Valleta, Malta

Our first port was an island off of Italy, near Sicily. They told us that it's history dates back 7,000 years and that it's the most beautiful port in all of the Mediterranean. It was the only port that we stopped at that didn't look like a shipping yard. It is the most fortified city in the world and one of the biggest ports. We did have to get up incredibly early for a vacation day because we booked a Malta scenic beauty tour that started at 7:45 and we had to have time for a huge buffet breakfast too.

Our tour was on a bus that first took us to a small fishing village. This stop was mainly just for pictures and to stop at the bathrooms. 38% of the people in Malta make a living through tourism. The next largest industry is fishing, then industry in general, and then farming. This first stop was only about 15 minutes and then they took us on a drive through the city then to a larger fishing village of Marsa Xzwkk. This stop was way too long. We were here for nearly an hour. There was an open air market and a church, but after we saw those we just went to a park and played on the swings.

The next stop was the best. We went to the cliffs that overlooked the blue grotto. We only had about 15 minutes at this stop, so we had to hurry with all the pictures. It was kind of crowded here. it must be a popular stop for all of the tours. It was simply breathtaking. You can't tell how big the grotto is unless you compare it to the little boat down there (that blue dot). Can you believe that some people stayed on the bus during the stops? Why would you pay money to sit in a bus all day??

Next we drove up the road to the Dingli cliffs. It was kind of scary b/c the wind was blowing a little bit and there weren't any fences or anything. I think I'm more afraid of heights than I knew I was. There was an island off the shoreline that was used for target practice in WWII. They said the island used to be 3 times larger before they blew it up.

On the way back we drove by the 3rd largest dome in Europe. I only saw it for a few seconds b/c we clearly sat on the bad side of the bus. It was beautiful for the 2 seconds we saw it.

We were back on the boat by noon, so we went to the room to get swimming suits on and grabbed lunch before going out to the pool. After sitting by the pool for hours the day before before getting a chair, we became much more aggressive. We used strategy and got the first chair we found and then became vulture for a chair closer to the pool. With in 1/2 an hour we had two chairs right next to the pool and were pretty proud of ourselves. We were set for the rest of the day.

So Tuesday on the boat became our drinking day. First I got just one corona and then decided it was cheaper to buy 5 and get one free. I ended up drinking 5 coronas. Jeff had two rum and cokes, a mangorita, and one corona. We didn't really feel like getting dressed up for dinner at that point, so we just ate at the buffet that night. Jeff liked going to the restaurants because he felt like he was getting his money's worth. I sort of liked the buffets because there was more of a variety and there wasn't a waiter interrupting our conversations or hovering over us.

After dinner we decided to try our luck at the bowling alley. Jeff is soooo proud of his score so he took a picture of it. If you can't see...I had a 120 and he had a 202! It was pretty incredible on a moving ship and after 4 drinks that he could bowl above a 200!

That night the ship went through a straight, so we could see the lights on the shoreline on both sides of the ship. We thought it was a pretty scene so we went out and spent an hour or so in the jacuzzi before getting ice cream and pizza and calling it a night.