The Malta Adventure Begins

Our journey begins on Tuesday Dec 2/14. We shut the house down and our good friends Warren and Judy picked us up to go to our motel for the night in Comox. After registering and dropping off our bags we went to the Black Fin for a late lunch and a goodbye beer/wine. We watched the Canucks beat Washington. Our last Hockey game til March.
It is a beautiful crisp morning to start our journey. Air travel is an arduous, hurry up and wait process. You are totally out of control over any of the procedures. It's as if you give up all your personal rights for the right to fly from country to country. You have to pay premium dollars for this privilege. All your possessions, your body and clothing are subject to extensive search. Bob was the "lucky" one and managed to have to endure the random and very thorough selection at three different security control centres. We thought that only having a small carryon bag that 1 1/2 hours would be sufficient time. Wrong! I will never fly internationally again without a minimum of 3 hours between flights. I would fly Lufthansa again. Their service and personnel were wonderful. Without a lot of cooperation from them and a few golf carts we would have missed our last flight.

As we left Frankfurt on another beautiful sunny morning we flew over the Swiss Alps along the Italian Riviera, across Sicily, above the blue Mediterranean, a right turn and we swept into the Malta airport. It is sunny, warm and full of soft colours.

No customs to go through and our checked luggage was there waiting for us. Edward, Ron's brother was there to pick us up for the 1/2 hour drive to St Paul's Bay. We made a wine stop and then we were 'home'. Ron's mother MaryAnne was there to greet us. She had stocked our fridge with cheeses, ham, eggs, milk, butter and bread. There was even coffee and tea.
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The next two days have been somewhat of a blur with disjointed sleeps and foggy brains. But there has been things that we needed to do. We have walked our neighbourhood, found grocery stores for basics like condiments for sandwiches, bakeries, water, wine outlets (everywhere). It has taken these days also to unpack and feel a little bit organized.
We still wake up in the middle of the night wide awake. We have decided to just go with the flow. This morning I was up from 11:00 to 3:00. I poured a glass of wine and worked on my journal. Then Bob got up and made coffee, we had some toast and finally went back to bed around 3:00 til 7:00.
Today we walked to the market for a few more groceries. Found Ohio operated by Rami, who for an extra €3 will deliver our water. After lunch we walked away from the town area along the walkways that follow the bay into Bugibba. It's still a mystery about where we are as these areas just blend into each other. We watched Saturday afternoon games at the Bugibba Bocci Klabb then found a wine cellar that will deliver. We bought a few bottles of Maltese wine to try before buying any quantities. Heading home was uphill and we were laden down with 4 bottles of wine and a bottle of Limoncella. We are starting our walking regimen.
We are waiting for our landlord Ron to come over so we can meet each other. We are staying in tonight and having buns and cheese and cold cuts for dinner. We still don't have a big appetite, a good thing for sure.

A few pictures from our first days. This blog is about as foggy as my brain. It's always difficult to play catchup. Hoping tomorrow will see us mostly back to normal.

My apologies to any readers. This blog page is a mess. I have lost it several times trying to tweek it and add pictures. I do not want to write it again so here it is warts and all. There are big spaces in the middle that I can't get rid of. It is Saturday night, we have been on two walks today, met our landlord and are managing to stay up til at least 8:00pm.

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