In the Middle of Nowhere?!: 77th with a bang!

Day 3 of my trip:

Today is the day we visit the capital of Malta which is ...? Oh come on you must know this! ;) Yeah, tatatadaaa Valletta :D Btw it's my birthday :) Yay, happy birthday to me! :D Rebecca even gave me a gift - liqueur chocolate candies from Estonia :) mmmm... liqueur.... :D ;)

Anyway... the first stop was the Research Unit, Malta Tourism Authority, where we were given a presentation about tourism in Malta. Did you know that:

The average tourist who visits Malta is a 58 year old retired Brit who travels with their partner? And on in every three tourists have been in Malta before. Well my boss, who exclaimed "Why on earth would you go to Malta - it's for old people!?", makes more sense now :D He said it prior to my departure, obviously.
2012 was a record year for inbound tourism, mainly because of multiple air routes becoming available and a lot of them by low-cost airlines. In total, 81 routes between Malta and the world. Low-cost airlines generated 36,4% of tourists
The average stay was 8,7 nights. I think it's a long stay, don't you agree?
Foreign tourists visit Gozo for a day but the Maltese stay for longer.
They are still looking for their brand image that would make them stand out from the competitors: Italy, Greece, Egypt etc.
During the summer high season there are about three tourists per a resident

After that we went to explore Valletta and the first attraction were the Barrakka gardens where we saw a breathtaking view of the three cities and a demonstration of cannon firing was held. It was actually better than I had expected since besides the loud bang you could also see the flame and smoke coming out of the cannon. WoW :)

While in Valletta you must see the Malta Experience which is a film that tells the story of Malta. Did you know that during World War 2 Valletta was heavily bombed and people had to basically live underground and without any external help (food, supplies etc) because the ships that were sent to help them got raided on the sea and never made it to Malta. And because they were so brave and did not surrender, King George VI awarded the entire Maltese population with the George Cross - the first (of only two) given as a collective award and not to just one person.

The Malta Experience is a film showed in an underground cinema, cool! :) You have your own set of headphones and you can choose from about 20 different languages to best comprehend and understand the story :) Unfortunately Estonian wasn't amongst them :( Finnish was though...

2 hours of free time to spend in Valletta now :) Our main mission was to find somewhere to eat :D and we did, eventually. But!... it was kinda crap and expensive! :( no one liked their food (mostly we ordered different pasta dishes). Though a polish girl was very content with her glass of wine! ( ;) liqueur ;) ). Then we spent some time just walking on the streets and it is a really nice and interesting city with it's levels. I really liked it. Though I wouldn't say I fell in love with it because I think I didn't really have time to fully explore and appreciate it - the downside of being in a group: you can't decide where to go and how long to stay in one place...

Then we got back on the mini-buses and were driven through the area where illegal immigrants live. Beforehand the lecturers told us not to worry no harm is going to come to us and no one will attack the mini buses and so on. I was like the heck?! Are they murdering people on the street or what? When we got there (there is always the morale issue: is it actually respectable to drive in that area and look out the windows like oooh and aaah, but it's for educational purposes) it didn't actually look that bad, I was expecting something much worse. Shabby looking houses, because no one renovated them obviously, men just hanging around the street, waiting for any job opportunities. I would say that it did not look much worse than a certain part of a certain city if I remember it correctly... By the way there are more male immigrants than female because it is easier for men to find some job and send money home than women.

In the evening there was a de-briefing and at some point I drifted off, writing some notes and suddenly heard silence... Oh snap, he asked a question... Fudge, I know he's going to ask me... Oh no, please no, I didn't hear the question "Jaanika?" WHY? WHY? WHY? why now? just my freaking murphy law luck... So asked sorry, what was the question and Rebecca started laughing out loud! The heck - be supportive!!!! It's embarrassing enough! Later she told me that the reason behind her laughter was the fact that she hadn't heard the question either :D

After being divide into the same groups as we had the day before and having to come up with a research question ( the presentation of the research is almost half of our mark for that module) and answer all the explanatory questions like why and what and who, and just before we could go back to our rooms and do whatever, the lights went off and everyone started singing Happy Birthday to me :) I think I had the biggest smile on my face :D They had bought a cake and candles ( that said 77 because apparently they were the only numbered-candles left in the shop OR he just did not know how old I am and bought those to hide it while being funny :D and it was fun :) )

Later the (polish) girls came down to the basement that is our room to celebrate with me :) I haven't laughed so hard in ages. It truly was fun :) Then all of a sudden a weird noise: like someone banging on the glass windows or heavy rain pouring straight on them, was behind our kitchen door to the terrace and since it was pitch dark outside we didn't see anything and one girl reaction was priceless: she really freaked out - she was sitting closest to the door. And she started screaming that loud and running away that everyone else started screaming and panicked as well though no one knew what was happening. Oh my god!!! I can't even describe it: it was so terrifying but funny at the same time. Btw I ran away from the door as well and when it stopped was hiding behind other girls who were sitting on the other side of the table (away from the door), and saw THE girl basically on top of Rebecca with Rebecca grasping her legs, both terrified and screaming. I was shaking for hours after that :D Although we all had a good laugh about it later and we suspect the boys, who shared a terrace with us and had the room next door and we saw one of the brit girls on the stairs with a suspicious smirk on her face! I hate them even more now! :D But since I really can't just shake those things off, I even had a mini-nightmare about it and woke up half screaming with my hands up punching the air. Woke Rebecca up :D Oops :D Funny times :D

Oops, I forgot pictures at first :D

Our hotel entrance