NNs On the Wind

One thing I forgot to note yesterday about our arrival here in Malta.

We got off the ferry and hailed an uber to get to the flat. I had been warned by our host that we needed to have the 3 blade UK adapter plug, not the 2 pin EU plug. I confirmed that we were going to a place influenced by UK colonization. What I forgot to remember, and became keenly aware of when the uber showed up: the driving is on the other side of the road!!! (Not the wrong side, but the other side!!!)

Lots of activity in front of us as we look out our 2^nd story flat with balcony. Boats are going in many directions, and mostly seem to be for hire type tour boats. There is a frequently running ferry in front of us that goes to the main part of Valletta frequently.

The crane is lifting lots of stuff up about 8 stories to the building to our right. Scaffolding gear, concrete stuff. And of course there’s a small car that didn’t read the signs for the street closure today. After a while a tow truck appears and there’s lots of activity to put the car on front end dollies and move it around for the tow truck to get access to it. Then of course it appears the owner shows up and the police do various things but eventually the owner drives the car away. Did he get a ticket? Who pays for the tow truck to sit for about an hour? Lots of official looking people, mostly talking on their phones.

It’s a lovely 72 degrees and we are washing all the clothes that we’ve been wearing in the cooler temperatures of Sicily. Will start walking around our embayment first and head to the bridge/isthmus connected island in front of us. Valletta is out to the left and behind it from our view point.

On arrival last night the uber driver went past the google location for the flat and dropped us about 3 minutes farther down the road. When we got out and got the mapping out a very nice women stopped to see if she could help. We told here where we were headed and she said #25 is farther down to the right. She’s at #50 and turned into her flat a few yards from the corner we got dropped at. She also said we should have no trouble finding a mini market for early provisions even though it was after 930pm. We learned we couldn’t get the elevator to work so lugged ourselves up to the 2^nd floor, which is up 2 long flights.

I contacted our host about the elevator and have since learned we need to use the small key on the key ring. We did try that but maybe we didn’t do it just right and will try again.

Seems there’s a lot to explore here. Apparently if you take the ferry over to Valletta it drops you at the landing which is at the bottom of a steep climb up to the main part of the town. Our friend on the street recommended the bus as it takes you straight in. We’ll see what makes sense when the time comes.

We are staying in Sliema, across an embayment from Valletta. Our view is over this side of the harbor with lots of tourist boats moving about. There are various sized pleasure boats, and there’s a quick ferry across to Valletta for EU1.80 RT that runs every 30 minutes. There are also tour boats of all sizes going to the small islands to the north. We may do that after we walk around Valletta. We can see the famed dome up on the hill across the way. In the middle of the embayment is Manoel Island, connected by a road. There is water under the road so it truly is an island.

We went over to the island and walked along the marina side and learned it’s a dead end. We turned around and went to the other side. There’s a very large and active boat yard. Boats are everywhere!! On the outer end and on a hill is a large fort with extremely high block walls. At one point we could see the deep and wide moat. Access was closed so we explored around the edges. WE found some rocky paths to get to the end where there were sunbathers. As we continued around we saw more people and found a very easy way out. There were stairs and a road that came down the center of the island, alongside high fortress walls, to where we joined up with the road alongside the boat yard area.

We went into the boatyard as Thom was in search of a Maltese ensign/flag to take home. He found someone working on his boat who offered his flag and told Thom where to buy one. That was our next destination.

We found a fabulous marine store with beautiful hardware and boating gear. We could get what Thom wanted in any size. He picked the size we usually fly on our flagpole, about 3’x5’.

Off to lunch at this point, it was after 3, and we selected a restaurant on the recommended list provided by our host. It offered seafood and rabbit, that’s a traditional Maltese offering. As it was happy hour, we got 2 spritzes!!!

We then went to the mall!  The Marks and Spencer here is a very small shop with mostly gift like things. We found a Spar and got some stuff. The prices are very reasonable here.  I then found the electronics store and broke down to buy an HDMI cable. The tvs we’ve been encountering do not support access to web-based streaming platforms. At least here in Valletta there are English speaking broadcast cable channels but in Sicily there wasn’t much selection and nothing in English. I know it sounds ridiculous, but we eat our main meal out and have a light supper in and then watch a little tv until bedtime.  It’s an easy non-tiring routine.