Hotel Xlendi Resort & Spa

... if they would let him drill for it. They took that bargain and had it until Malta joined the EU. Then the EU said they could no longer do business with Libya. so Malta lost a great deal and now has to pay the same as everyone else.
The last stop was across the island at a fishing village. I had great fun bargaining with the vendors for food items: Sesame sticks, date bars, nut crunch and sea salt ...

I've just popped over to Malta for a day & a bit (as you do!) to say a quick hello / goodbye to my parents (and bring them lots of goodies over for the last time in a while).

The weather is a little warmer than the UK, but not as warm as it's going to be in a week's time (ha ha ha).

Anyway, I'll keep this blog short so ciao for now!

Anita x

... places we visited:

Savona

As it was raining and cold here, decided to spend the day aboard and relax and enjoy the fabulous view of the city from the 12th floor of the ship and teach the children how to play 500.

Barcelona

Walked from the ship into town, needed the exercise and didn’t want to pay the exorbitant cost of cruise transport. Hit the Paseo de Gracia (Main Street), so interesting and buzzing with ...

... over the island, giving the entire ancient city of stone a golden glow. I wish I had my camera to capture the weather-beaten yellow and gray hues, because the pictures I took as the boat left the dock are overcast and doesn’t have the morning’s magical light.

We purchased tickets to the “Valetta and Malta Experience” excursion the night before and met Juju and Juma at the seventh floor Stardust ...

It was one of those days today - you know the days - the ones where everything falls into place and everything just seems right. Got up and the sun was shining again, so we hop on the ferry across to Gozo. Gozo is one third of the size of Malta - but for both me and John it oozes 3 times more charm and character - we loved it there. Today has made me realise what has been missing from our time in Malta - no real opportunity to get down to the sea, to see wild and natural ...

... cracked but everything else is intact (thank you apple sudden motion feature which saved my harddrive). After a week of thinking about it, ive decided not to get it fixed and to finish my time here in europe without the comfort of a computer. Ive been using my friend's computer to check email and work on scholarships, school stuff, etc. So then a night later and this time a friday night... we threw a friend who was celebrating his birthday into the pool as we were all hanging ...

... white, and even though I'd been inside some pretty amazing churches during my time in Europe, nothing compared to what I felt here. It's very difficult to describe an energy like this, but rather something that has to be felt I think. I had a look around the interior for a while, noticing the missing paint on the dome which marked where the bomb had come through, before finding the small entrance to the sacristy where a replica of the bomb ...

... in and soon found ourselves amongst wave after wave of gnaly pink and purple stinging jellyfish. Yikes - they were everywhere, obviously sheltering in the cove from the harsh open seas. Some had stinging tenticles as long as your arm so I was glad I wore gloves. Still, my face was partially exposed so it was quite a swim out through the 50 metre ...

We've signed up for the open water diving course at St. Andrews. We went diving once before the Domincan, but have never been properly trained. I've had to twist Brian's arm to do this. After all, he doesn't even like getting his face wet. Our Brit instructor, Sebastian, is younger than both of us I'm sure. We're his only students so benefit from much attention and patience. First, we're off swimming across Xlendi Bay to prove we can actually swim. The first time in the ...

... next closest grocery is in Victoria--too far to walk--and the buses are less than regular. So we eat Brit tourist menu at the restaurant. I've decided that the Malta Experience on Gozo does not include culinary delights. We're cursed with deep fried everything or toast. There are a few other tourists and a couple of ex-Brit pats drinking tea outside in the waning sun. We're all pretending it's warm: sunglasses and scarves. God, the coffee is ****. Worse, even the tea is ****.