Arrival in Malta
Valletta, Sunday, 20. November 2016
It was very mild when our plane touched down; none of the autumn chill we were used to in Bratislava. it had just rained, perhaps not an hour earlier, and the air was humid. A young man met our group at the airport, and a large minivan picked us up and hauled us to the dormitory we'd be staying at. We passed a Peugeot dealership and started laughing. It made us feel like there was a piece of Slovakia in Malta. Some in our group were from Trnava, site of a Peugeot assembly plant there.
We came through the capital Valletta to the town of Sliema, and finally to a long, narrow street on a steep slope. People were gathered outside the dormitory waiting to meet us. We were the last group on the project to arrive. They represented the French-UK team. We haven't met the Latvians and Italians yet.
We stepped out of the van and they divided us up hastily and assigned our rooms. Somehow I ended up being listed with two... women. I was old enough to be their father. Yes, everyone had said "Don't worry, they'll be guys", but the clothing in the wardrobe spoke otherwise. "OK, then. Nevermind. We'll sort it out later."
There was no toilet paper in either of the two shared bathrooms, and someone noted the electrical outlets were the UK style, not the ones typical for continental Europe. Charging a phone would be a problem until we could locate some plug adapters. But the suite was nice otherwise, and closely resembled an IKEA showroom.
Ta' Kolina Restaurant
It was already too dark to take pictures, though I managed to get a few snapshots of the town as we walked fifteen minutes to the Ta' Kolina Restaurant for dinner. There were two long tables filled with the remaining participants on our project. The food also looked a bit exotic: some kind of lentil or mashed pea and garlic spread for pita crackers. I opted for fresh vegetable soup and braised beef with carrots, onions, and mushrooms. I sat across from one of my school directors, who was quickly full and couldn't eat anymore. There was red or white wine, and later dessert We were done with dinner by 11:30 pm., when we marched back to our suites to get to bed.
The streets reminded me of southern Italy and how I would expect North Africa to look. We were, someone at dinner joked, only about four centimeters from Africa.
Street at night in Sliema
Back at the dormitory, we got my room issue all sorted out, and Klaudia, the school president, agreed to trade her single room and bunk with the two young women--one Italian and one Russian, both representing Italy. I had the single room all to myself.
House number plaque near Manuel Dimech Street, Sliema