The Limoncello Obsession Now Extends to Food

---

After one of the longest blogs that I have written yesterday, today is probably going to be one of the recent shortest. We took it very easy today and the most of the day had gone before we even knew it - not helped by how long it took me to write the blog from yesterday. I need to be careful that I don't spend so much time writing up one day that I don't get a chance to do anything during the next.

My wife was happy as we were back in a hotel that served Earl Grey tea for breakfast. Later she went down to the pool. Given how hot we got yesterday, she had intended to go to an indoor pool, but strangely and rather annoyingly between us checking it out last night and this morning, it had been closed and drained. Very bad timing.

I decided that I would go for a walk through Floriana and along the sea front inland. It's great to get out for a walk, but it was hot and there was nothing that we hadn't seen during our wasted walk to the closed Sunday market (see Maybe Celebrating The Our Lady of Sorrows Feast or Maybe Not). That said, there are a lot of parks and other open areas, but there are also a lot of car-parks, government offices, traffic and building-sites. Even the sea-front was either inaccessible or also a building site.

Like Valletta, Floriana is also very well fortified, with the same, huge walls lining the sea-front. Also like Valetta, the top of the walls are all inaccessible. I think they're really missing a trick there. They should be made safe and opened up for people to walk along. Such a shame.

Come the evening, we decided that we would head to a nearby resort area called St. Julian's, which is not far from Sliema, where we had visited a few days ago (see Doing Tourism in Reverse). We headed to Valletta Bus Station and eventually worked out which routes and which stop we needed. Again, there were several options, the 13, 13A, 14 and 16. We waited for whichever came first, which was a 16 and just managed to fight our way on before it was declared full. We were standing the whole way and it was slow going. I'm guessing that everyone has just finished work (it was 5.30pm) and were heading home. I felt sorry for everyone at subsequent stops as we just sailed past given that the bus was already full.

It took ages to get there and, to be honest, it was not unlike St. Paul's Bay, which is where we had just left (see Reminders of Stonehenge, Thailand, Santorini, Sorrento, Berlin, Marrakech, Las Vegas, Death Valley and Saigon). It was all very lively. We found a two-for-one happy-hour cocktail bar (there were several) and stopped for our now usual four cocktails, just managing to get our order in before the 7.00 end of happy-hour deadline.

We then walked for a while and found somewhere to eat. I had lemon chicken, which was actually made with Limoncello, given that I'm still not over the obsession (see But 2.8kg of Limoncello Isn't Going Last Me Very Long). I did have a beer to drink though, almost out of principle, given that it's now been five evenings of cocktails.

I don't know what it is about St. Julien's, but it was the first time that we had been proactively asked to tip whilst we have been in Malta. And it happened both where we had the cocktails and where we had food. I have heard that St. Julien's is where all the richer tourists go, so maybe that had something to do with it!?

There was a water polo game going on in the sea right beside where we were eating. It was interesting to watch, but I have to say we could have done without the ref's whistle going all the time and without the coaches shouting from the shore. We remember over-passionate coaches from when our son used to play Sunday morning football, shouting instructions and criticisms. I'm not entirely convinced that it actually helps.

Afterwards, we walked back to Sliema, which was not as far as we thought it was going to be. It had cooled down considerably now, so it was a very pleasant walk along the seafront and actually seemed quicker than getting the bus. We had intended to get the boat back from Sliema as it's a nicer experience than the bus, is actually cheaper and is a lot quicker as it can go directly rather than the long way round the harbour, which meanders a long way inland. Unfortunately, that runs a lot less frequently in the evening and we would need to wait over an hour, so we caught the first bus to arrive on any of the Valletta routes. It was a lot emptier and a lot quicker this time.

---

Photos

St. Julien's
During our walk back to Sliema.

Hotel Staircase
The interesting staircase that leads down to the back of the now drained indoor swimming pool.

Floriana Park
The park walkway into Floriana.

Floriana Harbour
The ubiquitous fortress walls.

St Julien's
With the light from the setting sun.

Cocktails
The fifth evening of two-for-one happy hour cocktails.

Lemon Chicken
With mashed potato and Limoncello.

Water Polo
A game was going on whilst we were having our meal.

Valletta
Looking back from Sliema (and apparently it’s a 'super-moon' tonight).