Blogs from Gozo, Malta, Europe - page 2

After a leisurely start to the day, which began with breakfast being delivered at 9am while watching an episode of Modern Family, I was finally packed and ready to leave my apartment at 10:10am. Chiara gave me a nice farewell gift of a ceramic bell and I then walked to the main train/bus terminal. The bus to the Napoli International airport was due to depart at 10:30 and as it was only a 5 minute walk, I made it there in plenty of time. The bus arrived at the airport just after 12pm and I must say, paying for the "speedy bag drop" with EasyJet was well worth it! There was a huge queue lined up to drop off bags and when I saw the sign for the speedy drop off, I asked the lady if ... read more

An early start to Gozo (Għawdex) entailed a bus to Cirkewwa to catch a ferry. The hour on the bus took us through St Pauls which is built up with resort type apartments. The ferry crossing took 35mins & i was out sitting on the deck before we had even left the port....so was some other lonely person looking for real air.. The ferry sails past Comino island, very sparse, rocky and apparently especially good for diving. One of the top diving places in the Mediterranean. The water is beatifully crystal clear because of the rock. The entrance to Gozo port is very pretty and colourful with boats. The town perched above the small port. I remember reading that Gozo horticulture basically produce the vegetables for Malta. We aimed for Victoria on the bus 10 mins ... read more

When the wi fi costs money in your accommodation you do the decent thing and tell them to shove it. This means that uploading blogs on my ipad means finding free hotspots and there are a few around....if you can find them. There's one in the region of the Knickerbocker cafe so we went there for a morning beverage after having breakfast in our apartment. With yesterday's blog uploaded our day could begin and so we headed to the ferry terminal to nip across to Gozo. We arrived to find 16 rows of cars all trying to do the same thing and none of them moving. The guy directing the cars perched us at the back of a lane and then seemingly gave up and I presume the queue snaked back down the road behind us. ... read more

After getting our feet sucked clean by fish and the like last night, Liz and José went to see about getting the group to Gozo and Comino, the other two main islands in the Maltese archipelago. They texted us: Breakfast at 8:30, on the bus at 9:15. Great! We had breakfast at the buffet—the amount of food was amazing! White bread and wheat bread and pumpernickel and raisin bread and brioche and croissants and ham and salami and cheese and butter and honey and eggs and bacon and on and on and on. Malta is known for its honey and I had honey in my tea—it was delicious. I am going to scout some of that out to take home before we leave. Mark went down to the hotel beach club to get a couple of ... read more

Today we'll be travelling to Gozo, which has got me feeling very curious. Ever since I first heard about this tiny island from Issy's family and relatives many years ago, I've had visions of people with two heads, and a place that's so quiet that someone sneezing would make front page news. My relatives have made the Gozitans, as I'm now told they are called, sound like a very poor man's Tasmanians. I hope that no one from Gozo reads this. I don't think they will. From what Issy's family and relatives have told me, people from Gozo can't read. Louis and Lily again pick us up, and we drive to the ferry terminal at the northern tip of Malta and then onto the ferry for the twenty minute crossing. Our first stop is the church ... read more