Name: Tony Cutajar
Age: 76
Occupation: Author and retired teacher

I was stranded in...

When I asked what made them think we were Arabs, one of them told me that they had been reading that the Maltese were half-brothers with the Libyans

Brittany in northwest France. In 1996 I was leading a group of students from the Education Department. We visited Carnac, where there is one of the most important megalithic sites in the world made up of some 4,000 menhirs erected about 4,000 to 3,000 BC.

On our visit on foot to the beautiful Mont St Michel, when we came to go back we found ourselves stranded. We had to hire a boat as the high tide prevented us from walking back. It was really fascinating how high and quickly the tide changed. We just could not believe it.

I felt so embarrassed...

On my first two-month visit to Australia. My aunt gave me a little parcel to give to her son. The customs officials wanted to know what it contained. As I couldn’t tell them, they decided to open it.

As soon as they tore the wrapping a number of Maltese cigars fell to the floor. The officials jumped on them to pick them up. They kept smelling them, looking at each other and making funny faces. They phoned and more officials came along to examine them.

My young family and I were kept waiting for a long time until finally they decided to keep the cigars. From then on, I made it a point never to carry other people’s presents on my travels.

There was a cultural mix-up in...

Bavaria. My wife and I were invited to the region and I met a teacher of English who was a student with me in UK. One evening, we were invited to dinner in an old castle to meet some well-known people, including nobles and MPs. Dressed in our very best clothes, we entered a huge hall with a long table where these people were sitting. They looked suprised when they saw us and seemed to have been waiting for us because as soon as we were taken to our chairs, huge dishes full of food were placed on this table.

Again, everybody kept waiting for us to start but we didn’t know what to do as there were no plates or cutlery. We were asked if we needed plates and when I replied, plates were placed in front of all the guests.

They waited for us to start but we didn’t know how to get hold of the food. Somebody asked me if we wanted cutlery and at our reply, cutlery was made available for all the guests.

Later I was told that we were expected to be dressed as Arabs. That’s why all of them were dressed very simply, while my wife and I looked very overdressed. When I asked what made them think we were Arabs, one of them told me they had been reading that the Maltese were half-brothers with the Libyans.

I was unimpressed by...

Morocco. I was responsible for a group of University students of French taking part in the first student exchange to the North African country. We were very well looked after in various hostels. But we were not impressed at all, especially when we saw women sitting down on the cement floor of a yard with toilets all round peeling potatoes and onions.

When we went to eat, we found a huge dish of lamb placed on the table with flies all over the food. I made it a point to have hot food brought to us while sitting at the table. The toilets were unpopular, especially with the female students, who always looked for a hotel. In Casablanca, we went to some beautiful restaurants which reminded me of Parisian ones.

But the only drinks available were coke and water with mint. Somebody whispered to us that if we wanted beer or something stronger, there was a small place at the back of the restaurant where we could quietly order anything we wanted.

By the way, the French students spoke more Maltese than French and they got on very well.

I was disgusted by...

Another experience in Morocco. We were taken to see the weaving of the famous Moroccan carpets from raw wool.

It was a smallish dark room with about 12 girls not older than 10. They were supervised by two older girls who beat them on the head if they looked at us while weaving. We were not allowed to take photos.

When I asked if the children go to school, the answer was: “Of course!” But it was a mid-week morning. I would never buy any of these Moroccan carpets.

My best meal ever...

In Rome some friends took me to an old restaurant facing the sea in Ostia. There we were treated to a sumptuous meal of fish and shellfish accompanied by the very best Italian wine. It happened so many years ago and I can never forget it. Pity there was never a repeat.

I’ve grown weary of...

Big cities like London, Paris or Rome that I’ve visited so many times. They’ve become too mad and noisy. I’d rather go to places where it is green, quiet and peaceful, like Tuscany, Ireland and Switzerland.

My best holiday was...

With my young family in Sorrento, Amalfi, Capri, Positano, Ischia and the surrounding towns and villages. My children still talk about it.

Our trip on the electric train from Ramsey to Laxey was a bone-rattling experience in the rickety tramcars, with the old windows clattering in the wooden frames, not unlike riding in the old Maltese buses

I will never return to...

Catania and Athens. Both were dirty and uninviting. Athens was covered with cigarettes butts and people smoked everywhere, even in restaurants.

In spite of the Acropolis, Athens did not appeal to me.

Maybe both these places have now improved as Malta has.

I thought the pavements in the old centre in Brussels were much worse than in Malta.

I am very proud of...

Leading a contingent of young people to participate in Giochi senza frontiere in Athens as mayor of San Ġwann in 1995.

We headed the list of the compet-ing countries for most of the games and San Ġwann appeared on international television for the very first time... and the last!

The Athens mayor’s office was a real royal palace compared to the one I had back home.

My favourite country or region...

Definitely Bavaria, where in 1979 we visited some very beautiful churches like the Benedictine Abbey of Neresheim, joined in the Anafest at Forchheim, watched the open-air Twelfth Night in the rain at Feuchtwangen, admired the Teufelshöhle caves, attended a Bachwoche concert at Ansbach, drove through the Black Forest in an old horse-drawn carriage, got wet for the second time on a trip on the Danube and approached East Germany’s Landes Grenze and the watch towers and barbed wire at Würzburg. Dankeschön, Michael!

It was a holiday of a lifetime.

I received a royal welcome in...

Sydney in 1982. I was guest of honour at a lunch at Sydney’s Parliament House in my capacity as president of the Friends of Australia Association (Malta).

I was shown around and had drinks with a number of MPs and shadow ministers, including John Aquilina.

During a council meeting of Fairfield City, the mayor presented me with a special shield on behalf of the citizens of the city in recognition of my work to further friendship and understanding between Australia and Malta.

I was also escorted into the Houses of Parliament for a sitting and was interviewed on Ethnic Radio.

I could almost speak Maltese in...

Budapest. The car number plates are exactly like ours with three letters and three numbers. I spotted EGG, GCE, EVA, SUF and XXL.

I was rather surprised to come across such words as skola, reklam, toalett and kenu for canoe.

I enjoyed travelling in...

Douglas, the capital city of the Isle of Man.

It still enjoys a network of Victorian railways and trams, its combination of electric, steam and horse power being the only one of its kind in the world.

Our trip on the electric train from Ramsey to Laxey was a bone-rattling experience in the rickety tramcars, with the old windows clattering in the wooden frames, not unlike riding in the old Maltese buses.