Malta Trip #8 – Making the Best of it

 

The reason that that taxi ride was important was the driver. It was a lady called Phylomena who picked us up. Yes, yes, I know it’s usually spelt with an “i” but there was nothing usual or ordinary about this lady. For one thing, while other taxi drivers were willing or talk or not talk, she wanted to chat. Nothing wrong with that. She asked what we were doing in these parts and as soon as she heard about our aborted mission to visit Wied-il-Mielah, she said there is another route that leads to the window and gets you closer to the window but drivers don’t like that so they don’t go that way. We found out later why they don’t like that. She told us that she usually takes her clients that way so they can get some good views on the way as well.

 

We liked the sound of that. She told us she likes her clients to take home good memories and not just go from passenger to passenger like other drivers. Well, that did sound about right but our day next day was already planned quite tightly. Still, we took her number when she dropped us at the Citadel in Victoria and told her we would call her if we wanted to use her services.

 

It was about 1630 when we entered the Citadel just before closing time. Roberta said it’s her practice when visiting a city to find the highest spot and take a photo from there. We tried to find
the highest spot in the Citadel and found a few. We kept going up and down steps. For me the view was not of much interest because the light was already fading and it wasn’t good for photography. And to be brutally honest, the view of Urban Gozo dwellings didn’t do much for me.

 

After spending about an our in the Citadel we came out and started thinking about food. I also wanted to buy a couple of tshirts. I had deliberately packed fewer tshirts than I needed in Malta so that I would be forced to buy some there. This is something I want to make a practice. I bought a couple of tshirts in Paris and whenever I wear them there are good memories of Paris associated with which makes me feel good. I should have bought some in Copenhagen as well but we were there a short time and I forgot.

 

I think Victoria has only one long main road (not long by Delhi standards) and most of the shops and businesses are there. We agreed that we will decide what to do next based on what we came to first – fashion shop or restaurant. We didn’t find either. We found several shops and even a couple of malls but nothing for menswear.

Using Google Maps we looked for a restaurant then. As I have mentioned, Roberta and I generally agree on Italian. We found one called Hav Senso. Roberta’s problem is that she is picky in food. My problem is that I am vegetarian and picky. Not only do I not eat meat, I don’t eat mushrooms. I don’t know many Indians who do. There’s a reason for that. But it makes life difficult for me when eating out. In most places if there three vegetarian options in the menu, two of them would have mushrooms. This is different in Italian cuisine. There are many things that I can eat like pizza, pasta, bruschetta, ravioli, garlic bread etc.

 

 

In Hav Senso, I ordered Gnocchi de Patate which was ok, but maybe a little too salty for my taste. Still, it was good enough. After dinner, we took a taxi back to the apartment. A taxi could drop us all way through the gate and near the car park which was preferable after a long day of walking.

 

That night when I went to bed after putting my gadgets on charge and doing my writing thing, I was thinking that while Malta was pretty and all it had not blown my mind like the Scottish Highlands had blown my mind the first time I saw them. The second thing was that I had not had a nice, delicious meal in Malta yet. I didn’t know that both of these were going to change the next day.