All in a Day's Travel - invited to a Birthday Party

Late Afternoon Picture of Ruins from the Forum in Rome

You Never Know What You're Going to Run Into

    So we are in Malta now, Rome went quickly (see below) and today we have encountered our first bad weather of the trip.  We have been blessed with sunshine and warm temperatures most places we've been.   

    But it's raining here in Malta, although it's not cold.  And since we're Oregonians, we don't mind a little rain, we just keep going. 

   Where is Malta, anyway?  (Where's Waldo?)  It's an island nation in the south Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and Tunisia.  

A couple stories from this afternoon ...

    We are sitting in a sidewalk cafe having an afternoon lunch, the rain hadn't started yet.  So this old guy comes and sits beside us, and orders a coffee.  Eventually a younger guys comes along and sits at the next table, on the other side of the older guy, and also orders a coffee. 

    So presently the old guy pulls out this old school big radio.  Not a boom box but the old transistor radio like from the 1950's.  He pulls it out of a cheap plastic grocery bag starts to tune it, not having much luck.  Just a scratchy bunch of poor quality static.  Sounds like opera, I think to myself.

    The younger guy watches him, you can see him in the photo above (I snapped these pictures very discreetly).  The sound was real funky and pretty bad and eventually the younger guy, a hipster, says to the old guy: "why don't you get yourself a phone, man, you can get any music you want out of a good phone." 

    And the old guy looks at him like he is from Mars. He doesn't get the connection: "I don't need a phone ... I don't need to call anyone"

    Young hipster: "No man, phones do everything now.  You can get music, any kind you want, better than that ... contraption"

   Old guy staring at young guy, not quite understanding: "Why would you use a phone to play music?"   

   Hipster stares back, realizing that this conversation will not bear fruit, and shakes his head: "Geez man ... never mind."  He finishes his coffee, picks up his phone, and walks off, still shaking his head. 

   Old guy, still staring at the hipster, whispers: "why don't you mind your own business ..."

    The old guy gives up on the static, and carefully places the seriously old school radio back in the plastic bag, finishes his coffee, and leaves.  

Not many people here in Malta?

    We are driving in from the airport to our hotel with another guest from some other country, and the shuttle car driver.  This is a small island and seems rather peaceful and subdued compared to Istanbul and Rome, which are both very crowded, intense, and noisy.

    We are driving through the outskirts of the city and as we get downtown, Fiona notices a decided lack of people around.  Like I said, radical difference from where we've been the last couple weeks.  

    Fiona finally says, "where are all the people?"

    Driver: "People, ma'am?  What people?"

    Fiona: " I don't see any people, there is no one around."

    Driver: "Oh, we have people here on Malta"

    Fiona: "I don't see anyone.  There is nobody out walking around"

    Driver, getting defensive: "Yes there are people here in Malta, lots of people"

    Fiona:  "I can't see anybody, where are they?"

    Driver:  "I can assure you we have people here ... "  He looks around and suddenly points, "Look, over there!  There is a person right over there!"  

    HAHAHA - Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny. 

Invited to a Birthday Party 

    You meet the nicest folks when you travel.

    So we are out walking around this evening and it's pretty wet.  But we press on as intrepid travelers ... until we can't take it anymore and we slip into this tiny cafe, out of the weather.  

    Inside, we are met with a friendly dog and greeted by a couple of patrons.  Immediately this young couple next to us starts talking and asking us where we're from.  

    We tell them we're Americans and they ask what state, and we say Oregon.  I think I have mentioned before that most people in other countries don't know much about Oregon.  But these guys know Portland and they say they want to go there someday - "It's the craft beer capital of the world, and they have a wonderful bike riding culture."  Cool, these guys know their stuff.

    So we are chatting with them and the other patrons, and the owner, and they all know each other.  They all seem to be from different countries, Holland, Belgium, Italy, England, Malta, etc.      

    The dogs are friendly and the atmosphere is very warm and relaxed and cosy in this tiny spot.  

    So all of them are talking about this one guy who is there and it's his birthday.  So after being there a while, we are getting ready to leave and this woman from another table says, "please, you must stay, we are going to have birthday cake!"

    And Fiona is halfway out the door, and the woman says, "no, please stay, we're going to have cake, join us!"  

    So in less than five minutes she produces a cake from the back room (turns out she baked it) and we stay and visit with the birthday guy and he was very friendly and delighted to have us there.  The cake was toffee, chocolate, and banana, and it was delicious.  We sing happy birthday, and the dogs are barking with excitment and it's a rather special moment ... great fun. 

A quick recap of Rome ... if that's possible

    

    We didn't really have enough time to share and talk about our visit in Rome.  It went way too fast.  What happens is - we go long and hard visiting the city and you kind of run out of time and next thing you know you're on an airplane heading to the next destination. 

    Rome was almost ... overwhelming.  It is so grand and packed with spectacular buildings and sites, that it's hard to absorb it all and take it all in.  Everytime you turn a corner there is some phenomenal structure that makes your eyes pop out of your head. 

    The history in Rome is vast and the city seems to drip with profound relects of the distant past, along side currently relevant things.  

    For example, first thing on our second day there, we set out for the Vatican.  It's actually a separate country technically, and our first time there. But there are a few thousand other people who want to visit there too.  The current Pope is pretty popular.  He was home, but too busy to see us.  (just kidding!) 

    The line to get into St Peter's Basilica was well over three hours long, and with a limited amount of time to spend, we had to pass on that and keep moving.  

    We visited several "landmarks" and at least did a walk by visit to most of the top spots.  In fact, I use a FitBit everyday to track my steps, and yesterday was a banner day with over 30,000 steps covering almost 17 miles.  Exhausting.  

    Thanks to our good friend Riccardo Callender, who knows Rome well and gave us key advice on where to go and how to get there, we accomplished a lot and really enjoyed the experience. 

    Rome has a great vibe, and the people were fun and you really need to spend a week here if you can - but we couldn't.  

    One of our favorite things was visiting the ruins of the Roman Forums, pictured above.  This is where Caesar walked and the scale of these ruins is stunning.  They go on forever, and the quality of workmanship is still evident today, over 2,000 years later.  We would have enjoyed a lot more time there. 

    You have to make trade offs when you're heading around the world, and unfortunately the Rome visit was a bit short.  Maybe someday we can come back.