Shopping in Sliema

After wedding celebrations and chilling time, it was time to go shopping. So we went to Sliema with Ann and Michael. We parked the car at Tigne Point carpark. That is quite a place. As far as carparks go, I think I have seen the best ones in Switzerland. The one in Malta are, sorry to say, immensely confusing. After having driven around for quite a while we found some parking and with the help of a lift escaped the carpark jungle.

Ann and Michael vanished for a Valletta harbour cruise. Stephen and me went to look at some shops in Tigne Point. We came to the conclusion that it is a shame spending all that time inside and ventured back outside instead. We walked around Sliema waterfront, enjoying the sea and the sun. We also enjoyed a nice lunch at a touristic restaurant next to the sea. The food was really good, but the service was funny. Most waiters were new and had no idea of anything. And they also didn't accept our cash. So annoying. After our nice walk we rushed back to get the car keys from Ann and drove to Msida to Busy Bee. Busy Bee is a pastry and cake shop. They have really delicious maltese pastries. Stephen and me bought some almond biscuits to take back to Finland. 

Wied Iz-Zurrieq

The weather in Malta in April is already warm outside although it is very windy. However, inside the limestone houses it is still cold. Therefore, it is really tempting to spend a lot of time outside on the move. Today we had a nice walk to Wied Iz-Zurrieq. It is a small rocky beach at the South of Malta. There are a few restaurants and some tourist shops. You also see a lot of divers with their equipment. In addition, there is a small bay with some luzzu boats and boat owners driving the tourists to the nearby Blue Grotto. There were surprisingly many people. Stephen and me walked down to the rocky beach, found ourselves a non windy corner and stopped to have a picnic. Maypole - a small store in Zurrieq - makes really good pastries. We munched away an apple tartlet while watching the boats pass by. It was nice to relax there, watch the sea, read a bit and enjoy the sun when it came out of the clouds. Eventually we were feeling a bit too chilly to stay sitting down and ventured on our long walk back home.

Laferla cross - Is-salib ta' l-gholja

Malta has many traditions during Easter. One of the many is the walk to the Laferla Cross. This usually happens on the Thursday before Easter. People from all over Malta travel to Siggiewi, park their cars and start the climb up the hill to the cross. This climb is there to remind us of the difficulties that Jesus faced. "The way of the cross". It is a kind of local pilgrimage. The walk is done late in the evening. There are candles everywhere. 

Stephen took me to the Laferla Cross during the morning, so I could see it properly. The climb only took around half an hour, but it was rather tricky in certain areas. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for some elderly ladies in the dark. Nevertheless, Stephen and me had a lovely walk, and enjoyed the sun and the scenery.

Wedding

Ann and Michael's wedding was on Saturday the 12th of April. It was quite a cloudy day in the morning, but luckily it cleared up and became nice and sunny during the day. The wedding ceremony in the church was supposed to start at 5pm, so there was plenty of time in the morning to get ready. Stephen drove Michael early to Michael's parents hotel, where he spent the day chilling and getting ready. Ann, Cecilia, Rena and me stayed at home. Paula, their hairdresser friend, came over to do all of our hair. All of us also had an appointment at the beautician for makeup. We had to do everything in turns. Some of had our hair done at home, some of us had our makeup done at the beautician. Stephen acted as a general taxi driver driving us from point A to point B whenever needed. We had a quick lunch at 1pm, and then had to kill a few hours before starting to wear the dresses. It felt really strange, so much waiting. And Ann wasn't nervous at all, you couldn't tell on her that it was her weddingday. She even said that herself. After I had read some of my book and watched some tv it was finally time to get ready. Cecilia, Rena and me were helping Ann into her dress. Dressing up a wedding dress is a surprisingly difficult and time consuming business. You almost need a course in it. After a while we finally managed with all the ropes and tying. Ann looked really really pretty :) The rest of us put on our dresses fast, and then the photographer already showed up and took some family pics at home. Now the anxiety and atmosphere was rising. Everyone was looking forward to the big moment. 

Stephen and me left to the church in the Fenech car carrying all the wedding leaflets, flowers, videocamera, confetti and what not. We were at the church 45 minutes earlier, but so was Michael and some Maltese relatives. We were distributing the wedding leaflets on the benches. Stephen was giving out the flowers to those who needed one in their suit. I was checking when the danes would start arriving. And soon they did, more than half an hour before the ceremony there was a big bunch of danes waiting at the side door of the Zurrieq church. Stephen and me went to meet them, introduce ourselves and welcomed them. Soon they came and sat down on the right, groom's side, of the church. It looked funny, half an hour before the wedding and the grooms side was full, whereas the bride only had a few people sitting there. Time passed and more people came, which were friends of them both and sat down on Michael's side of the church. By the time it was ten to five, a few more Maltese people arrived, but most of them came like five or so minutes before the wedding. That was bizzarre! But I guess if you know the place well enough, you can manage by coming right on time :) Finally, the wedding music started and Ann came in with her mother and sister. She looked really pretty walking down the aisle. The ceremony was a typical maltese catholic ceremony, but luckily for me it was in English. It all seemed to go quite fast. There were some songs, and some prayers, some readings and the sermon. I filmed the entire sermon of the priest, on Ann's and Michael's request. Dorothy, whose brother was presenting Malta at the Eurovision, was singing at the wedding, she had a really beautiful voice! Rena was reading one of the bible texts. The prayers were being read by Michael's sister, Ann's friend and me. All in different languages. Michael and Ann told each other: I do, and exchanged rings. It was all so romantic. Michael was so excited that he could barely speak. It was cute. Ann and Michael thanked their parents and siblings during the ceremony. I really like this part that they have in the catholic ceremony. They also had the holy communion, but since only the Maltese were catholic, only they could go to the communion. So that part was a bit funny. Outside we threw some confetti on Ann and Michael and they had their first champagne on the church door steps. 

The wedding party was at Xara Palace in Mdina. It was a bigish hall with some couches, trees, free space and a bar. The wedding party was a typical maltese stand up wedding. No tables, no sitting down for dinner. Everyone is standing and going around chatting with others. Waiters are going around to give food. The bar is open. Michael did have a speech, which is not typical in Malta. And Ann and Michael danced a danish wedding waltz. After which the danes cought Michael and cut his sock with scissors. Apparetnly this is a danish tradition, where the man is branded of being married, and it gives the wife a chance of showing her sock fixing skills. Ann said she would buy new ones :P Towards the evening they cut the cake, and everyone was throwing more confetti. We all had sparkling wine and coffee and cake. At the very end the maltese carried Ann and Michael upstairs to their hotel room. It was a very nice wedding :)

First day in Malta

We arrived well in Malta. The hot air cradeled us, when we exited the plane. It was sunny and twenty degrees. I had to take off my jacket and cardigan very quickly. Cecilia picked us up from the airport and drove us to Bernard's. She had an appointment to get her nails done. Stephen and me then kept driving on our own home to take our luggage. Stephen kept saying aloud:"left, left, left, left", to remember the left sided traffic. The traffic felt quite crazy after twelve hours of traveling, but finally (in 10 minutes) we got home. It was nice to see Stephen's mother's house. It is one of the many places in the world I call home :) 

Inside it felt that there was quite the hassle going on. Flowers everywhere, most people weren't there since they were running on errands. We dropped off our stuff, changed, had some water and went to get Ann's wedding bouqet from the florist. The bouqet had sparkly stuff stuck on the roses, so pretty!

Then it was time to enjoy some maltese Easter tradition. It was Friday, one week before Easter, so it was time for the Lady of our Sorrows procession. Stephen, me and Michael walked to the Zurrieq church to see it. The purpose of this procession is to remember all the sorrows that Mary, Jesus' mother, had to endure. It is a time of contemplation and prayer. There were a lot of people. First the scouts came and walked and were doing some marching music. At the same time you could hear the people singing in the church through the speakers they put up everywhere in the city. After the scouts out came elderly men dressed up in different colour clokes. First, if I remember correctly came the men dressed in light blue, then purple, then red. The red men were carrying the big statue of Mary. After the red men there were some white cloaked men carrying the "host". During this procession you could see the priest running around talking in his phone as if it was a walkie talkie. It was funny. I think he was coordinating the whole procession to make sure it all goes well. All over the city there were small stages, where people were dressed to act out scenes from the bible. These stages were supposed to show the seven sorrows of Mary, starting from having to give birth in a barn to Jesus' death.

The square was full of people. So many families were following this procession with their kids. And a lot of people came out of the church to follow the procession. It was all quite big, and gave a feeling that the whole city was taking part in it. It was nice. We mainly had a fast look, bought some pastizzi and headed home to eat and go early to sleep.

Today is wedding day :)

Airmalta

We are now in yet another plane. This time the airline is airmalta, from Munich to Malta. We are flying over the Alps. It is very beautiful. I added a picture here. The flight from Munich to Malta is two and a half hours, so luckily it goes quite fast. Our captain today is a woman. I see her in the captains seat setting up things while entering the plane. My initial reaction - I'm ashamed to admit - was surprise. I thought:" Oh, I hope she knows how to fly a plane". That thought quite shocked me. I mean, of course a woman can fly a plane, I mean why not? But somehow it seems that some things are very engraned in our brains, and one of those things are men captains. Stephen showed me the inboard magazine called Il-Bizzilla. Airmalta is turning 40 years and the magazine was showing the history of the airline. Apparently on the 8th of march this year, airmalta flew its first ever all women crew trip. That is rather cool! 

Entering an airmalta plane gives you a feeling of the old times, where the was more service. Stuardesses still checked your boardingpasses a the door and told you your seat. I'm expecting to get a proper lunch with dessert and everything. Small things make a big difference.

The only negative thing about this airline or this plane are the small seats. The seat rows are much closer together than in Lufthansa. It took much longer to board since people were wiggling themselves into their seat rows and finally seats. I bet they managed to squeeze in a whole extra row of seats at the end. Stephen is finding it quite uncomfortable, his knees are hitting the seat row in front of him. A taller or bigger person must really feel squashed in these seats. 

I think I'm going to take some complementary maltese white wine with the meal. Indeed.

Oh, our food just arrived. It is not that nice looking... hmm, I guess it is the thought that counts :D

Our trip to Malta begins

Our trip to Malta started this morning at 3:45 am. We went to sleep quite late (not surprising). Not matter how much you pack beforehand, it always seems that during the last night you still have so many things to do... Anyway, now we are sitting in the plane from Helsinki to Munich, where we will have an overlay of four hours and fly further to Malta. Tomorrow Ann is getting married, which is so exciting! Now probably I will sleep most of this morning. It has been quite a morning.... 

In the plane

We are flying over Germany currently. It is a very beautiful day. I took some pictures of the sun rise over the clouds (added one to this blog). I've been sleeping most of this flight, until  the stuardesses came with food. The food was very suspicious, some hot snack. It said that it is a bruschetta with ham, but it looked more like a greasy omelett on a huge peace of white bread. I was quite hungry so I tried some, it tasted okay. I understand that airlines cannot afford proper lunches or breakfasts anymore, but if they still decide to offer something why not a simple peace of bread with cheese or some crisps? I think airberlin normally offers a Twix or a small packet of crisps on their flight, and I actually liked that. I don't remember if we are flying with airmalta or lufthansa from München to Malta, but if it is airmalta the food should be better. Can post some comparison picture. Oh, talk about comparison picture, me and Ste have been reading books, and haha they are quite different. Perfect match much? ;)