Malta, see you again soon

So much to say, mostly good, about Malta. I visit the Maltese Islands four or five times a year, each time for one or two weeks... e.g. Carnival, Easter, three times in summer, and maybe again in autumn or winter.

Nice speedy luggage reclaim on arrival at Malta International Airport and lovely welcoming history-tuning entrance at airport. I love staying at Gzira, a very central location with all the resources you could possibly need and a community feeling.

Then on to the buses. It is an excellent island-wide service, no excuse not to visit anywhere. Apart from the occasional hot-tempered male driver, bus drivers are mostly courteous and extremely patient with tourists handing them foreign currency and especially with the influx of foreign students who truly believe that Malta is already "euro-currency". I watched for 20 minutes while the express bus driver from Sliema to Rabat switched off the engine at St Julians to work out the total cost of about 25 all-day student tickets in euros... poor man! But, hurray, he finally did it and off we all went to Rabat... with happy congratulatory cheers from the passengers and relief for the driver who then turned up the music for us as we got closer to Ta' Qali and then Rabat... wonderful.

Lovely day at Rabat, Dingli, Buskett, Mtarfa, Mdina, etc. Then back to Gzira and Sliema... builders' cranes and bulldozers everywhere... roads blocked... confusing diversions... limestone dust everywhere... but never mind, there was the Sliema swimming off the rocks and sunbathing to look forward to... and how I miss my nice long walk from Gzira via Tigné on to Ghar id-Dud. Why on earth has the public road around Tigné become blocked or private, whichever is the case? Many people, tourists and locals alike, enjoyed this walk, both day and night. Please open it up again soon so that everyone, not just the selected few, can enjoy that "island point". There are far too many "island edges" that have been taken over by businesses and hotels. It's unfair on the rest of us... although I have looked at the virtual tour on the internet and it looks lovely.

Pity about the cigarette smoking that still goes on at all of the huge number of open-air eating places.

As for Manoel Island... I always stay at a place about 200 metres away from the island and for many years I have looked forward to its development... we hope this happens much sooner rather than later so that we can start to truly enjoy more of Gzira's own social facilities. In the meantime, please employ more people to clean out the public bins all over Gzira and Sliema. Emptying once or twice a day is simply not enough at this time of the year... it leaves areas looking dirty, smelly and unwelcoming... and I spotted a rat or two at the bins on evening walks!

Nonetheless, I will be back in a few weeks... by which time I hope there will have been a little bit more improvement on "The Chalet". What a lovely picture comes to mind, a blend of the old and new. Wonderful... see you again soon Malta.