Sunday, January 17, 2010

Malta - a sailing country with a history problem!

It only took us 3 days to get to Malta. We arrived at 3am the morning of New Year's Eve and tied up between a large fishing boat and the Coast Guard station. Well, at least we made it. After being greeted by a very curious cat, who joined us in the saloon for snacks, we all turned in for a rest. The rest lasted until 6 AM with someone telling us we were in the wrong spot. After we moved, I couldn't wait to take a shower, get some laundry done (since we had been doing it by hand in a bucket for the last 3 weeks), and go exploring.

Hi, I'm here for the boat kitty interview?
Two out of three isn't so bad, unless of course the one is no shower facilities! Oh, and it being a holiday weekend and all, most shops were closed or closing by 1pm today (Friday, NYE). Okay, send out the scout! Brian jumped on Carl's mt. bike and off he went. We needed new navigation lights as the last one melted due to a short, and we were sailing with one of those " stick to the wall" battery lights inside the colored lense. I grabbed the passports, and Carl & I checked into the country. We were then greeted by some other cruisers, in Malta for the winter, who pointed us in the correct direction, & invited us to a New Year's Day BBQ - Great.
Carl at the BBQ - did I mention all the kitties?

We were all expecting Malta to be extremely expensive, according to all the guide books and the fact that as an island country it imports everything (but aparently baked goods)! So you can imagine our pleasant surprise when we found things to be very reasonable indeed. As a bonus, everyone speaks English because Maltese is so difficult.

And all the yummy treats!

and all the Maltese kitties!
Instead of doing the tourist, hop on, hop off bus, our lonely Planet guide suggested taking the local bus loop around the old city of Valletta, for $0.47 euro cents! Now that’s my kind of tour guide. Another plus side, the old buses are so cool and fun to ride. We also did a lot of walking, which is fine by me.
This city and what we’ve seen of the country, is like something out of a romantic movie. Actually the waterfront reminds us a lot of Venice with San Marcos in the background of the grand canal. Malta even calls this section the “grand harbor”. Boy is it amazing, hence all the photo’s we took of it.
One of many city buses - Bri's in the drivers seat!


Anyhow, We just loved Malta. The food/treats were yummy (and cheap), the history immense, the coffee good, everyone spoke English, and it was so romantic. Such a different island experience for me too. I am use to islands looking like Hawaii, you know, tropical, and it is definitely not like Manhattan!

However, even though English was spoken, it doesn't mean there were not translation issues. Speaking to one man at the bus stop, he asked if we had pizza's and cheese cakes like they had back in the US. I was eating a pizza slice and said, "sure. We actually have a place called the Cheesecake factory with like, 27 different kinds. " Later I would find out that he mean these filo dough, ricotta, savory, pastry things that were only .25 euro cents! Oops. I would show you a picture of one, but I ate it. :) Meow

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