and had diner. Then, we went to bed. The next morning, my sisters and I woke up with something that looked like chicken pox but they ended up being maskito bites. We were so itchi, especially wen you have them everywhere. Then, we went swiming again. I REALLY LIKE THE FELUCCA
One Family, One World, One Year 