Taking Pictures in our Backyard

Hey!

Today was such a beautiful day, very hot (compared to our cold winter) and very sunny so my mom came up with the idea to take a few nature pictures with what we had around us, since we have been looking into photography a lot. I just wanted to share with you some of my favorite pictures.

I love this one, and my mom especially loved it too. I really decided to get up close and personal to, well, another weed in our garden. It turned out to seem like I took a picture of a beautiful flower though, which is pretty cool. I was using my Digital Macro setting which makes what your focusing on super clear and blurs out the background. I ended up using this setting for most of my pictures.

Heres a small but detailed spider web right on our railing in the back. Since we were shooting nature shots, I figured this would fit in. The web isn’t very well done (not my fault!) but I like how you can see some if it’s detail.

This is in our front yard, a nice plant and a colourful flower sharing some space in our garden. This one also picked up on some good detail though it’s not exactly close up. We have a lot of the purple flowers in our front yard but I really liked how the purple contrasted against the yellow and green in this one.

These two pictures aren’t the same flower but are from the same plant and are shown as to be very different. The first one I especially love since in the same picture the flower looks blurry and clear at the same time. The colour in the second picture also seems to be more purple than pink and seems to be the main factor of the picture. Also,I really love the green leaf against the pop of pink, it makes the second picture entirely all about colour.

So, there are a few of the pictures I loved the most and as you may have seen I was really into the close ups and the beautiful colour all around us. That’s it! See you next time!

Last Stop: London

Hey!

So here we are at our last destination, London. I absolutely loved London and would even consider living there. The city is definitely very similar to North America or at least more similar than Israel or India and we just had an amazing time in London. We did a couple of really cool things in London, the first being that we took two walking tours. My mom had heard that people really loved these tours and they were highly recommended to us. The first one we took was my favourite and it was somewhat of a ghosts/writers of London tour. We walked around mostly Westminster listening to our Tour Guide read excerpts from books, talk about the many stories from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and also recommend many books for us to read ( Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson which I’m reading right now) We also had the best guide who was an older woman, much shorter than me with a red hat that you could barely see while she was walking ahead. I really loved this tour and found it so interesting and intriguing even though by the end of the tour I could barely feel my toes. The second tour we took was a London City Tour, which was pretty much a tour of all the main sites in London. We started in Westminster again and saw the Big Ben, (which isn’t actually the tower, just the clock inside!) Westminster Abbey, the Parliament Building, Buckingham Palace (we got the chance to see the end of the changing of the guard) and many other sites. Later that day we went to see the Tower of London which was by far my favourite visit. We took a tour of the many towers with a hilarious guide! He told us so many gruesome stories as well as many funny ones too. We also went to see Harrods which I absolutely loved! They have everything there, I wouldn’t even mind being locked up and just living in Harrods for the rest of my life! We also got to do some great shopping in London, since it’s one of the many things to do there! We went up to Oxford street and to Carnaby street which was a very hippie area in the 60’s. Our last day in London we walked around and took a short visit to the National Gallery, which had extraordinary pieces! My mom kept on finding different famous artists just on our way out! At times though, I would sit down and start reading the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde which we had just gotten at Hatcher’s (One of the oldest bookstores in London and one of the bookstores that sold to the Royal family) while we were walking around and stopping into shops. Back to the Gallery, when we walked into one of the first rooms there was a huge Georges Seurat painting on the wall titles Bathers at Asniè res. In this painting the grass was painted with different colours, each back was curved and arched and no one seemed considerably happy but for some reason I really love it. I loved how they were all looking somewhere we couldn’t see, it drew you in and made you even more curious about the painting. Later in the evening, we did what I found as my favourite thing in London, we went to see the Musical Wicked! I had heard and had listened to Wicked before but seeing in was so much fun! We had pretty good seats and were in the front though when the lights go down everyone moves around if there are empty seats so we moved towards the middle and really got to see everything going on. It was so much fun seeing a musical, especially in one of the best cities to see them! My mom even got tickets for us to see another musical with my friend since we loved Wicked so much and thought it was so much fun! I would definitely recommend seeing a musical, especially Wicked if you’re touring the city. I really fell in love with London and was my second favourite destination on our trip after Mumbai, I don’t know if I’d want to live in Mumbai though but it definitely was different! London has such great fashion and culture and really reminds me of New York City. I loved London and I am definitely going back in the future!

Gnocchi Thursday in Rome

Hi!
Our last full day in Rome we went to the Forum in the morning even though it was already rainy and didn’t look like it was going to stop any time soon. We decided to take the bus there so we’d have more energy later on in the day, though we had to get off before our stop since I wasn’t feeling too well. We walked around the Forum, and I have to be completely honest, we were very disappointed. We had seen Archaeological Digs in Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Israel and this one paled in comparison to the others. We had one small map, without any descriptions of any areas, we had no idea what we were looking at. I think it was pretty unfortunate since they have so many finds and history at the Forum, but without any help to the tourists to show us what anything is, to us. it’s like it was never discovered. I really didn’t learn much of anything about History, Archeology or even Rome at the Forum so we quickly moved on and walked towards the Circus Maximus which wasn’t much of anything either. It was simply one large field nest to the Forum. The Circus Maximus was where they used to have horse races a long, long time ago. Afterwards, we headed towards the Trastevere Area so we could eat at the well-known and loved (mostly by the locals) Augusto’s for Gnocchi Thursday! When we arrived there was already a line outside, and it was completely packed inside. One man actually just walked in grabbed a plate of gnocchi and ate outside in the cold, I guess they’d do anything for amazing pasta. When we did get to eat, and the wait wasn’t too long, the gnocchi was amazing! It was definitely the most amazing pasta I had ever had, my mom’s not even much of a fan of gnocchi and she even liked it! Being in Montreal now without all the amazing pasta and food is definitely tough. I’m even getting hungry for gnocchi just writing about it. Anyways, then we walked through the Trastevere are a bit more and went further down the main street. We also decided to walk through some alleyways though we always seemed to end up at the same place no matter how many ways we would zig-zag through the tiny streets. Funny how that works! We decided to walk back to our bed and breakfast since we were already getting tired (four days of walking from one end of Rome to the other really tires you out!) And we went to Dino and Tony’s for the third time on our last night since we loved it so much! I wish they opened up a Dino and Tony’s in Montreal! I would be eating there every week! In all, we loved Rome! It’s such an amazing city and it was definitely shocking seeing beautiful and clean Rome after coming from noisy and dirty Mumbai. I would definitely go back and wouldn’t even mind living there, despite the language barrier. Hopefully I’ll be writing about London soon so you can hear about all our experiences there! Until next time!

An Afternoon with the Pope

Hi!

Our next day in Rome, we visited the Vatican which was right near where we were staying. So, we walked up a couple of blocks and started by the museum. We entered the Vatican’s “grounds” and started our tour with the Vatican Museum which seems to go on and on and on. This museum, seriously had everything imaginable. They had an amazing Egyptian Collection, which if you think about it, they must have all stolen from Egypt. They also had tons of paintings, tapestries, statues, and other archaeological finds. We walked around the whole museum viewing the different sorts of art on display, and I really loved how each room had a different floor, ceiling and walls. It’s incredible! It’s amazing how rich the church was to have each room painted differently and detailed with gold, silver and marble. The floors were also beautiful, sometimes being mosaics or just all marble patterns throughout. There were some rooms packed with marble statues, or little rooms with small painting. It just all seemed to be one big maze they were taking us on before we came to the Raphael Rooms. Theses were four rooms with the walls all painted by the famous painter Raphael. They were quite gorgeous and each of them told a different, significant story of the Catholic Religion. There was also tons of detailing, it felt like you’d never get bored staring at one of the painting because each time you’d look back at a different area something else seemed to catch your eye. Afterwards, we moved through some more rooms before finally getting to the Sistine Chapel! It was definitely very beautiful. I loved the mural painted by Michelangelo. The colours were beautiful and everything was so nicely detailed and put together. The ceiling was also beautiful, though I can’t imagine how he wouldn’t be scared to fall off whatever he was using to get all the way up there! There were actually a lot of people and it seemed to be pretty packed, so we stayed in there for a bit and left before another big group came in. Afterwards, we went to lunch at Dino & Tony’s again, our favourite spot! This time, we decided to order an Italian special that our Romeo, was telling us about, fried artichoke! They fry the artichokes until they’re very crispy around the edges and a little soft in the middle and it’s absolutely amazing! It’s almost like a desert type meal, since it’s so yummy and sweet. We loved it! Then, we walked back up to the Vatican and went in through St. Peter’s Basilica area this time. The sun was just setting and it was gorgeous! We didn’t go into the Basilica though, after a long day and since there was a big line up to get in so we decided to skip it. We sat down near the fountain and took some pictures before heading back to our hotel, resting up a bit and then going out to a not-so-good restaurant right near where we were staying.

Oh, and I’m very sorry I haven’t been posting about the last part of my trip (Rome and London) but my mom and I have been very busing doing other projects and working on Math. It will come soon though! : )

Downtown Rome

Heey,

Our second full day in Rome we went into the center of Rome, walked around there and visited all the major sights. We started with the Piazza d. Popolo, which was pretty far to the north of the city center. Then we walked along an adorable street called Via Margutta with many cute jewellery shops and small clothing stores. There was even a marble carving store, where while you wait for your marble to be carved they serve you pasta! We stopped in, though decided to pass on buying marble to haul around for the rest of our trip. Afterward, we walked down to the beautiful Spanish Steps. There were actually a lot of people there and we couldn’t imagine what it would be like in August. There was a nice fountain and high end designer stores around the steps with many students hanging out and eating their lunch while basking in the sun. We then headed towards the famous Trevi Fountain, which I thought was absolutely beautiful. Especially since it was a beautiful sunny day, the light was reflecting against the blue water and the shiny white marble. There was so much detail, and it seemed as though water was gushing out of everywhere. Afterward, we walked over to the Piazza Colonna where there seemed to be people getting ready for a protest, and the police were all ready too! We hadn’t seen many protests during the trip, not half as many as there were in Buenos Aires. There was a huge column with a statue on top in the middle of the Piazza with scenes going around it, though they started so high we could barely see them. We decided to leave before the protest would start and headed towards Piazza Navona. This Piazza had tons of artists selling their drawings and paintings and also tons of artists offering to draw your picture. There were three fountains, the middle one under repair though it was done by Bernini, as was the Trevi Fountain. His work was really amazing, he managed to make human shapes and flowing shapes out of hard cold marble. And his work always seemed so completely detailed in every single corner, as if he had put thought into every single inch. After walking around that area and being very tempted by the many people eating ice cream, we left and walked to the very famous Pantheon right nearby. This building is simply breathtaking with it’s huge columns, domed roof and gold detailing. We went inside and took many pictures, while also playing around with our cameras. We seem to go to beautiful famous places and end up playing around with our cameras the whole time! Though, I did sit down and just look around the building and take in the great architecture. There weren’t that many people so it was definitely nice to be able to see every display and not feel too overwhelmed. The art in the Pantheon though, was exactly the same as any other piece of artwork in churches. After a while they seem to just be all the same, and tend to get a little boring. The Pantheon’s art was great though it seemed to be just a few more naked babies. When are they going to bring in Andy Warhol to paint the walls of the next Roman church? After walking around the Pantheon we headed towards the Piazza Campo de’Fiori. This Piazza was also very nice and seemed to change every time we visited it. The first time it was adorned with flower sellers and other merchandise sellers. This time they were cleaning up and putting away the tents and the last time we came it was completely empty with just clean gravel and some restaurant tables. Even though they were cleaning up, we were tired and decided to sit outside at a nice restaurant. Then, we walked back to our apartment to rest a bit and were so tired we decided to stay in for dinner and ate leftovers from my huge pizza we had brought home from Dino & Tony’s.

Battling at the Colosseum

Hi!

We are now back in Montreal though we arrived in New Jersey 2 days ago in the evening after the 7 and a half hour flight from London. I noticed that I really haven’t written about our last two destinations, London and Rome. We were only in Rome for 5 days and in London for 4 so we were verrryyy busy trying to see as much as we could in such a short time.

I loved Rome, it was simply amazing! I think we had a great time and really got to see many attractions of the city. The first day we were there, we arrived very late and were also very tired from all the travelling so we went out for a quick dinner right near our place and then went to bed fairly early. We were staying at an adorable bed and breakfast called Bibi & Romeo’s. Romeo had met us at the door of the apartment building and helped us out with our bags (Thank god there was an elevator!) and then made sure we were completely settled in and happy with the place before he took out a map and started telling us EVERYTHING there is to know about Rome. It was incredible all the information he was telling us! Unfortunately though by the next day we had completely forgotten whatever he had said and were confused with all the locations. Since we did have a book that he had lent us, it ended up being fine and we got to tour Rome happily and efficiently.

Our first full day in Rome we decided to visit the Colosseum and ended up walking all the way there! Now, we were staying near the Vatican (a couple blocks across from its north wall) and our destination was practically all the way across town. Romeo had told us it was about an hour walk, though it seemed much longer! When we did arrive, it was breathtaking. You see the building’s pictures everywhere, though when you’re standing right in front of it, it’s a truly amazing piece of architecture and history all together. We walked around it and then entered and took a tour of the inside. We learnt about how the people coming to see the battles would actually take pieces of the wall (marble and copper) and by the time the Colosseum stopped being used there was barely anything on the walls left except for the brick wall behind the marble. The tour guide told us about how they wouldn’t have gladiators battling lions but they did have tons of exotic animals imported from regions around the world and would also have experts hunting them on the floor of the Colosseum with everyone cheering. They had an amazing “elevator” system where the animals would be in the tunnels under the floor, put into these elevators and then brought up until parts of the floor would pop up and the animals would come out before the spectators’ eyes. We learnt tons of little stories, myths and legends from the Colosseum and the tour was really great! Afterward, we were still tired, though we decided to walk to the Trastavere area, where the poor people of Rome used to live though not anymore and now it’s a gorgeous area with tons of great restaurants, adorable houses, and tiny alleyways. Then we walked all the way back and were so tired we went to eat at a local restaurant called Dino & Tony’s that Romeo had recommended to us. It ended up being an amazing family run restaurant and we ended up going back there a few more times since it was so great and close to our place.

4 Seconds in Rome

Hi!

Well, we actually spent 4 days in Rome but it literally felt like a few seconds. Rome was such an amazing beautiful city and we were so busy I really had no time to write. But, we just arrived in London early this morning and are extremely tired though since its only 6:30 I’ve decided to write about our time in Rome.

We visited many things in Rome including the Coloseum, the Vatican, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps etc. Rome was such a gorgeous city! The food was amazing! We stayed near the Vatican at an adorable Bed and Breakfast called Bibi e Romeo’s. It was almost right across from the Vatican and an hour walk to the Coloseum across town. We ended up walking everywhere and were completely exhausted at the end of our stay. I’ll definitely write a longer post later about what we saw and did in Rome. Bye!

20 Million in 233 Square Miles

Hey!

We’re currently in Rome now, and have been for a couple of days though we’ve been so busy and tired (from so much walking) that I haven’t had much time to write. So, I will get back to Rome in my next post, though right now I want to talking about our last tour in Mumbai, the city tour. We took a car into the center of Mumbai, about half an hour without traffic (an hour and a half with traffic!) from the Bandra Kurla suburb. We started the tour off with something I found the most interesting, the Mumbai washing service. When the British came over to Mumbai, they noticed they had no ways of washing their clothes and soon started inquiring a washing service, which grew into a really big business. The Brits would have their laundry picked up from their house, brought to the washing tubs and washed with very efficient methods. They would soak the clothes in soap water, mix them all up then take them out, rinse them off, squeeze the excess water out, beat them with rocks and hang them to dry, which is still done in Mumbai today. It seems to be a really big industry in the city with over 10 000 workers and over 1 million pieces of clothes washed and ironed per day. We saw the workers soaking the clothes, beating them and hanging them to dry. I have to say though, despite the somewhat dirty conditions, I have never seen such bleach white clothes before! It was incredible how great of a job they do, and all by hand! Afterwards, we went over to the house Ghandi would reside in during his stays in Mumbai. The house had been turned into a museum with several floors and a whole montage and explanation of his life. I found it very interesting since I really didn’t know much on one of the most famous peace leaders in the world! After the museum, we headed towards a Jain Temple. Jainism is an offshoot of Hinduism, so it has it’s own rituals, temples and beliefs. We arrived right when it was the women’s time in the temple. They were singing, lighting incense and laying out the several fruits. Our tour gold told us a lot about the religion and we really got to see what the women’s rituals were like. Afterwards, we went to a very beautiful park and the hanging gardens. It was strange being in such a quite place in the middle of the bustling city. Everywhere in Mumbai was very noisy and crowded, being in such a large quite place was very different from what we had been experiencing earlier. One thing we definitely picked up from this tour was that the citizens of Mumbai love to honk their horn! They say that in Canada people never touch the horn, but in Mumbai people never take their hands of it! It seemed that not one second would go by with a honk. Quite annoying at times though it definitely does keep the city lively. Anyways, we got to see Mumbai’s old trees with its roots hanging from the top, a large shoe, from the story of the woman who lived in the shoe, and a beautiful view of Mumbai’s coastline. We then headed towards the Gateway of India, passing the Central Train Station and Clock Tower by car. The Gateway of India is a huge and beautiful arch by the water, packed with people and just a gorgeous place to hang out on a sunny day. Right across from it, we saw the Taj Mahal hotel being reconstructed from it’s terrorist attack explosion and several other buildings and hotels being reconstructed for the same reasons. Afterwards, we walked by the beautiful Mumbai University before heading back to our hotel in the Bandra Kurla area just as the sun was setting. There was so much traffic, it took us about an hour and a half to get home! I guess everyone was leaving the city center after work and trying to get home to the suburbs. The city had recently built a bridge connecting the suburb area to the center, though only half of it is open causing the traffic to be horrible around 5:30 – 7. Though we did finally get to the hotel and were very happy to after all the commotion and noise during the day.

Going to Mumbai and seeing the amazing city was an extraordinary experience for me and I think for my mom too. I had an amazing time and truly had a huge culture shock seeing the overpopulated (20 million in Mumbai) Asian city. I loved the slum tour and definitely would recommend it to anyone travelling in Mumbai.
Until next time! : )

The Wonderful Mumbai

Hi!

So here we are in Mumbai! This city is actually incredible. From the moment we arrived we could tell we were thousands and thousands of miles away. This city is just so completely different from anything I’m used to, from huge cities in Europe to small towns in South America, Mumbai is definitely the most breathtakingly amazing and of course, different. Let me start from the very beginning, when we left Jerusalem.

We left very very very early in the morning, actually closer to very late at night for me, at 3 a.m. was when our Sherut would drive us to the Airport. So, I decided that since I don’t do well during early morning car trips, we’d trick my stomach and pretend it was just a late night one, which worked perfectly! I stayed up all night and fell asleep instantly during the car ride to the airport in Tel Aviv. We arrived around 4 a.m. (exactly 3 hours before our flight at 7) and the security was very efficient, though I have to say, they did ask us some pretty strange questions, all for our safety of course. We left Tel Aviv on time, and I was definitely very sad to go. We had spent a whole month in the same place; don’t tell me you wouldn’t be attached to a place after that amount of time! It was also very sad to leave our dear friend and, Nurit. She was extremely nice, funny and very easy to live with. We had a great time together, so you can understand why leaving Israel for India was very gloomy. We had almost 2 whole days of travelling ahead of us, and were not excited about it! When we arrived in London, a little before noon (London time), we had 10 hours to spare. 10 miserable hours. Fortunately, my mom was very nice and bought us access to the internet to pass the time. Once we had that, it almost seemed like 10 hours was too short! Well, maybe not, but it was better. We boarded our plane at 9 and took off for Mumbai. I remember I was so excited, I didn’t know what it would be like… at all. We arrived in India in the morning, got our entire luggage and stepped outside, into a whole different world.

First of all, it was scorching hot and sunny. There were men in full business suits and women in long saris, some of them even covering their whole bodies. For us, we were dying in the heat. The people of Mumbai must find weather in the 30’s Celsius refreshing. To them hot is the 40’s in the summer, though they also have crazy monsoons during that time. It’s very humid here, but the weather is just extraordinary. We had someone drive us to the hotel, and during the ride we definitely got a taste of Mumbai life. The steering wheels are on the right side and they drive on the left side, which is already very strange for us to see. On top of that, there are practically no lanes! Everyone just speeds and drives on top of each other. The car ride was a bit… frightening. We also got to see the outside houses of the slums. This was like something I had never seen before. Houses made out of cloth, scraps of metal, anything they can find. We also saw on the other side of the road, highway passovers with people building houses and living there. Apparently if you are new to the slums, you have to pay an amount of money to live in one of the houses though don’t have to pay rent or anything else, just one payment at the beginning. Though, apparently slum dwellers have made the prices so high, newcomers can’t even afford to live in the slums! Imagine that! People who can’t even afford to live in the cheapest, most low maintenance, shack houses. Those people are then forced to wherever they can have a roof over their head, Highway overpasses work for them. They live in dirt and filth, exactly like the slums, though they have no running water or electricity and aren’t even part of a community. Seeing these people is so extremely heartbreaking. Once we arrived at our hotel we were very tired and decided to just stay in, hang out and rest. My mom fell asleep very quickly, and fell asleep for hours! When she woke up we went for dinner at the Indian restaurant in the hotel. First off, the food was incredibly spicy, not even comparable to the “Indian” food in Montreal. Second, the service was somewhat amazing, somewhat… annoying. The waitresses and waiters (any staff here for that matter!) are very nice and smiley, though a little too much. They treat you as if you’re the King and Queen. At the restaurant they kept on coming back dishing the food onto our plate, asking if you needed anything, asking this and that and so on. They were very nice but after a while it gets a bit annoying and pretty funny! When they started saying “There’s only 3 shrimps left!” or “Are you sure you don’t want any more!?” that’s when we couldn’t help but laugh, it was pretty funny and we definitely were not used to it! After a spicy but very good dinner we went to our room ad fell asleep right away!

Yesterday we went to visit the Dharavi slums, the biggest slum in Asia. It covers 6% of Mumbai’s land, though 50% of the population live in this slum. I don’t think I’ll even be able to describe this experience. We went with a guide, a man living in the slums who knows his way around and a driver to bring us to the different areas. It was a private tour and our guide was incredible! She knew what she was talking about and told us a lot about every aspect of slum life. As I said earlier, some of their houses are made out of anything they could find, though some of them are actually made out of real materials for house building. It seemed almost as if there were different classes, since some of the houses (more like rooms actually) had tiled floors, televisions and real kitchens! We visited the different work areas, the leather making, pottery making, embroidery, markets etc. The conditions these people work in are scary! They cram many men or women (usually never together) in small dark rooms with no air conditioning and just maybe a couple small fans. There aren’t any second exits, fire extinguishers or safety measures. Though, these people smile at you, show you their work! It’s amazing! The kids walking the streets barefoot (Yes, like in Slumdog Millionaire) smile, laugh, say hi and even once asked for our names. The life and energy is exceptional, the living and working conditions is a whole other story. They have hope, love and life in their eyes. They didn’t want our money; they didn’t want anything from us. They just wanted us to acknowledge them, to say hi, to smile. It was as if with every smile and every laugh they were saying “I’m ok. I’m happy.” And that was amazing. Peter, the man living in the slums taking us around even brought us to his house. He had a 2 room house (Bedroom/ living room/ main entrance and the kitchen) with a room upstairs, and a family of 7, not including his brother’s family living upstairs. We just couldn’t even imagine. 7 people and 2 rooms, each the size of my mom’s bathroom. We got to meet his ADORABLE 6 year old twin daughters, his mom and dad and his wife. His family seemed really lovely and they just couldn’t stop smiling. It was great just to see that having visitors was so special to them. The girls got especially excited when my mom asked to take a picture of them, it was adorable. We left after short while and continued walking around. The smells in the slums were almost unbearable. I could have sworn, while walking through the residential district that there was pee all over the ground. There were tons of flies all over the place; I can’t even imagine what kind of bugs they have. I will never complain about the teeny bugs we have in Canada, actually that’s hard to say. Though, I definitely will be mucchhh more grateful of what I have. Seeing these people living in such horrible, gut-wrenching conditions with smiles on their face is… indescribable. I can’t even tell you what it feels like to see that. Our tour was 3 hours long, and the day was extremely hot. It ended around 1 p.m. and we were driven back to our hotel. The whole tour was great and our guide was especially amazing. She really talked to us the whole time and answered our questions thoroughly, and best of all… she didn’t act like the service at the hotel. She acted like she was our friend and it was really nice.

Today, my mom was doing her conference so I got to sleep in, and sat by the pool while writing and relaxing. I thought a lot about what we saw the past couple of days and how Mumbai is just so extremely different from everything I’m used to.

See you next time!

Eilat :)

Hi!

We’re currently in Eilat, a very small city at the southernmost tip of Israel on the Red Sea. We arrived on Sunday and checked in to our hotel before walking around a bit and our first impression of Eilat was definitely not the best! The beaches were dirty and there wasn’t even any sand, just lots of stones and cracked pavement. We thought Eilat was very disappointing and definitely thought of going home early. Though… the next day we went to the Marine Park with its amazing Underwater Observatory. We saw land turtles and sea turtles, sharks, some very wacky fish and corals and got an underwater view of the red sea. We had a great time, I loved it! That’s when we started realizing Eilat might not be that bad, at least where we were (a little further out of the city) the water was bright blue and there were tons of colourful amazing fish! Then, the next day we went to Dekel Beach, after seeing the beaches the first day in Eilat we thought there must be something better! So we heard about Dekel beach and decided to give it a try. It was gorgeous! There was sand, it was pretty clean, and the water was bright blue! We were having a great time and really enjoying just soaking in the sun and swimming around in the beautiful clear water. I decided to go look around to see if they had showers when all of a sudden a man started talking to me… in french! I answered him but before I knew it he was asking me all these questions, which I was politely responding to. After about 5 minutes he quit talking and I walked on, back to my mom, forgetting all about my pursuit for showers. Maybe about 20 minutes later, when I was lying in the sun, listening to my iPod, he came back and sat right next to me! He continued talking on and on and on about every little aspect of his life. When my mom realized the man talking was to me, she turned around and jumped in to the conversation. We just couldn’t get rid of him! I have to say, he was a bit weird, very weird, talking about his trips around Europe, how he’s a citizen of the world, and his analysis on my nail polish. We FINALLY got rid of him after half an hour or more! This guy had a lot to talk about. At least I learnt a life lesson, “Don’t talk to strange beach bums”. After that crazy encounter, we went for a very good lunch at the restaurant right on the beach, where you can see Jordan right across the way, with its beautiful mountains! When the clouds started covering the sun and when it started getting darker, that’s when we started walking back home to our hotel after a fun, eventful day. Afterwards, once we relaxed a bit and cooled down, we went back out and decided to explore around the hotel areas a bit more. Turns out, there’s this whole other, great, area we hadn’t seen the first day! Once we started walking further and further was noticed there were tons of great shops and nice beaches. It was very lively and clean and definitely the opposite from what we had seen before (though Dekel beach was great!). By then, our impression of Eilat had become completely different! Today, we went back to where we had been the night before and settled down on the sand at one of the beautiful beaches. The sun was shining stronger than ever and the water was as clear as I had seen it, it really was amazing! The water here is so clear and beautiful, you can see all the way to the bottom even very far out from the shore. There was a good amount of people, though it definitely was not crowded. I went swimming and sun tanned and swimming and sun tanned and so on before we packed up and went for lunch, and then walked around further in that area discovering even more beaches and shops, including Top Shop! Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and were very tired from the waking and the swimming for me. Eilat is actually very nice and the weather is amazing! I can’t believe this is their winter! When we walked around the hotel a bit tonight, it was as hot as Montreal would be mid day with the sun shining, it’s incredible! I can’t imagine what they go through during the summer where it’s up to highs in the 40 degrees Celsius! Tomorrow, we’re hoping to go to Coral Reef Beach where we could go snorkeling and maybe be lucky enough to see some dolphins! Until next time!