Second week in Malta

 Monday 22^nd April: It is dull today but the weather changes so quickly on this small island.  I go out in layers, discarding clothing as we make our way to the village going up and down the hilly paths as it’s not flat here.  Mellieha is the largest bay in Malta and shelves gently into the safe bays and coves for swimming - you can parascend from the water harnessed into a multi-coloured parachute but the waves are not big enough to surf. overlooking the bay. It’s also where our favourite bar is….the Maya Beach Bar.  There are only 11 beaches on the Island (beaches implying sand!), 7 on the main Island, 2 on Gozo and surprisingly enough 2 on the tiny Island of Comino where we intend to go this week.   The village is perched high overlooking  Mellieha Bay itself and the views from the end of the ‘high street’ are amazing Mellieha church stands high overlooking the sea and once through the Church courtyard (one of my favourite places) is a panoramic view of Ghadira Bay which also has a café nearby and our favourite bar called Mayo Beach.

Lazy day today…doing the laundry and walking  (which we do everyday).  ‘Villa Vegas’ is a 3 or 5 bed duplex apartment….we are in the small 2 bed apartment so easy to keep clean…….I do my ‘housework’ while John is taking a shower…..that’s sweeping the courtyard as well!!  HA! (see a photo of John in our courtyard).
 

Tuesday:  Cloudy but warm…..went into town with Marisa who wanted me to do a small arrangement for her table. We both gel as people, as she has to be doing something with her time 24/7 like me.  We had a chat and coffee and went down to our apartment to see the TV man who has come today will give us channels in English. BBC Entertainment , Movies 4 Men/film channels and also Discovery Science /National Geographic  not forgetting the numerous News channels but I bought my DAB radio with me which also plays CD’s….so I have music!

Wednesday: John is heavily into a book…so I took a walk into the village to have a browse.  Bought some flip flops, some paper /pens (as am making a card for Hans who has invited us to his party on Saturday, he will be 71 but loves to party).  Came home around 1pm, when the shops close, found John having his siesta! Days are lazy here but we tend to plan each day where we want to visit/re-visit coinciding with the weather.

Thursday :  It is hot today and we went to the smallest island Comino (named after the cumin seed that grows there). There are loads of vegetation but very little land is farmed  (don’t know why as there is water)…..but  that is not how it used to be, the Knights Templar used it as a meat store keeping Hares and Boar and if you were caught poaching you were sentenced to 3 years as a galley slave.  Around 27 rangers live and look after Comino, we spoke to one man whose house we walked by and  he told us you have to grow or keep chickens/goats for all his needs.  He had a small garden growing broad beans and potatoes.  The Blue Lagoon is a tourist destination …..a stretch of water that is  turquoise blue in colour and looks very inviting , it was crowded with young people jumping in off the rocks.  We went for a walk to see, the only hotel, church and hospital (which closed in 1948). It had a school attached to it but that closed in 1965 as there were no children to attend. The only Fortification was built by the Knights Templar in 1618 but is empty now but all over the island you can see remnants of the WW2. The boat ride back through the caves was stunning and once we got out into the open sea away from Comino, the boat ‘rock n rolled’ and a few of us at the back got wet from the spray…it all added to the fun  but John and I had a great day out.

Photos of Comino…the light blue waters, caves and hotel

                          

  
Photos of Mellieha Church, the café overlooking Ghadira Bay, John in our Courtyard.

         

 

Friday:  I had some sad news that my old neighbour in Bexley has died.  Geoff was 84 and lovely person.  We still visited him when we were in Bexley and of course, we will miss his funeral. 

The people next door in the 3 bed apartment left today….that means we have use of the pool which is their bit of the garden (until it gets booked again ….at the end of May).  It’s hot so we went to beach, we got the bus there and back, as at this time of the year the beaches are deserted (official summer here starts 1st June).  On the short walk back to the villa we walked past colourful gardens with their large statues of the Madonna and Jesus, (so different to our Lion statues and bird tables in UK). Also we see the water trucks outside filling pools with water after the winter months…. as the weather’s getting hotter. 

Saturday we hired a small Hylundi car for a few days so we drove to Bugibba, which is a lively town to have a look round and get some brunch in the sun.  In the afternoon we went to a bar to meet Hans for his birthday - I gave him a Driftwood photo frame that I made that morning for his present - I also made a fish for our villa…… (yes, I bought a suitcase full of Driftwood!).  In the evening we were going back to Bugibba for a big firework  display, that Josef, Marisa’s partner, was involved with….. but it was cancelled as it was too windy. They love their fireworks in Malta.

 

Sunday we got up early and drove down to a market in Rabat…that opened 8 – 12.30pm.  I bought some material as I need more to complete Nancy’s quilt…it will be a English/Maltese patchwork quilt. We then decided to drive to Dingli Bay, as it was close by.  Dingli Cliffs are only 250 metres above sea level …in fact the highest point in Malta.  We came upon a craft market with marching bands and singers.  We saw Tiles being moulded and lace makers in a row making mats - although slightly out of fashion in the UK, it is a wonderful skill….I don’t think I would remember what to do!

 

 

 

 

First week in Malta

Sunday 13^th April 2014

We arrived in Malta around 1pm after catching a plane from Gatwick at 6.30am Sunday morning. We had a 90 minute delay but Marisa, our friend in Malta, whose villa we are renting was there to take us to our ‘home for 3 months’ at Villa Vegas, Mellieha.  It was 17 degrees…..I had expected it to be hotter, not because I checked the weather out before we came, but it was quite hot in UK when we left and just expected it to be hot.  It had rained in the morning and was cloudy but we were tired, so we unpacked (a bit) did some shopping (a bit) and relaxed and went to bed around 9pm.  We woke up at 8am (we are one hour forward than UK) but still had 10 hours sleep! Monday 14^thand we were here in Malta and not about to rush home after one week. There had been no time, the weeks before leaving for Malta, John went to America and being ill, with food poisoning, upon his return and then going to John’s son’s wedding in Liverpool on the Wednesday, before we left for Malta. We came back Saturday 12th and we flew the next day.  We had a lovely time in Liverpool  (which was my first visit) and at the wedding.  The bride and groom looked amazing….see photos of Nathan & Sarah & me outside Cavern club).

 

    

The kitchen in the villa was fully equipped with even a food processor and with the offer, from Marisa, to ask for anything……..all was well.  John and I had dinner and slept for a further 10 hours.  We had no TV or Internet as Marisa was updating TV/Internet package….so tomorrow, maybe, we would have internet! Tuesday 15^th : I woke up and shouted for my tea (further to shout as the hallway from our bedroom to the kitchen was further away than our bungalow at home!). I opened the curtains…..the sun was pushing its way through the clouds and John said we have a power cut!  No problem as we did have a gas cooker so was able to have coffee/tea and breakfast.  Earlier we had touched base with Hans Jorgen Gotsche …..a Danish guy who we stayed with last September through  AirB&B that Joanna put us on to. You can (like our B&B where you rent a room in their house but anywhere in the world. It’s a very cheap way to get accommodation eg. we paid 19 Euros/night and had a very enjoyable stay) . Hans said that every Tuesday he goes to a big Supermarket and would take us there to stock up, so we met him at 10am to get our shopping.  We will usually go everywhere by bus and hire a car ‘as and when’ we need one.  We can get any one of 8 buses in the direction of Melleiha village or Gozo ferry..…or to the capital Valletta.  A weekly bus ticket cost 6.50 Euros.  We have a fruit and veg van that comes to our street who sells fresh local produce and the strawberries and big, juicy and cheap. We got home from shopping and still had no electricity.  We have power cuts at home but it’s different abroad, as at home, I can go to my workshop and do some of my hobbies, but here, you are limited and you have to have some ingenuity to think of things you can do. (You know me…I can’t sit still!).  I took 3 good books to read……some sewing materials (as I am going to make a quilt for my granddaughter Nancy) and took a suitcase full of driftwood and beads to make a few items when bored…so have plenty to do when not swimming in pool, sea or walking/sitting in the sunshine! Marisa was in the big villa, besides ours, getting it ready for her Easter guests, who were arriving Friday, so we helped her.  She had just had the pool re-tiled with solar tiles, as well as new pool lights . The surrounding area of the pool had been re-painted white and we swept up the mess the workmen left and I did some gardening….taking dead leaves off her shrubs and planting some Cacti….which I had never done  before! (My hands are full of scratches!). John saw a dead scorpion and we didn’t realise that there were any in Malta (we eventually googled ‘Scorpions’ and realised that we get them in UK too!).  Marisa told us that men were filling the pool today with 28,000 gallons of water and we watched every gallon go in! It now looks very different to an empty deep pool....with it’s azure blue tiles  and sunny reflections on the water , but we can’t yet use as we have to wait for the chemicals to be added. Saviour, Marisa’s brother-in-law, was going to do that later. (We had met Saviour before as he drove us to our wedding venue in his very posh Mercedes).  6pm and still no electricity ….a bit worrying as the fridge was now full of food. Wednesday morning and we have power….it came back on at midnight, so Marisa told us…but we were in bed before then as we had been for a long walk Tuesday night and had dinner out (and a bottle of wine) as we couldn’t charge our phones, had no internet, no TV but hey…it was still good….we were in Malta!   We decided to help Marisa again today (not that she wanted us too but we offered and it helped her as she had been delayed).  The electricity was off again but this time it was because the electrician had turned it off as he was putting new lights around the pool area and BBQ…it only took a couple of hours.  At 5pm we went for a walk to a favourite bar of ours, by the sea, and ordered a local bottle of wine and took the bus back. Whilst waiting for the bus we talked to a Swedish couple who said that their favourite day was a trip to Comino by boat (the smaller of the two Islands….the other one being Gozo). I did the trip to Comino 15 years ago, but will go again with John and swim in the Blue Lagoon. It had been a lovely day….despite the fact that I couldn’t Skype my grandchildren as the Electricity was off again as work was still being finished around the pool late into the night.  All should be finished tonight though!

We woke up Thursday with all ‘mod cons’ but still no TV (which wasn’t a problem ……YET!) . Tea in bed and a blue sky….heaven! I had found BBC world service on my radio (and bought batteries for any future power cuts) so it was great to get some news around the world, sad stories regarding the boat sinking in South Korea and yet all is calm in Malta….it makes you realise how lucky we are.  Another item of news was of a shepherdess who bought a farm in Northumberland…..in the middle of nowhere.  She was only in her early 20’s when she decided to buy the farm….her story was interesting and she has written a book…..(note to self:  must order a copy). We went for a walk and got some more strawberries on the way home. I finally Skyped  Stefanie, Ruby and Indi….who told me about their weekend away with friends. It was lovely to see them….technology is good when working! Marisa invited us upstairs to her house and gave us brunch to thank us for our help.  Good Friday – and Malta being of Catholic Religion had processions going on everywhere.  After a lazy morning at 3pm we got the bus to Mosta Rotunda Church to watch the Good Friday Procession.  Statues of Jesus and Judus and a full size tree depicting the Garden of Gethsemane….with men, women and children dressed authentically in robes ……I tell you those 12 men who carried the statues were sweating big time. Girl Guide bands beating their drums ….very poignant. (see photos).

      

 

 

       

Home on a bus (we were the last two people to be herded on by the driver…whew!) and we stood ‘nose to nose’ on an extremely crowded bus but at least, we managed to get home quite quickly.  We popped into a bar for a nightcap and walked back to Villa Vegas.  Saturday morning looks great, not a cloud in the sky and hot, hot, hot……we went for a long walk in the countryside (it’s Malta’s equivalent to our woods, with natural habitat, wild flowers but with terraced plots of cultivated land with all kinds of vegetables and olive trees growing.  We came to a dead end with views overlooking the sea, it took 3 hours in the blazing sun, so we headed to our favourite bar, had a late lunch with beer and fresh orange juice and walked home by 6pm.  Marisa and her daughters came to see us and invited us up as they had been making special Easter Figolli, which they give to relatives at Easter (it’s pastry made with egg yokes and orange juice and peel with an almond mixture centre and covered with chocolate and sweets). John and I tried and tested it and it was good, tomorrow we will get a Easter present from them, I think…with Chocolate  Easter bunnies on and everything!

It’s Sunday….and we have been here one week.  It’s hot and the beach is calling us.  We walked a few K’s to get to Armier Beach…..which wasn’t as crowded as we thought being Easter Sunday.  I Spoke to my family on my mobile , who had gathered at Andrea’s house. I was thinking about them and missing them!  Human emotions are funny…we all need anchors like holidays or the attention of another person to activate our emotions and I guess ‘missing your love ones’ is alI part of it.  I have loved the first week here and look forward to the coming weeks when some of our friends and family arrive.  

(see photos of Gecko in glass …who came to visit us and our Figolli heart shaped gift from Marisa…which had, before the photo was taken, already been eaten by John…well the chocolate bunny!).