Malta 4/20-4/22
Thursday night Madalyn and I landed late, around midnight with no plan as to how to get to our AirBNB we would be staying at for the weekend. This weekend was a meet up of friends though, so we landed with Hannah and Gabby from Dublin and one of my friends from Purdue, Gretchen Perry was already at the house so we knew we just had to make our way. Using Taxify (like Uber) that is the newest and best way to get around Malta we began the drive with the address we were given. The driver was kind and chatted with us about Malta, how he was from Libya and the Maltese language has Arabic mixed in. Showing us the former and current capital city along the way. The address was wrong and we ended up in the wrong area of town, borrowing the drivers phone though I was able to call my friend and she was able to direct us. By the time we got in and put our bags down we were starting so we ate a bowl of porridge and all went to bed knowing the other half of our friends would show up early the next morning.
The next morning the other girlies arrived bright and early 9:30am. This friend was my middle school art buddy and still one of my best friends from my hometown. Nicole is studying abroad in Italy for the semester and had brought along friends she had made during her time abroad so in total there were 7 of us now in Malta for a sunny and beach filled weekend reunion. After a bit of catch up, the girls put their bags down and we went for super huge super cheap brunch at Tal Pijazza of only €2.50. After breakfast we wandered down to the rocks to sunbathe for the afternoon. The water was freezing but we all ventured in, some of us more than others, but at some point the rocks were rounded and covered in moss, so when every step taken was very precarious and three of us ended up slipping and going all the way under the freezing cold water. While later we were all laying there when one of the girls L, who had got back in the water started screaming running out of the water, she came out covered in welts from a jellyfish sting. We ran across the street got vinegar from a shop, scrapped the sting with a credit card and put baking soda on it. The welts wrapped from her thigh up and across her torso to her shoulder. After that we called the day at the beach shot and went back to our place. That night we went to Iceland for dinner supplies, made some dinner and just sat around chatting for a long time. Later that night a couple of us went out for ice cream and snacks only for Google Maps to lead us down a dirt path, Malta straight up has dirt paths for roads that are marked on Google Maps that people use regularly. It had been a long 24 hours for all of us so we went to bed early that night to get an early jump start on the next day.
Saturday morning we got picked up for our day cruise by the Hornblower company and driven to the docks we were to leave from around 9:30. All day was spent sitting on the sun deck of the cruise ship that was covered with turf grass, so we laid our towels out, but mine was a replica of the game “Twister” and the bright colored circles that attracted bees all day to pollinate, 10/10 would not buy a towel that is a bunch of big and bright circles. Sailing around Malta and its Islands, like Gozo and Camino, we learned about the history that was hidden in their rocky cliffs, lagoon, and caves. The plan was the stop in the Blue Lagoon for the afternoon, and once there we took a speed boat around to see some of the smaller caves that had hidden windows and sandy beaches. When we got back to the cruise boat we had some lunch on the deck and rented snorkel equipment, despite the extremely high number of jelly fish that filled the water below us and the freezing water temperatures. We did’nt get far out before we started seeing jellyfish at eye level when we went under the water and decided to turn around and head back into the beach. On our way back to the boat we ran into our friends Hannah and Gabby from Dublin who we hadn’t seen yet this weekend and hung out for a bit, each introducing our friends to each other. Our time was ending in the Blue Lagoon so everyone was deciding what they were going to do with the last couple minutes of their time. I decided to follow a path that had been dug into the cliff side of this side of the island that wrapped around the entire coast. The farther away I got the quieter it became, less people had ventured this far but the sights were more than worth it. The occasional sailboat just sitting out in the clear blue water while the sun set, rocks and caves jutting up from the sea every so often. I came across a huge group of young people from Spain on my way back because I walked down closer to the water. They had found a rock that stuck out over the water and were jumping into the sea and climbing back out on the rocks that formed a ladder from the sea back on the platform. You bet I jumped off that rock platform and then once I got back to the boat I went down the slide that went off the side of the cruiser into the water, somehow managing not to get stung by a jellyfish the entire time I was in the water that day. The cruiser took us back to the home port, we all disembarked and headed for home to get ready for dinner. We decided to have dinner that night in the new capital, Valetta, we took a taxi from Taxify and as we drove into the city there were people hanging out windows, waving flags shouting, playing music super loud. Our taxi driver informed us that the Valetta soccer team had just won the Malta National Championships. Before dinner we visited the Upper Barrakka Gardens and looked out over the city and the sea as the sun was finally setting. Heading into the heart of the city to find a restaurant the music and number of people only increased. We ate in the middle of the street festival that night barely able to hear each other for hours. The people in the street only sang about 4 songs and they just repeated. Most songs were American songs being sung in Maltese language and there was one that repeated “SHNEE HALA GRAZZI” which means ____ _____ thank you, I was unable to find the proper translations for the other two words, but I have written then phonetically. Wandering around the city we found sculptures every so often that had words on them that implied a lesson to be learned. There was a sculpture of a chicken and an egg and the words printed were “don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” It was getting late and we all had early flights so we went back and went to sleep.
In the morning Nicole, L, Jennifer and Sadie had to leave at 5am to catch their flight back to Italy and Gretchen, Mad and I left for the airport at 10am to get there in time for our flights that were later in the day. Breakfast that morning was the remaining ice cream we had left in our freezer when we left our AirBNB that morning and some coffee once we got to the airport. Mad and I flew out and landed back in Dublin around 2pm that Sunday and Gretchen made it back a bit later in the day. One of the fastest but greatest reunion weekends with Purdue, Wheaton, Gordon & Messiah mates in a beautiful warm place with a few too many jellyfish.
Thursday night Madalyn and I landed late, around midnight with no plan as to how to get to our AirBNB we would be staying at for the weekend. This weekend was a meet up of friends though, so we landed with Hannah and Gabby from Dublin and one of my friends from Purdue, Gretchen Perry was already at the house so we knew we just had to make our way. Using Taxify (like Uber) that is the newest and best way to get around Malta we began the drive with the address we were given. The driver was kind and chatted with us about Malta, how he was from Libya and the Maltese language has Arabic mixed in. Showing us the former and current capital city along the way. The address was wrong and we ended up in the wrong area of town, borrowing the drivers phone though I was able to call my friend and she was able to direct us. By the time we got in and put our bags down we were starting so we ate a bowl of porridge and all went to bed knowing the other half of our friends would show up early the next morning.
The next morning the other girlies arrived bright and early 9:30am. This friend was my middle school art buddy and still one of my best friends from my hometown. Nicole is studying abroad in Italy for the semester and had brought along friends she had made during her time abroad so in total there were 7 of us now in Malta for a sunny and beach filled weekend reunion. After a bit of catch up, the girls put their bags down and we went for super huge super cheap brunch at Tal Pijazza of only €2.50. After breakfast we wandered down to the rocks to sunbathe for the afternoon. The water was freezing but we all ventured in, some of us more than others, but at some point the rocks were rounded and covered in moss, so when every step taken was very precarious and three of us ended up slipping and going all the way under the freezing cold water. While later we were all laying there when one of the girls L, who had got back in the water started screaming running out of the water, she came out covered in welts from a jellyfish sting. We ran across the street got vinegar from a shop, scrapped the sting with a credit card and put baking soda on it. The welts wrapped from her thigh up and across her torso to her shoulder. After that we called the day at the beach shot and went back to our place. That night we went to Iceland for dinner supplies, made some dinner and just sat around chatting for a long time. Later that night a couple of us went out for ice cream and snacks only for Google Maps to lead us down a dirt path, Malta straight up has dirt paths for roads that are marked on Google Maps that people use regularly. It had been a long 24 hours for all of us so we went to bed early that night to get an early jump start on the next day.
Saturday morning we got picked up for our day cruise by the Hornblower company and driven to the docks we were to leave from around 9:30. All day was spent sitting on the sun deck of the cruise ship that was covered with turf grass, so we laid our towels out, but mine was a replica of the game “Twister” and the bright colored circles that attracted bees all day to pollinate, 10/10 would not buy a towel that is a bunch of big and bright circles. Sailing around Malta and its Islands, like Gozo and Camino, we learned about the history that was hidden in their rocky cliffs, lagoon, and caves. The plan was the stop in the Blue Lagoon for the afternoon, and once there we took a speed boat around to see some of the smaller caves that had hidden windows and sandy beaches. When we got back to the cruise boat we had some lunch on the deck and rented snorkel equipment, despite the extremely high number of jelly fish that filled the water below us and the freezing water temperatures. We did’nt get far out before we started seeing jellyfish at eye level when we went under the water and decided to turn around and head back into the beach. On our way back to the boat we ran into our friends Hannah and Gabby from Dublin who we hadn’t seen yet this weekend and hung out for a bit, each introducing our friends to each other. Our time was ending in the Blue Lagoon so everyone was deciding what they were going to do with the last couple minutes of their time. I decided to follow a path that had been dug into the cliff side of this side of the island that wrapped around the entire coast. The farther away I got the quieter it became, less people had ventured this far but the sights were more than worth it. The occasional sailboat just sitting out in the clear blue water while the sun set, rocks and caves jutting up from the sea every so often. I came across a huge group of young people from Spain on my way back because I walked down closer to the water. They had found a rock that stuck out over the water and were jumping into the sea and climbing back out on the rocks that formed a ladder from the sea back on the platform. You bet I jumped off that rock platform and then once I got back to the boat I went down the slide that went off the side of the cruiser into the water, somehow managing not to get stung by a jellyfish the entire time I was in the water that day. The cruiser took us back to the home port, we all disembarked and headed for home to get ready for dinner. We decided to have dinner that night in the new capital, Valetta, we took a taxi from Taxify and as we drove into the city there were people hanging out windows, waving flags shouting, playing music super loud. Our taxi driver informed us that the Valetta soccer team had just won the Malta National Championships. Before dinner we visited the Upper Barrakka Gardens and looked out over the city and the sea as the sun was finally setting. Heading into the heart of the city to find a restaurant the music and number of people only increased. We ate in the middle of the street festival that night barely able to hear each other for hours. The people in the street only sang about 4 songs and they just repeated. Most songs were American songs being sung in Maltese language and there was one that repeated “SHNEE HALA GRAZZI” which means ____ _____ thank you, I was unable to find the proper translations for the other two words, but I have written then phonetically. Wandering around the city we found sculptures every so often that had words on them that implied a lesson to be learned. There was a sculpture of a chicken and an egg and the words printed were “don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” It was getting late and we all had early flights so we went back and went to sleep.
In the morning Nicole, L, Jennifer and Sadie had to leave at 5am to catch their flight back to Italy and Gretchen, Mad and I left for the airport at 10am to get there in time for our flights that were later in the day. Breakfast that morning was the remaining ice cream we had left in our freezer when we left our AirBNB that morning and some coffee once we got to the airport. Mad and I flew out and landed back in Dublin around 2pm that Sunday and Gretchen made it back a bit later in the day. One of the fastest but greatest reunion weekends with Purdue, Wheaton, Gordon & Messiah mates in a beautiful warm place with a few too many jellyfish.
