My trip to France

Salam everyone! I know it's been way too long since I posted anything, just been caught up with life and the daily routine! Well it's that time of year again for me to spend some vacation time in France. I'm here and it's cold , but all this snow is so pretty! Baji suggested I take pictures during my trip. So I will try to take pictures of the places I will be going to, inchAllah:)

Bryce Canyon, Utah

I went on a trip for my job and we visited different cities on the West Coast of the United States. But Bryce Canyon was by far my favorite place. I was speechless when i set my eyes on the canyon, SubhanAllah!




I went down into the canyon and here a few pictures from inside.

yalla yalla fi Dearborn

Don't be fooled by the Arabic writing on billboards, it's Detroit (well, Dearborn to be exact.)

Galeries Lafayette

This WAS my favorite mall in the world... Until I went to Dubai! But I have so many memories at the Galeries Lafayette. My grandmother would usually bring me here on Sundays when she would do some shopping. It's a pretty high-end shopping mall, all the stylish people of Paris come here.

I love how it still has that 1800's old Paris look, and the stores are BEAUTIFUL.

J'adore Paris!

ahhh Paris, how I miss thee! One of my fav places in the world:) I never get tired of going there.

The Hulk and the topi

The Hulk roller coaster at Islands of Adventure in Orlando. I don't do roller coasters, so Poops, both my sisters, and their friend went without me on THE HULK. As soon as they were shot out of that cannon there, my sister's topi (Urdu for hat) went flying out. I even have video footage. I think I'll post it.

Algiers, Algeria

This has got to be the most beautiful post office in the world! Well at least the most beautiful I've seen:) It's know as "La Grande Poste d'Alger" -The Grand Post office of Algiers

Bejaia, Algeria

Bejaia is a town in the greater Kabylia (Amazigh or berber) region. It is a coastal town of Algeria. It has become a top vacation destination for young French-Algerians, on a budget.

This is the view from the main road


My husband and I were driving on a small dirt road and ended up here! I loved this beach, it was so calm and the water was nice and warm:)

We felt so tiny between the mountains.

The prettiest hotel in all of Vegas

It's super pretty inside, too. A whole Parisian town in there.

Alhambra

One of the beautiful and intricate ceilings of the Alhambra.

The Real Desert- The Sahara!

This was the highlight of my trip to Al Maghreb lol (Morocco)! Going to the Sahara and spending the night there. It was amazing, especially at night time. Baji and I, and a few other adventurous people, decided to sleep on cots outside of the tents, under the beautiful star filled sky:) We spent most of the night talking and counting how many times we saw a shooting star lol. I kept telling Baji, "OMG, I can't believe I can actually see the Milky Way!" but she wasn't as shocked as I was lol, or maybe she didn't know what the hell I was talking about! :D

So here are a few pictures:) The pictures just don't capture the beauty of it ( I had a really crappy camera at the time lol)

The Algerian Border:



The beautiful dunes


Sunset


Sunrise


The very long (and painful lol) camel ride.


High noon on the dunes



ahhh memories...

Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert

These are the only pictures I was able to find, I only had pictures on my phone:(

California Desert

I've been living in Cali for a year now, and I have to say my favorite part of being here is having the desert so close by. I absolutely love the desert, the hot wind blowing against your face, the sound of the wind, the sand lol. I just love everything about it:)
Here are a few pictures of my last trip to Palm Springs, CA.






Those are date tress. California has the best dates in the USA, well I think it;s the only state to grow them lol.


This is Barstow, a small town about 1h45 minutes from the Mojave Desert (I'll post some pix of that later)

The one and only...

Ali-Gator!

At Busch Gardens in Tampa. Even the dinosaurs are in awe.

Night at the Museum

Supposedly this was the exact set from that Pharoah scene in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian movie. This was at the Smithsonian in D.C.

Willemstad, Curacao

I went to Curacao (Dutch Antilles) back in 2006. A very beautiful island of the coast of Venezuela. This is Willemstad, i think it's the capital, don't remember lol. In Curacao, Dutch is the official language, but everyone speaks Papiamentu. It's a creole language, mixture of Spanish, Dutch, some French, and I think Swahili.

The beaches were so beautiful:) and I loved the colorful houses.

Is it just me or are the walls trying to kill us?

According to our wonderful tourguide, this is the thinnest road in Fez (or did he say the world?)

Video of Shah Faisal Mosque

Here's some video of the second floor. Notice the dark glass, that's the entrance into the actual praying area but was closed off at that time for some reason so some people were praying outside it. We didn't even get to see inside it.




Here's the ground floor. There are also tables of books set up outside the book/souvenir store.

Snow on the Hollywood Hills

I thought it looked pretty cool seeing snow so close on the Hills :)

Universal Studios Hollywood, CA

Today I went to Universal Studios here in Hollywood, CA. It's my first time going here. Now Universal is my kinda park; no fast rides or roller coasters roller coasters! Just nice slow attractions and shows :)
My favorite ride was the Simpon's and the 3D shrek show.

But I prefer the Universal Studios in Orlando, it's alot bigger. But the cool thing about the one in Cali, is that there is a tour of all the different scenes and sets where movies are filmed. It's pretty amazing how most of the movies are filmed at Universal. Movies have been made at the Universal studios there since 1913.

The princess in all of us

A window display in New York.

I used to totally love Ariel, from The Little Mermaid. I had the poster, the comforter, the...ok I'll stop there.

Dude holding a circle

This dude always reminds me of Tina Fey.

Dubai Extravagance

Well, what can I say, I was pretty shocked when I saw this outside of the Mall of the Emirates! Some one told me it was actually covered in REAL white gold. I was disappointed to see something like this, I mean don't people have better things to buy with their money?? Or if you can't think of anything good to spend your money on give it to charity. That's just me!

Burj al Arab

I really wanted to go inside, but I heard you had to pay like $100 or something! So I didn't even try to go lol.
Ahhh Dubai extravagance :)

My adventure in the desert!

Back in 2006, I went to Dubai for a language and cultural emersion program, but I really went to have fun lol. The flat I was living in was in the desert, it was actually pretty relaxing to be outside of the city.



So one day I saw some camels and I wanted to get closer (it didnt look that far). I was warned not to go because it was actually pretty far and I would at least need some water and proper shoes to go. I had jeans, a black shirt and sandals, but I was like "Whatever, I'm tough I can do it" lol. Well, after 30 minutes I still wasn't near the camels and I was getting extremely thirsty and my feet were burning from the hot sand!

I ended up getting back to my flat 2 hours later, red as hell, and drank a gallon of water lol. Since then, Ilearned how serious mother nature is lol.

Shah Faisal Masjid

The Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad is a site every person visiting Pakistan should go to. Why? Well, for me, it's the beautiful contrast between the outer architecture of the masjid and the inner architecture.

The outer seems hard and bold. It's an intimidating design, one not often thought of as a stereotypical masjid.

You can see people walking from the outside towards the inner area which is darker, very shaded.

You reach the inner part and you come across this beautiful fountain. It automatically relaxes you and prepares you for inner peace.

Along the walls of the fountain area are wudu stations. And as you can see here, there's a dark stairway. The dark marble stairs lead up to the prayer area. It's fascinating how light is played with in this masjid and how it automatically alters your state of mind.

I wasn't able to take a picture of the actual prayer area (which is incredibly huge and accompanied with an even bigger open area) but this is a look at an area of the masjid to the side of the prayer area. Incredible water fountain!