Karen Gales Youngson: It's Saturday, where shall we go?

Most evenings we look at the map and say 'where do we want to go tomorrow'? If we don't have a clear idea or we're not sure of the weather we will often wait til the morning to decide. There are few places we haven't been to on this part of the island and many we have been two or three times. It's now becoming a choice of where we want to go back to. These places include Gozo and some of the coastal villages in the north and west of the island as we probably will not come back this far once we are in Marsascala.

Plan 'A' today was Golden Bay to sit in the sun. We took the bus to the Mellieha diversion where we would catch the #223. It only runs once an hour so we had about 40 minutes to wait. Luckily it was in the sun. When it did come it went right by because it was one of the small buses and it was full. So as easy as that we moved on to Plan 'B', Mellieha beach.

Like so many of these coastal towns, Mellieha sits on top of the headland between the bay's of St Paul and Ghadira (Mellieha). Everything is up and down and hairpin turns. You would think fuel was cheap here the way the buses are driven. Instead of slowing down as they approach a bus stop it's more a hit the gas then slam on the brakes. And everybody standing goes flying. It's not often that we have to stand but when we do its quite an experience. More exercise for the muscles having to brace and hang on.

The wonderful thing about all this is that nobody seems to mind, even the people at the back that have to make their way to the front to get off. No back doors on these buses. There's two shelves at the front for luggage, backpacks or shopping, room for strollers, a wheelchair and two rows for people with small children or mobility issues. When the bus gets full most of the standing passengers hug the front. Some drivers make them move back. Others, like our's today, had us and seven other passengers in front of the 'yellow line'. Like I've said many times, there are rules here but Malta exists without following many of them.

We walked down the hill of main street and waited for another bus to go down to the beach. As we waited I noticed an elderly man sitting in the bus shelter across the street waiting to go in the other direction. I could see he was sketching while he waited. Knowing we had 10 minutes until our bus came I crossed the street and asked if I could see what he was drawing. It was a charcoal pencil sketch of the buildings on the street. I showed him my journal and he asked to see my palette. He was English and also worked with water colours. He showed me his travel palette and I knew he had been doing this for a long time. He thanked me for coming to talk to him and wished me happy painting and travels. Our bus came first but before we left I took a picture of him.

The wind was getting stronger but it wasn't cold. We found a picnic table that was a little bit sheltered and spent an hour, me painting, Bob listening to Charlie Musselwhite and enjoying the scenery. There was one brave woman swimming.