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Published: August 28th 2022
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Today we head across the strait to Malta’s second most populous island, Gozo. I should probably put that in a bit of context; according to the ever reliable Wikipedia the permanent population of the country’s third most populous island, the mighty Comino, is two; no, not two thousand, two people. In fairness, Gozo’s population is a respectable 30,000 out of the country’s total of just over half a million. We’ve visited the island a couple of times before and really liked what we saw, but we’ve never stayed there, so we’re really looking forward to the experience.
I’ve never thought that working in a rental car office would be all that interesting but it seems it might have its moments. As I wait in line at the office at the airport I hear the guy behind the desk ask a group of Spanish girls very politely to please not go swimming with the car keys in their pockets, something that he says happens all the time.
Strange as it may seem for an island that’s a whole 27 kilometres long (and the airport’s not right at one end, it’s somewhere in the middle) we’re in definite need of the
Google machine to guide us to the ferry terminal. It seems to have picked a slightly interesting route. We’re directed to turn into a street against a ”do not enter sign“, the exceptions being if you happen to live somewhere along it or you’re providing an essential service to one of the residents. I don’t think taking a short cut to the ferry terminal qualifies as an essential service, but we plough on regardless. I hope that’s not a police car following us. It seems there’s a good reason they don’t want cars in here; there’s no room for them. We find ourselves inching our way along between stone walls seemingly millimetres away on either side and it’s surely only a matter of time until we part ways with a mirror. I’m not too keen on the prospect of reversing several kilometres out of here, so if we meet someone coming the other way I hope Issy’s bought her best steely glare with her today. If this is the quickest route I’m glad we didn’t take the alternative.
Our apartment is in the seaside village of Marsalforn, and it’s on the first floor above a restaurant with excellent views
from a small balcony out over the harbour. I head out for a late afternoon stroll. As was the case in Marsaskala, salt pans seem to be a real feature of the coastline here. None of the ones I pass seem to still be in active service, but they’re impressive nonetheless - hand carved out of the soft limestone rock.
It seems far more multicultural here than on the “mainland”, and few if any of the wait staff at any of the restaurants seem to be Maltese. As is currently the case at home we’ve heard that there’s a real labour shortage in Malta at the moment, particularly in the hospitality sector. Tonight’s waterfront restaurant seems to have adopted a slightly interesting approach to the issue. It’s full, but there still seem to be about twice as many staff as they really need, and most of them just seem to be wandering around aimlessly looking for something to do. The only explanation we can come up with is that the management here has decided on a strategy of hiring as many staff as they can get their hands on in the hope of starving out the opposition. Interesting tactic
if it works. At least the service is quick.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Gozo
Many years ago, I remember watching an episode of Shane Delia's travel program (Something like Spice Trail?) where he visited a salt pan business that had been run by the same family for many generations. It was oddly very fascinating :)