Day trippers..

It’s Sunday in Malta. I woke up to a foggy, brisk morning air which soon turned into a light drizzle, then downpour and heavy winds. Do you want to know what I thought to myself? “thank GOODNESS.” I am in dire need of a crappy day so I can be a productive human being and get things done, ya know, like homework, laundry, groceries, general lounging. It’s rough here when it’s perpetually 75 and sunny, there’s an actual gravitational pull to the sea that inhibits any brain activity. It’s awful. (I’m sure if you could slap me right now, you would. Ha!) I’ll start back at Friday night:

Sex and the City 2 debuted in the states on Thursday, and surprisingly enough it wasn’t too far behind here in Malta! 6 or so of us girls got tickets online, and proceeded to Eden Cinemas in Paceville for the 6:00 show. There was a red carpet of sorts. Turns out at the 8:00 show they were giving out massages, jewelry, drinks, etc. As we were leaving the spotlights were on and moving around.. very ‘hollywood’ for this tiny island. The previews were comical.. some Maltese film with awful dramatic acting which looked like it was filmed with a handheld camera.

There was also a Cisk (the local beer) commercial that had Kristi and I in stitches laughing. In the middle of the movie the film turned off and for a split second I was ready to shank someone.. until I realized it was just an intermission. Yes, they turn off the movie here like at a play or ballet and have an intermission in the middle. Strange. I just wanted more SATC2 and fast! Movie was great- in case you were wondering..as if there were any doubt it would be. Psh.

After that, we met 5 other girls at the Blue Elephant restaurant in the Hilton hotel for a Thai dinner. BEAUTIFUL place. Definitely the most upscale place I’ve been to yet (and my meal was only 18 euro. I have a good feeling I’m going to be frugal when I return to the states. I’m used to paying 6 euro for a pizza the size of my face!) I had a fantastic beef curry that came in a clay pot propped up on a clay holder with a tea candle in the middle keeping my food warm. As soon as I post this I’m digging into my leftovers. Headed home after the movie, since Saturday was going to be an early and long day.

Saturday we headed to Gozo. Malta is made up of 3 islands. “Malta” is the big, main island with a population of about 250,000. Gozo is it’s sister island, still governed by Malta, but only has a population of 27,000. It’s significantly quieter, mostly rural, and a nice change of pace. We took a coach bus to the ferry terminal and then took the biggest ocean liner I’ve ever been on in my life. The car port fits 80 cars, and the boat has 2 cafés on the middle deck. I saw a flatbed semi with piping roll on, and look average sized, to give you a better idea. After the 30 minute jaunt over to Gozo we disembarked to another coach and into the mainland. First stop was Ggantija Temples. They are the oldest free standing structure in the WORLD. Predate the pyramids by 1,000 years (take that, Egypt). They were used to appease the fertility god and the shape itself is meant to represent the bust and hips of a woman. Up next we went to Fungus Rock and the Azure Window in San Lawrenz. Fungus Rock had some type of herb/fungi on it that had healing ability.. and people were prohibited from boating to it and disturbing it. Azure Window is just an incredible natural structure, an epic arch jutting out of the rock into the sea. Here are some photos from Gozo: (from L-R the Ggantija Temple, Azure Window, and a view from the Citadel)

After spending some time with these natural phenomena, we went to the Citadel in the capital of Rabat- which is now called Victoria. Everything on both the islands were built to defend against invasions, and the architecture of this place says it all. An enclosed city center complete with government center, cathedral, shops, etc. We walked along the upper outer walls and could see sea on every side of the island. Perfect for spotting the enemy. Finally at 1:00 we went to Xlendi (pronounced Sch-lend-ee) for an incredible 3 course meal. This has been our second group type meal, they bring out baskets of bread, followed by Gozo cheese, which is a hard goats cheese that’s been peppered (VERY good), olives, another smoked cheese, Maltese sausage- which is incredibly salty), crackers, bruschetta, and fried sun dried tomatoes. The main course was either fish or chicken. YES I am on a Mediterranean island where there’s no such thing as BAD fish and YES I still will not be eating it. (whatever, dad, I don’t like fish in the U.S. either. I’ll TRY it at least, how’s that?) obviously I had chicken, which was soaked in a white wine cream sauce and delicious (if I didn’t walk 5+ miles a day, I’d pack on 20 lbs here.) We had an hour to kill after that, so we explored the town. Some people went kayaking, but it was choppy and on and off cloudy.. if I learned one thing during my time in Naples it’s kayaking in the slightest waves makes for a rough time. I wasn’t ready to battle the Med. (you should see the waves today. Intense, rolling white caps..) We bussed back to the ferry and headed home.

I’m here with a large population of Texans. On our way home from school every day, we pass a Tex Mex restaurant. They were missing chips and salsa, so we went for an adventure to test it out. The Maltese take on Tex Mex is interesting. “Salsa” is sweeter, and borders on marinara.. the guac clearly comes from a can, and they also served some peppered sour cream type sauce, which was tasty. My “chicken fajita nachos” came on one giant corn tortilla, melted cheese, and fajita style chunks of chicken. Not what I expected, but pretty tasty for Maltese Tex Mex!

Sunday: This morning Kristi and I were interested in going to mass at St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta. This church has withstood siege upon siege and Napoleon Bonaparte’s 7 day invasion. It puts anything I’ve ever seen in my life to shame. We toured the church with our group the first day here (refer to photos from post #1 in Malta)… but mass was something else entirely. The traditional prayers and incantations were done entirely in Latin, readings and some songs were in Maltese, and a 10 minute pre-written ‘message’ (not really a homily), in English- which he then repeated (and I believed added more, as it seemed longer) in Maltese. The choir actually had me choked up at one point. We were waiting for mass to start and it sounded as though someone put on a sound track of Latin music- it just resounded throughout the entire church and did NOT sound as if people could just be singing acapella. I was wrong. We turned around and a choir flanked in blue robes with black collars was standing by the rear doors singing. (Matt, it even made the Basilica’s choir sound like kindergarteners…). They processed in with 4 bishops or cardinals or some type of clergy in black square hats with red pom poms on top, a cross on a staff, incense, and candles. It was a long mass, and although I could gauge where we were by the program in English which I compared to the program in Maltese (and may even help me learn some Maltese words!) on occasion there would be a long period of chanting/singing in Latin, and it would be a prayer that at home is not sung. There are no kneelers, you just kneel on the marble floors. Only the first row has kneelers. Communion threw us off. At HS, we process out row by row. Here- people just spilled into the aisles whenever they were ready to receive communion. Surprisingly enough it wasn’t as chaotic as you’d think. After mass it started raining more, so we popped into a souvenir shop on the way back to the bus terminal and I got an umbrella. I’ve also been searching for a zip up of some kind.

Believe it or not it gets chilly here at night, and I’m a freeze baby. The thing is- they don’t SELL anything ‘warm’ here really. After 2-3 days of being on the lookout at shops, we found this strange little clothing store that only had one ‘sample’ of each bit of clothing in the 10 ft x. 5 ft closet of a store, and you had to ask for different sizes. He then crawled down into some type of cellar, and retrieved it. Regardless, I found a grey sweatshirt zip up for 9 Euro, and bought it.
Currently snuggled up in my bed with sweatpants and a sweatshirt on listening to Tim McGraw, “Live Like You Were Dying” (such an American, I know). Have a Skype date with mom, dad, and matt a little later. Matt’s heading to the house since the likelihood of my dad purchasing and installing a web cam, downloading skype, and then successfully operating it BEFORE I return to the U.S. is slim to none. (sorry dad, it’s the truth. Lol), so Matt to the rescue with his MacBook :) would you judge me if I said I really want it to work (the internet mainly), so I can see not only the fam, but Squishy too? Kristi said she saw a baby feral kitten by her apartment the other day. I told her to get it for me. (dad, if I can clear customs, Lucky’s getting a baby brother or sister. Seriously.)

On deck for this week (tenatively): boat tour of the Blue Lagoon Tuesday (the most pristine bay in Malta) visit to the court on Wednesday followed by a craft village (Malta has great hand blown glass, and leather shops.. I got a sweet coin purse at a small craft shop on Gozo I’ll have to take a picture of later..) and then a winery tour! Kristi asked our tour guide yesterday if there were any good wineries, next thing I knew we were taking a poll on the buss as to who wanted to go to the winery after the craft shop Wednesday! This weekend I think Kristi and I are going to go to Sicily one of the days. The ferry for that trip leaves at 5:45 a.m. and returns at 11. Speaking of traveling: Kristi, Erwin and I booked a trip to STOCKHOLM for our long weekend June 17th-20th!! $110 round trip :-). Booking a hotel sometime his week. Going to explore Sweden!

Stay tuned!

-KB