Marseille

Back from Greece, the taxi didn't bring me back to my appartment in Ghent, but to Bruno's place in Schaarbeek (Brussels). I stayed there, since we had to take the train (high speed train called Thalys) to the south of France the next morning (9th of August). I arrived at his place around half past midnight and the train departed around 8 o'clock the next morning. The coffee saved my life i can tell you!

Small remark about the flight back from Athens: there were a lot of tourist on the plane coming back from Greece, and what always strikes me is that these people always applaud when the plane had landed. Don't get it, because is't it suppose to go that way: the plane lands, in one piece and you get to spend another they in your life? My personal theory is that most of these people basically are afraid of flying and when the plane has touched the ground there is an outburst of tightly held anxiety, a kind of jubelation that they are still breathing and not fleeing from the flames. Although, they should wait basically up untill the plane is actually come to a standstill, because they applaud the moment all the tires are on the ground. The plane is then trying to reduce from an incredible speed of several hunderds of kilometers an hour to standstill, before it runs out of airstrip. You can still very well come to some gruesome end. Oh well, maybe i spend to much time analyzing other people ;-)

Travelling to the south of France in a train is great! No hastle, once on board, you have no more worries, except creating some room for your breakfast (we were watching movies on Bruno's laptop). We had 1st class tickets, which we got for only 150 euro (go and return) because of some special offer (thank you Eva for spotting that, and booking the tickets by the way).
Main objective of the trip: diving (duh!)

My first time diving in the Mediteranean Sea. We had booked our accomodation and the dives with Atoll dive center in Marseille, Pointe Rouge to be exact (bit more to the east of Marseille).
Accomodation was basic (and the price of 33 euro a night a bit steep, considering we shared the room with 5 people) and included a breakfast. But the dives where great. Each trip, we were brought to the marina, closeby and went on a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) to our dive spot. Most of the times there was a bit of a chop, which made the trip towards the dive spot in itself a great experience (reminded me of the NorthSea), although not everyone could appreciate that. The visibility was good, minimum of 10 meters, usually more. A lot of underwater life: see next pictures for my favorites, nudibranches!


But what was also very impressive were the underwater structures. We saw several arches, canyon, and even a tunnel. You can easily call the structures dramatic.


The temperature was a bit colder than i expected. First dives the water was (starting at 10m) some 16 degrees! And i had the great idea to actually dive in my wet suite for a change!

We did all our dives on Nitrox and the dive centre is also equiped for trimix dives and rebreathers! I took special note of that last feature of course, since i am expecting my little rebreather (Sentinel for those who care) in December :-)
The organisation was sometimes a bit chaotic, but in all we always got in the water and at the right spot. And the people were very nice.

We didn't dive all the time and also took some time exploring the surroundings. I had never been to the south of France, so was glad to be able to make a few nice walks in the beautiful Calanques, a series of fjord like structures, semi-mountaineous, which makes for great walks. It's these structures basically that are continued under water, which make for the splendid shapes. By the way, i think that you will see that the picture below does have some resemblance with the picture you will see if you follow the hyperlink hidden under the word 'Calanques' to Wikipedia.
At one spot we rested and enjoyed the beautfill surroundings. Only one of us was brave enough to jump into the cold waters: Eva. Respect!!
This is where we were resting:

And this is Eva in those waters:
The picture at the beginning of this post is taken during an afternoon hike in the nearby Calanque, where we had a magnificient view of Pointe Rouge and the sea beyond.

Also went for diner in the city centre, the old port neighbourhood. The entrance to the old port from the see was garded by two ancient fortresses.
The picture below really shows the kind of picture i always had in mind when i was reading 'The Count of Monte Christo' a typical adventure book for boys, that i simply adored was i was a child. It especially brings back to mind the scene where the old ship where Edmond worked on sails back into port after it was assumed lost.

From where we had diner we had a good view on the main cathedral of the city: "The Notre Dame de la Garde" , you have to admit, there are worst sights to have while you are having diner (below a detail of the Notre Dame):
And we found a very nice restaurant, not far from one were we stayed (only a ten minute walk, but that is an insider ;-) ), which was called "Au bord de l'eau" and looked over a small little harbour protected by a big stone wall from the sea beyond. It might be a good idea to book ahead, just ask at the Atoll Dive Center to call them, they know them very well.

To finish of some pictures of the diving centre and the conclusion that it was a great holiday:

Greece again

On sunday the 3rd of August 2008 i flew back to Athens.
Booked into the Crown Plaza, which turned out to be rather new again. So again not to many people. But the worst was the interior. Now i am not spectaculary picky on that, but damn, who was their interior decorator? I swear, when i came on my floor, with the dark red and black colours splashed around and the neon accents, i thought i was in some kind of brothel instead of a hotel. Unfortunatly i was dissapointed to see that my room was empty :-)

August in Athens, it is warm, no it's hot, dry and dusty. But ... there are fewer cars, a lot more quiet that last time, since almost everyone is on holiday.
All expect the poor souls who where attending my class :-) Most of them left the last day with a ferry or airplane to one of the many islands, also for the Greek a much appreciated holiday destination.

The class was okay, a nice group, people generally where very interested. Would have love to give them the Part 2 as well, but i am occupied during that week already.

During the week i didn't venture out too much, but i did have a lovely evening in a area i hadn't visited yet (just east of the Plaka). After a walk uphill through the neighbourhoud, i found a nice looking terras where i had a beer (think it was called 'Daily' or something). Okay, i had two, but what do you want: it looked peacefull, the weather was fine (warm but i was in the shade), people seemed generally content, the waitress was a cute girl that smiled at me each time she passed by, i was reading a nice book ('Notes from a Small Island' by Bill Bryson): what more does one need?
The diner in a nearby restaurant was less memorable, not bad, but simply nothing special for the price you paid.

The last day, just before i took the bus to the airport, one of the participants, Stelios, took me for a special tour through the Plaka, we stopped at a few historical place that i hadn't visited before. See pictures below. The first is the entrance to the Roman Agora.

the second one is from the old Athens agora, yes i know it doesn't look as impressive, but it is a lot older you know, and the area is huge!Anther thing that is so typical Greek: the churches. Greece is a very religious country. They are mostly orthodox christians and you will find loads of churches in Athens and i must admit some of them are really magnificent. I only include one picture here:
And this picture was a typical southern scene: these guys are loading an incredible amount of stuff in their van (they had a complete studio in there), blocking the road completely for like forever. After a while a guy on a motorbike, who couldn't pass either, stopped and started yelling. A typical mediteranean schouting contest issued, so instead of continuing loading up their stuff and getting out of there as soon as possible, they where just letting off steam. :-) Anyway, all in all we only waited there some 20 minutes :-)

Dubai

My first country on the Persian Gulf. I was fairly excited, since i always enjoy moslim countries. Not that i have visited so many, except Egypt (see also previous post), i went to Morroc and Saoudi-Arabia (diving, so spent most of my time on a boat, but did get to visit Jeddah).
I think it is because of my dark hair and brown eyes, but i am easily accepted by the people there. Of course, we are talking acceptance among men, since a lot of moslim countries do not appreciate free mingling between men and women.
What also helps is that when we get in a conversation i have read a thing of two about islam, it that is usually appreciated.

I was there one day early and spent the saturday with ... diving (what else?). I had booked a two fun dives at the east coast (Dubai is part of the United Arabian Emirates (UAE) and has a coast at the persian gulf and one at the Gulf of Oman, the eastern coast). I walk up pretty early and was the first to arrive at the diving centre. In total some 15 people were in my mini bus towards the east. All of them were working in Dubai. I talked to a guy from South-Africa, who worked in construction (as did most people in the bus). He was very cynic about the situation in his country and when i commented on how much violence people had become use to over there, he responded that that was the reason he left: he didn't want to become used to violence. I could only agree with him. Further in the bus was a girl from Ireland (you meet the Irish everywhere), who was a coastal enigneer (didn't even know that existed). Both she and the south africa guy told me that most of the big projects of infrastructure in Dubai are set up and being finalized. The focus is going to shift to Abu Dhabi in the future and apparently the projects they are planning there are going to dwarf those of Dubai. Because 'that is where the real money is'. We will see.

I made two dives, we only had to go out some 20 minutes by boat to get there. I got a nice guy from Denmark as my buddy, who wanted to set up his own lawfirm to represent Danish customers and assist them with investments in real estate. Problem is that because of the fatwa on the danish after the cartoon in one of their newspapers some years before, it was still not possible for him to start a lawfirm on his own. So he had to work together with an existing one.
Also talked a lot with a italian guy and a dutch guy, who worked for some kind of centre of excellence, a kind of telecom consultants group that worked for the UAE goverment. He left me his card, stating that they were looking for telecom experts. But you had to be able to stand the military way of thinking, so i don't think i will take him up on his offer. :-)

On the first dive i saw a lot of box fish, a pipefish and several lion fish. My buddy, who didn't have a lot of experience, was running through his air rather fast (had had a lot of trouble getting down because of his ears, so probably wasted a lot of air at that point). I was fearing that my dive would be short as well so i proposed to the divemaster to share my air with him and so we went on for a while together. And i was glad we did, because just when we were going to surface, a sea turtle passed us by :-)
Second dive was full of coral and was a nice dive, but became a very nice dive when no less then 3 black tip reef sharks came very close and even cricled us for a while, seeming very curious. Glorious!

My hotel was a Holiday Inn and was open for 3 months (had to explain to almost all taxi drivers that week that there was indeed a Holiday Inn next to the Emirates Mall). That is not really an advantage: there was almost nobody there and the pool wasn't ready yet! Normally the hotels i stay in are not the place where i get in contact with a lot of people, to say the least. Most of the business people are walking around in their suits, looking at me as if i am some suspicious individual and wondering what i am doing in their hotel. And if i overhear some of their conversation, i am sure i do not want to talk to them. And the tourist you see are even worst, since these are usually people with a lot of money, who are either surprised to see me or actual wonder whether i am not going to rob them :-) But an empty hotel is not nice either. For one thing, that means that all the staff is focusing completely on you. And all of them wanted to please me so much, probably because all of them still have to proove to management that they were doing a good job. I actually got a feedback form when i had dinner in the arabian restaurant :-)
Especially Lucy from Kenia really wanted me to like her. I usually get suspicous myself when they immediatly say that they would like to visit your country. Reminded me of a very friendly young man from Malaysia that worked in my hotel in Singapore and asked for my room number and was heart broken that i was leaving the next day already (for those who are now curious: yes i did give him my room number and no ... he didn't give me a surprise visit :-) ).

The course itself started of bad. I spend the whole sunday setting up the classroom (don't worry i am not over zealous, working week starts on sunday in UAE, friday and saturday are the days of the weekend). But starting the next day when the actual class started, everything went a lot better. Where i thought that the operator that i was teaching wasn't inclined to help me, one of the guys in the class, Khaled, a palestinian who knows a lot about IPTV, really helped me out.
The class consisted of only two guys from Dubai. Was easy to spot them since they were wearing the traditional white robes. There were two guys from Lebanon with whom i had a few lunches. One of them had a friend, a girl from Lebanon that went to the same school as he did when they both lived in Lebanon that joined us during one lunch. Absolutely gourgeous girl, i definitly have to visit Lebanon one day :-)
Further there was a guy from Syria, one from Jordan and even a guy from Iraq.
One lunchtime we all went out to an iranian restaurant, which was really enjoyable.

I had a bit of time to look around the time. I had hoped to visit the latest palm island, but the visits are during the day, so didn't have time. I did see the Burj Al Arab, the only 7-star hotel in the world (so far). Picture below, first while it was still light, with the beach next to it and the second one at night.

The city is full of building activity. One of the notable buildings i saw, was the tallest building in the world (see picture below) and next to it they are going to build the revolutionary concept of some italian architect, where all the floors will be able to move, so that the building will set itself depending on where the wind comes from (reducing its friction) and thus giving the people that live there a changing view.
Or what do you think of this little builing:
This last picture was indeed in Dubai, they have the largest indoor ski slope in the world. The thing is huge and is in the Emirates Mall (indeed, next to my hotel). I spent some time in the mall, went to the movies there, and had some good food there. Didn't ski (my knee pervents me) so took this picture through a window.