Rokna Saint Julian's

I've just popped over to Malta for a day &amp; 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).<br><br>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).<br><br>Anyway, I'll keep this blog short so ciao for now!<br><br>Anita x

... and was going to be towed. Had difficulty trying to communicate that we were sailing on a cruise - so when we return to Italy we may be maxed out in fines on the visa card and have to beg our way home!!!<br><br>We were certainly glad we did the cruises in the order we did, The Costa Pacific is only four months old, thus is new and gleaming. It has glass lifts in the in middle which ascend 12 stories all the way up to the retractable glass roof ...

... duped by the online descriptions that make the walk into the city sound rough.<br><br> Our tour guide is a dowdy English woman who is wearing a flower print dress and speaks with a breathlessly nasal English accent. &#8220;Thish ish a shtashtue of Shaint Jamesh, and-a&#8230;.&#8221; she speaks like this as we follow her along the cobblestone streets lined with stone buildings. Our first stop is the Upper Baracca Gardens, a ...

... system in Malta. It was quite overwhelming for them and they were scared out of their minds they were going to get lost. Whoever deposited these seasoned citizens on Maltese public transportation should be tried for elder abuse. Seriously. These buses just come and go with no rhyme or reason to the schedule and its a crapshoot if its going in the right direction if you don't ask the right questions of the driver.<br><br>I really liked their ...

... br><br>Take the taxi or sightseeing bus and hop off at the Ta&#8217; Hagrat Megalthic Temples in Mgarr, a mere 20 minute through drive or slightly longer if you chose the sightseeing. This is a profound experience zooming you back some 5000 years in the silence of the megaliths and the scenic valley surrounding them. Lunch out at one of Mgarr&#8217;s traditional bar and restaurants, probably a good pasta with rabbit fried ...

... chomp outta us, cause before we knew it we were still a couple of kilometres away from Paola - where it is based - and it was ten minutes until the tour started - there are also huge great notices all over the website stating that if you are late you will not get in and you will not get your money back. Maybe we were just plain lucky or maybe things have improved slightly since the things I had read, but once we arrived at Paola with 5 minutes to get there we ...

... that was cheap. We settled on a Mexican place that actually had spicy food so we were both so pumped. Then we went to bingo. Yes, bingo in Malta. There wasn't much else to do and it was right by our hotel. We bought cards and dobbers and walked into the main hall. They were listing off numbers so fast we had no idea what was going on. It's not the slow B..........9 thing we're used to. Plus there was no BINGO at the top so we had no idea. I went up to the girl who sold us our ...

... really hard to understand/pay attention to the topic at hand. Headed home, the weather was terrible so it was indoors for the rst of the day. Jakeo called me over and we prepared over about 2hours a seafood risotto that you could die for. We got some good photos... Lets just say cooking is my favorite thing here. Got to talk to mom and papa on the phone(thanks guys, its was realllllly nice to hear your voices). Now bed time... Love you alllll, Hope all is well!

... built in the 17th century right on the edge of the cliffs. I saw a lot of Malta in my first three days, and I was satisfied enough to be ready to start work on the Monday. I had the following weekend to see some more sights at breakneck speed, before I spent my final four days on the even smaller island of Gozo. I somehow wished I could have a three week holiday in Malta, but I had to work for financial reasons. Little did I know what awaited me in the coming days.

... 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 ...