Thanks Go Dive Malta!

The day has come to leave this little but very busy island. Malta has been very exiting to explore and live on for 6 months.
When I arrived early May the water was crazy cold and Kevin was convincing me that this is the coldest it gets. He was right now when I'm leaving the water is 23 degrees and I been having the pleasure to meet the most thoughtful and helpful managers I ever worked with.

Go dive family

I would like everyone to spend a week with these guys. I'm so happy I chose Go Dive and Kevin and Lindsay.Thanks you guys you're the best!

When I arrived here I was alone for the first couple of weeks.I just finished my instructor and eager to start teaching. I started with a few Discover scuba courses. Then I got my first certification students and I was so exited to teach it is so fun. It is differens between how you need to organize courses depending where you are, I'm happy that I know now about teaching in Mediterranean waters.

So much left to learn and more dives to be done. I will never forget when Lindsay was making me copies of my instructor  card and she realized that I haven't been instructor more then two months, she couldn't believe it.

Now many dives later I'm full of confidence and love this way of living. To share it with Marika makes it all so unbelievable good!!

We will keep on going our new adventure now. Next Friday we fly down to Krabi to work together at Marikas company on Koh Lanta. Will also be new environment for me to work at. But it will still be the same amazing dives with Raya Divers and the Island is small so will not be far from all the awesome people in the south.
Miss you guys!

We're just a few days away now.

I will do this,one more week in lovely Malta

One person after the other have been leaving the Island of Malta. I was first here and is now the last one standing.
Marika left this Friday. Weird to be without her now, it's so much better when she is close by. But we will meet up in 11 days in Sweden I will hopefully survive until then. I will leave to Sweden on the 9th of November.
It's of course better to have two than one in  in a Maltese apartment without heaters. In Sweden when it gets cold we have heaters but not in Malta at least they have blankets.

Well one last hike we had time with. We went to the other side of Mellieha bay and walked up to the blow hole. Amazing to see what the nature can do. We like the smaller hole much more were it came steam from the waves and created rainbows. very nice. Malta have so much to explore both in  nature and human history,very good for anyone that want some adventure.

Hearing from all the guys from Koh Lanta and they all say that the weather is very good. Still quite, but soon I bet that the diving starts. Can't wait to get back. Marika bought some prosecco that we celebrated with after her last day. Kevin said that Marika is the only instructor he worked with that is happy to leave for the season... Well 6 months is a long time and to go for an new adventure is for us the best that can happen. Of course we are a bit sad to leave but so excited to go!


Soon, soon , miss you guys!!






And my brother goes down to Thailand today to do his Divemaster. Good luck brother and I see you down there in the tropical water soon!

We will see what's the plan for my last week here now. It starting to be very quite but probably most diving. But I've also seen that Kevin bought brushes so could be some painting coming up, tanks or the hole dive shop... Fun to do something different and painting is not that bad in my opinion, as long you have good music and a cold beer.

Gozo 24 hours

Gozo in 24 hours 

During our travels we have been filming and taking pictures. An old classmate wondered if we had some good footage and it ended up that me and Marika got the head role in his video. Amazing song and good job the Video PARADISE
 Burning stream films

Night diving here in Malta is great, especially if it is a good sunset while kitting up. The night dive  included cuttle fishes and hunting a octopus, it's always a good day for a night dive. These two divers I had during this night dive were a young french couple who spent all their vacation money for diving. One of the places they had visited was South Africa. Seemed to be an interesting country, with good diving but also a chance to go for a proper safari. South Africa is now definitely on my bucket list.

The weekend came again. We had the luck to finish early and me and Marika already planned to escape the big city of Malta to Gozo. I recommend everyone to take a trip over there  if you ever go to Malta. Gozo was not as "targeted" during the WW. So the houses are old and actually the doors are colorful here compared to Malta where so far everything has been ugly limestone color. 

There we booked a lovely B&B  (Miria's B&B) with just a few steps from the main square of the town Victoria. There we ate good, drank and explored like a tourist would. It was nice to have a little own weekend and be a traveler for 24 hours.

We are now ready for a new week. It's Marika's last full week. Our adventure in Malta is actually starting to end. But a few more days left, so let's make the best of them. !!!

Dogs & Ear infections 

Well after storm and rain it has finally been a bit better weather with more sun and calmer water. Diving has been amazing these days and we have many advanced divers around which means we   have done most of the deeper and stunning wrecks in Malta. From Um el Faroud in the south to P 29 and P 31 in the north, good week, but....

Last week I was starting to have pain in my left ear, I started to hear bad and it was wet all the time. It took a while until Marika told me to go to the doctor and apparently I had an ear infection .... I'm now on antibiotics and I have to get my ear well again. It was painful during the nights because all the pressure is on the ear but after diving it is was fine. My doctor prohibited me to go diving and now I'm sitting on the shore while Marika goes down for an amazing night dive, I will be the driver for three days.

Hopefully I will be back in the water again soon.

Our last day off me and Marika went to visit the dog sanctuary.  Marika wanted something else to cuddle with than me and I've started to miss my two dogs at home in Sweden. We decided to go up early and go for a hike to the sanctuary. They have 90 dogs there that either have been left there by there owners or stray dogs. All the dogs are very clean and happy. So between 8-11 you can walk some dogs if you like. Holly, Kevin and Lindsay's daughter is a voluntary at the sanctuary and she gave us a nice VIP tour, we didn't walk any dogs but helped Holly to give some dogs a cold shower, which they liked.

We have also just got a lovely balcony with sunset view which means, we can have crazy BBQ's there. Check this out!!

This Sunday we are planning to head to the 5 star hotel for a good breakfast with  free flowing prosecco at the buffé. Can't wait!!

Winter brought me a Sea Horse!

The weather is starting to match the Scandinavian weather here in Malta.
This couple of days have been very windy with wind up to 15 m/s from the east. It has been very hard to find a good dive site where there is no wind. Where to dive in Malta is depending on the wind ,  luckily Lindsay in the shop is having full knowledge of where we can dive each day. During one of my Open water courses we have been spending the most of the time around Anchor Bay, which is also the bay where the movie  Popeye was recorded.
A nice variety of sand sea grass and boulders full of life. Here it was still heavy wind coming in but the the only dive site that was available.
Some boats were getting crushed against the shore and waves sometimes up to 4 m was what you faced on the other side of the island.





After the confined water training we headed out for our Open Water dive and what do I spot in the end of the dive!
There it was , a "s" shaped sea grass not bigger than a thumb. A sea horse. The sea horse was jumping from one sea grass to the other and was not  affected by the swell at all. I took one by one to show it. It was so fun everyone got very exited and was doing horse sounds under water.
This is definitely a reason why I like diving for a living , you never know what will show up during your dive. The first thing I said when we got back to the shop was of course to tell them about the little sea horse in Anchor Bay. It's like when you were younger and caught Pokemons on your "Game boy color" and everyone had to hear if you caught a really rare Pokemon.


All our room mates are starting to head home and in Wednesday it will just be me and Marika in the apartment. I think it has been working very well with everything, no one has been very annoying, just some dishes from time to time but that problem you can live with. The apartment feels like it gets bigger and bigger. Me and Marika now have to drink all the left over beer and food. We need to structure a proper plan so we don't have to throw away any food and most important no beer waste.

Parents

Parents <3

This week have been a very special week. My mom and dad was on a visit for a week with their two friends Matti and Lotta. They  arrived on Saturday evening while we instructors had arranged a snorkel test for the two divemaster trainees, Emily and James..

The snorkel test was three rounds, diving quiz, map briefing and the snorkel test. The guys did it all right, they didn't nail the diving quiz but the map briefing was hilarious. After that we went in to the bar Reflections and within an hour I saw my mom through the bar window. I was so happy to see mom and dad. We talk every week, but I have been missed to give them a big hug, and show them around what I do and the people I spend my time with.
That evening was great! Good party but also talk to mom and dad face to face again.

The next day we had to go up early because dad rented a car. Some of us felt better than others. On our way and first stop was St Peters pool. A big cliff pool where you can jump down from 5 m straight down in the crystal clear water.
We went some lunch in Blu grotto and checked out Mdina. A good day to explore places where not even we have been.


We where suppose to grill some sausages that evening but we where to tired and decided that we do it another day.
Tuesday we went to Cirkewwa to have a nice BBQ and a lovey sunset. one of the best BBQ's so far.





I think that my parents and Lotta and Matti got to do things that they never thought of doing when you are going to a sun vacation on Malta. One day we went for an arranged sunset trip to Comino. Beautiful place when it gets less busy during the evenings. The company we book with sort dinner and party on the evening.
Sometimes you need to swim in the blue lagoon and see the sun go down over Gozo and spend time with families and friends.
Lovely dinners and the best rib place here in Malta as a nice finish of there staying, at La buona Trattoria del Nonno!!





Maltese people are crazy in there fireworks during the Mellieha festival thousands of Euros worth of fireworks went off and created the most spectacular show I've ever seen with fireworks. Its like Gandalf is here and shoots off his rockets.

Blue Lagoon &

Night dive

Have you ever heard about Comino?

It's one of the Malta's famous sister islands. Comino is a small island in the north between Gozo (the bigger island) and mainland. Around an handful of people live there and hundreds of tourists shows up every day to take a swim in the crystal blue water of the blue lagoon.

The staff of Go dive Malta went for a staff trip there last Wednesday. Not during the busy hours of mid day, but in the evening when the most of the tourist leaves.

The arrangement of the company was great. We got some time first to swim around in the water, explore some caves and take a drink. Afterwards they started up the BBQ and we all could enjoy a good dinner while watching the sun disappear behind Gozo.

August is soon over and the hot air temperatures have started to go back to normal, now we actually need a thin blanket to sleep. Some heavy rains have started to fall as well, this is me outside our shop just before the Comino trip. The rain here is like Asia's quick heavy rain and then it's sunshine again.

An early morning before work our boss asked if we wanted to join for a cool night dive and BBQ down the south of the island. The rumors says that down at Blue Grotto you will have an epic night dive. We said yes and after work we head off to first have a nice dinner on the cliffs, then after the sun was set and the darkness made the blue water black we jumped in. I like night dives, it gets an extra thrill to it to just see where your torch is pointing and the marine lives gets completely different.

An hour later we came up with a huge smile on our faces.

The things we saw were amazing! The reef was full with hunting octopuses and cuttlefishes. As well shrimps and crabs that I've never seen so far.

Also we saw an extraordinary event. Two spider crab were spawning, it lasted about a minute and we had the luck to see when all the thousands of eggs flew away in the dark water.

Also what we saw is the biggest nudibranch ever called a “sea hare “. It was really amazing and it's about the size of a small cat.

Good days here in Malta!!

In two weeks my mom and dad come here, I have missed them so much. It will be fun to show them around!