Post #28: Malta
Let me preface this posting by saying that this won’t be my greatest work. While Malta is beautiful, I wasn’t there for very long and I’m not sure that my experience does it justice. If you are sitting on the toilet and have limited time to read my posts, you can probably skip this one and go right to Istanbul.
Valletta, Malta’s capital city, reminds me of that capital city from Game of Thrones. I am proud to report that I don’t remember the name of that fictional city. After all, it was a guilty pleasure to watch a silly show about dragons anyway. It has huge walls, canons and all of the frills that you’d expect of an ancient, fortified city.
I had originally been planning on flying to Dubrovnik after Riga, but I procrastinated making the booking until the last minute and everything got more expensive. I used a feature in Google to identify possible destinations from Riga on July 22nd and it looked like I could catch a cheap and direct flight to Malta, a beautiful island near Greece and Italy. It had similar features to Dubrovnik and it was near Turkey, the destination that I’d planned on next. So I pulled the trigger. Why not?
When packing for this trip, I purposefully didn’t bring my big suitcase, attempting to to save $$$ on baggage. The problem is that everything in Europe is smaller, and they consider my carry-on bag to be full sized luggage. I usually check-in online before flights, so nobody really ever gets the opportunity to inspect the size of my bags, and if they do and decide that the bag is too big, they will usually check it for free at the gate. The problem here was that even if you checked in online, you still had to wait on the same baggage line to prove that you’re vaccinated, and they have the opportunity to inspect your baggage and upcharge you. While I was in the line, an airline employee was approaching the passengers, and naturally, I tried to conceal my American-sized carry-on bag behind me to avoid scrutiny and a hefty charge equivalent to the price of my airline ticket. Unfortunately she noticed my bag behind me and immediately identified it as being too large to qualify for carry on. I attempted to argue that I’d used the very same bag in carry-on countless times, including with the very same airline within the past week. She walked me to that metal bin, where you were supposed to insert your luggage, and if it didn’t fit, it was too big. I rolled my bag to the apparatus, and it was clear that my bag wasn’t gonna fit in that tiny-ass cubby. It was like being told to put a watermelon in a pinhole!
I gave her a look and conceded that we both know that my bag wasn’t gonna fit in there. She pulled a total alpha-dominant move and told me to try anyway, saying that ‘miracles happen’. She smiled, knowing that she had me by the balls, and sent me to the ticketing line to check my bag at an additional cost of 60 Euros. Nice move, cute airline employee….I’ll get you next time – maybe next time I can leave my luggage somewhere else while in line, and then retrieve it after checking in and before going through security. That way, I can avoid the oversized carry-on scrutiny. Besides, I couldn’t have fit a sub sandwich in that tiny baggage apparatus. Maybe I could have bought an extra seat for my luggage, claiming that it identifies as a vaccinated human being.
Back to Malta. I booked a decent looking Airbnb in the central part of Valletta, Malta’s capital city. It wasn’t as fancy as the places that I’d gotten in Prague or Riga, but for a few days, it was perfectly fine.
Naturally, immediately upon arriving, I made a beeline to the blue waters of the Mediterranean. After a few minutes I happened upon some nice looking boat, and without knowing about the destination, I bought a ticket, and about 45 minutes later I was in Gozo, an island that I’d never heard of.
Upon getting back to my Airbnb, I had to do some work. My windows didn’t close all the way, and there was a live band playing 80’s rock outside of my window, so I needed to go down and check it out. I love live music at bars, and now post-pandemic, I tend to appreciate it more.
The Usual
As is standard for me, I try to find the best market and the best coffee at any destination that I visit. For the coffee, I tend to prefer heavily tattooed baristas.
To eat or not to eat
I’m presently at a local restaurant in Malta called Merkanti, and it’s the fancy restaurant on the balcony of a food market. There is a singer singing her ass off, singing that Lady Gaga song that she sang with Bradley Cooper. She’s quite good.
Apparently the local specialty is Rabbit, so I took the waitress’ opinion and ordered the Rabbit stew. I regularly wonder how humans decided on which animals were food and which weren’t. I’m far from a vegetarian and I’m not hating, but I simply don’t understand the rationale. I would think it is based on some complex formula like (how much nutrition an animal can provide + how delicious it tastes) – (how intelligent it is + how cute it is).
Covid-Vaccination Protests
One morning I woke up and heard a huge ruckus from my window, and naturally I wanted to see what was going on. Apparently, the government of Malta had recently instituted vaccine requirements for travel, and tons of people weren’t happy. Somehow, they seemed able to protest without setting fires, looting or attacking the police, which I thought was commendable. I guess that my standards are low these days.
To conclude, I’ll include a bunch of miscellaneous pics that didn’t merit their own write-up.
