From Asia to Mediterranean Sea

20 hours jetlag was nothing compared to an excitement of my first-time stepping foot in Algeria's land. Algeria is located somewhere in the north part of Africa, a continent that holding title 'The second largest continent in the world', after the Asia continent. Representing itself as the world top 9 highest Olive Oil Production countries, Algeria also is one of the countries that surrounding the Mediterranean and its marginal seas including Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Morocco, Malta and Cyprus. The capital and largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast.

It was summer when I first touched down here. Day was gently warm. Not so much humid compared to home country in tropical. The leaves and the trees though, it's somehow different. The green pigments of the leaves here aren't similar to what I called leaves back in the home town. They are is more darker with a little tinged of gray. But the skies, they are magical. Magnificently blue. It is so eyes soothing.

"Husband and I, it was early in the morning. We were walking around our neighborhood, watching for the sea, Mediterranean Sea."

As it was summer, I saw abundance colorful fruits, farmers and small business owners were selling their crops just along the streets. It was strawberry and cherry season when I arrived. Cherries were sell in bulk, roughly spread on top of the table. People here buying those in 'kilograms'. Unlike in Asia, cherry is one of the most expensive imported fruits. We don't do that, we buy in small packet of 100gram or 250gram, once in a year or two.

"It was Cherry season during my first month in Algeria. Astonishing!"

There was a day, that temperature here reached to a level of 50+ degree Celsius during the day. It was crazy hot. The most extreme hottest day I ever had in my life, was that day. I still remember that evening. We were in the car, taking a trip from Aïn Bénian to Birkhadem. Temperature in the dashboard was at first shown 44 degree Celsius, spiking up to 50 degree Celsius within that less than 1 hour journey. Fun thing about that is, the most extreme coldest day that I ever had in my life, was here too. It reached 7degree Celsius recently, just few weeks ago. Being inside a thick warm blanket is the best and the only thing you want to do during this season. My fingers, my face, my Asian nose are all freezing cold. I could feel my bones are shivering and freezing too. Where are we living now is in the city area, not even in those province up in the mountain. And guess what, it is still in the season of autumn right now (when I was writing this entry)."Winter is coming".

*Edited: It is now winter. I will write another entry for winter. Stay in touch!

"So, this is 'Tin' fruit tree. Tin is in Arabic. In English 'Tin fruit' is called 'Fig'.