Roma Sliema

... We sat out on our balcony which looked upon the walls of the city and the quay. Bustling horse and carriages trotted smartly back and forth. The road going up the hill is steep, but these horses are strong and fit, pulling with little effort. They really fly.
We boarded our bus with no security issues( like aforementioned places) and started our tour. I know nothing of Malta, other than ...

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

... a grey cold day with showers didn’t help its cause. Maybe in twenty something years tourism will have lifted their game a bit, but couldn’t help but think perhaps years of public money siphoned off to the mob has probably ground these people down.

We are looking forward to the next part of our journey, Rome for five nights. We will leave the ship a few kilo’s heavier, but looking forward to a little more flexibility in our time table.

... 10 kg (22 lbs)! You also have to pay if you want airport check in or priority boarding or if you have sports luggage like skis. We flew out of London Luton airport which is a bit north of London. At Luton every flight requires you to go out onto the tarmac and go up the stairs. I'm used to that at Burbank, so it was fine. I met Dawn and her husband Tony at the Luton airport. Tony grew up in Malta until his early 20s, when he moved to England to become a doctor. When we ...

... being forceably taken over by one army after another. It seems that everyone owned Malta at some point in their history, so there is are a variety of cultures that are depicted in the lifestyle and the architecture from Arabic to Roman to British to Portugese. Although it was a little "crumbly" (in fact, the Spaniards scoffed at the fact that so many things were in need of major renovation), I thought it was beautiful, and actually ...

... and a lover of hope. And yes I am 36 and been through the wars at times but I have hope for the future and look forward to finding that life partner. After all, it is the rest of our lives I am talking about here, so at what point in time that journey starts is not important. The important thing is getting to that start line with her... If you have read this far I would like to applaud you, thank you and also apologise! I put some ...

... to leave. Later that evening some young friends of Mario's joined us for dinner at his home. It was a good chance to wind down and chat with some Maltese people, and learn something more about the little island that had impressed me so much in just one day. The Citadel was was an impressive site, standing tall over the whole island, and the coastal scenery at Dwejra was the most spectacular I'd seen in Europe. It proved to be the calm, quiet change I was looking for.

... men of similar age. A very warm, friendly and unassuming man. He was Maltese! I booked 2 weeks accommodation in the Sliema Hotel. I found it in the Malta & Gozo Lonely Planet guide book and it was perfect. I followed the book's recommendation to pay a little extra to get a balcony room facing the harbour and a very good move that was indeed. My view was fantastic with a chance to step out of my room 5 stories off the ground and take in the sites of Malta and the capital ...

... bays and beaches and churches - I think we have successfully seen just about all of Malta and Gozo! (Not too ********sidering it only takes about 40mins to drive from one side to the other)! Only three weeks of this saga left, spent relaxing in Mauritius. It will be a shock to the system to get home, but I cant wait - especially now that I have a little baby nephew to kiss and cuddle on my return.

... inside out of the wind. Trucks rumbling by on the way to the quarry just up the road woke me about 7am. I dozed a while and got up. The wind had died a little but the mist had closed in. It was that fine mist that soaks everything. I packed up and headed back to try my luck again at the hostel. In the fog I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Zebbug by a mist enshrouded church and in completely the wrong direction. Luckily Gozo is tiny so its no big deal ...