My latest post finds me in the beautiful city of Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman (no I'd never heard of it either before a year ago!). Find the attached map to get your bearings.
I've been here for just under a week now and have been grateful for space to relax after what has been a hectic October. Lets start from my last few days in Israel;
I left Palestine on the 27th of September after an amazing 6 weeks, a few hours on the bus brought me to Tel Aviv for a final day of sand and sightseeing before my flight home the next day. After a long walk through the midday heat I managed to find my hostel for the night (The Florentine Hostel in southern Tel Aviv). I took the afternoon to walk along the amazing sea front and down to the old port of Jaffa to take some photos. The early evening was spent on the hostel roof having a few beers with the other people at the hostel before heading out at 10:30 to a nearby bar for drinks with the nightly bar outing. The bar we landed in offered an "all you could drink" menu for 100 shekels (about £15-£20), needless to say we all had a great time. I staggered back to the hostel around 1:30am (the morning of my flight home!) and collapsed asleep on one of the sofas on the roof. This wasn't out of necessity, I'd booked an outdoor spot to sleep on!
I woke up around 9 and had a quick breakfast before heading out to Jaffa for some last minute souvenir shopping. The sea air quickly remedied my fuzzy head! I picked up my bag from the hostel at one and after some final goodbyes departed for the airport. And so ended an incredible 3 months in Israel. It was an experience I'll never forget but it was nice to be heading home :).
A stretch of the Tel Aviv sea front, in the distance is the old port of Jaffa
Looking north from the edge of Jaffa Port
The roof of the hostel in late afternoon, I ended up sleeping
on a sofa just out of shot on the right!!
October was a bit chaotic as we have no address in the UK now (mum has moved to France whilst Dad is living in Oman). After being reunited with Mum and my brother, Matthew, we spent October splitting our time between our nana's house and our neighbours'. I caught up with a few friends that had remained in the area (many have bomb-bursted all across the country to start Uni) and managed to go on a few trips with my girlfriend. Matthew left for Oman on the 23rd of October whilst Mum and I stayed behind to finish up with the packing and for me to attend a briefing course for my trip to Nepal in January (more on that later). Mum and I eventually flew out to Oman on the 30th of October and we were all finally reunited in Oman after so long apart.
Destination number 2: Oman
So here I am in sunny Muscat, where its a lovely 30 degrees!! My time here is mainly going to be spent relaxing with my family and enjoying all this amazing country has to offer. Whilst I won't be living as independently as the last 3 months I still plan on having an adventure. Matthew and I have just started our PADI open water divers qualification and are well into the online learning portion of the course. We're also planning on trying out kite-surfing alongside any other kind of adventure that comes our way.
Me practicing mask clearing in our compound pool with dad's scuba gear.
Here, i'm filling my mask with water to simulate my mask becoming loose
Me and Matthew "buddy breathing" in the pool
I'll be out in Oman until the 15th of January when I fly out to Nepal for 4 months teaching English in a village outside Kathmandu. I can't wait to get out there but in the mean-time I'll make the most of my time in Oman. I'll keep posting whilst I'm out here so stay tuned for updates.
Thanks for reading, see you all soon :)
No comments:
Post a Comment