Malta...relax time and finally the 1000th dive!

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One more blog, just a different continent. My apologies if there are a lot of pictures, but let say that there is no need to send you blogs till Christmas!



Welcome back for me to Malta....it has been over 17 years since my last visit. Tanya is flying directly from St Petersburg...and I'm on little longer routing, Kinshasa, Addis, Vienna and finally Malta. We are happy to rejoin again after 5 weeks few thousand miles from each other!



On the program, not a lot, just great couple time. We are staying at Le Meridien in St Julians. They will close end of the month for 9 months of full power rebranding into a Marriott. The hotel is at top occupancy and the rooms do show their age...but we managed a cute little suite for most nights, with a nice view.



The last two days, Malta is hit by a little storm. No rain, but a lot of wind, so we kept it pretty relax. Before this, a full program. We spent first a full day in Mdina and Rabat. Gorgeous medieval city....sunny day, and not crowded little walking streets. To top it up, we found a little place for a lunch of pizza and fresh pastas...Italy is next door from here!



Next, a full day in Valetta. This little capital is simply gorgeous. We walk, and we walk a lot today. At 7pm, we have seats for the local Tattoo military parade. No, this is nothing about a drawing on a body! You may have heard bout the Tattoo of Edinburgh each summer...sadly I went to Edinburgh while I was younger, but this was out of my price range. The Tattoo of Malta is a way more local affair. They have performers from Ireland, the States or Italy, but the local police, military and Scouts take the honors. The locals are also the main crowd to assist. What a fun evening!



Next morning, I'm finally on for my 1000th and thousand and one dive! Little dive center, Malta Concept dive. I'm their only diver today. Malta doesn't have much fauna left underwater. Nothing big, nothing amazing either when it comes to macro life...but Malta have some cool wrecks. Fun when they ask me what did I do in term of diving. Chuuk in May, is it good enough for you? So we went for two pretty cool dives with a DM from Barcelona. Don't think he is used to much diving...he was so excited when we saw a single trigger fish!



I have to admit. the tanker Um El Faroud is a pretty cool wreck. The fun part was the cool dive we had deep into the tanker. Not sure everybody enter the wreck in that manner, but it was truly fun. No fishes....just a good ride deep into the wreck.



Enjoy the pictures. We just found out we forgot to take some cool pictures of the many nice dishes we enjoyed! Well, at least there is some wine...and some icecream.



Next stop, a kid dream for me, plus some serious castles on the way....it's culture time...big time!

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