The Last Post - Malta, Italy, & Barcelona

Malta Bay

Malta

Malta

The old, historic area of Malta

On the boat cruise in Malta

Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon

On the fastest speed boat I have ever been on

Cave tour

Cave tour

Swimming in the Blue Lagoon

Caves

Blue Cave

The Temples of Malta

Best chocolate cake in the world, literally.

Malta beach

At our usual breakfast place in Rome

Breakfast in Rome

Breakfast in Rome with Kelly

Tori and me at the Trevi Fountain

Kelly and me at the Pantheon

Pantheon

Rome's "Wedding Cake"

Trajan's Column

Colosseum

Colosseum

First beginnings of the city of Rome

Built in 1 AD, still use the original door and keys to enter

Vatican City, the Pope is somewhere in that crowd

Love statue in Malta

Malta's crazy nightlife

Spanish Steps in Rome

Olivia's home for 2 months in Florence

Ponte Vecchio

Florence by night

Ponte Vecchio

Market in Barcelona

Barcelona

Molly and Alexia climbing up to see Gaudi things in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona

 Sagrada Familia

 Sagrada Familia

Inside the Sagrada Familia

Inside the Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Gaudi house

Gaudi house

Barcelona protest

Barcelona protest

Barcelona

Barcelona

Beach, where we spent most of our time in Barcelona

The start to our trip was not the best.  Our flight to Mykonos was canceled two days before we were suppose to leave because of a transportation strike so we could no longer go to Greece, which was quite disappointing, so we had to change our trip to start in Malta, I know, poor me, couldn't go to Greece so had to go to Malta, a beautiful little island.  I knew nothing of Malta, could not have even taken a stab at where it was on a map (it is a little island near Libya in case you did not know either).  Our flight was at 6:30 am.  There was a slight miscalculation of how long it would take us to get to the airport, even though we have flown from this same airport 4 times prior to this trip, nevertheless, we missed our flight.  This was only the second time I have run through an airport to catch a flight, not as fun/ funny when you actually miss the flight.  Well really we missed our check in time by two minutes and had to sit and watch our flight take off so that we could then pay 50 pounds to change our flight to the next morning.  The next morning we made our flight and wandered around the massive, non stop hills in the heat of Malta.  Our hostel in Malta was wonderful.  It was basically Real World Malta.  It was 10 girls and 10 guys that just got keys to a large house.  We all ate dinner together on the rooftop, got drinks together afterwards, and then went out together at night, Real World Malta.  One of the days in Malta we went on a boat tour of Malta and the little islands around the area - Gozo which is the island Calypso in greek mythology - and then on a speedboat tour of the caves in the area, this was probably the most fun things we did on the trip actually.  I have never been on a speedboat as fast as this one.  The guys driving it said it is one of the fastest speedboats out there, which at first I thought they were just trying to impress us, but after my face was frozen in place after the boat went a little over the top speed it could get up to, I would have to say I believe them.  There was a make shift diving board on the boat so we all went swimming in the absolutely clear blue water.  You could see to the bottom even in 7 ft water.  The swimming was going well, really fun, and then two of the girls I was with got stung by jellyfish.  They were not too happy, especially when I said I hope it scars, that it would be a really cool scar - you could see the tentacle marks on their arms, it truly would have been a great scar, but no worries, it did not scar.  The next day, our last day in Malta, Alexia and I did the touristy things, saw the temples that were over 5000 years old, went on a boat tour of the Blue Grotto, went to the old capital of Mdina, not sure why it is spelled so. Then had a six hour layover the next day at the Malta airport heading to Rome.  Because this blog thing is truly not as fun as I thought it would be, and also because it is an absolutely beautiful day in London, my second to last day in London to be exact, I will report about Rome, Florence, and Barcelona in a bit.  To be continued....


So now that I have had a rest from blogging, I can continue with my visit to Rome.  The six hour layover was passed with several bottles of complimentary wine with my three friends traveling with me, this time passed surprisingly quickly.  Once we arrived in Rome, since our day was spent, we just went to the hostel's bar which is actually known around Rome, people not staying at the hostel actually come to hang out at the bar, which I think is a little strange, but no matter.  At the hostel bar, we met up with our two other friends who arrived the previous day.  We met the tallest men I have ever seen in my life.  They were a Canadian basketball team, all over 6'5", except the point guard of course.  Not sure why they were at the hostel's bar, they were not staying near it.  They were traveling on a "mission trip" aka traipsing around Europe, doing touristy things, going out at night, and playing the occasional basketball game.  The next day we played tourist, saw Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, Trajan's Column, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, Capitoline Hill, Piazza Navona, Palatine Hill, and others.  I knew Rome was a touristy place, but I had no idea how un-Italian like Rome seemed.  Walking around, I did not feel like I was in Italy, just some big city that could have been anywhere in the States.  After all of this touristy-ness, we headed back to the hostel for a quick nap, then ran off to dinner.  I was not that impressed with the food in Rome, it was not bad, just tasted like Italian food that could be found back at home in Springfield, so a little disappointing.  After dinner, we ran randomly into the Canadian basketball team again. The next day, our last day in Rome, we spent almost the whole day in Vatican City.  We got to see the Pope amongst the mass crowds.  As we were walking through the thousands of people hoping to see the Pope, we yet again ran into the basketball team.  We were quite shocked considering there were thousands of people in the crowds and we happen to walk through the entrance right when they do as well.  Small world.  We joined a tour group through the Vatican, which is quite large, very much a maze of sorts.  It took us about three hours to get through, ending at the Sistine Chapel.  The Sistine Chapel was not what I expected at all.  The ceiling was impressive, but the actual chapel itself was small and unimpressive.  Getting out of the Vatican seemed almost impossible, it took us a half hour to get out of there.  After the Vatican, the four of us took two bottles of wine to the Spanish Steps for sunset.  We bought a cheap wine opener so after our first attempt to open the first bottle, it of course broke inside the cork. So we were pretty helpless at this point, until our Italian saviors came to our rescue.  Four Italian guys sat down next to us and somehow managed to open our bottles with the broken screw and their house keys.  It was quite the spectacle, everyone on the steps was watching and cheering each time they managed to open a bottle.  After the Spanish Steps we went to a pub and spent the rest of the night chatting to a priest.  I had never seen a priest in a pub before so this was not what I was expecting from the night, but I guess when in Rome.  The next morning we took a train to Florence, which I shall continue talking about tomorrow perhaps.