St Paul's Bay
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2007
1
8
29
Trip End
Oct 17, 2007
St Paul's Bay,
Malta
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Lunch was superb, Michael's wife, Josette, is very nice and a lot of fun and in true Maltese fashion she cooked up a storm for us. I was certainly getting spoilt with all these home cooked meals, much better than I would be having at home in Naremburn! Their house is beautiful, part of a new estate just inland from Sliema and I had a great time there. My Maltese is getting better all the time and I have insisted that my relatives over here talk in Maltese with each other and also when talking to me. It makes some conversations a little slower and I do tend to miss the odd thing here or there but I am really happy with how I am picking up the language. I have always known a lot of words but putting them together in phrases is the tough bit. Every now and then I will say something not quite right and they would all crack up, but they seem very happy that I am making such an effort and I am getting a lot out of it.
Well air shows are pretty popular in Malta and we should have seen it coming but if ever I was to get a good display on the fact there are too many cars in Malta it was today. The north east part of the country where St Paul's Bay (and the air show) were was in total gridlock.
Dinner at Michael and Josette's
And I don't mean a city gridlock I mean a country gridlock. It was shocking and there was absolutely zero parking anywhere. We did manage to find something eventually after around 4 laps of St Paul's Bay and surrounding suburbs. But once we got parked we found a great spot on the water front to enjoy the day's activities. My cousin Lillian did say that all of Malta is coming to watch this show and she was not far wrong. There were people everywhere. St Paul's Bay is like the Gold Coast of Malta, all built up with high rise hotels and apartments that line up along the shoreline of the bay. There are even main made beaches where the rocks use to be along the shore line. It is a fun place with lots to do but it has no resemblance to traditional and historical Malta that I have grown to love so far. I did strip down and have a swim in the bay however, it was something I wanted to tell my mum and dad that I had done...swam in St Paul's Bay! Unfortunately the water was not the cleanest either but I don't want to take away from the experience, it was a good feeling to swim in the waters of the bay that my parents often talk about and where I had swum the last time I was 30 years ago.The air show was good and we all went for a walk along the outskirts of the bay afterwards. I managed to see a game of Bocci in progress (similar to lawn bowls...sort of) and that was fun. My Maltese family dropped me at my hotel at around 8pm to cap off a wonderful 2 days I had spent with them. I am so grateful for their hospitality and eagerness to show me around. The last two days I had seen and experienced so much, it was fantastic. Oh and I had seen Sister Christine as well!
I planned to relax over the next day or so with nothing planned and sometime to myself. I couldn't wait...
