Malta Experience

One day my boss announces that there is a chance of us English teachers getting to a teachers' training course abroad if we are swift enough and the next thing I know is I'm packing my bags for a fortnight in Malta. Just like that. 

So, Malta in July is deadly. The sun burns your skin and you better stay covered or you'll turn into a toast. Your daily walk to school around a chemists which has a neon sign telling the temperature doesn't help in the least. I mean when you walk BEFORE eight in the morning and it is already 36°C you start to get summer depressions, trust me. They are a real deal. But that's not all. There are also the humid days during which you'll take several showers a day and once you leave the safe confines of your shower stall, you'll need to take it once again. To say nothing of the dense air which makes it difficult to breathe and carries all kinds of unpleasant smells. 

Really, you'll just have to reconcile with the fact that you'll be sticky 24/7. A local bitter sweet soft drink Kinnie helps. Swimming in the rough sea sometimes helps too but the rocky beaches are deadly and the sandy ones tend to be crowded and polluted. You will also start asking yourself why the heck would such hell be a strategic point and why would so many nations want to inhabit this small freshwaterless piece of rock since you can't really grow anything in there. 

I'll tell you. The local people who have been hardened by the terrible living conditions are total sweethearts. They are friendly, open and always helpful. There is very low percentage of crime which makes it super awesome when you don't have to watch your belongings all the time.

Then there's the food. Pastizzi are a very good choice of snack (though everyone warns you they'll make you fat if you eat them too often - like I care!) and since there are no cows or pigs around the diet is much tastier and healthier than back home. The cheese was mostly goat or sheep - I just love them. Oh, I just kept stuffing my pie hole with fish and vegetarian stuff and never wanted to stop.

Since it seems everyone goes to Malta to study English, you -as a teacher on holidays (I know, I know, I was studying but I was doing it abroad and that counts as holiday)- will have to take into account that not only adults go there. Even loud teenagers go there. So some parts of Malta are better not to wander into. Paceville my ass. Never going there ever. I'm supposed to take a break from them! But since the bus system runs around the whole tiny island, you can actually take a break from those screamers and find your inner peace in the city of Mdina. They also serve the best chocolate cake there. Not that such a small thing would sway my opinion or anything... Or you can visit that lovely fish market in Marsaxlokk and stare at the colorful boats for a change. Or, if you are into churches, you can choose one of the gazillion they have in Valletta. Really, they are on every corner. Or you can take pictures of all the door knockers you find - that should take a while.They are beautiful and together with colorful doors they break the boredom of the city.

Speaking of change, it's good to visit Gozo, the sister island of Malta. Malta is crowded and, well, dry and yellow. And looks almost homogeneous - that is one town blends into another without you noticing it. At least around Valletta you can't really tell you left one town and entered another.  Gozo, on the other hand, is a little bit greener. Green helps my summer depressions, I found out. :-)= There is one mystery, however. All the native dairy products I'd consumed during my stay mentioned milk from Gozitan goats. Where are they kept?! During our tour we saw almost the whole island and they were nowhere in sight! Do they live underground? And are they really goats? :-)=

Don't get me wrong, I had a really nice time in Malta it's just that I am not a summer person and I felt like I was turning into liquid.  I didn't like that. I like my present state alright, thank you very much.

But the people I met and the things I got to know were worth almost dying for. ;-)= As my Belgian flatmate would say: "Malta Experience!" -> this sums it up. In Valletta they show a short film about the history of the island called Malta Experience and basically it is all about one conqueror coming after another. So whenever something bad happened to us, we called it Malta Experience. It became a catchphrase of ours. But just like the brave people of Malta, we survived and even had a blast. 

Blast... the festas they hold every weekend almost made us running for a shelter the first weekend we were there. We could hear the cannons and after watching Malta Experience we thought the island was under attack again! ;-)= Just joking. But blasting sounds do cut through the silence quite often since the Maltese love to celebrate and boast about their fireworks skills. 

So bye bye Malta, hope to see you again but in winter or spring. :-)=