Today was my last full day in Malta and I had a mission – to see my other Maltese friend Paul over on the adjacent island of Gozo.

To get to Gozo I had to take an hour bus ride to the north of this island to catch a 20 minute ferry that brought me over there.

I started the day relatively late as I only left the hostel after 11am.   By the time I arrived in Gozo it was just past 12:30.   I wasn’t meeting Paul until 6pm as he was working so I had the afternoon to explore the island on my own.

People at the hostel told me to catch a hop-on, hop-off siteseeing bus so as it turns out it was the perfect way to see the island.   The bus comes by every 45 minutes so once you decide on a stop to hop off at you have that amount of time to explore the area before hopping on the bus again to the next destination.

I figured out how to make it all work to be in Victoria (the main city in Gozo) to meet Paul at 6pm.   I could only get off at 3 stops and I decided on the coastal stops of Marsalform Bay, Dwerja, and Xlendi Bay.   The rest of the island I saw from the bus complete with audio guide.

My first stop at Marsalform Bay was an experience.   Not because of the area as it was just another seaside town that seemed to be in existence just for tourists to see.   No, it was an experience because literary 5 minutes after I got off the bus I was soaked head to toe from the crazy wind causing a wave crashing over the railing while I stood by the water taking photos.

Soaked and boy was it windy all day…

A restaurant owner across the street saw what happened and rushed to get me some paper towels to dry off a little.   I was actually planning on going to his restaurant anyway as the bus driver had given me that restaurant’s card good for a free glass of wine.   I sat down to eat a nice tortellini pasta done in a cream sauce with bacon and mushrooms.   It was probably the best pasta I’ve had on this trip so far and that’s saying something considering I was in Italy for quite awhile.

Before I knew it, it was time to hop back on the bus and I got off at my second destination: Dwerja.   Once again there wasn’t really anything to do but admire the seaside.   I actually spent alot of the time during the day thinking about my awesome business idea that is going to take the world by storm that I can’t share with you here because then you’d steal it and that would suck – from here on out known as “the business idea”.

After 45 minutes I was ready to head to my final hop off – Xlendi Bay.   Here I had some things to do.   I climbed the rock face up a semi-steep cliff side to overlook the water and then I headed to the other side to go inside the Xlendi tower to see the coastline from the other side.

It was pretty cool but I’ve see so many seaside towns now that they all kind of blur together.   I know, I know – first world problems, right?

Anyway…

I reached my final destination, Victoria, just before 6:00 and went to our designated meeting place.   Yes, that great landmark of McDonalds.   Luckily there is only one in Gozo so all I had to do was ask someone of the street where it was and they immediately pointed me in the right direction.

Paul and I met up and once again I was treated to a car ride.   It’s amazing how much joy I got from actually being in a car the last two days.   After umpteen buses and trains and metros and planes it was so nice to be in an actual car.   We drove around for a bit and stopped to take a look at the citadel – another very ancient city here in Malta.

Afterwards we headed down to one of the older parts of the city to eat.   We stopped in this little cafe owned by someone Paul knew and I had another authentic Maltese dish – Bragjoli (a stuffed meat dish).   Their version was done with tomato sauce and came with salad and fries.   I actually have no idea what kind of meat I ate but it sure was good.

We drove around for a bit more and then said our goodbyes at the ferry terminal.   After a short wait I boarded the ferry on my way back to the main island.

Of course when the ferry arrived I soon found that the bus into town – the hour long one – had just come and gone and I would have to wait 45 minutes for the next one.   By now it was about 9:30pm and it was getting cold and it was still really windy.   I just wanted to get back to the hostel but now knew I wouldn’t be back til just after 11pm.   Ugh.

So eventually I did get on a bus back to the hostel and walked through the door, exhausted and ready to just veg out.

As it turns out, there was no poker again tonight so I guess I got lucky that I arrived the day that I did – or maybe they’re just waiting for me to leave so they can play again without some Canadian taking all their money.

And that was the day.   Long, tiring and a little wet.