One Week Later

My flight from Sydney was on a new double decker A380 and flying economy felt like business with all the entertainment options. They even had power points, which I didn't use because I was too busy watching Peep Show, Family Guy and Flight of the Conchords!

For some reason I had been led to believe that Frankfurt was dodgy, but it seemed fine and I had a great time while waiting for my flight to Malta the next day. The local speciality is apple wine, which nobody is supposed to really like, but I do for some reason, and all the local drunks in the bar were both dubious and impressed.

I think I need a sign that says I speak no - as in NONE - German, as everybody just assumes I am fluent and are asking me for directions and expecting me to observe the complicated German societal observances, of which I am sonorously unaware (I find it difficult even to switch on the lights over here).

Anyway, Malta struck me as a totally unique place. The cars zoom around the narrow laneways that were built for horses, and the houses are all sandstone, which means that they are mildly colder in the harsh summer heat, but can also corrode quite easily and seem to be continually being rebuilt. Plus, the houses can take some time to clean, with our hosts spending two days cleaning per week (!).

The landscape is rocky, to say the least, and the rocks are generally gathered to form rubble walls, but there are still plenty of rocks left over. Even the fields where crops are grown are full of little rocks.

We were staying in Gozo, the less populated of the two islands that form Malta. The airport is on the main island, along with the capital, the factories and most of the people. Gozo is more rustic, and the only means of travel between the islands is a car ferry that costs 5 euro per passenger, and means a trip from Gozo to the capital by bus and ferry takes around two hours, which we discovered on our first (and only) bus trip.

Valetta, the capital, is an all sandstone fortress city complete with invasion bells that nevertheless still seemed to be captured by any European power that gained ascendancy in the Mediterranean. There are a lot of steep stair-cased streets that really shouldn't have cars driving down them, but they still do anyway. In some ways it was a city as interesting and unique as Venice.

On day two, we explored Gozo, exploring the Citadel, which, in the sixteenth century fell to the Turks who enslaved all the inhabitants of the island (except for 40 old men as stipulated in the surrender conditions). We had local wine, tomatoes, cheese and olives in a really FRESH and rustic lunch that seemed to come from another era.

We also went to Ramla Bay which is the nicest beach in Gozo and Malta, and has golden sand like at Narrabeen. Walking there, Jannie saw many things to be scared of - which is an achievement given that there are no poisonous snakes or spiders on Malta.

On our final day we went to Malta to see an airshow and have lunch with Jannie's cousin Joe and fiancé Lisa. The airshow was mainly British and was reasonably loud and dangerous looking. The afternoon highlight was visiting Paceville, Jannie's namesake town and full of modern shops and bars.

Back in Frankfurt we found an early prelude to Oktoberfest with a bar full of crazy friendly drunk Germans that were celebrating Oktoberfest and feeling sociable. And then Munich and Oktoberfest washed away all sins in a sea of beer...


Here's Jannie doing an impression of a typical German