La Vie de Deux Mademoiselles a France

Let me just get right into it…

The plane ride from Dublin was excruciating, we managed to pick a seat right behind a howling baby, and a few seats away from a toddler who just couldn’t get his ears to pop…shoot me now please was my thought process the entire flight. But we made it through…and about 3.5 hours later were in Malta around 11:30 am local time (Malta is one hour ahead of Dublin, same time as Grenoble).

We decided to skip the shuttle bus to the hotel and took the public bus for .47 euros. Well let me tell you these busses have zero shocks, the drivers have mad road rage, and they are not afraid to use their horns. It was really hot and muggy and we even had to transfer busses…now that was quite the chaotic scene at the bus station…I don’t think there was a second there that horns weren’t sounding!

Randomly, after we got off the bus and were walking into St. Rita’s steps towards our hotel, we saw James! We ditched our stuff at the hotel and proceeded to the closest cafe on the beach for nourishment and more than a few cappuccinos. First thing I noticed in Malta were the prices….very cheap! A cappuccino was only about 1.20 euros, vs. about 3.50 in France. Definitely took advantage of this. Eating out was very inexpensive.

After the cafe, I went into the hotel sauna for a while, then attempted to take a nap (stupid idea, after the sauna at least) while Megan and James walked along the beach. That night (Wednesday), we were told, was going to be a big party night. This was true. First we relaxed on our balcony, and had some drinks, while listening to the music  and the partygoers below. We then headed out to a hookah bar, and hit the clubs. I did not spend a cent out any of the nights, as there was no cover for any clubs, and each club had someone standing outside giving out free drink vouchers to girls! Our favourite club by far was Hugo’s…for various reasons that will be left unsaid. Another thing of note was the ratio of girls to guys, must have been about 9:1. I wasn’t complaining, but for James this was not the most desirable scenario. When we got home that night, Megan decided to drink the tap water instead of the bottles of water we purchased earlier(despite James advising us we could drink it, I asked the hotel maid who said “unless you want to die, you better buy bottled,” advice heeded, at least by me). Megan was a bit intoxicated…so we’ll just chalk it up to that. Well the next 2 days she felt the consequences, just the same as James, who was just starting to feel better.

 The music at Hugo’s was off the charts good. One night there was an big old Maltese Dj who was working the mic with his sons. Their voices were awesome. While up on the platforms dancing we got any song we wanted played! “We were in Malta Bitch” 

Thursday, March 3rd

We woke up a bit late to another gorgeous day…we really were blessed with the weather for both of our trips (Dublin and Malta), a bit hot and muggy though. We headed to the grocery store and pharmacy in St. Julian’s, then on the way home stopped at an amazing Kebab place for lunch. After we dropped of our stuff at the hotel, I decided to check out the rooftop balcony of the hotel to suntan and Megan and James went to the beach. Shortly after I joined them, and then we walked along the beach for a while. I took another sauna…in order to detox, then we picked out some alcohol and relaxed on the balcony in the evening before heading out to the hookah bar and Hugo’s once again

Friday, March 4th.

Well St. Julians and St. Rita’s steps were getting busier with people as the weekend and carnival finale approached. This day was a bit overcast, but warm. We took the little yellow busses with no shocks to Valletta (the capital of Malta…the enite country has only 400,000 inhabitants) and walked along Republic st and Merchants st (street is “triq” in maltese), and also checked out the Upper Barakka Gardens. The languages spoken in Malta are Maltese (by the locals), but everyone, including Maltese people speak english as well. People in Malta were very helpful and polite to us…quite the change from travelling in France! As this night was Friday…it was a big night for both Megan and I…and that’s all I will say about that.

Saturday, March 5th.

This day we took a bus tour around the North part of the island, through Sliema, Valletta, the 3 cities, Mosta, Rabat, Mdina, Bugibba, Paceville, and back to St. George’s bay (in St. Julians). We had a lovely traditional Maltese lunch in Mdina complete with Maltese sausage, pate, olives, tomato bread, bruscetta, artchichokes, etc. When we got back to the hotel, I went in the sauna again (I really wanted to go everyday as there are no saunas in Grenoble!) while Megan and James napped. This night we of course went out again…same routine, another big night.

Sunday, March 6th

This day Megan and I came home in the early morning to an incapacitated James (due to his Russian friend who was very generous with alcohol) and Megan began to develop spots (which we later found out was indeed the chicken pox, after I jokingly suggested that was what it looked like). I called Megan Spotty for the remainder of our vacation. Megan and I used our free boat cruise tickets (from the bus tour), while James tried to recover in the hotel. The boat tour was really nice and we had an amazing Italian commentator. The water was a bit rough at times, but I tried to stay calm…and don’t worry Dad we checked to make sure there were life jackets. When we got back, I took a much needed 3 hour nap (this was the only day I didn’t make it into the sauna!). That night we had a more mellow (but still amazing!!) night as the next morning we had to be at the airport for 4 am.

Monday, March 7th (3:15 am wake up call)

We took a taxi to the airport and holy smokes….we drove so fast Megan almost had a heart attack. But we made it there in one piece…the driver was a super huge mafia looking guy, and the taxi looked like a race car, so we didn’t try and ask for him to slow down. I wrote my postcards in the airport, while Megan tried to sleep. The plane ride from Malta to London (Luton airport) was 3 hours long, but went by very quickly, as I slept through most of it.

When we arrived in Luton airport we had a cappuccino before take the bus, then the train, a total of a 2 hour journey to our Hotel right near Gatwick airport (where our flight departed for grenoble at 6:15 am the next day). London was super expensive and it’s a good thing we didn’t spend anything besides one meal and a train ticket while we were there. It was blue skies though….interestingly enough. Our hotel was really nice and the quietest we had ever been in. We slept from about 3:30 pm until 3:45 am when we had our wake up call to take the 5 minute shuttle from the hotel to Gatwick airport.

Tuesday, March 8th

4:30 am and we are waiting in the airport again…we timed it a bit better though this time and weren’t as early. This was our only Easy Jet flight (the other 3 were with Ryan Air). We liked Easy Jet better (more lax), but Easy Jet took off and landed late, and Ryan Air was always early. We were really worried that we would miss the 9:30 bus from the Grenoble airport to the train station (about an hours drive), and would have to wait for the next one at 4:30 pm. Luckily we sat right at the front of the airplane and ran off, grabbed our luggage, zoomed outside, right as the bus pulled up. Great success!!

This trip blew my mind….and my body. Yoga mat recuperation commenced back at our apartment.

Here is the link to the album on facebook: Malta 2011