Last Sunday my family needed to go to Valletta and, considering that the Independence celebrations were taking place there, I decided to park our car in Sliema and cross over by ferry.
Before embarking, I specifically asked the ticket cashier whether the ferry would operate since it was a windy evening. He confirmed it would. All well and good, we thought, so off we went.
For our return, we made our way to the quay at 11.10pm in good time to catch the 11.30pm ferry back to Sliema. Many other people started to gather there too.
The quay there is in near complete darkness, which makes it difficult to read the board with the ferry schedule. When the scheduled time had elapsed, we got close to this board and, much to our horror, saw that a notice had been put up stating that the service had been suspended.
We ran to the bus terminus only to find out that there was no night service and that we were stranded. Obviously, the only way to get to our car in Sliema was by taxi at a hefty price.
What I would have expected, at least, was for the ferry operators to offer some form of transport service to get all us stranded people across. But of course, that was of no concern at all to them as they had cashed in on the return tickets anyway. So, it’s not only the land service that is unreliable but also the ferry service. Thanks a million, operators, for a night to remember.