Malta. Part Five.

While we were still at home in England. Meghan booked a day out for both of us, it cost her 60 euros.

It was a day out on a tourist boat, sightseeing trip. The plan was to get to the boat for 09.00am. Meghan said the day before the boat trip, “It is a 30-minute walk to the boat,” I didn’t fancy that, at all, in that heat.

Meghan had suggested, “Have two showers a day and change, twice a day.” I said, “No, I will have one shower first thing in the morning, and wear one outfit a day.” Well, this morning, I was enjoying my shower, I was enjoying my shower SO much, I was in there 15 minutes, it wasn’t a good time to have a 15-minute shower, as time was of the essence.

Breakfast had to be rushed, so that was the knock-on effect, of my lovely shower. So, I felt a bit guilty, because now we would not make it for 09.00am. The reason why we had to be there for that time, Meghan said, “So that we can sit upstairs, and sit in the sun.”

Meghan booked an uber, so we got there for 09.00am. we went on the Hornblower and went upstairs. It was due to leave at 10.00am, it slowly filled up so much upstairs that some sat on their towels on the floor. The day trip was to the Blue Lagoon.

While we waited for the boat to leave at 10.00am it was announced, “For five euros each the boat can take you to Victoria, Xlendi, and Gozo, you will be given a yellow wristband.” I turned to Meghan and said, “Shall we go?” Meghan said, “Yes, Gozo is one of the places I wanted us to visit.” The lady on the boat, who was speaking through a microphone, spoke everything in 3 different languages, English, French and Italian, had said, “If anyone wants to go put your hand up," I put my hand up, and I gave her 10 euros and she gave us a ticket and put yellow wristbands on our wrists.

Also, before we set off for the day, safety notices were given to us, it was then I became a tad nervous, as I can’t swim. The open water seemed, in my face, there were a lot of us on board, upstairs was full, I could imagine the scramble, and every man for himself, I imagined myself holding on to the stricken boat, but if it were to go down, then it would be all over! It was such a lovely day, I pushed such negative thoughts away, that nothing bad was going to happen today, as this boat goes out every week. It was chilly at first, we hadn’t bought our coats, we hadn’t expected that. Within 90 minutes it was nice and hot! With no shade, we were open to the elements. We didn’t sit by the edge of the boat, in case it was a rocky ride, but it wasn’t, it was plain sailing.

The boat first went to the Blue Lagoon, but before it got there, it stopped. Megan had her bikini on, the owner of the boat had stopped the boat and said, “For those who want to, there are two ways to get into the water, either jump off the side of the boat, or go down the slide, to form two queues.” Meghan joined the queue for the slide, she asked me to, “Film me going down,” This I did, she loved it and joined the queue again, and went down a second time.

The boat then went to the Blue Lagoon. We were all given a time to be back on the boat. From the boat, looking up to the rocks, there wasn’t much to see, personally if I were on my own, I would have stayed on the boat. Carefully we walked up the rocky hill to the top.

At the top, WOW it was totally different to what I thought it would be like from my view from the boat. There were lots of lovely stalls and vendors selling lots of different kinds of food and ice-creams and cold drinks, all in one long line. I said, to Meghan, “Don’t buy anything from here, we are in a ‘confined’ space, as there are no other shops their things Will be expensive.” Meghan was hot and thirsty and really wanted a pineapple drink. This seemed to be a hit here, and, they were sold on the boat, a real pineapple with the middle cut out and ice-cold drinks put inside of it with a straw. I think this was an eye watering 8 euros! On the boat, if people wanted a refill to their pineapple, it would then be 5 euros, still expensive I thought.

So, although we saw lots of delicious food and lots of ice-cold drinks, we didn’t buy anything on this long stretch of shops, everyone else did.

Opposite the shops, below us as we were high up was the beautiful Blue Lagoon. I don’t know how the people got down there. There were families and friends of all ages, we even saw, a Mum pushing her baby in a pram, they walked towards us and I noticed the Mum was dressed in identical clothes the same material as her baby’s I smiled at her and pointed this out, she smiled back and said, “Husband too,” Oh my goodness, we looked behind us and indeed he too was dressed in the same colourful material. Meghan, myself, and the Woman all smiled. It was the cutest thing.

It was a very hot day, and as we looked below us, where the Lagoon was, people were in the water, Meghan said, “I want to go in the water,” I said, “Then go,” She said, “No not without you.” After a while, we slowly made our way back to the boat, we were informed when we left the boat, “Don’t leave anything behind, take everything with you.” Meghan said, “I wonder if our place upstairs will be taken?” I said, “Probably.” Sure enough, it was, so we went downstairs, as upstairs was full, but we didn’t sit, ‘inside,’ we sat outside near the front, in the hot sun.

On the way to the Blue Lagoon, the Tour Guide, told us of places of interests, including, “The rock shaped like an elephant, the amazing hole in the rock, a private, place where Nuns use to swim, away from prying eyes,” And “St Paul in the Bible, he was shipwrecked here and he found out the sandy beach, the island, that they didn’t recognize, it was called Malta.” Acts Chapter 27 Verses 27 to 28 and Acts Chapter 28 Verses 1 to 5.

Seeing the Blue Lagoon, now close-up, it was something else. We all went to the edge of the boat, to try and take pictures and videos. It was SO blue and beautiful. Some people were still in the water.

Then it was time to get off the boat again, for those of us, with the yellow arm wristbands, we got off the boat, and went into a 14-seat mini bus to, Xlendi Beach, for 5 minutes to take pictures only, it was beautiful, then we went back into the mini bus.

When we got to Gozo, the woman driver told us, “To save time, do not eat at a restaurant, buy from the takeaways at the outlet shops, as you don’t know how long it will take them to cook your meals,” She then stressed, “Do not be late, to meet back here, so that I can take you back to the boat, if anyone is late, then you will miss the boat back.” We were given 2 hours and 40 minutes here in Goza. There was a famous Games of Thrones place that we all should see.

By now, we were hungry and thirsty, for all we had that day was a rushed breakfast. Our priority was to find somewhere to eat and have something ice-cold to drink.

We soon saw, a delicious shop front, with amazing looking pizzas! I said to Meghan, “lets have a few slices of these,” Meghan replied, “No, I want burgers and chips.” Disappointed I said, “OK.”

We then walked about 10 more minutes and saw a little restaurant, with some seating outside. As I stood there, further up, across the road, I saw “British,” Now my thoughts were, as they are British, would they charge us more? Or would this little restaurant, do what I wanted, justice!

Before I could say anything, Meghan said, “Let’s eat here.” So we went into the tiny little restaurant, I said to the young woman, “Can I have Fish and Chips?” She said, “Yes,” Meghan asked for, “Burgers and Chips please,” The woman said, “With Pepsi?” We replied, “Yes.” She said, “That is 20 euros 20,” I gave her my 20 euros for that was all I had with me, and Meghan gave her a small coin. We went and sat at a table outside in the hot sun.

It took ages!!! We got nervous, for we wanted to see the Game of Thrones site. I didn’t want to say to Meghan, “I told you so, we should have had the pizzas, for we would have been on our way up to the site, by now.” Meghan said, “I wonder how long she will be?” I said, “I don’t know, but the driver did stress that we should not go to a restaurant, as they can take a very long time.” Then Meghan said, “All of the food that we have ordered, is probably frozen, and maybe that’s why it is taking so long.”

I don’t know how long we waited, but eventually our food arrived.

It looked delicious. It was served with a dish of freshly cut salad, on each plate. I took a picture of both our meals before we ate it, the small bottle of Pepsi came with a glass, it was ice-cold. My meal had 3 little battered fishes; it was piping hot! I ate every mouthful with relish! I can honestly say, in the 10 days that we were in Malta, that was the nicest fish I had eaten!! Back at the hotel, I have eaten fish every day, but it wasn’t a patch on this! She had done Fish n Chips justice.

Full, satisfied and refreshed, we set off on our journey to find the place. It was a hike but, worth it, we didn’t go to the top, it was too much effort in the heat, and we didn’t have enough time, but on the plains where we stayed, we took lots of lovely pictures, with stunning Malta below us. Malta is SO beautiful. It was quiet and peaceful up there.

We then walked slowly down, back to the meeting place. It as another perfect day in paradise, I mean, Malta.