Beach Bums

It's getting warmer out here by the day and we've found it very hard to resist going to the beach. Our first stop was a local beach called Golden Bay. It's only about 10 minutes from our apartment, and we were both able to try out the cold mid-March water temperatures. It's a beautiful beach, but definitely more of a tourist spot, and it can get very busy.

After spending a few beach days at Golden Bay, we were able to hike up and over some cliffs that brought us to our new favorite beach, Riveria.

Riveria is a little bit quieter and has some incredible views. The pictures to the left are during our hike over to Riveria.

Riveria (Ghajn Tuffieha) Beach!

There are a lot of beautiful, small hiking trails around Riveria, and when we took Sammy to the beach we stumbled across an amazing sunset hike.

Below is Matty on top of the cliff..daredevil. The next picture down is of Floriana's point guard, Chris Sammut, climbing the rocks. Also a daredevil.

Gozo

Welcome to Malta Sammy! We started off his visit with a trip to Gozo. We've been wanting to go for awhile, and the weather was perfect for us to go the day after he arrived. We started our trip to the Azure Window with a little traditional pastizzi (Sammy became an instant fan).

These pictures show the Azure Window, Fungus Rock, and the surrounding area. We hiked around here for the day and Lindsey took some amazing photos. Even though Gozo is very small, we still didn't get to see everything that we could see. We hope to go back very soon and take in more of the great views!

Caption: "VT pose" #vermontersoverwaters

Mdina

As soon as we got here everyone started telling us that we needed to go visit Malta's old Capital City, Mdina. So at the beginning of March we finally got around to it. It's a beautiful city that sits on top of a hill, looking down on most of Malta. The city itself is built with enormous high walls, giving it a medieval feel. In the picture to the right you can see where a drawbridge has since been filled in, as well as where a moat used to be. The city is now filled with cafes, and small shops (specifically local glass works), but you can definitely still see how it used to be a fortress. The city is even equipped with dungeons that used to be used for torture and holding prisoners of war. You had to pay to see the actual dungeons, but Matty was able to get locked up for free.

Here are a few pictures of the church in Mdina. It is incredibly old, but still one of the most beautiful churches we have been inside of on our trip. The pictures of the floor are actual tombs that people have been buried in. It gave the church an eerie feel, but the tombs' artwork is extremely detailed and beautiful. Not only were the floors intriguing, the paintings on the ceilings and the stained glass were remarkable.

The pictures below show the breathtaking views from the edges of the city.

Catching Up

It's been awhile since we last posted. We apologize for the delay, we've been getting very comfortable out here.

We have found that almost everything that you buy out here is small. From the beer bottles, to the milk cartons, to the tiny coffee maker that we splurged on (12 euros for a very tired boy).

Before we bought the coffee maker, we made an almost daily routine of coming down to our favorite local coffee shop for a cappuccino, or two...or three.

The coffee shop happens to be right next to our favorite veggie man, Jimmy Valla. He and Lindsey have become quite close, and discuss fresh produce every time we come around.

Xemxija continues to be a beautiful place to live. The lights and the moon across the bay are gorgeous at night, and we still love to spend time down by the water. I went swimming for the first time last week. It was very cold, but extremely refreshing. It is getting warmer by the day out here, and we're looking forward to even warmer weather and more fun in the water!

Last week we took a bus trip down to St. Julian's. It is right next to the town of Sliema, which is one of the main shopping/tourist destinations. Both towns are right along the water, and we spent a beautiful day exploring.









All for now, we promise we'll be back with more pictures soon!