Goodbye Malta, Hello New House!

Ok, so I may have been neglecting the blog for the last couple of days. I've been on vacation, ok? We arrived home safe and sound yesterday. Well, safe, yes. Sound? That might be up for debate.

Let me start with our last couple of days in Malta. Wednesday we took the ferry over to the island of Gozo. The Maltese Islands are made up of Malta, Comino (which is tiny and not really worth mentioning...) and Gozo. Gozo is only about 9 miles by 4 miles so not too much to see. There were a few spots of interest including an ancient cathedral and the Azure window. We got some absolutely amazing pictures at the Azure window, which is a naturally formed crest in the rock. It forms a window. Seems pretty self explanatory...

We discovered something else about Gozo that wasn't advertised in any guide book. Are you prepared for what I am about to tell you? We found the first documented black hole on the face of the earth! Documented by us at least. You might think I am crazy, but I happen to be rather proficient at reading maps (never mind that we got lost before) and I also happen to be married to a honest to goodness geographer, and we both agreed that it did not make logical sense that we should be driving along a road knowing FULL WELL where we were on the map and go down an incredibly steep and winding road and end up at the end back in the middle of the main town!! Since this did not make logical sense, the only real explanation was that there must be a black hole. I knew you would agree.

Speaking of crazy roads, this road that we went down was by far the steepest, windiest, craziest road on the face of the planet. When we first got to it I actually said "I don't think this is a road" only to have two cars drive past us and down this goat trail. We figured if they could do it, so could we. We slowly and cautiously started down (only to notice the second guy down the hill PASSING the first guy like it was the 401) and actually made it to the end not being any worse for wear. The road was graded it was so steep. I've only ever seen that in Canada where they have to prevent cars from sliding down in the winter. No such weather in Malta!! We were driving down another very steep and windy hill and Ryan asked me "could you imagine driving this road in the winter?" And of course we could imagine because it WAS winter!! No wonder they can have such horrific driving conditions!

Once we got ourselves out of the black hole, we returned to the resort. It was also Valentine's day and we opted for the resorts version of a romantic dinner for two. The dinner was actually quite amazing. The venue could have used some work, but the food was fantastic! We started with roasted duck in coconut juice with roasted vegetables, (please forgive me if I don't remember the exact wording!!) followed by a creamy cauliflower soup which we both agreed was incredible, even better than the soup we had for lunch that day which I have to say, was pretty good! The soup came with a parmesan cheese wafer which was so cool and also super tasty, but we couldn't quite figure out how they made it. I ate mine with my fingers and Ryan put his right in his soup. Cheesy goodness for all. The main course was a choice of three dishes. I had a chicken breast basted in lime and honey, parsnip puree (sounds gross, tastes SOOOO good) and a mix of bacon, onion, and dates. It was absolutely mouth watering! Ryan had beef tenderloin with goat cheese, roasted potatoes with onion, bacon, and fried mushrooms. I would tell you how good it was, but I was so preoccupied with my incredible meal that I didn't even bother to try it! Ryan insists that it was phenomenal. I guess I'll just have to trust him on that one.

Thursday was spent being very very lazy! We were going to go to the Hypogeum, but they have an environmental rule that says they only take 80 people per day. They were booked up until Feb 19th, so we were out of luck. We slept, read our books, slept some more, ate lunch, slept, sat by the pool (Ryan has the farmer burn to prove it) and did some more sleeping. It was a blissful day. To make a great day even better, we even went to dinner "early" that night (as in, as soon as they opened) and we got a great variety of foods. It was the best dinner menu so far that week , as far as buffet dinners went.

Friday we got up, ate breakfast, I went for a Swedish massage, and Ryan packed our bags. We then made our way through Mellieha (were we stopped to mail some post cards) and made our way through the winding streets to the airport. We didn't even get lost!! (Or sucked into a black hole) We arrived at the airport even earlier than we planned and had quite a long wait til they opened our flight. We had a spontaneous picnic lunch, played some rousing games of cards, and waited. Once we got in we browsed the souvenir shops and had some cappiccinos at the hard rock cafe. We got up in the air without a hitch and even met a very nice British lady who was living in Malta and flying home for a visit. She tried very hard to convince us to teach in Malta instead of England!

Once we landed we had a bit of a wait for our shuttle to come and get us. We played a few more rousing games of cards (eucre for two is fun) and ate some dinner. Here begins the craziness.

We had arranged before we left to have our new house keys sent to the house at 10:15p.m. by a cab company that TimePlan uses all the time since no one was going to be around to give them to us. At quarter past 10 we were standing outside our house waiting. We waited a few minutes, then called the cab company and asked them if someone was on their way. They didn't know what we were talking about. They didn't have any house keys, nor could they get ahold of either Sally or Bob to find out what was going on. We were homeless!! The guy at the cab company felt bad for us and he was very generous to call around and help us out as best he could. We eventually conceded to the fact that we were not getting into our house that night so we arranged to have a hotel room at the Travelodge. Sounds simple, right? Try finding the Travelodge. The hotel that I thought was the Travelodge was not. We walked through downtown Romford at night (not a wise thing to do) and we wandered aimlessly trying to find the building. I finally asked a guy (the only drunk on the street it turns out) and he pointed us in a vague direction that we were already headed in anyway. We did eventually find it and checked in. The bed was horrific (we were smashed into the middle in one of those horrible torture chamber beds that bends inward) and we had an "interesting" continental breakfast. But, it was a warm place to sleep and we weren't paying for it!!

Turns out that the keys were actually delivered to the house by a different cab company than the one Sally told me she would use at 8pm and dropped off to our new room mate who we didn't know existed. Long story short, we now have keys to our house and are slowly getting ourselves moved in.

I promise promise promise pictures will be up Monday. Love you all!