The Voice of the Sea

Days 58-66
Spring Break - A Reflection

So my island retreat is over, and while I've only just started talking with other students about their breaks, I really think that I had the best one.  I've traveled a lot since I've gotten to Italy, but this is the only trip that I consider a vacation.  If was awesome.  I would recommend everyone go to Malta.  But looking back, there are some things I would do differently:

First my baggage.  I usually pride myself on being a economic packer.  To say I over packed for this trip is like saying the Sahara is a little dry.  I packed for a week on the beach.  I should have brought 1 pair of short, 3 shirts and a skirt.  Instead I brought 2 pairs of shorts, 3 skirts, and 10 shirts.  Oops.  Mora, who spent the first 5 days of her break in the arctic circle in Norway before joining me had a smaller bag than me.  (She was dog sledding and snow shoeing and chasing northern lights) .  She packed for 2 completely different climates and still had less than me.  Mad props to her, shame on me.

What I did like about my packing was I opted for the free backpack I got at the Rome Marathon the week before rather than a purse. Between the rocks I was clambering over and the sea air, my cheap one shoulder backpack was perfect because it fit everything I could want for a day and I didn't give a damn how dirty it got.  (That's a bit of a lie because it was a plain white backpack when I got it.  Some pens and the delusion that I'm artistic changed that part though, and then I didn't care how dirty it got.)

I started the night before I left with the goal of finishing in 2 days..

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My new goal is to finish before my trip to the Amalfi Coast

My favorite bits/what I would change: If I knew then what I know now, I would spend the entire week at the Kappara Court in Xlendi Bay on Gozo.  While the 4 star hotels were nice, that flat was so comfortable and the area so relaxed it was worth the loss of a bath tub.  It was easy to access, and a beautiful backdrop for days when I would have wanted to do nothing.  I would have possibly spent a couple days on Malta (as day trips only) to see what was what, but could have been equally comfortable only doing the day I arrived and the day I left in Valletta.

In my imaginary world, sometime in the future after I've become a wildly successful author with the first 3 or 4 books of my 6 part novel published, I will return to Malta to write the 5th or possibly 4th book (or maybe both), and spend the month of April in a flat on Gozo overlooking Xlendi.  I would spend my mornings on the balcony writing, make my own lunch in the flat, head to the Azure Window in the afternoon, and return to Xlendi to eat at one of the waterside restaurants for dinner.  I would go to Comino when I'm in a rut.  Oh, and I would have some sort of scooter or bike to get me around and let me explore more.  (And just in case you thought my fantasy is only half-baked and only semi-unrealistic, I would then go and spend the month of May in Venice before returning to my Strand house in California for the summer.  This cycle would preferably happen every year.)

Apart from that, I wish I had tried to see the west side of Malta (the Golden Bay area) rather than doing St. Paul's Bay (which I was overall just not impressed with).  While seeing the temples were a nice touch, again I could have been happy not seeing them, or to only see one.  I think I saw 4 because I felt guilty that most of my friends were off in Spain, France, and Germany seeing museum on museum, culture on culture.  Malta has plenty, but I was there for the landscape.  I love the water.  I grew up by the ocean, and I'm gonna grow old by an ocean.  It calls to me, and I always answer.  My little sister is currently on a school trip and in an email said she wasn't upset she hadn't seen the beach in Barcelona because "it's just a beach, we see it everyday."  I never, ever feel that way.  Ever.

So I will end my island adventure with this quote from L.M. Montgomery which sums up how I felt about this trip: "Look at the sea girls - all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen.  We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds."

Ciao,
J