Cool Breezes and Cool Waters

Finally I saw Gozo and Comino, the sister islands of Malta. I decided to book a cruise in order to maximize the amount I could see given the amount of time I had that day. It was a long, taxing day. Starting out at 8am and returning to my hostel at 8pm, my twelve hour day included a bus tour, three boat trips including Sliema, Malta to Gozo; Gozo to the Blue Lagoon, Comino; then from the Blue Lagoon back to Sliema. I happened to wake up extra early in order to secure a seat on the sundeck of the Delfini, the cruise ship, and was initially annoyed by the constant stream of people that attempted to shoehorn themselves in, despite the lack of space and the apparent lack of motivation to actually get there early. After the second couple forced me to act out a sardine forced into a can, I have to admit I was in a less than pleasant mood. Secondly this man, whom I can only describe a a wannabe hipster, clad in a completely opened buttondown shirt and khaki shorts, was constantly toking on a vaporizer that kept on sending its sickening scent directly into my face. Vapor or smoke, nobody appreciates taking somebody's exhaust to the face. He was also half of that "second couple"...so to sum it up, I was not a fan. Minus my barrage of vapor, the trip was pleasant, sunny, and with ample sea breeze to keep from becoming too warm.

The trip from Sliema to Gozo took about two and a half hours, and when we reached the port we were instantly corralled into two sightseeing buses. I was lucky enough to get the first seat on the left on the second level of the doubledecker bus two out of three times, and my pictures were that much better as a result. The buses took us the the Azure Window, this incredible natural rock formation created by the waves over thousands of years. After we explored that for just over a half hour we were again ushered into the buses to go to the fortified city called the Citadel, which defensibly overlooks the capital city of Victoria. Unfortunately I failed to see the sites of the Citadel considering we were given only forty five minutes to explore the city and the walk from where we parked would take almost fifteen minutes both ways, so understandably most of the tourists, myself included, decided against running to the top of the hill for the exciting ten or fifteen minutes to explore the ancient city that would take over an hour to appreciate properly. From there we headed back to the Delfini to take us to the Blue Lagoon in Comino.

Unplanned Festivals and Unplanned Companions

This last week I had one of my favorite hostel room groups of people. Out of nowhere the majority of us became friends for the brief amount of time we shared and decided to explore parts of Malta we would not have seen otherwise. This instantly meshing group consisted of an Aussie named Emily, an American from Virginia named Megan, a German named Laura, and a Polish girl named Natalia. We seemed to get along instantly and when Megan turned my attention to a fascinating website that documented almost every event Malta was hosting for months to come, we decided we needed to participate in at least a few of them. While I chose to abstain from the wine tasting Megan decided to go to, Laura, Megan, and I did decide to attend this International Food Festival being held at Mdina- one of the oldest cities in Malta. Unfortunately, Megan got caught in some pre wedding plans, of which a wedding was the purpose of her visit. So that left Laura and I to go to the festival by ourselves and we had a great time. There were a few live performances, cheese tastings, and of course: plenty of food. However, despite all the exotic foods, I "phoned it in" and ended up eating at the American table. I feel bad about not choosing to try something new at an international food festival, but at least I facilitated a conversation with a local Maltese woman and her children about how much of a national focus the Knights of St. John have on their school curriculum. Small consolation I know, but I did finally try rabbit. I had this rabbit pasta, in which I had assumed it would be a pasta with chopped pieces of rabbit interspersed throughout the dish like chicken or sausage is, but instead my plate came to me with pasta as a staging ground for the large rotisserie-style quartered rabbit placed on top. Even still, I was determined to complete my mission and afterwards I can say that rabbit was not too bad, but nothing I would seek out at home. It tasted similar to unseasoned turkey, it was not gamey but slightly dry for my taste.