Tonight be my last night here in the beach city that sleeps early. Having completed my open water diving course without drowning, I was given my certification. Hooray! Now I can dive myself up to 18 meters and get my own air tanks filled... oh the possibilites.
Today on our final dive we went down to 25 meters, instead of my 18 meter limit. Ludo said that I was doing well in the water and that I could go the extra depth and it was no problem. Down at 25 meters we saw a shipwreck. A kinda small motorboat that sank for reasons unknown to me. On our way back to a shallower depth I found some sort of seahorse like creature, but it wasn't really a seahorse. They looked like seahorses, but straightened out and not soo curvy. I'll have to look 'em up later. When we got out of the water I gave Ludo my ugly ass mugshot of a photo for my certification and then I was left to do whatever I wanted for the rest of my stay here. So I took a nap on the beach with a cool can of pineapple juice, and then later finished off vol 4 of the Saga of Swamp thing.
Tomorrow I'm off to Tel Aviv again, hopefully to meet up with some fellow Canadians before we head off to someplace else together. Probably a short sweet trip somewhere as I've suddenly become a pennypincher. It must be something in the water here in Israel. Now that I've tasted some of the beachside BBQ corn here, there isn't much else left to do, so i'm off to wander the streets again before passing out in my very uncomfortable bed.
adios muchachos
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
The fish, the fish, of fishy fish fish...
Not much has happened the past few days. Just diving, eating and sleeping. I wish that I could take my camera and show what im going to try to describe.
On the first dive I saw some great sea creatures... another puffer fish and a moray eel or two. After swimming along the bottom of the sea at 14 meters we come to a bare patch of sand with what looked like a feild of sea grass gently waving in the currents. Ludo (my instructor) tells me to look closely at them (using a series of hand gestures). As we get closer I begin to notice that it was not grass, but eels. Garden Eels to be exact. We swam into the garden and as we approached them they retreated back into the ground, and then popped back out once we passed. As I looked behind and around me I saw that we were surrounded by them. It was very surreal to see this in person and not just on that little black box us humans call TV.
Later I get back out, shower, change and then pass out on my bed for an unknown lenght of time. I then wake up, go to Aroma for a sandwich and then read a bit before I pass out. Ohh the lazy life by the sea. I might be able to get used to it.
Today is the same as yesterday pretty much. I woke up, wrote my final open water exam, which I think I passed, and then went for a dive. This was another great dive. From the moment we submerged I noticed very many jellyfish. Not the creepy ones with the tentacles, but the bulbus ones with rims of flashing lights. So pretty and soo delicate, I wanted to eat them. We practice a few technical saftey techniques before we dive along the sea floor. This time at 18 meters. Ludo pointed out to me a spotted ray, like a small sting ray, very neat. Later on he points for me to look under a piece of coral. I couldn't see what he was trying to show me untill he poked at it and *abaracadabera* a piece of the coral changes colour and moves away. It be an octopus! I diddn't think that we would be able to find one but there it was. He pokes it again to try to get it out and it shoots its ink on us. How lovely. Then it starts to crawl away changing colours. It was incedible to see how quickly it changes colours, almost at an instant like lightning. Apparently they are friendly and playful, but Ludo doesn't like the suction feeling. Perhaps next time I see one I will try to make friends. I don't think the suction will bother me too much.
Now that I'm dry and out of the water there isn't much else left to do but wander the streets and eventually go to bed. And on that note....
toodle doo
On the first dive I saw some great sea creatures... another puffer fish and a moray eel or two. After swimming along the bottom of the sea at 14 meters we come to a bare patch of sand with what looked like a feild of sea grass gently waving in the currents. Ludo (my instructor) tells me to look closely at them (using a series of hand gestures). As we get closer I begin to notice that it was not grass, but eels. Garden Eels to be exact. We swam into the garden and as we approached them they retreated back into the ground, and then popped back out once we passed. As I looked behind and around me I saw that we were surrounded by them. It was very surreal to see this in person and not just on that little black box us humans call TV.
Later I get back out, shower, change and then pass out on my bed for an unknown lenght of time. I then wake up, go to Aroma for a sandwich and then read a bit before I pass out. Ohh the lazy life by the sea. I might be able to get used to it.
Today is the same as yesterday pretty much. I woke up, wrote my final open water exam, which I think I passed, and then went for a dive. This was another great dive. From the moment we submerged I noticed very many jellyfish. Not the creepy ones with the tentacles, but the bulbus ones with rims of flashing lights. So pretty and soo delicate, I wanted to eat them. We practice a few technical saftey techniques before we dive along the sea floor. This time at 18 meters. Ludo pointed out to me a spotted ray, like a small sting ray, very neat. Later on he points for me to look under a piece of coral. I couldn't see what he was trying to show me untill he poked at it and *abaracadabera* a piece of the coral changes colour and moves away. It be an octopus! I diddn't think that we would be able to find one but there it was. He pokes it again to try to get it out and it shoots its ink on us. How lovely. Then it starts to crawl away changing colours. It was incedible to see how quickly it changes colours, almost at an instant like lightning. Apparently they are friendly and playful, but Ludo doesn't like the suction feeling. Perhaps next time I see one I will try to make friends. I don't think the suction will bother me too much.
Now that I'm dry and out of the water there isn't much else left to do but wander the streets and eventually go to bed. And on that note....
toodle doo
Friday, January 2, 2009
I'm a fish!
The other night I ran into Ilya, Aaron, Dave and Mark on my way back to the hotel (to use the water closet). Lucky for me they were on their way to the shooting range, so I decided to tag along. We roll up to a really fancy hotel down the road thinking we went to the wrong place, but surprisingly enough there was a shooting range in the basement. We stocked up on 50 .022 mm (?) rounds each, shooting a baretta of some sort (i think), and Mark split his .365 Desert Eagle with us. We stand in front of our targets and load our clips into the guns.
*pop*
*pop*
*pop*
we shoot off a few rounds as Mark is briefed on how to shoot the Desert Eagle... and then
*KABOOM*
The whole rooms shakes as we all turn to Mark shooting what appears to be a hand cannon. That Desert Eagle makes our Barettas look like BB guns. Soon it was my turn to fire the thing. I nervously hold the gun in my hands, not really knowing what kind of recoil I should expect. I envisioned myself being knocked in the face by the blowback. With a gentle squeeze of the trigger I shot the round into the target. At least I think i hit the target. I was so shaken by the recoil and the target was obscured by the muzzle flash that I couldn't really see where I hit. 5 Rounds later and I was done. For my first time shooting a real gun I think I did pretty well. I got mostly headshots and "A" rated chest shots, and came very close to a few bullseyes on the smaller targets. That was some great fun we had and I'm sure I'll go again to fire my Beretta p92.
Later that night we met up with the rest of the crew and strolled down the beach to a resturant simply called "kosher" (at least to my knowledge). We were greated with terrible service and were even denied appetizers at the start of the meal. Finally we got some pitas and humous ordered and it was pretty fantastic.
The next day was day 1 of my open water course. We started off by suiting up and jumping in the water. 40 minutes and 12 meters later we emerge from the water. I had thought that I would at least have to learn something before diving, but apparently I diddn't need to. We swam around some amazing looking coral sights. Saw many Lionfish, jellyfish, some weird looking camoflauge fish that looked like a rock, a pufferfish and a real neat looking spotted ray... and many more. After the dive I was tought some dive theory stuff such as hand siginals, how to breathe properly, dynamics of buoyency and water/air pressure stuffs.
After that was done with I met up with Aaron, Dave, Ilya and Mark. They snorkeled while I did my homework on the beach and then we went back to their hotel for some sauna beers. Finding the sauna itself was probably the most difficult part of the trip so far.
"its right next to the snackbar by the pool" says the lady at the front desk.
We scour the area a few times and couldn't find a single sauna! Finally the security guard comes out, probably after watching us run around in bathing suits for the past 20 minutes, and he shows us the way. It wasn't exactly next to the snack bar... It was more like it was around the fence and into the next hotel, down an unmarked staircase and through a shady looking basement to the corner of a room. Finally. We enjoy our sweating with a warm beer or two and then head back to the room only to find out that they locked us in the back yard of the next hotel with a chain and padlock. We manage to find our way out individually and meet back at the room.
We relax for a bit then it was off to Cosa De Brasil (i think thats what it was called). A real nice resturant where you order 14 different kinds of meat and can eat as much as you want. It was pretty delicious and VERY filling, I think I only made it to 7 different kinds of meats before I had to call it quits. It was also my first time eating chicken hearts <3 and bbq goose. Fearing that I would slip into a coma before finishing my diving homework I head right home after the meal and power through my homework.
The next day of diving is somewhat different. I learned how to better controll my buoyency and some emergency techniques like using my secondary respirator if my buddy runs out of air. The most difficult was breathing underwater without my mask on. I inhaled alot of water up my nose, but eventually got the hang of it. Tomorrow should be more of the same, just so I get comfortable with underwater emergencies.
There isn't much to do around here now that all my friends are gone and I've seen everything I wanted to here. Maybe now I'll get to spend some quality time reading Swamp Thing (finally) and sleeping on the beach for 14 hours at a time.
ima shelcha
*pop*
*pop*
*pop*
we shoot off a few rounds as Mark is briefed on how to shoot the Desert Eagle... and then
*KABOOM*
The whole rooms shakes as we all turn to Mark shooting what appears to be a hand cannon. That Desert Eagle makes our Barettas look like BB guns. Soon it was my turn to fire the thing. I nervously hold the gun in my hands, not really knowing what kind of recoil I should expect. I envisioned myself being knocked in the face by the blowback. With a gentle squeeze of the trigger I shot the round into the target. At least I think i hit the target. I was so shaken by the recoil and the target was obscured by the muzzle flash that I couldn't really see where I hit. 5 Rounds later and I was done. For my first time shooting a real gun I think I did pretty well. I got mostly headshots and "A" rated chest shots, and came very close to a few bullseyes on the smaller targets. That was some great fun we had and I'm sure I'll go again to fire my Beretta p92.
Later that night we met up with the rest of the crew and strolled down the beach to a resturant simply called "kosher" (at least to my knowledge). We were greated with terrible service and were even denied appetizers at the start of the meal. Finally we got some pitas and humous ordered and it was pretty fantastic.
The next day was day 1 of my open water course. We started off by suiting up and jumping in the water. 40 minutes and 12 meters later we emerge from the water. I had thought that I would at least have to learn something before diving, but apparently I diddn't need to. We swam around some amazing looking coral sights. Saw many Lionfish, jellyfish, some weird looking camoflauge fish that looked like a rock, a pufferfish and a real neat looking spotted ray... and many more. After the dive I was tought some dive theory stuff such as hand siginals, how to breathe properly, dynamics of buoyency and water/air pressure stuffs.
After that was done with I met up with Aaron, Dave, Ilya and Mark. They snorkeled while I did my homework on the beach and then we went back to their hotel for some sauna beers. Finding the sauna itself was probably the most difficult part of the trip so far.
"its right next to the snackbar by the pool" says the lady at the front desk.
We scour the area a few times and couldn't find a single sauna! Finally the security guard comes out, probably after watching us run around in bathing suits for the past 20 minutes, and he shows us the way. It wasn't exactly next to the snack bar... It was more like it was around the fence and into the next hotel, down an unmarked staircase and through a shady looking basement to the corner of a room. Finally. We enjoy our sweating with a warm beer or two and then head back to the room only to find out that they locked us in the back yard of the next hotel with a chain and padlock. We manage to find our way out individually and meet back at the room.
We relax for a bit then it was off to Cosa De Brasil (i think thats what it was called). A real nice resturant where you order 14 different kinds of meat and can eat as much as you want. It was pretty delicious and VERY filling, I think I only made it to 7 different kinds of meats before I had to call it quits. It was also my first time eating chicken hearts <3 and bbq goose. Fearing that I would slip into a coma before finishing my diving homework I head right home after the meal and power through my homework.
The next day of diving is somewhat different. I learned how to better controll my buoyency and some emergency techniques like using my secondary respirator if my buddy runs out of air. The most difficult was breathing underwater without my mask on. I inhaled alot of water up my nose, but eventually got the hang of it. Tomorrow should be more of the same, just so I get comfortable with underwater emergencies.
There isn't much to do around here now that all my friends are gone and I've seen everything I wanted to here. Maybe now I'll get to spend some quality time reading Swamp Thing (finally) and sleeping on the beach for 14 hours at a time.
ima shelcha
Thursday, January 1, 2009
....To Eilat
These past few days have been a blast. I made it down to Eilat after a few logistical errors. I was to fly here and to get to the airport I had to ride the train. Silly me, I ended up getting on the wrong train to Ben Gurion University instead of Ben Gurion airport. Realizing that I diddn't have enough time to get back to the airport I decided to take the bus from Be'er Sheva to Eilat. The bus finally arrived after waiting for an hour and a half as my bladder slowly grew larger and larger. I wasn't sure what time the bus was to arrive so I diddn't want to risk missing it just for a little pee pee. Finally the bus arrives and 30 min into the trip i REALLY have to go pee. It was a 3 hour bus ride but seemed like much longer because of the urinal agony I was experiencing. Finally the bus stopped at a gas station for 15 min and I RAN (very carefully) to the bathroom. Feeling relieved I sat back down on the bus and relaxed myself. On the ride to Eilat I talked with an old lady named Samantha from Eilat. She was real nice and kept offering me apples. After a while I diddn't feel like squeazing any more hebrew out of my very tired brain so I gave her one of my headphones and we listened to John Zorn's classical Mesada album. She seemed to like it and I passed right out.
Finally, we arrive at Eilat. I hop off the bus and grab my bags and try to find my hotel in the skyline. Right then my cousin calls me to make sure I made it to Eilat in one piece. She then tells me that Be'er Sheva was hit by missles only hours after I left, but luckily they hit an empty field and anj empty school. What good timing that was. Having given up on finding the hotel by food I hailed a taxi and asked him to take me to the holiday inn. He drives half a block down the street and around the roundabout and then stops.
"12 shekels" he said with a grin on his face.
That Ben Zona (son of a bitch) could have at least told me that the hotel was a 30 second walk from where he had picked me up. Back in the hotel I finally meet up with all my jew friends again and another familiar face from Thornhill. Later that night we walked throughout the town and ended up eating dinner at the soon to be famous "beatles bar". It was "just okay".
The next day we awoke and Immedietly hit up the beach for some sun and snorkeling. There were many brightly coloured fish in the area and I even met a few friendly jellyfish too. Not the ones with the tentacles, but the little bulb shaped ones with the christmas lights that run up and down the sides of themselves. Really neat stuff. We had lunch on the beach and then headed back to the hotel to prepare for sylvester (new years in israel). For Sylvester* we went to some really shitty overpriced club that wasn't that good, but at least we had fun all bieng there together to celebrate whatever Sylvester* is. Alot of money later we head off to find some shawarma and then back to the other friend's hotel where we ended up passing out very quickly. Eventually we kicked ourselves out to our OWN hotel where we once again passed out, but this time quicklier.
Today was a rather laid back day in Eilat. We walked the beach, went coffee shop hopping and generally lazed around all day. I think tonight a few more of us Taglitists are meeting us in Eilat and a few more are leaving perhaps? As for tomorrow, that will be the first day of the scuba course. I hope my cold gets better by then, otherwise I may have to put the course on hold untill I become less congested.
Happy Jew Year.
*Wikipedia to the rescue... heres what INTERNET has to say about Sylvester...
Germans call New Year's Eve Silvester. Since 1972, each New Year's Eve, several German television stations broadcast a short English theatrical performance titled Dinner for One. A punch line from the comedy sketch, "same procedure as every year", has become a catch phrase in Germany. [1] Every year Berlin hosts one of the largest New Year's Eve celebrations in all of Europe which is attended by over a million people. The focal point is the Brandenburg Gate and the fireworks at midnight centered around that location. Germans have a reputation of spending large amounts of money on firecrackers and fireworks.
Somehow Israelies also celebrate this Holiday instead of new years, and Saint Sylvester himself is said to be one of the biggest jew haters of all time.
Finally, we arrive at Eilat. I hop off the bus and grab my bags and try to find my hotel in the skyline. Right then my cousin calls me to make sure I made it to Eilat in one piece. She then tells me that Be'er Sheva was hit by missles only hours after I left, but luckily they hit an empty field and anj empty school. What good timing that was. Having given up on finding the hotel by food I hailed a taxi and asked him to take me to the holiday inn. He drives half a block down the street and around the roundabout and then stops.
"12 shekels" he said with a grin on his face.
That Ben Zona (son of a bitch) could have at least told me that the hotel was a 30 second walk from where he had picked me up. Back in the hotel I finally meet up with all my jew friends again and another familiar face from Thornhill. Later that night we walked throughout the town and ended up eating dinner at the soon to be famous "beatles bar". It was "just okay".
The next day we awoke and Immedietly hit up the beach for some sun and snorkeling. There were many brightly coloured fish in the area and I even met a few friendly jellyfish too. Not the ones with the tentacles, but the little bulb shaped ones with the christmas lights that run up and down the sides of themselves. Really neat stuff. We had lunch on the beach and then headed back to the hotel to prepare for sylvester (new years in israel). For Sylvester* we went to some really shitty overpriced club that wasn't that good, but at least we had fun all bieng there together to celebrate whatever Sylvester* is. Alot of money later we head off to find some shawarma and then back to the other friend's hotel where we ended up passing out very quickly. Eventually we kicked ourselves out to our OWN hotel where we once again passed out, but this time quicklier.
Today was a rather laid back day in Eilat. We walked the beach, went coffee shop hopping and generally lazed around all day. I think tonight a few more of us Taglitists are meeting us in Eilat and a few more are leaving perhaps? As for tomorrow, that will be the first day of the scuba course. I hope my cold gets better by then, otherwise I may have to put the course on hold untill I become less congested.
Happy Jew Year.
*Wikipedia to the rescue... heres what INTERNET has to say about Sylvester...
Germans call New Year's Eve Silvester. Since 1972, each New Year's Eve, several German television stations broadcast a short English theatrical performance titled Dinner for One. A punch line from the comedy sketch, "same procedure as every year", has become a catch phrase in Germany. [1] Every year Berlin hosts one of the largest New Year's Eve celebrations in all of Europe which is attended by over a million people. The focal point is the Brandenburg Gate and the fireworks at midnight centered around that location. Germans have a reputation of spending large amounts of money on firecrackers and fireworks.
Somehow Israelies also celebrate this Holiday instead of new years, and Saint Sylvester himself is said to be one of the biggest jew haters of all time.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)