Malta

Dear homeslices,
Malta was picture perfect. Swam in the sea everyday, ate delicious italian-ish food, drank excellent local wine and explored the quaint old streets of valleta, the capitol city. We took a day trip to Gozo-an island that is part of malta where once on the bus we found out it didn't go to the beach where we were trying to go. Eventually we made it to the beach which is also near to calypso's cave. An old maltese lady sold us a candle to light our way into the cave. The whole place was gorgeous and it's easy to see why Odysseus was waylayed for 7 years. Also on one of the antique buses (some of them even have fifties-style fins) into Valleta our first day we met some crazy Brazilians who we kept running into (malta is not very big). They were all musicians for the brazialian embassy in Rome. It was great to hear them have a moonlit spontaneous samba jam (one even had a mini banjo!). We also saw some ancient temple ruins and generally enjoyed ourselves. Our only hiccup was a bizarre unprovoked tussle with some maltese teenage girls who apparently thought we were talking to or laughing at them when one of them let out the loudest belch I've heard from a balcony over-looking the street. We thought it was an eight year old boy playing around when we heard a string of heavily accented english curse words that sounded like they had been memorized from a mafia movie. Unfortunately, we turned around and there was this girl and her two friend who proceeded to yell at us and grab both jessica and me by our hair before we managed to run away. It was weird that the only physical harm I have encountered on this trip has been at the hands of a 6 year old boy and a thirteen year old girl. kids these days. geez. Thankfully this incident came at the end of the trip and did not outweigh the wonderful time swimming in gorgeous rock-bordered pools and wandering around the medieval buildings with the coolest door-knockers I've ever seen.

Now I'm in Dublin staying with my friend Amy for a couple days before i head to bantry bay where I will be working on a farm!
Hope all is well on the home front. Can't wait to be home...2 1/2 wks!

xoxo
CrL