Day 5 - Malta

As we write this we are sitting on our Balcony watching fireworks shows from three Festas or religious festivals. Sounds great right? Not so much. We woke up and packed our things for the time share that Alison's parents so generously gave us as our wedding gift. (Mom and Dad I am not being rude, I am being honest.) Anyway, we got there with our things but knew that we could not check in until 5pm so we asked to place our things in the luggage room in order to go out and see some more of Malta. After asking some questions like where to get the bus (the only public transport in Malta) and how to get around we began walking down the hill toward the bus stop. However we chose to bypass the closest bus stop and see what we could find, and look for a map of the island as well as of the bus routes. We happened upon Ye Olde Ink Shop...We are not kidding you that was the name of this place. It was a kind of convenience store, with no snacks and they were an authorized HP dealer...kind of strange really. Anyway, we asked the sales woman if she had a map and how is it that we get around this place. She was very very nice. She not only held the map for us when we didn't have any money (Alison left her wallet in the other bag and had to hike up the hill to get it), but she also drew us a map and gave us detailed directions to the Hard Rock Cafe. This has become a bit of a mission at this point. When we discovered they had one here we decided to find it. We followed her directions and happily headed on our way. We got to The Hard Rock and had a great lunch. The Hard Rock is located in Paceville however it is pronounced pa-ch-a-ville....we find this funny. Then we walked up a hill to the Radisson Hotel, where we borrowed internet. We will not say steal because well we didn't. Danielle's work account allows her to log onto certain networks like hotels that have wireless, so that is what we did. We spent quite a while there updating this blog so that we could connect with you all who are reading it. We learned the hotel trick from Heidi, as she showed us that you can walk into any hotel and use their bathroom as long as you walk with confidence, as if you are staying there. Then we began our journey back to our hotel. We were able to experience the busses in Malta for the first time and let me tell you....they are an adventure. We weren't really sure of what stop to get off as the stop that we got on at was much further away than we knew we wanted to be, so we guessed at where to get off. We weren't right because the bus past us going the other way before we got to where we wanted to go. Oh well...its an adventure.

Anyway, we got back to to hotel and were so ready to check in and drop our stuff and hop in the pool. We tried to check in right at 5 but we had to wait for 20 minutes for them to check the room. Finally we got our key and headed toward the room. The lifts and the hallways were beautiful. We walked in to the room and it seemed to be ok. We began walking around and discovered that it really was not. Lets start with the air conditioning. There wasn't any. Today it was well into the 90's and there was no air conditioning. There were AC units, but the switches they were on were not turned on. When we jumped up to turn them on (they were near the ceiling), against the strict sign near the switch, the power would come on, but it would not turn on the unit, just open and close the flap. We called the front desk and it took 45 minutes to an hour to have some one come up and fix it and that was only after Danielle went to get a phone book and ask about it that they sent someone. Also, that pool we wanted to hop into, it closes as 5pm too, so we could not go swimming. So we decide we are going to call the resort place and see if there is anything that they can do for us. Unfortunately all they can do is to refund the money and Alison's parents week but they can't find us a better hotel. So we began looking. As I said, Danielle tried to find a phone book, when she asked the girl at the front desk she had no idea what that was. Danielle had to explain what that was to the girl at the front desk and she told Danielle that only homes have those. She asked Danielle why she wanted it and Danielle explained that she needed to find other hotel numbers. The girl said, Oh you are not happy here? Danielle said no and explained why. The girl said there was nothing she could do about any of it but the air conditioning. While Danielle was down stairs Alison began to look around. Here are all the things that we found that are not good in our room:

1. The bathroom has holes in the wall where the toilet used to be but was moved with no attempt to cover them.
2. There is no shower curtain.
3. The bathroom mirror is being held up with duct tape.
4. The bedspreads are a flower print from the eighties (in itself not that big of a deal) and are so old that they are a dingy brown.
5. There is someone elses hair on the floor.
6. There is mold under the soap dish in the shower.
7. The bathtub has brown stains all over it.

Also at this hotel in order to use the remote control for the ancient TV (again not a problem all by itself) you have to pay 3Lm (lira Malta) which is equivalent to just over 10 US Dollars for the week. Also, to get an extra towel you need to pay .50lm or almost 2 US Dollars. We were appalled. Both Alison's parents and Alison have stayed at the resorts that are held by their time shares. This is the first time that any of us have been remotely disappointed. The good news is that we found another hotel on the Island for the rest of the week, which is an amazing feat because it is Holiday season. But we found one recommended by the book that we got out of the library and with ALOT of help from Laura and Danielle's parents. Laura is currently staying at the house keeping our animals safe and was looking for hotel numbers on the internet for us for the better part of her afternoon. We couldn't find any alternate accommodations for tonight, so we will suck it up for tonight. However we did find a room starting tomorrow. The man at the desk who gave us directions to the hotel told us, Just before the Turkish Ka-Bob, you can't miss it. What a landmark huh?

After we fixed the hotel problem we decided we needed food (it was about 8pm here) so we headed down the road for some exploring. We found a Pizza place, a Chinese food place and a sports bar. We settled on Pizza. It was a good thing too. We had great food (with plenty left over for breakfast) and we met nice people. The glass that Alison drank out of had the name of a local beer on it and since that is something we wanted to bring home (glasses to have and use at home) we asked if we could by the glass. Not only did we end up with two glasses from two different local beers, but they gave them to us. Anyway, we hiked up the hill back to the resort and now we are still watching the fireworks...about 30 minutes of writing. If you don't hear from us, the Cockroaches might have taken us away!

Interesting Malta notes:
Four wheelers can drive on the road with regular vehicles. It seems that the only modifications that are made to the four wheelers are blinkers. Not that they are always used effectively. For example,non-effective light use seems to be ok in Europe though as we saw a man hang out of an ambulance that had its lights on to indicate to traffic which way it was turning.

Also we noticed this yesterday but forgot to write about it. "Humped zebra crossing" sign - what do you think it could mean? Alison was looking for some new animal that she has never heard of, who crossed a camel with a zebra? What we have figured out is that a humped zebra crossing is a speed bump with lines, just a regular zebra crossing sign is a painted crosswalk.