Israel Travel Diary Part Three (Final Part)

Day 6 | Wed, 19.7. 17:47
What a day it has been, and it’s not even over yet. I started once more with an early breakfast. Then, I was picked up by the diving centre for my refresh and shipwreck dive. They picked me up at 8:15 a.m. and ten minutes later, I was there. The dives were supposed to start at 9 a.m. and at 11 a.m.

First things first. Israel is a country that has very strict regulations on diving. I found that out before coming here when I booked my dives. First of all, you need diving insurance for the days you dive. I’ve never needed such a thing in any other country. Second, if you haven’t been diving in over six months, you have to do a refresh dive before going on an actual dive. I never had to do that anywhere else either, and I definitely don’t go diving every six months. So that’s the reason why I even booked the refresh dive.
The instructor took it all very seriously, which is fine, but unfortunately, it cost a lot of time. He explained to me all the things that I already knew, and you also never need on a dive unless you’re absolutely stupid. Like what you do when you run out of air. This is basically impossible because you’re supposed to finish the dive with plenty of air left. Anyway, in the end we came back at 11:30 a.m. and I missed the shipwreck dive. They offered me to go on another dive at 1 p.m. but it wasn’t to the shipwreck, and to be honest, the only reason I came to Eilat was for seeing a shipwreck. I only have the Open Water certification, which doesn’t allow me to go deeper than 18 meters. It’s hard to find shipwrecks that aren’t lying deeper than that.
They also don’t do a shipwreck dive tomorrow, and I will leave Eilat on Friday, so I can’t do it. I also cancelled my night dive, which was supposed to be tomorrow because I was very disappointed by the diving centre. If they know that a refresh dive could take longer, they should have told me beforehand. Especially because I was communicating with them via email before coming and explained how important the shipwreck dive is to me.
After leaving the centre, I checked out other ones, as there were plenty in the area, to see if anyone would do the shipwreck dive. Turned out only one of them did, but they told me that the shipwreck actually lies in a depth of 24 meters. So, with the Open Water certification, you can only see it from above. This is obviously not something I want to spend money on. So, in the end, I’m glad the dive at the first centre didn’t happen because it’s obvious that I wouldn’t have been able to see the shipwreck up close in the first place.
After all that, I went to the Dolphin Reef early, I was supposed to do a snorkel there at 2 p.m. Once I arrived, they were very friendly, and spontaneously, I decided to upgrade to a dive instead of snorkelling. I only booked the snorkel in the first place because I thought that at this point, I would have already had done two dives that day, and two is my personal maximum. Anyway, after having a quick snack, it was time for my dive. The instructor was very nice, and since I was the only certified diver there, I had the instructor just for me, as I was allowed to go deeper than the others. After a brief intro, we started the dive. It was absolutely amazing! As soon as we went underwater, two of the three dolphins came to say ‘Hello’. By the way, I decided to book this reef because the dolphins there are not in captivity and can swim freely. They did not guarantee to see a dolphin on their website, which was sympathetic to me.
We were diving for a good 30 minutes and repeatedly saw the dolphins and other interesting marine life, like a parrot fish and a lion fish. When we dove back to the shore and finished up, I took my fins down (still under water) and therefore had to turn around. And sure enough, one of the dolphins came one last time to say ‘Goodbye’. I fell in love with all of them. Though this will always be in my memory, I’m happy they also filmed it. Part of the video is available on my Instagram account.
In conclusion, this day held a little disappointment, but it all came together in the end. I feel so special to have seen those free-living dolphins.

23:05
After my dolphin dive, I went back to the hostel to chill a little bit. Later, I talked to my roommates about dinner and that I’d like to try the dish “Shakshuka.” So one of the girls went to the supermarket, we bought the ingredients and she cooked it for me. The other girl joined us with the dishes she cooked and we had a lovely dinner together. This has never happened to me in a hostel before.

Day 7 | Thu, 20.7.
I’m sitting on a bus back to Tel Aviv. What I feel right now is hard to put in words. Or maybe I don’t really know how I feel. I really enjoyed my time in Eilat but still decided to go back to Tel Aviv a day early. Why? There is more than one factor that led to this decision, and I don’t want to share all of them, but one of the reasons is that I had an absolutely amazing night last night. After dinner, the girls and I chilled a little bit before one of them left to go to sleep and the other one to have a phone call with her family. Later, she came back, and we were chilling and talking till 2 a.m. I get to know a lot of cool people when I travel but she’s one of those special ones, who I’m sure I’ll meet again. We had a great connection and could talk about a lot of deep stuff like mental health. It’s so important to talk about these things because it will make you understand that you’re not the only one dealing with stuff.
Another girl I had a great connection with already checked out yesterday, and today, the girl from last night checked out as well. Though there is another woman in our room I chatted with, I just knew I came here to meet these special people I met and to make those memories I made. After such a special night, it’s time to leave.
By the way, the woman from our room has an interesting life story. She’s 75 years old, and I never met someone that old in a shared hostel dormitory. I didn’t get all of it, but basically, she’s from Morocco, lived in France for most of her life, and was never alone because she was married for 40 years. Then, eight years ago, her husband left her, and she came to Tel Aviv, where she met a married man whom she started a relationship with. She’s saying she’s neither single nor taken, but she needed these experiences. She came to Eilat to rest a bit because there’s construction work going on at her place in Tel Aviv. What impressed me the most was that she learned a new language when she was 67 years old. Learning Hebrew for sure isn’t easy considering she had to learn new letters and everything. This story once more shows that you can do anything you want, no matter how old you are. I hope that when I’m older, I still won’t be afraid to make big changes.

19:25
Have you ever lost something? It’s interesting how we lose things, and sometimes they come back to us in strange ways. On my June 2022 trip, I forgot to pack my headphones, and since I only had old broken ones, I decided to buy new ones at the airport. Ever since then, I’ve been using them a lot, especially while travelling. But a few weeks ago I couldn’t find them anymore. I was sure that they were in my car so I cleaned it out completely but still I couldn’t find them. I repeatedly looked in my apartment in every place I could think of, even places that would be highly unlikely. But no matter where I looked, I just couldn’t find them.
When I packed for this trip, I looked once more everywhere but had no luck. So I decided to buy new ones. My old ones had cable and were in-ear, and I didn’t like that too much, so I bought wireless on-ears. So far I’m very happy with them. Then, yesterday, I found my old ones in a side pocket of my backpack at the bottom. I’ve repeatedly looked in this backpack and even used it to pack my stuff for this trip, but I did not find them earlier. The interesting thing is now, on the 5-hour bus drive to Tel Aviv, the new earphones ran out of battery, so it was good luck for me, that I still had my old cable ones here.



Day 8 | Fri, 21.7. 16:11
Today is the first day of my trip on which I had a very late start. I even missed breakfast! Probably because once more, I barely had any sleep last night. But that’s alright on a holiday. After finally waking up and getting ready, I walked to the beach. I decided that after everything I’ve already done and seen, today would be all about relaxing. I actually think it’s smart to do tours and visit places at the beginning of a holiday and take the end to relax before you have to go back home to your job and everyday life.


18:38
I just sat down at the beach once more. Earlier, I went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Usually I look for myself what I’ll eat but this time I just picked what the waitress recommended. I even let her talk me into drinking a pretty strong Margarita. Now I’m a little tipsy. But I’m glad I listened to her because the Enchiladas I ate tasted incredibly good and were exactly as spicy as I like it. Now I felt creative, so I decided to sit on the rocks at the beach and write a little.

Day 10 | Sun, 23.7. 17:04
I just arrived at the airport for my flight back home. What a trip it has been. Yesterday, I had a late morning again and then walked around a lot to discover Yafa. From all of the days during my trip here, yesterday was the one on which I walked the most. Almost 30.000 steps and more than 20 kilometres. After the walk, I had a little Siesta before going to the beach one last time. It was absolutely beautiful, I swam until sundown. After taking a shower back at my accommodation, I headed out for food and saw a little bit of the protests that were going on in the city centre. It was very peaceful but interesting to see how many people come together to protest for the same thing. After one more walk to the beach, I fell asleep very fast.

This morning, I had to check out till 11 a.m., then headed for the famous Carmel market and had a fantastic Pita. Pita is my favourite dish here in Israel. It’s similar to a Kebab, only the bread is filled with anything you can imagine. I already had warm Humus with other spices and Pita yesterday and really enjoyed it. After walking around at the market, I went to Hagana Museum. Anyone who knows me knows that there is literally no trip without visiting a museum. It was very interesting to find out a little bit about the Jewish and Arabic conflict and reminded me once more how important peace is. After the museum, I went to yet another market, Sarona market. I had another Pita, this time with cauliflower, and then made my way to the airport.

I was flagged by security because I had some local food with me and was then sent to a separate line, where they inspected my backpack very carefully and checked everything for substances. There were about five security guards, and I was the only one in that line. It was quite funny actually, I had to laugh a few times. The whole process took about 20 minutes, and now I’m waiting for my flight to Vienna. I just got a message that it will be delayed, so I’ll have a look around the airport.


23:52 We’re about to land in Vienna. My trip comes to an end, and I don’t really know how I feel. One thing is certain: I feel absolutely blessed that I was able to make this trip. It has been a very long time since I’ve made such a long trip. 10 days. Usually I won’t go longer than a week. Israel and Jordan are two very special countries with very special people. I always meet interesting people when I travel, but this time was unique. Travelling into the Middle East is something completely different than travelling through Europe, Oceania, or America. I got the impression that people here are more emotional and proud about their culture. I was able to learn a bit about their history and the conflicts that are going on here. I could write about this a lot, but it seems to me that that belongs to a different post. For now, I can only say that once again, travelling teaches me more than a school ever could. With that being said, I am still aware of my privilege to even be able to travel. If you are in the same position, appreciate it and do it as much as you can. It will make you wiser and better, trust me. 😉