When in Rome...and Malta...and Barcelona.

Hi all,

The last week been hectic, I've had no chance to blog so sorry for the long entry! Last time it was my first night in Rome. The next morning I woke up at 5:30am and snuck out of my hostel dorm as quietly as possible (I really hate getting up when everyones still asleep!), threw some clothes on and headed off to Scholars Irish Pub. I got there at 6:20am, and it was already full of Aussies excited to watch the footy. So yes we were all drinking at 6:30am but it was the Grand Final, it's not right without a beer! I sat with 3 Aussies, cheering on the Saints & after the disappointing finish we stayed and drowned our sorrows for awhile. It was great fun though, I was a proud Aussie & it made me a little homesick!

The next few days were spent marvelling at the Roman sights such as the Coliseum, and Trevi Fountain & sampling some local food (Italian pizza, yum!). On Sunday morning I went to Vatican City and stood in line for an hour to climb to the top of the Basilica. 320 steps later through a teeny tiny narrow staircase, we had 360 degree views of Rome. It was worth the wait & the climb!!

After saying Arriverderci to Rome, the day had finally come, a day I had been thinking about my entire life...I was going to Malta!! Malta is one of Europe's smallest countries, less than 100kms from Sicily, 300kms from Tunisia, and has 2 official languages, Maltese and English (Italian used to be one also). This is the place where my parent's, grandparents, aunties & uncles grew up. I flew with Air Malta from Rome, and I wasn't at all surprised there was a nun sitting next to me on the plane! I was greeted at the airport with a very warm welcome from my relatives, who I had never met before, but instantly treated me as one of their own which was really nice. They were all so lovely and easy going & I was extremely grateful for their hospitality over the next few days - taking me around Malta, to visit other relatives, and feeding me delicious Maltese food, my first home cooked meals in weeks!

It was really quite comforting being in a country where everyone sounds like your relatives, I felt like I should have known all these people! I'm so glad I did those Maltese lessons this year, it really helped to read the language and have a much better understanding of it. I stayed in a hostel named Grannys Inn (not sure why it's not Nannas Inn!), it was a great place to stay, very clean & friendly. I ended up meeting a fellow Melbournian named Monique who I ended up travelling to Gozo with. Malta is made up of 3 islands, Gozo is one of them and is where my dad is from. We caught a 20 minute ferry to Gozo from the island of Malta, and then took a hop on hop off bus tour around the island. It's a really quiet place but charming. There were temples there that are the oldest, free-standing monuments in the world (older than the pyramids by at least 1,000 years). We splurged on a really nice meal too, with "hobz biz zejt", crusty Maltese bread with oil, on the side. Yum!

The next day we went on a day trip to Sicily. Back to Italy! I was determined to eat pasta in Italy, something I didn't get a chance to do before. We had to be at the meeting point at 5.30am to be taken to the catamaran, which I had been looking forward to doing for years. It was quite big and had airline style seats, cafes and surprise surprise...pokie machines!! I sat down, enjoyed my chocolate crossaint and tea and waited to depart...the excitement lasted about 10 minutes. I could really feel the catamaran moving on the water, it was so rough that when you walked around the catamaran you looked liked a drunk fool stumbling madly around! It didn't taken long for the nausea to kick in. Even though I had taken 2 travel sickness tablets I ended up running to the bathroom every 20 minutes to enjoy my crossaint, and my lunch from Gozo a 2nd time around! Once we got off the catamaran (thank god) we met our tour guide & caught a bus to a lovely town 2 hours away called Taormina, a popular beachside destination on the east coast of Italy where the rich and famous flock to. I was STARVED when we got there so we went straight to a restaurant recommended by the tour guide, with a beautiful view of Mediterranean below. I thoroughly enjoyed a huge bowl of Spaghetti bolognese and bread. It was soo good, my favourite bolognese pasta meals are ALWAYS cooked by Sicilians! Full & satisfied, we walked around the town, it was a lot bigger than I expected, and really pretty. There was also a cable car looking contraption to take people straight down to the ocean. I really liked Taormina.

Next we were off to Mt Etna, the largest, most active volcano in Europe, with an ash explosion occurring only just over a month ago! We drove up to a crater on the volcano and had a look around. There was smoke in the air and you could smell the burning. There was houses around this volcano...crazy! Afterwards we took the 2 hour bus to Pozzallo where the port is, and had something to eat before boarding the catamaran...I was DREADING it but I went to a pharmacy & she gave me strong travel sickness tablets, they knocked me out as soon as I got on board and woke up when we arrived without feeling sick at all, PHEW! We got back to the hotel about 11pm, and had to wake up this morning at 6am for my flight to Barcelona where I am now!

I was so excited to finally be in a Spanish speaking country...only to discover that everything is in Catalan, the other official language in Barcelona. A Brazilian guy described it to me as "portuguese with typos". I can understand a lot of it but there are a LOT of differences to Spanish. They all speak Spanish too though so I'm forcing myself to not speak a word of English except in the hostel. My Spanish is definitely a MILLION times better than when I arrived in Buenos Aires (1 year ago today) where it took me awhile to get the courage to speak it. I've still got a very long way to go but it's nice knowing how much I've improved!

I went on a Gaudi walking tour shortly after checking in which was really interesting. Gaudi was a Spanish architect and is very famous for the work he has done here, especially La Sagrada Familia. He was hit by a tram in 1926 but because Gaudi was a little out there, he was dressed in ragged clothes and the tram driver just moved him to the side and left him, thinking he was a homeless man. Taxi drivers wouldn't take him to the hospital for the same reason. He died 3 days later. I met a girl on the walking tour and turns out we were staying in the same room at the hostel! We ended up going to an amazing tapas restaurant where we had to wait 40 minutes for a table, but it was worth it and again we splurged on food & wine. The meals in the last week have been a highlight for me! Well, tasting local food is always a highlight for me on any trip!

I've only got a few days left before coming home, I'm clinging on to every second. Especially weather wise, it's been about 25 degrees & sunny most days!

I will blog one last time from Madrid in a few days.

Hasta luego amigos!

xx