It's the simple things in life... Pirates?

AT SEA 

Today was an extremely hectic day at work…and at sea. I am working in Food and Beverage Administratio right now, and basically it’s the job where you manage everybody and everything. I like it a lot, and enjoy being really busy all the time, but today, was just crazy! Nothing went as planned and on top of that it was really rough so even when you got to sit/stand still, you were still moving lol.

By the time I got to my break...I only had 2 horus before I had to be back for the evening shift…but the great thing (for me) about living on a ship is that we are always completely surrounded by water. I opted to take my short nap outside on the crew sundeck in the breeze and fresh air. As I was lying there, not sleeping of course, I decided to sit at the front and just watch the ocean…a few minutes in, I saw what I first jumped to think “sharks!” haha…obviously they weren’t sharks because they were jumping high out of the water, but they were a huge family of dolphins, about 15 of them racing with the boat. It was amazing…they were playing in the wake, and with each other swimming under the bow of the boat. After that moment, today became the say I saw wild dolphins…instead of the day I worked 13 hours J oh the simple things

Even though the sea days aren’t the greatest…it gives the crew time to hang out on the sun deck…with our harmed gunman of course J

Entering the Suez canal

Pirates?

On our journey from Haifa, Israel to Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles… we are under 24/7 pirate watch as we are crossing the Suez Canal, Red sea and The Gulf of Aden to get into the Indian Ocean. The ship is under high security with special officers onboard specifically armed with weapons and other ‘pirate fighting’ items. It’s actually kind of fun you know…living under pirate watch. We had a huge meeting with all the crew going over what to do if an attack happens…what to look for, etc etc and of course not to try to take pictures when we’re under attack-apparently people do that, I would probably be one of them lol. They say it’s unlikely, which it is probably is…but hey, the unlikely can happen. They even created dummies all around the ship to ward off any oncoming vessels as you can see below in this picture…

Beautiful sunset over the Red Sea 

A few more Jerusalem Pics

Jerusalem City

Moving onto Jerusalem city…on the way we stopped to have lunch right below the Mount of Olives. This was nice because we had more peace & quiet to take in the experience…afterwards we went to the top, where there is a full panoramic view of Jerusalem and the huge walls built by king david…now that was cool… an entire city enclosed with walls. Here are a few pictures below:

After lunch, just below the Mount of Olives 

(On top of the Mount of Olives with Jerusalem city in the background) 

In this picture you can see what is a huge grave yard on a hill…  back in the old days, you were not allowed to bury people in the city, so all of the bodies were buried on the sides of these mountains just outside…it’s starting to look a tad overcrowded, so I’m not sure what their back up plan is.

Inside Jerusalem city…I found it interesting, because within the city they have 3 quarters (Jewish, Muslim & Christian)…all of these people living side by side as ‘brothers’ as our tour guide described them. In the western world they depict Israel as being the land of Christian, the land of Jesus… when in actuality, the population is split into these 3 religions pretty equally. A short walk away from the western wall was the Muslim quarters, who reside right next to the site of Jesus’ crucifixion & resurrection.  

Kari & Ludovic after lunch 

(No more pictures because this internet is taking way to long to download & I have to go back to work!) 

WILL POST THE REST LATER ALONG WITH DETAILS FROM THE REMAINDER OF THE TRIP. 

The next 9 days we will be at sea on our way to Seychelles… it has been extremely rough today, a lot of people are getting seasick…I just kinda feel drunk and sleeply lol . it should settle down tomorrow because we are crossing the Suez Canal in the morning, then the red sea and gulf of Aden. During this time we’ll have pirate watch 24/7.

Next post should be in about 2 weeks or so since I probably won’t have many stories from these days at sea…but hey who knows ;) 

Bethlehem

Any of you who grew up going to Sunday school…or reading bible stories in Religion class remember the little colorful kids Bibles they used to have to illustrate the stories of Jesus to you. Well… I got to go to two of those places! I think that’s pretty cool…if I do say so myself. Needless to say, they don’t quite look like those colourful illustrations…

All of the crew on the ship had the chance to sign up for a one day tour to Bethlehem & Jerusalem city which was offered on three different days. I’m not sure how it works on other ships, but I thought this was a pretty amazing opportunity. From Haifa (where the ship was docked), it was about a 2 hour drive into Jerusalem and then Bethlehem. We had a personal tour guide who pretty much knew everything about every single rode, field & building we passed along our entire drive! I fell asleep a few times…and every time I opened my eyes, he was still talking. Our original tour guide was Israeli…and apparently they are not allowed to enter Bethlehem because it is located in Palestine, so he had to leave the bus as soon as we got to the gate…and we got a new tour guide.

Our first stop was the nativity church where Jesus was born. Of course everything has been rebuilt to depict, or rather honor to life of Jesus and his followers…with small bits and pieces incorporated into the new building that now stands today. Visiting Bethlehem was almost a little sad for me… because it has been taken over so much by the tourism industry, I just felt like I was exploiting a sacred place that wasn’t meant for thousands of people to stand around and flash their cameras…but hey, that’s just my opinion. Not to mention that the locals try to shove crosses and other figurines made of olive wood down your throat. I just wanted to observe…experience, and imagine what the city must have been like back in the days Jesus was alive…instead I was being pushed and shoved by a bunch of smelly people.

It was still a great experience though, again, pictures do no justice…but here are a few.

View of the nativity church that now stands

Beautiful olive wood cross in the gift shop 

inside the church...in the background is where Jesus was born (underneath the church) The church was actually built on top of the original site because the original church was destroyed..didn't get to go underneath because the wait was 3 hours to get inside!