Unfortunately this is where Nick and I said farewell to everyone but lucky for us we were on our way to Malta to meet mum, dad and Brendan. Although it was a huge 2 day journey with no sleep and an 11 hour stop-over in Barcelona; where we went back to our favourite places to eat and re-bought some lost jewellery.
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After 5 buses, 3 flights, numerous train rides and 2 cabs we made it to Malta and got to see Mum, Dad and Bren for the first time in 9 months. We had 10 days to catch up and it flew by. We had a three bedroom apartment so it was nice to finally unpack our bags and spread out.
Our time in Malta was action packed and there wasn’t a minute wasted. We took a day trip out to the blue lagoon and paddled about, through caves of beautifully crystal clear water and “sandy bottoms” (Nick’s joke). We climbed aboard the ancient buses and made our way into the capital Valetta where we visited the war museum and went exploring through the old town. We also did a day trip to one of the other islands Gozo which was equally beautiful. On this island is the famous blue grotto (which has been featured in some James Bond type movies) and we took a little boat ride through the grottos. Absolutely picture perfect.
We spent a day or two lazing around on the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean sea, numerous afternoons enjoying the sunset with a bottle or two of chisk (the local beer that dad loved). A couple of the nights Nick, Bren and I headed in to Paceville for a night out on the town only to be confronted by 14 year olds with awful haircuts and tight and skimpy clothes trying their best to make it inside clubs without the bouncer noticing. We had a great laugh, a great couple of night and woke up with headaches in the mornings.
Mum, having lived in Malta, had family still living there, some she hadn’t seen since she was 8. So we did the rounds and made sure to meet them all and exchange stories about when mum was growing up. The majority of conversations were spoken in Maltese so Nick and Dad sat there drinking beers not knowing what was going on half the time. Mum wanted to visit where she used to live so we ventured out to Malsa on one of the days and saw her street and house that was still standing (just). Unfortunately the area was more than a little run down after all these years which was a little heartbreaking for her to see.
We had some great meals and mum even cooked some of my favourites. We lived on pastizzis and couldn’t get enough of them – 25cents each and 3 times the size of the ones at home.
Because we were so close we did a very long day trip to Sicily which was amazing and something mum and dad really wanted to do. We started out at 4 in morning to catch the ferry over there and didn’t return till after 12 that night. We jumped on a bus and stopped at some beautiful Sicilian towns and villages. We also drove to the top of the devastating volcano Mt Etna.
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