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September 2003 Timeline: October 2003 November 2003

Ozapft Is!
Munich, 5 October 2003 		Oli and I
Munich, 5 October 2003 		Any empties?
Munich, 5 October 2003 		Hendl
Munich, 5 October 2003
Karin has been working at the Schottenhammel for the past few years.... Watch her deal with those rowdy drunkards.... And you get scared!
My big brother and I lifting the beers...
 Karin taking the empty Masskruege away....
 A Hendl is a special grilled Chicken which you eat at the Oktoberfest. Yummy! And you need the calories and grease to linen your stomach for the liters to come....
Niederboarn
Munich, 5 October 2003 		Work's Over!
Munich, 5 October 2003 		Uhm....
Munich, 5 October 2003 		The more beer, the better the music gets....
Munich, 5 October 2003
Some folks from Lower Bavaria trying to amuse Vreni - who was not amused...
PW and Karin on their last day of work.... PW would then join me for a diving holiday....
 No comments needed.... From Vreni's eyes, my eyes and the big arm with beer sticking out of PW's pink-bunnied head.... it's the Oktoberfest!
 And the Stimmung gets better and better....
Dani and Nora
Munich, 5 October 2003 		Forest Walk
Freising, 6 October 2003 		Autumn
Freising, 6 October 2003 		Gruess Gott, Herr Ruhland
Hurghada, 7 October 2003
Dani and her friend Nora who we met at the Oktoberfest.... At the time when everyone holds onto someone as you fall over otherwise... I should know, I had lots of bruises the next day....
A Herrgottswinkel alongside my regular walk near my home....
 A leaf, stepped upon on the grovel road.... Beautiful nonetheless...
 So we were on the plane to our diving holiday in Egypt... A 25 person school orchestra was lifting celloes, harps and what not on the plane... I see a grey-haired guy in front of me and say out loud 'Oh, it's Herr Ruhland', a kid in front of me turns round and asks 'yes, do you know him'? It was our music teacher from 20 years ago! He still remembered us after a bit of warming up and gave his regards to my brother... I told him that the only equivalent coincidence was meeting my English teacher Herr Leistl at a gas station in Dover... He replied 'Und daa hat er moi net graucht, da Herr Leistl'....
Wastelands
Hurghada, 7 October 2003 		Have a good vacation!
El Quseir, 7 October 2003 		Hotel Ruins
El Quseir, 9 October 2003 		Deep Blue Sea
El Quseir, 9 October 2003
The area around Hurghada is terrible. Hotel after hotel and ruin after ruin as they ran out of cash after the Luxor shootings and September 11 and the Iraq war. Only the Russians still come in flocks... Good thing we were staying far away from this modern Tourist hell....
After PW got all these from the pharmacy, I called him the 'Durchfallprofi'.
 Heading out for a dive our sister ship was parallel to us.... The ruins in the background are all along the red sea coast... Hundreds and hundreds of hotels started and never finished as money and visitors ran out... One day, one of the Egyptian guys told me, they will be finished... at that time the Red Sea coast will be tourist hell all over... Our resort was luckily far away... almost 2 hours drive from Hurghada....
 We are going to jump in here!
Red Sea Coast
El Quseir, 9 October 2003 		Lunch
El Quseir, 9 October 2003 		Hanging in there....
El Quseir, 10 October 2003 		Red Sea
El Quseir, 10 October 2003
Desert and nothing else... Until it was discovered for tourism, this was a wasteland area....
Nearby resort with its caves... We stopped here for lunch....
 When PW and myself had a photosession....
 Red Sea Corrals are amazing.... More alive than in the Maldives....
Bluespotted Sting Ray
El Quseir, 10 October 2003 		I saw a shark that long!
El Quseir, 10 October 2003 		Shark Bait
El Quseir, 10 October 2003 		Napoleon's Bite
El Quseir, 10 October 2003
His spots look neon.... Too bad you can't see his yellow snake eyes....
Not sure about his handsign....
Fish, lots of them! And look at the scared look on their eyes!
 A big Napoleon and a couple of masked butterfly fish.... The fish once mated stay together for the rest of their lives....
Aquarium
El Quseir, 10 October 2003 		Life-long couple
El Quseir, 10 October 2003 		A PW Fish
El Quseir, 10 October 2003 		Eine Seefahrt die ist lustig....
El Quseir, 11 October 2003
A couple of pennant fish in a nice pose....
A couple of masked butterfly fish. They stay together all their lives...
 roaming the sea....
 Very nice diving organization, great boat, good lunches, great corrals...
Hans
El Quseir, 11 October 2003 		Zwei Stella
El Quseir, 11 October 2003 		Dolphin House
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003 		Lots of them!
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003
Divemaster Hans from Bavaria at the tip of the boat. He ended up having lived and worked in our hometown. He took us to 38m depth that morning. When he asked us if we wanted a second dive in the afternoon, we declined politely and did a calm nice shallow dive...
Another nice thing after diving are the beers you have.... After that was buffet time... Where a German lady asked the waiter and pointed at some vegetables - 'what do you call these?' - the waiter with a nice smile answered politely 'Aubergines' - 'Wow' she said, 'we call them the same way!'. Diving makes stupid.
We booked a snorchel/diving tour to Shab Samadai, the Dolphin House. It is a horse-shoe shaped shallow bay about 20 miles off the coast and frequented by schools of spinner dolphins. Many boats were anchored there and on the next day we had learned that suddenly all snorchelling in the bay was banned. We made it out on the very last tour, the very last operation....
 In the morning PW had the camera - we got separated though... I saw the Dolphins approach and rushed to them.... The group of about 30 was swimming in an '8' shape and amazingly I happened to be able to find the knot of the '8' and the cloud of Dolpins passed through me about five times. I saw Baby Dolphins playing with each other and their mums watching them - from 2 meters away. Amazing! I stayed too long in the water in the end and it got me a cold and Diarrhea for the end of the vacation, but that was worth it... However in the afternoon I took the wetsuit and got ready for some more....
Lunchtime
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003 		Deep Blue Sea
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003 		Dolphins 1
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003 		Dolphin Couple
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003
During lunch we saw the school of dolphins circling the bay... For some reason they vanished and most peopl decided to go diving outside the bay instead. I took my wetsuit and headed out again.... Hoping for some Dolphins....
Waiting for Dolphins to show up....
 Suddenly a group of four dolphins arrived - a couple and two friends....
 The dolphin couple swimming belly to belly....
Meet Spinner
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003 		Three of the four
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003 		Then it was time to say goodbye
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003 		Bus back
Shab Samadei, 12 October 2003
This is like in all the other photos a totally wild Dolphin. He came up to me, circled me for about 50 minutes. He played with another snorcheller who came by and they were swimming around in other and circling... It was amazing. Also in the morning there were several mums with Dolphin babies and they were tolerating our presence. Truly intelligent animals who realize we are not wanting to cause them harm....
As you can see the bay was very shallow....
 I had to say goodbye to not miss my boat back and after 45 minutes waved and left... Unforgettable event. Creating true happiness. Reminds me of the first time I dove and saw Manta Rays... However the dolphins have an intelligence to them that is not comparable.
Some of the bus drivers waiting for us to come back from the boat at the shore with the sunset in the background....
Vodka Tent
El Quseir, 12 October 2003 		Sunset over Mangrove
El Quseir, 13 October 2003 		Rambo
El Quseir, 13 October 2003 		Mountains
Hurghada, 14 October 2003
You can smoke waterpipes and relax here... And drink really expensive G+T.
The only nice Egyptian sunset we had while there.... Other than that all the days were clear and the sun just vanished...
 Rambo, the donkey from the dive operation. He would drag divers equipment and the compressed air bottles from Pier to the Dive org all day on his small cart. There were once two donkies, but his friend had been left untied at one point and committed suicide by jumping into the water and drowning. Poor Rambo. His one pleasure was that every evening he was let out on a leach and would lie with his back on the ground, eeh-aah and scrub his back....
 Flying out of Hurghada back home.... And Herr Ruhland and his 25 man orchestra was on the plane again!
Wieswald
Freising, 15 October 2003 		Crucifix
Freising, 15 October 2003 		Herrgottswinkel
Freising, 15 October 2003 		Camouflage
Freising, 15 October 2003
I like the shadows on this photo....
A close up of a Crucifix alongside my Wieswald walk...
 Everywhere in Bavaria you have these little stations for prayer.... I like the corn cobs on that one...
 Perfect camouflage!
Macro Butterfly
Freising, 15 October 2003 		Autumn Tree through a toilet window
Freising, 16 October 2003 		Night Out
Munich, 16 October 2003
He was moving fast, but not fast enough for my 100mm/2.8 Macro. This is uncropped... Great shot!
A look on the tree next door through our toilet window. It looks like an amazing painting or like an overused photoshop filter. Dani thought it looks like a dancing hippo wearing sunglasses and a grass skirt....
 In Munich with the rest of the gang in the Lisboa bar....
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