Air Bus

One of the great advantages of living in a European country is of course the possibility of cheap traveling. The low-cost airlines, to be precise. One of the biggest dreams of the average Israeli.
So guess what, after being in London last month I'm going to be in Oslo the coming weekend. We are going to be 13 friends from work, and probably we'll spend most of the weekend trying to work it out so that everybody will be content. But who cares? In that case its the company that counts.

Besides, I'm sure I'll be in Norway again one day, hopefully on February, to see Northern Lights. That has been one of my dreams ever since I was a child. One of my favourite book I liked to read over and over was a children's science book, and when I was reading about the northern light for the first time, and looking at the attached pictures, I decided that one of my goals in life is to witness this amazing phenomena.

But that's not what I want to talk about. Lets go back to the subject, this weekend in Oslo.

The flights are cheap indeed, cheaper than flying from Tel Aviv to Eilat.
But there is a catch. Probably there always is... It's possible to find and book a flight for 0.01 Euros (yes, 1 Euro cent), depends on when you travel and how much time in advance.

The reason we go to Oslo is the cheap flight (and lets ignore the fact that Norway is a very expensive country, even more expensive than Ireland). But in our case, we discovered we have to take a bus from the airport to Oslo, around 2 hours journey, and will cost us 35 Euros each, one way. so that's the money we were trying to save by booking cheap flights. Damn!

Oh, yes, 3 more things. Fees, to be precise:
Luggage fee- 6-10 Euros for each bag you check in, depends on the airline and whether you pay in advance or at the airport. Luckily, passengers can (still) take carry on luggage for no extra fees. 1 for each passenger, and depends on the size of the bag.
Check in fee- only the online check in is free. otherwise pay extra 7 euros.
Credit card fee- 6 Euros for each passenger. One can avoid that fee incase s/he pays with Visa electron. Otherwise, no one can get away with this.

So eventually the amount of money we spend in order to arrive to our destination is reasonable enough, definitely not cheap.

So the lesson for today is that there's no such thing as free meals (except from Google). Unless, of course, you get your flights to London Gatwick for as little as 10.02 Euros (0.02 Euros for the flights and 10 more for the Credit Card fee) or Edinburgh for 20 Euros.

Berries, Berries, or How Do You Say Berries in Hebrew?

Today I want to talk about different kinds of berries, and their Hebrew translations. It sure is interesting.
Lets start with Blackberries. Well, before I moved here I thought we had 2 kinds of raspberries in Hebrew: the real red (or whatever color that is) raspberries and black raspberries. After I came here and saw real blackberries, I realized there's a big difference between these two kinds, except for their colors. Anyway, one day I was looking at Morfix dictionary and discovered that blackberry is translated as: black raspberry and/or a collection of blueberries. I'm sure that whoever is responsible for this translation (Who knows, maybe even Eliezer Ben Yehuda- The reviver of Hebrew, around 100 years ago) never tasted or even got the chance to see with his own eyes what he was talking about. I use His instead of Her because: 1. If that was a woman, she would have checked twice before she would make a translation like that. 2. Even if it was a woman, it wouldn't have been mentioned or some men will make it appear like a man translated it.

Next- Elderberries.
Nobody actually even tried to translate it into Hebrew, and decided to call it Sambuc (pronounced: Sum-book). Which derived from its Latin botanic name: Sambucus. Which is OK. Except that it sounds like a 2-words combination: Samboosak (A kind of Mediterranean pastry) and Bakbook (A bottle). So it sounds a bit like a bottle of sambosak. Whatever...

Next- Blackcurrants.
I like this one: Fox' Grapes. Not surprising considering the fact that we also have Fox' grains (Oats). I never tasted Blackcurrants, but we do have Blackcurrants juice at work, and I don't like the taste. But I wouldn't think twice if I have the chance to eat some.

This must lead to our next Berries: Gooseberries.
No, it is not translated as gooses berries. It actually have a nice name: Domdemaniot. Can't explain the translation. I can only say that it sounds reddishy like. But it is a nice word, and really sounds like a kind of berry.

Berries, Berries, Berries, Berries, Berries...

Yesterday I went hiking with some friends. My first hiking trip in Ireland. Our destination was Howth, which is a small village in the north of Dublin, and it is situated in a peninsula. Howth peninsula. 25 minutes by the DART (Dublin's suburban train), and we are there. The hiking is on the cliffs along the peninsula.

But first, we went to the pier. Everybody who had been here before told me they saw seals. And since seals are one of my favourite animals ever since I've visited a kind of Seals Sanctuary few years ago, I was eager to see one out in the wild. And guess what! I saw none! But that was expected. That's what we saw instead:


Since my first purchase with my first salary was a new camera, I'm officially the one who takes pictures on every occasion.
That's also the reason I was always behind after we started climbing the cliffs... So eventually I had to chase my girls all the time.

At Some point, I didn't care anymore. It happened when I spotted this for the first time:


Blackberry bushes!
As those of you who know me, I adore berries. I love strawberries, I like raspberries, and after Moving to Ireland I discovered that blueberries are my favourites. never had it before.
Anyways, stopped and ate a lot of it (the blackberries). Only the black ones. All other colors are immature blackberries.
I just couldn't have enough of it. That's also the first time I eat something without washing it. Well, That me. I wash things before I eat it. Preferably with soap.

So after spotting the blackberry bushes and realizing there are loads more along our path, that was literally what kept me walking. Every time I spotted mature blackberries, I ate it. Well, of course the other girls ate as well, so I had as much as I could, allowing the others eat as well.

Look, those are nice blackberries. I better have some!


Uhhhmmmm... Yum, Yum!


I better have some more then!

Besides the berries. We had a wonderful day, beautiful weather, and we met many nice people along the way. We also met a friend from work hiking with another friend.
we were hiking for 3 hours, around 8 km, and it felt wonderful, felt like a high school trip, especially since we could talk Hebrew amongst us.
Here are some of the amazing pics I took: