Malta ABC

My blog is not only about telling people of how I got lost all the f-ing time, it is also like a diary for me, to read and remeinisce about in the future. I think my biggest mistake in HK (concerning the blog, I did bigger mistakes in HK, trust me) was that I did not really write about HKs spirit, the little facts and things that reminds you that you are not at home, but somewhere else, experiencing a new culture and a foreign country. So therefore, I hereby introduce a new category in my blog:

Malta ABC.

First out is obviously F.

This weekend I have mostly just chilled out on my terass, sunbathing and reading a book. I lay there, enjoying an ice cream of any sort, when suddenly I hear a BOM! and another BOM! BOM! BOM! Instincly, I throw myself on the ground, thinking Libya is here to conquer Malta before I have even had the chance to putting my plans into action. After a while I relize, that it is not big international conflict that is disturbing my peaceful weekend, it is fireworks. In broad daylight. Apparently, the Maltese people love fireworks so much, that they dont even care that you only see a little cloud of smoke if you shoot fireworks in the middle of the day. Monday to Sunday, morning as well as night, there is fireworks. The joy of fireworks is not the colours, it is the sound. The bigger bom, the more joy they seem to think.

But somehow I like their attitude; they dont care that Malta has one of the smallest economies in Europe, they dont care that the world just experienced a big economic reset, AND they dont care that it is not new years. They just want to blow up (literaly) millions of dollars every day, and hey, who doesnt?

I just figure that they must really love their firework, OR in worst case, this is their best defence strategy to scare Libya away. If that is the case, you cant blame them for not being creative with their means. A more beautiful and peaceful military strategy can not be found anywhere.

A story from Scotland

I have not even told you guys about my family vacation in Scotland! I went there with my grandma, my dad and my cousin. My Granma and I have been speaking about doing this trip for 10 years, so it was so much fun that we actually finally did it
.

We rented a car and just travelled around and stayed at different B&Bs. The Scottish landscape is amazing, but sometimes my grandma was a bit too fascinated about the things you could see in Scotland.

Grandma: Henrik! Henrik! (My dad) What kind of animal is T H A T?! (Yelling in a high pitch, excited voice).
We all looked around, and I almost stopped the car in an hault, because I would not want to miss the chance to see the Loch Ness monster.
My dad: It is a cow.
Grandma: Oh my first Scottish cow!

(More stories will come later on, because nothing creates stories like a family vacation)

Malta: A new home

These last 6 days on Malta, Ive got lost about 600 times, but the great thing about Malta, is that I somehow always find my way back home. Today, after being lost for 1,5 hour, I found a new home.
Im going to live there with another girl, starting tomorrow. You guys want to see it? Okidoki, here it is:





And whop whop, look at this:
YES! This is my new home, and it is a 15-minute walk from where I work. Work is going good btw, the people I work with are so friendly, and the job actually seems quite interesting. And people call me an agent all _ the _ time.

So, life here in Malta, is yes, pretty fucking AMAZING!

Malta: Fourth day

Tomorrow I start work, which is nice, because it is quite strange to be on a beautiful island all by myself. These last days, I´ve been reading books, swimming and solving word puzzles, so I haven’t really spoken to anyone since Wednesday night.

Or actually, that is not really true. I´ve spoken many more times than I wish with Silvarn, the hotel owner. Silvarn, is like a combination of Basil from Fawlty Towers (svenska pang i bygget), Gordon Ramsey when someone boils an egg too long and the South European Godfather you never wanted to have. Yesterday, I decided I wanted to sleep in and skip the hotel breakfast. 09.05, 5 minutes after the breakfast is over, the phone in room rings.
- Hello, this is Basi... Silvarn.
- Yes hello?
- Why don’t you come to breakfast? Don’t you want breakfast?
- No thank you, Im fine.
- Breakfast is important, you should eat breakfast! ! !

This morning, I did not dare to not eat breakfast, so I went up pretty early, decided that I during this day I would try to find out where the company´s office is located at, walk there so I could find it tomorrow without any problems. 09.05 the phone rings:
- Hello, this is Gordo.. Silvarn.
- Yes hello?
- When will you leave your room?
- Hm, maybe about an hour or so?
- No! That is bad! You need to go now, housekeeping will come NOW!
- Ok, I will try to hurry up, I just need to take a shower.
- NO! No time! YOU NEED TO GO!

So I decided to go, but when I looked through the email with the address to the company’s office, I realized Id forgotten to bring with me passport photos. No worries, I though, this is easily fixed! Well, googling Passport photos Malta, didn’t give much result, so I had to go down and speak to the Godfathe... Silvan.

- Hi, I was wondering if you now a place where I could take passport photos?
- TODAY? This is a Christian country and it is SUNDAY?
- Ok... but do you know any place that might be open?
- Hm, there is one place a St Georges. But it is like a 30-minute-walk, you better take the bus! He said with an evil smile.

The bus, I thought! HA!I I can see that there is something strange with the bus! But HA again! He doesn’t know who he is talking to! If he only knew that I - Gabi - once walked around a lake ( a 40 kilometer walk) just to see if I could do it, that I - Gabi - toghether with Annika, walked around the whole of Bangkok in three days, that I - Gabi - is so good at walking, that I sometimes do it when I’m asleep. Actually, come to think about it, I should be called: Gabi - The Walker. So I decided to walk (this has nothing to do with the fact that I haven´t figured out how the bus system works).

And walked I did. But once again Silvarn had played me with his evil smile, that made me not take the bus (yes, the decision was only based on that, not the fact that I dont know how the bus system works). That 30 minute walk, was more like a 5 hour walk. In 30 degree Celsius. Without a cloud on the sky. I actually had to stop and sleep on a bench for an hour, symbolizing the fact that I’m actually homeless, and maybe, perhaps, should not be called The Walker.

Too shallow to go for a swim, since I thought a passport photo of me and my forehead (see picture above for Gabi´s hot wet look) would be to crowded, walking next to the seaside all the way was just the beginning of the cruel joke that was this walk. The heat made my feet swell up to the size of watermelons, my hands where just like blobs, and my body went into "Stuck-in-a-desert"-survival-mode. So you can imagine my joy, when I at last found the damn Photo shop!

- Hi, I was wondering if you guys take passport photos?
- Yes we usually do, but not today because the machine is broken. You can come back tomorrow, by then it should be fixed.
I will not be coming back tomorrow (if I don’t figure out how the bus system works). But what I should do tomorrow is probably to befriend Silvran, because making fun of him has consequences. Who knew that Karmas best friend was a hotel owner in Malta?

Malta: First day

After a long night at Arlanda Airport I finally arrived to Malta this morning.
I believe that it is very important to experience and get to know every countries habits and traditions so the first thing I did to adept to the Maltese Culture was to take a siesta. After this awesome power nap (hm, it might not be called a nap when it is 4 hours long) I decided to go out and do some exploring. I hade two missions in mind:

1. Find something to eat.
2. Find a grocery store.

Everything started out very well, my hotel is located right next to the harbor, this is the view I have to live with for the next week:
The excursion started out well. I walked for about 10 minutes, found food and, can you believe my luck, a grocery store just around the corner from the restaurant! Overjoyed with the success of my first out-in-Malta-experience I decided to head back home. Instead of taking the same way back, I saw another street leading down to the sea, I then thought:

-THIS MUST BE A SHORT CUT! (For my swedish readers, this is another example from when I thought I found a short cut: LÄNK).

After walking along the seaside for about 10 minutes, I realized I didn’t recognize anything. "Hm", I thought, "I must be walking in the wrong direction". So I decided to turn around and walk the other way. After another 40 minutes, carrying necessities like cheese, orange juice and beer, I realized I was lost. It then hit me; Malta is a freaking island, on a map it is just like a mosquito shit in the middle of the sea. I can’t just walk along the bayside, because the funny thing about an Island you see, is that there is water EVERYWHERE!

"Okey, DONT PANIC!", I was hyperventilating, "Malta only has an area of 316 kilometers, that is NOTHING, start walking away from the water, up the hill and see if you can find your way from there". I started walking uphill, cursing over the fact that I decided to buy 6 beers, instead of one. After another 40 minute walk in small alley-ways I decided to regroup. Too proud to admit to any of the locals that I was lost and ask for directions. I decided to go into a small street and look at the tiny tiny map I had brought with me (OK, it was not really a map, It was just a picture of the neighborhood where my hotel is at, that I got with the room key).

Standing there, looking very confused, finally deciding to continue to walk uphill, I hear a voice.
- Yes?
I looked behind me, no one there; I looked in the parked car next to me, empty.
- Helloooo?
I looked up, and there was the most gorgeous man I have ever seen. The sunlight was hitting his face in way that made him look like a Mediterranean angel. The fact that he was speaking to me from the window above, didn’t help me NOT to thinking of him as some kind of a God.
- Where are you going?
With a bewildered face, I handed him the map to my hotel.
- Oh that hotel is just straight down this road. About a 5 minute walk.
He pointed in the opposite direction from what I previously planned to go.
- Thank you!

And yes, I made it home!

I think I’m going to like Malta. Especially if I get to meet lost in translation-angels every now and then.