Malta - Day Four

Relaxation Spoiled Only by a Map

You know, for all that consideration of how we should have some time to relax on our honeymoon, we had done precious little actual relaxing since our arrival. Well, I suppose that's a little unfair to say, we spent every evening with dinner and drinks while doing nothing in particular. But our days were usually fairly busy with travel and sightseeing, so we were pretty active, all told. But now, it was time to just do some nothing.

We'd arrived back at our hotel later in the afternoon than we had hoped, but it was still afternoon and we wanted to get some time by the pool before we left. So, we changed into our respective swimsuits and headed to the rooftop pool for some outdoor swimming.

Why Not to Swim in Malta

After some confusion locating the towels, we managed to set ourselves a nice spot in the sunlight that was just starting to slacken. Then Chris went over to the pool to test the water before going in.

I think she actually squeaked when her toe hit the water. Chris does not like cold swimming pools. In fact, she doesn't even like relatively cool swimming pools. So I thought I would see what it was like in the pool that my wife was now refusing to enter or even get near. Chris was right to squeak.

This was an unheated outdoor pool in October in Malta, when the average daytime high is somewhere in the 75 degree range. Heated swimming pools are generally kept in the range of 85 degrees. What this means to the average person is that the pool at the hotel was going to feel like jumping into a bathtub full of cold water. And yet people were swimming in it. Why people were doing this, I had no idea. Probably something to do with the fact that, sure, the water would give you hypothermia, but at least there's not a crowd.

With that, we decided to take a detour and just head for the chairs and some sun. However, after some time, I decided that I came out here to get some time in the pool, so I was going to get some time in the pool. So I got in, swam to the end and swam back. The odd thing about it is that I got used to the cold and, by the time I had finished it really didn't feel cold at all. It seems that hypothermia is a really effective way to keep warm.

After that little adventure, we enjoyed our time in the sun until the clouds started rolling in. Then we headed inside for the indoor pool, which was much more comfortable. Then, with our time at the pool completed, we did our usual drinks (still free and still awesome) and assembled the plan for tomorrow.

The Map Issue

The first problem with putting together a plan when going to Gozo is the issue of determining how to get to the ferry that will actually get you do Gozo. At issue was the fact that we were taking the bus and we needed the bus stop. But we were taking a bus that we were not familiar with and we weren't all that sure about where to pick up said bus.

We knew where a bus stop was. That was not the problem. The problem was whether the bus we wanted serviced that bus stop. Unfortunately, we had a map.

I'd love to show you a picture of the map, but it is rather large and I don't feel like trying to scan it into something. And it does actually seem very useful when you first glance at it. I admit I was very happy with it when I first purchased it -- I couldn't have wanted more. It had the bus routes listed and showed where they went and what they did in clear colors and everything would be fine.

And everything did seem fine right up until I tried to use it. This is because the clearly marked routes were actually indicating highways, and the actual bus stops weren't shown anywhere on the map, I don't think there were even any lists of stops anywhere on the map and the bus route numbers were added to the map so sparsely that it was impossible to determine where they went between one label and the other.

For instance, let's say I gave you directions to a restaurant. And let's say I gave directions like this map. I would tell you to take I-71 north, cross the bridge and look for 214 Palmetto on the left. Some people might think this is useful information, but that's because those people would already live around the area and would know how to get onto I-71 north, which exit to use, which bridge is being talked about and where Palmetto Street is and how to get there from I-71, supposing there are additional turns along the way. I began to really hate this map.

Meanwhile, Chris was working through her perfectly useless book of top ten things to do in Malta. Each geographical location was provided with a convenient list of things that are the top ten things to do, see or eat and that seemed pretty good. Until you realized that the ten things listed were already in the Lonely Planet guide, the geographical locations were often so absurdly large that it would sometimes be a day trip to go from one spot to another, and it usually told you nothing about the spot, so you never knew if you really did want to see it. In fact, I think they sometimes determined their geographical area by figuring out ten things you should see, then gerrymandering the geography to make sure they were all on a top ten list. But we always took it with us, if only to give one of us something to do while the other was using the Lonely Planet guide.

Returning to our trip to Gozo, we had to determine which bus we needed to take, whether that bus went through our area, and whether it stopped at the bus stop we knew of. The answers were bus 645, yes and yes. And we learned that by asking the nice lady at the desk and not that &%#@ map. So, with that settled, we headed out to Paceville for dinner.

Ringing the Dinner Bell, Malta Style

I previously mentioned a long stairway that climbs up between a couple of buildings near our hotel. During the day, this was our route to the bus stop. At night, it was an obstacle course. Now, it was our destination, as it was lined with bars, clubs and restaurants where I assume the young hipsters spend their summer evenings when should be studying their English. We, however, just wanted some food and drink and we didn't need to study anything.

We ended up dining at a place called Red Zone, where it was very busy and very loud. But the food was good and the company was excellent and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Then, following a quick trip to the local mall to check out the price of jeans in Malta (with exchange rate, about $150 or so), a failed attempt to get some cash (the ATM would not accept my PIN for some reason), and one bit where I almost fell down a flight of stairs (but did bang my butt pretty effectively), we finally turned in for the evening. Tomorrow would bring an adventure to Gozo. But we did not yet know just what that would mean.