Cats, Crane and Rocky Outcrops

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I'm sitting in our cheap hotel apartment (room 101 -yikes!), overlooking the pool with high fencing that is totally failing to obscure the crane to the left and building works behind it. Not that it matters to Glyn and me as we are usually out during the day. However, it did amuse me to see all the tourists grilling themselves earlier by the pool in what is a rather ugly setting complete with building noise and dust. Each to their own I guess. The seashore is about a minute's walk away with plenty of room to get over cooked there instead.

As always when Glyn and I go away, the day started early and so we left at 2.30am to catch our 6.00am flight from Birmingham. We boarded the Ryanair craft all full of hope and after a lot of passenger rearranging as no one had been able to reserve seats next to their nearest and dearest, we were ready to go. Only there was an extra suitcase baffling the crew and after a while the plane was evacuated in rows of three as we individually inspected all the luggage laid out on the tarmac. Once each case was claimed, it was put back on the plane as were the passengers. At the end of it all, rumour had it that all the cases had been identified and there was in fact no extra case. But as the lady next to me said, it's better to be sure than explode over the Mediterranean. Indeed. By this time, we lost our spot in the flight paths and so we left 2 hours late. Luckily for me, I slept through a lot of this and so was pretty ok about it all.

When booking this holiday (and it was a bargain basement offer) we were offered a cheap transfer and it did get us here, but OMG it was so disorganised at the airport and I've never seen so many puzzled faces. It was hot, people were getting wound up and the Maltese drivers shrugged and smoked a lot.

So our hotel apartment is behind the hotel, down a lift to -1 floor, across the pool (around it not through it, the receptionist chortled to us) through some nondescript doors, down an un-marked corridor where we met some ladies cleaning who asked our names, gave us a key and that was about it. No info, no welcome, but whatever - we have a place to stay. But I did see my first Maltese cats on a balcony outside, so it's all good!

The apartment has seen better days and Glyn had to push the two single beds together as we are married after all. There is a tiny balcony looking over the pool - the crane is almost out of view if I stay in the corner. But there is enough room for two of us to relax with a drink and a book at the end of the day.

It was after 3pm and as we have no car today, we decided to go for a walk around St Paul's Bay where we are staying. Stopping for a late lunch, Glyn had swordfish and I had ice cream and beer. The Indian waiter turned out to be another Nikon photographer, having the same camera as me. He showed us his images of India on Instagram and they were impressive. I would have followed him had I caught his username.

Walking around the edge of the rocky coast, we saw various people sunbathing on outcrops where metal ladders took them safely into the sea past any sharp stones. There is very little sand here and what I did see I presume was imported - it didn't go down to the coast. They do have really fancy pants ice cream here btw, so far flavours I've seen include strawberry cheesecake, banoffie pie, tiramisu, black chocolate, bounty and kitkat. OMG!

Following the coast we soon ended up in Bugibba which is fairly touristy, but by no means a tourist hell. Many bars, restaurants and cruises on offer, but once away from the main drag, it was pretty quiet. It was in one of these quiet areas Glyn pointed out a tabby cat snuggled up by a flowery bush, soaking in the last rays of the day. Awesome.

After some hours walking and paddling in the sea, we headed back to the hotel with the help then hindrance of google maps. It really didn't want us to return to the Cardor, opting for the Bugibba Hotel instead which was a good ten minutes walk away. This was a nuisance as we bought our essential groceries too early, having to carry heavy drinks and food for some distance using carrier bags without handles. Why would you design a bag without handles? It makes no sense and to make thing worse, we were charged 15c for the second one! On the plus side, this slight detour meant that Glyn spotted two more cats for me - result!

Internet prices in our hotel are ridiculous, so to upload our blogs, we've had to go to the Knickerbocker for free wifi. Glyn got egg and chips, I got a 'swimming pool' (blue cocktail) and I saw another cat. Yet another result!

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Photos

St Paul's Bay
Malta

Jesus
There's a lot of this in Malta