The deepest
ArticleA dive expedition to the capital of European Union, Bruxelles is like a movie: Finding Nemo33.
But they make a mistake when skip the googling of "dive" and "Bruxelles" words. One of the suburbs hides a dull grey building where they made the deepest recreational diving pool. The Nemo33 is 33 meters deep and its water is around 30 Celsius degrees warm. You may think to travel to a distant country and do a pool dive there isn't a good idea but in my opinion it's a nice program. Everything is well organized: the price of a dive is 22 euros and the full kit hire (except computer) is included. You can bring your mask and computer, and choose a BC, a regulator, a pair of fins from the selection of the Nemo33. There are plenty of them in every size. What to do in the pool? There are deeper and shallower parts, you can swim around, touch the bottom at 33 meters, practice, anything you'd do in a pool. However it's more exciting, I felt the depth more than in open water. This part is narrow, the surface seems only a small circle if you glance above. I didn't spend too much time in the bottom. The descending and ascending near the long ladder was like a long meditation. After the dive we use to have a good meal in the restaurant of the Nemo33- the food is awesome. There are windows in the pool where you can watch the divers while you are eating or having a beer. Everything is nice except the crowd, the pool was full of divers in Saturday.
OK, it's only a pool. You won't encounter fish but divers. I can share only my experiences: the dives were relaxing and fun here. I enjoyed the warm water, the exploring in the deeper parts and caverns. We spent two nice long weekends in Bruxelles and visiting the Nemo33 was one of the highlights. I recommend it to everybody who travels there. Somehow the people are really interested in this special pool: I posted many short films to the YouTube but the one what I shot in the Nemo was by far the most popular...
Luckily a year later a friend invited us to stay in his home not far from Brussels. We had the usual pub visits, I tried to taste some special beers this time. And certainly we went to the Nemo33- again. We're quite experienced now so we organized our visit to a weekday: there were only 8 divers in the pool. One diver in our group was a beginner and I knew she would enjoy diving in the nice warm water while she was practicing her skills. I thought for me the whole dive will be the same, but when we arrived I realized there was a new underwater attraction: a Smart. So our dive was exciting again. We swam into the car, checked the instruments but for the deepest part of the Nemo33 we had to descend on our own.
Maybe it seems strange why do I love diving in a pool which is 1000 kilometres away from my home. I confess I don't know the answer. I love the spirit of smaller towns in Belgium where I spent so many nice hours while we were chatting and drinking awesome beers. I love the cheap airfares, from Budapest a return flight can be only 30 euros. And I love diving in swimming trunks in a place where they take care of the equipment. The Nemo33 is not such extraordinary dive spot on its own but the feeling when you're touch the bottom at 33 meters in the heart of Europe is priceless.
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