‘I want to have a good time and not worry about the cost’

Name: Colin Zammit Lupi
Age: 39 years old
Occupation: Actor and singer

My best ever trip…

I would move to Italy just for the food

It would have to be my six months in the US in 1994-1995. I was there on a student exchange from the University of Malta.

While living in the small university town of Oxford, Ohio, I took a couple of trips to Washington DC and New York City.

However, the real adventure began when three friends and I rented a Dodge Grand Caravan for a few weeks and drove south through Kentucky and Tennessee, turning west through Arkansas, and finally joining the famous Route 66 through Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.

A detour up to Colorado followed, with a nail-biting overnight drive across the Rocky Mountains in a blizzard. After surviving that, we entered Utah (Arches, Zyon National Parks and Monument Valley), crossed south into Arizona (Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon), drove through Nevada (Las Vegas) and entered California through the scorching Death Valley before heading for Yosemite National Park, where I had a rare face-to-face encounter with a mountain lion.

We made our way to San Francisco and turned northwards along Route 101, stopping at Redwood National Park, before continuing to Oregon and Washington state.

Once in Seattle, I parted ways with my friends and stayed for a few weeks with a fellow Maltese student. During this time, I visited North Cascades National Parks and San Juan Island, where Free Willy was filmed. I even managed to make a quick cross-border dash to Vancouver.

There was still a further visit to California (Los Angeles, San Diego) and another cross-border dash into Mexico to come. Overall, the adventure of a lifetime!

I felt so welcome in…

Isla Mujeres, Mexico. It is a small, beautiful island off the coast of Cancun and it was such a peaceful, welcoming place to visit. You could just stay there forever and drink piña coladas on the white sand after diving around the coral reefs. Bliss!

I couldn’t wait to leave…

Brussels. A ‘study’ visit when I was at university proved a little bit useless when my colleagues and I hadn’t made any appointments to visit the EU institutions we needed to see for our final dissertations. We couldn’t find much nightlife either, so after a day at a university library we moved on.

I partied hardest in…

Amsterdam, where we headed after Brussels on said ‘study’ trip to continue our ‘life’ studies. Enough said.

I cringe when I think of…

Tijuana, Mexico. What a dump! This was in 1995 so I have no idea what the place is like now. But after crossing the US-Mexico border on foot, the change in scenery was shocking. It was so filthy and run down.

We couldn’t find anywhere to sit for a drink without some badly-dressed woman coming up behind us and forcing a mouthful of tequila down our necks, while some even trashier women appeared out of nowhere and started dancing.

They weren’t pretty either! “Ten dollahrz pleez!” You see, I cringe because my mate and I decided not to leave “just yet”.

An amusing anecdote…

While in San Francisco a homeless man spotted an obvious outsider and came up to me. He politely asked for a quarter (25 cents) if he could guess where I was from. I accepted: “England?” “Nope.” “Germany?” “What?! No! Look, I’ll give you a hint – you’ll never guess anyway. An island in the Mediterranean.” “Oh! Malta!” I gave him a dollar.

I wish I could live in…

Paris. I just love it there. I’ve been quite a few times with my wife and we always dream of one day having a flat there. I love the food, the atmosphere, the architecture. It’s just beautiful.

I treasure the memory of…

Positano on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. My wife and I went there on our honeymoon and it was just gorgeous. The views, the music, the food, as well as the ease of communication for me were ideal. That impressed my wife, I’ll tell you!

I adored the food in…

Anywhere in Italy really. I think it’s simply the best place to eat good food. I live in England and you can find decent Italian food there, of course, but it’s a lot more expensive and not really authentic. I would move to Italy just for the food.

We couldn’t find anywhere to sit for a drink in Tijuana without some badly-dressed woman coming up behind us and forcing a mouthful of tequila down our necks

I enjoy returning to…

Lanzarote, Canary Islands. I’ve been there a couple of times now and it feels like the perfect place for a sunny holiday without coming to Malta. Don’t get me wrong, I love holidays in Malta, but unlike the Canary Islands, I always end up with many family obligations so it’s not really a beach holiday for me.

The hardest part of travelling is…

Paying the credit card bills afterwards. There’s not much to say about this. I’m not much good at budgeting a holiday. I just want to make sure we all have a good time and not start worrying about the cost. I can do that when I’m not on holiday.

Travel has taught me to…

Relax. It seems to me to be the only time I can really get away from it all. I don’t work regular hours, which means if I’m not actually performing or teaching, then I’m in my studio doing odd jobs and writing. On holiday I don’t have anything to do. Pure serenity.

I dream of one day visiting…

The Far East and Australia. The furthest east I’ve ever been is Pamukkale in Turkey. I think if I don’t ever visit these places, I’ll be missing out. I live on this one planet, there’s so much to see and I want to see more.

I travel because…

Everybody needs a change of scene sometimes, even if it’s a trip to somewhere else in your own country.

My next trip will be a few days up in Northumberland, in a tiny fishing village, just to get away from it all, breathe some clean sea air and walk among sheep.