Malta Day Two:

Monday morning we woke up pretty early and left the hostel around 9. We went and got pastizzi, which are a Malta specialty. They are puff pastries filled with either ricotta cheese or mashed up peas. The best part is that they only cost 25 euro cents. Pretty good deal. You can get a meal for 50 cents! We caught a bus up to the north point of the island and caught the ferry to Gozo (we actually knew what we were doing this day because we got good directions from Chris the hostel owner). Gozo is the second biggest island of the three Malta islands with people on them. The ferry ride was fun and pretty quick, only about 20 minutes. When we got there, we wanted to go see this cool rock formation called the Azure Window, but the buses that went there weren't running that day. We ended up waiting for awhile for the nonexistent bus for awhile but there was a fruit stand next to the bus stop and we had an impromptu picnic. We ended up just catching the next bus that came and went to a small town called Xlendi (pronounced: shlendy). There was a beautiful harbor/bay with a small beach. We hung there for the afternoon and tanned. Well, I didn't tan, I put sun screen on. There was also this path that went up over the hill and went into a cave on the other side. I can't describe how beautiful it was. We got a late lunch at a restaurant on the water and then headed back. 

That night, the hostel had barbecue on the roof-top terrace. It was all of us, the three other hostel people, and a bunch of their european friends. I think as a group we represented 9 different countries. They grilled a bunch of chicken, meat, and maltese sausage. There were other maltese specialties plus cole slaw and American ketchup! All in all a really amazing dinner. Afterwards, we all went out together. It was fantastic to have such a summer night during March. I completely miss the beach and the sun and the warmth. I'm really getting ready for summer! 

One really cool thing about Malta are the buses. They are all old retro buses painted and decorated. Apparently they all used to be decorated differently according to the lines. All the buses are also owned by the drivers so they can personalize them or play music and stuff. They were all a little bit random. One driver had a picture hanging of him, his wife, and a technocolored Jesus. Most just had weird quotes painted on the walls. Sadly, Malta is replacing all the old buses with new ones before the summer so we got there just in time.