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 :)