Buon Compleanno

or happy birthday in english....sometime this week, 17 years ago, my best little buddy, Mr. Peabody was born! I met him when he was 8 weeks old and we have been together ever since. He is spoiled rotten, has the attitude of a crabby old man and will ensure at all costs that he has his own way. But I still love the little guy and cant imagine my year here without him. I named him Mr. Peabody after the Rocky and Bullwinkle show from my childhood...who knew what a self fulfilling prophecy that would be when I first said that I was 'his boy Sherman'!

I had some mental lapse before I moved here and thought maybe I would ship him off to a friend in Iowa to live with her, her husband and her zoo but then I came to my senses and all the paperwork came together and we are here now.

In honor of his birthday, I refilled his thyroid prescription and gave him an extra large helping of his favorite food. Oh yeah, and a few extra 'that's a good boy' comments were shared this week as well. For his part, he slept as usual and participated in what my friend calls, 'the 8 o'clock run' around the apartment!

Here's to you, Mr. Peabody!

A Trip to Trieste

Yesterday, I met up with my fellow expats day trip buddies and we headed north to Trieste. Due North of Venice and on the Adriatic coast by Slovenia, Trieste has a long history and much to see. It was so much larger than I thought. I got this impression immediately when the train station looked more like an airport terminal and had a complete food/grocery store in it! Why a person would need to buy a slab of beef at the train station is beyond me, but it works for them.

We had no agenda, so started at the 'I' office (tourist information) where we somewhat patiently waited for the three people in front of us to sign their life away with the tourist card they were buying...its was such a transaction that I joked they must be signing up for the timeshare program!

With map in hand, we navigated toward the 'ancient' part of town (not to be confused with the 'old' part of town). Who knew a city could be so hilly right on the water. It was almost a 90 degree angle walk up to the church and castle (castle was closed for repairs). The mosaic inside the church was a brilliant purple and I wish I could have caught the beauty of it in the picture.

After that, we were travelling back to the bus station to catch a transfer to another castle when we passed the ruins of a colliseum--right there in the middle of the city!

On the bus, it soon became obvious to everyone that we had no idea which stop was ours to get off. Either they spoke enough English to understand us or they just saw the confusion in our faces, but before long, the entire bus was conversing about which stop to get off on, where was the best place to eat and who we should follow in order to find these things! After a while, we, the tourists, weren't really necessary because all of the locals were discussing these things amongst themselves. It was very funny and a huge treat in kindness and friendliness in a foreign town (and we all know how I love to experience that when I am away from Venice!).

We stopped to eat at a restaurant that had trees growing out the floor and through the roof and then made our way to Miramar castle which is right on the waterfront. I hear its beautiful standing on the grounds of the castle and looking at the sea lapping again the shore. The reason I say "I hear" is because we were plagued with more fog and couldnt actually see the sea. We were assured it was out there but as you can tell from the pic of me standing on the grounds with the sea in the background, it just isnt there!

Another fun day trip and more memories to stow away for those long, how summer days when I am back in Phoenix!

Foggy

It was another foggy morning in Venice and I left a bit early to snap some photos on my way to church. I got a new camera and thought this was a great time to try out some of the features. Venice is such a beautiful city in color but the detail and ambience you get from seppia and black and white is incredible.

I took these around 10am and at some points by the water, you couldnt see 10 feet in front of you. By noon when I got out of church, the worst of it had evaporated but there was still fog in the air. I guess I wont see snow this year on the gondolas like I had hoped and today I couldnt even see the gondolas!

Ryan Air

I mentioned earlier this week about our airline to Malta. Ryan Air is a low cost airline but it has some features that are pretty common over here in Europe and I wanted to share them with the US folks so they know how 'lucky' we are and also what is coming our way (particularly, since I just recently heard that United is starting to charge for a second suitcase now).

So, you get this incredibly cheap flight (30 euro roundtrip to Malta) but then you are nickled and dimes to death for everything else. First, you have to pay 2-3 euros per person because you booked online (even though there isnt an office or counter where you could actually buy a ticket at the airport). You are allowed one carry on luggage but there is a weight and size limit! They require you to check in online unless you want to pay a fee for in person check in. The catch is that US Citizens cant check in online because they only accept that from EU folks. So, when you get to the airport, you have to pay the in person fee (3 euro per person per way) to check in and then send a fax with your passport and flight info to the airline so they can refund you that fee for not offering you the online option in the first place. (Dont ask because I have thought endlessly about why this is standard operating procedure and have yet to come up with a decent reason.).


But lets assume you can check in online. When doing so, you have to swear on your mothers life that your carry on is below the weight limit of 10kg (22 pounds). If you get to the airport and they weigh your carryon and its over that limit, you have to pay the fee for checked luggage (9-12 euro per bag with a size and weight limit--there are no freebies in check luggage either) PLUS an additional 4 euro fee for what I like to call, 'you lied about the weight and so we are going to penalize you' fee!


There are no seat assignments but if you want to pick a seat, you can pay an additional 3 euros per person to do so. And you can also dish out an additional 7 euros per person to have priority boarding. This means you get to go through the line first but only by a few scant minutes before the rest of the riff raff is let go...and in Venice where they are genetically incapable of forming a line, this is truly a waste of money.


Once on board, there are no freebies at all...water costs money as does that disgustingly old sandwich they offer. They even ask you for 2 euro for a scratch off ticket to try to win a car. They try to play on your heartstrings by telling you its for a childrens charity, but if you read the fine print, only a portion of the 2 euros is going to the charity.


The only thing they arent yet charging for is a fee to get off the plane once you land. I dont think this will be far behind. So, next time you board a plane in the US and complain, just remember how good you have it--at least for a short while still!

Mdina

Mdina (pronounced emdeena) is really the jewel of Malta. Its an incredibly small, enclosed fortress like town with only a couple hundred people living there. Its buildings are all monochrome in color and design, the streets are as narrow as Venice (the sign in the pic shows it to only be 5 feet 6 inches wide), but the quaint feeling one gets wandering around is worth the trip.

There is a lovely cathedral there (St. Pauls) with great tomb markers all over the floor.....rows and rows of them....really impressive. We saw one with chains on it and asked for information. Turns out one of the people who was buried here about 30 years ago is being sent back home to the UK. The tombs are several layers deep with most being bishops and priests but there are a few others here. It was a bit creepy seeing the chains there to lift the marble. She (one of the 3 women buried there) was leaving in a few days and then they were going to seal up the marble again.

To prove my height, I squeezed myself into a doorway in order to show how gigantic I really am!

Although we spent just a little over an hour in Mdina, it was a great time. And considering we almost didnt go because of the rain and the thought of another bus trip, I am glad we talked ourselves into it. And I am glad I went to Malta. I am so thankful for the trips I have been able to make this year and for the experiences I have had....its a lifetime of good crammed into one year!

Gozo, Malta

One day, we decided to travel over to the other island of Malta called Gozo. This was the day we waited for the bus for an hour in front of our hotel. Then it was a 45 minute bumpy ride to the other side of the island where we promptly missed the ferry to Gozo by about 5 minutes. We waited almost an hour for the next ferry. In the meantime, we ran into some scuba divers....some of them were doing their first certification dives. I wish I would have had time to go with them. Its been so long since I have done a dive and the water there looked so clear.

Finally on to Gozo, the ferry ride was about 25 minutes. We heard there was a special bakery on Gozo that makes pizzas called ftira. Our concierge at the hotel knew the owners of the bakery and called our order in for a pickup. When we landed on Gozo, we got a taxi to take us to the bakery. For 5.82 euro we got two huge pizzas! We thought we were only getting one and we also thought we entered the wrong place. This bakery was literally a room filled with a brick oven and shelves (as you can see by the pic).

With pizzas in hand (literally as they didnt have boxes to carry them in), we got back in the taxi and told him to drop us off at Ramla Bay. This is the famous beach in Gozo where the sand is orange. It truly is colored orange (even though the pics dont reflect it). With no napkins, no silverware, no drinks and no place to sit, we 'copped a squat' on a rock and dug in to the pizza. Between the two of us, we finished one. There was no cheese or sauce on the pizza but there were thinly sliced potatoes. It was good, but different. Luckily, there was a family on the beach (the only other people out there with us) and they were Americans with 2 small kids. We gave them the other pizza and the crust from the first one to the stray cats hanging around.

The taxi was supposed to pick us up at 230pm but never showed. We started walking to the ferry, which turns out was directly opposite the beach on the island--about 2 miles or so, most of it uphill. We stopped at a farm to look at the donkey and the guy invited us to get closer to Colleen, so we got some pics of her. Then we trekked on where Denise used her girl scout skills and picked lemons and oranges for us to survive the hike! I was surprised at the amount of cactus I saw there..in fact, in all my years in the southwest, I never saw cactus planted the way it shows in the pic (do they really do that?) The wild flowers were all starting to bloom, so at least we had scenery as we walked. It was a long hike and with about 10 minutes before the ferry was leaving and no chance of making it, I threw out my thumb and hitched a ride (never done that before in my life--sorry mom and dad!)....it was me or the knee at that point. A nice kid who was going to meet his sister at the ferry took us the last bit and we arrived with about 2 minutes to spare.

When we arrived back at the hotel, we went directly to happy hour to celebrate our non conventional but interesting and cultural fun day in Gozo.

Buses and Balconies

There are two things that really stand out in Malta. The buses and the wooden balconies. First, the buses are a hoot. They are super old and most of them are living biological experiments! They used to be different colors to symbolize the route they were driving. I think as time went on, some of them went to bus heaven and what is left is what is driven. The streets are herrendously filled with potholes and there are no shocks left whatsoever on the bus. You get a carnival ride and a bus ride for the price of one.

As far as being on time, dont count on it. They dont always stop at every stop and sometimes they spend longer at one than the next. The fare is 47 cents for a trip (1.16 if you are crossing the island) and you pay as you step on the bus. Needless to say, it doesnt take long before you have amassed a large collection of 1 and 2 cent coins as change. The bus driver is also your cashier and when he is finished giving the last of the change, then he can drive.

One day we waited over an hour for a bus. It came by once (about 15 minutes late) but wouldnt stop because he said he was full. So then we waited for the next which should have been within a half hour but because you cant count on it, it was more like 45 minutes. After all that, I would have paid 5 euro just to get on and go somewhere!

As for the balconies, almost every home (i.e 2 story apartment) has one. Why they are made of wood and enclosed is beyond me. They arent really wide enough to have any furniture out there. Some are painted, some arent, some have peeling paint, some dont. There is a writeup I found online about it but my guidebook didnt seem to share any info, so take it for what it is worth.

http://www.geocities.com/f_scicluna/Balconies.html

Regardless of the reason, it certainly is a unique architectural design and even in its rundown state, is eyecatching.