Bugibba

So continuing with the second day :) 

Arrived at the hotel late at night. We have 2 rooms for 4 people + bathroom and a kitchen, where's a sofa and a little terrace, quite big actually. I shared a room with Rebecca, the other room was occupied by the Lithuanian chicka and Polish girl who actually is on an Erasmus year but was allowed to come to the trip with us. She'd gotten there earlier during the day and when we arrived she was sleeping, so we rudely woke her up. Sorry... :D Didn't get much sleep during the first night because the excitement finally kicked in. Did I mention that when we left the airport the air was nice and warm :) you know the late night warm summer feeling right? Awesome :)

Had to be ready at 9AM. So the first early morning start I've had in ages. Our first task was to discover Bugibba, the town we were staying at. It's supposed to be a tourism resort, but looked a bit shady and run down... not the prettiest but still, palm trees!! It's the first time I've ever been to warm country and palm trees are as common there as birches in Estonia. Wow. We were given a task to find certain things and were randomly put into groups of three, people were not happy about that since there's kinda three groups amongst our 18 people: the Brits, the eastern Europeans and the Asians (who keep mostly to themselves but are nice to everyone) the first two get along but there is some tension between us :D we do not really communicate with each other, at all... and well we have our own opinions about each other, if you know what I mean ;) So there was a lot of whining about that. Mostly from the Brits, like little kids that are being torn apart from they're loved ones. There're 5 girls in that group and as the rooms have 4 beds in them one of them had to share a room with other people than they're click and they actually wanted to move the fifth bed to their room. What the hell??? Are you serious? You do realize that you do not have to spend every minute in that room and can go visit others if you want to? What huge difference does it make where you sleep? And apparently during the first task when groups ran into each other, they were the ones who started complaining to each other how alone they feel and how tired they are and how they wish they could be in the same group etc. Our group had difficulty finding the meet up point but luckily saw our lecturers and ran after them. Phew! We wouldn't have found the place on our own!

The wind made it so cold! A lot colder than it looked and previously thought :( I didn't really bring any warm clothes... Walking through the town we noticed that there's a lot more Italian cuisine restaurants than Maltese one's, hmmmm... interesting... although a lot of the restaurants had a Maltese section in their menus but it wasn't advertised hugely on their signs etc. Another shock was to see Arriva buses driving around. The heck?? Why is Arriva here? Do anyone who do not know Arriva provides transport in Wales also, and people are not quite happy with their service as I've heard (I only take the train as I walk everywhere in town). The old buses had been legendary though, they were yellow and really polluting :D had like a retro sense in them but were not compatible with the EU standards so they had to be taken off and Arriva green buses replaced them. You could still see them on postcards. To cater for the elderly market, Bugibba has a lot of seating on the promenade and square. What is somewhat surprising to a person who is not familiar with Malta at all is that there is practically no sandy beaches :( they've tried creating man-made ones but they are full of bacteria as the sea water can't wash them, meh... Btw all the litter that the Maltese make is being shipped out from the island because they do not have any room for it. 

In the evening we had an external lecturer from the University of Malta who told us about Valletta's architecture and urban planning. Did you know the oldest baroque theatre in Europe that is still in use is in Valletta? It is a fortified city built on  a natural harbour. Valletta is described by contrasts: light versus shade, land versus sea and urban space versus peaceful places. And of course we learned quite a lot from the tourism management perspective that I'm not going to write here as it may not be as interesting to everyone :D

I'm sure we did something else during that day, those two things couldn't have taken the whole day... especially with a 9AM start... Bizarre :D

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...