Malta is very interesting. And warm- we left the chilly fall of Poland to enjoy the still warm breezes and Mediterranean in Malta. Getting to Malta was an all day event, but so worth it. Especially the bus rides on Gozo (the small island we are staying on) where, as far as I can tell, driving is one big game of chicken. The streets are two way streets, but very winding, narrow, and hilly, with very little visibility which makes for some very exciting games of chicken. Cars will be driving along and then-bam- another car comes out from behind a building, or around a blind corner and they just keep driving towards each other until, at the last second, one of them will pull into a driveway or side road. Since we were on a bus, we won most of the time. Nobody wants to tangle with a bus, although a time or two we ended up face to face with another car, no one moving. Eventually, the other car would reverse so the bus could pass. We came to one part of the road where cars were parked on either side and there was barely enough room for the bus to squeeze through. Seriously- as we drove through, very slowly, everyone on the bus was craning their necks, trying to see if the bus would make it. People on the street stopped and stared, not sure what would happen. There was an almost palpable relief when we passed the cars without a scrape (although I was listening for one at any second) and everyone on the bus let out a collective sigh of relief! Nick says the scenery was beautiful too (it is Kings Landing after all) but I was too focused on the “dance of the road” on the streets here, it was just too exciting!
The first thing we did when we got to our apartment was take off our bulky waterproof tennis shoes and change into flip-flops. We threw our stinky tennis shoes out onto the balcony and went to explore Marsalforn. In the middle of the night we woke up to a wild thunderstorm, pounding rain and lightening every few seconds, thunder that rattled the windows- it was wild. The next morning we woke up to discover our shoes still outside, but thoroughly soaked from the storm. Gross.
Fortunately, the day got better from there, we ventured into the town and bought hats and snorkel gear. The lady who sold it to us was very high pressure and funny. Nick was looking at a hat that he liked and he asked her how much it cost “oh, not a lot” she answered “7.50” I guess we both looked convinced because she ripped the tags off both hats for us and beckoned us inside to pay her. We took our new hats and snorkel gear to try on the beach right outside our apartment. The beach here is super rocky and very slippery, but the mediterranean sea is just the right temperature. Swimming was awesome, the water was a little cool, but the sun was warm and the water was crystal clear- perfect!
Our new beach hats and our Irish tans!
We ventured down to a second beach to swim. There are no real, sandy, beaches anywhere here, instead it is just a rocky coastline, but all along the coastline there are ladders to get into the water. Its kinda wild, there are sidewalk cafes on the edge of the water and then a ladder into the ocean right next to it.. So we found another ladder and Nick climbed in. I wussed out and stayed on the side, the sun was going down and I was chilled. I watched Nick splash around for a while. The water was so clear that I could see a lot of fish even from where I was sitting on the rocks. At one point I looked down and there was an octopus!! I shouted for Nick to quit goofing off and come look at this cool thing I found, he came over and we watched the octopus for a long time. He was just crawling/swimming over the rocks and the whole time a fish was just following him and staring him in the eyes. It was so cool to see a live octopus hanging out, doing his octopus thing! It was an awesome, super relaxing day and in a seriously beautiful place. We came home, moved our still wet shoes inside and watched as another storm came through. The storms here are so impressive, there is so much lightening, and tons of loud booming thunder, amazing!
Ladder to access snorkeling
Restaurants and snorkeling points line the sidewalks
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