With winds predicted to gust over 70kph we decided it would be a good day to take the ferry and see how good or bad the waters get. Expecting it to be a quiet trip we were quite surprised to find the ferry packed. It is the last day of the two week Christmas season and a Sunday. In true European tradition the Maltese like to be out and walking on Sundays. But even more popular is to go for a drive.
We shared our table inside with two ladies. They were both Maltese but one had been living in Wales for over 50 years and was 'home' to visit her sister. She said she lived in the north of Wales near the town famous for having the longest name. She said after all this time she could still only say half of it. I googled it. Apparently the long version was created for promotional reasons in the 1860's. It is 58 letters long.
Our destination on Gozo today is Xlendi, pronounced Shlendi. It is on the west side of Gozo and we know that the winds are coming from the west so we are expecting to be blown about. It's not cold today just windy and overcast. We are hoping for a restaurant to be open so we can have lunch. By the time we had wandered down the the hill into town it was almost noon. We found several places open and chose one where we could sit by the plastic enclosed wall to watch the wave action just outside. They had propane heaters going and all the servers were wearing sweaters and fingerless gloves to stay warm. Not five minutes after we sat down a big wave came in and we had water on our table. We moved away from the windows and closer to the heaters. By this time the local Sunday crowds were beginning to arrive. When we were finished our lunch all three of the restaurants in the row were filled.
I had Maltese sausage fettuccini with olives and sun dried tomatoes, very good.
Bob chose Taglioni Neri?? I think that's how it was spelled. It was black square pasta with calimari that was also black. He said it was OK. I had a half bottle of Chardonnay and Bob had a pint of his Malta favourite, HopLeaf ale. Lunch was lovely:)
This country is constantly under renovation. You can have a very modernized apartment 'stack' right beside a crumbling down neighbour. I think because it is an island of rock they can't do anything about power lines. They're like black garlands strung from building to building.
And we who have so much property could never imagine opening our front door onto a sidewalk only 2/3 feet from the road and that means the vehicles are only 4/5 feet away.....including huge buses and delivery trucks often going very fast.
An interesting traffic sign. It is a red sign with a big black circle and says 'accident black spot'.......our blind spot equivalent.
From Xlendi we are back on the bus to Victoria and then to "Bethlehem", a living Nativity village that has had productions every day over Christmas. Today is the last day. It is supposed to represent a village at the time of the birth of Jesus. There were small huts with people in period clothing making breads, tatting lace, hand spinning sheeps wool. It was a kids paradise with chickens, pigs, donkeys and lots of food, candy and hot drinks. Another family outing. It was very busy so we spent a half hour looking around and left thinking we would beat the crowds back on the ferry. I think the majority of people in the village had to be local Gozitans because the ferry back to Malta was packed again. It was almost dark when we got home. It is always a long day when we go to Gozo because of all the travel.
Observations.....most older women dye their hair. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground between hanging on to the glam factor or totalling letting go. They definitely do not embrace their greyness like we do in North America. I'm thinking about a magenta dye job to go with my short hair. If not here it probably won't happen. Women don't wear sports or outdoor gear type clothing, there's no Lulu Lemon here!! It's skinny jeans, leather jackets and very high heeled boots or shoes. Also lots of hair, eyelashes and nails......just sayin'.
If you see people in light weight travel clothing you know they are tourists. Mostly from Britain or Europe. We have not seen or heard of an American or Canadian in the five weeks we've been here.
My Cabelas, Costco and Keens are serving me well. Everything is lightweight, easy to wash, dry and layer up. Just needed a few more scarves to round out the ensemble, lol......
I find people looking at my purple Keens. It was the same in Italy. They just don't have this style of footwear here.
Monday has been a clean us and clean apartment day. Did our chores this morning. I took my iPhone down to Mobics, the local cel phone shop, to get it synced after getting Koodo to unlock it. The work we go through for the convenience of computers.
We had showers, did some shopping and I went back to get my phone. Five weeks and I still don't seem to understand the concept that most businesses close from 1:00 til 4:00. I have had a very good walking day.
I'm not going back for the phone today. The wind has picked up, I have a glass of wine and the phone can wait til tomorrow. No pictures, no paintings.....it is Monday, my day of rest...except for the blog....
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looks like you're eating well. I vote for magenta hair. YOLO, FOMO etc.
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