Jett's Study Abroad Experience
Spring 2023
Spring 2023
This week has been relatively the same as the previous week as far as schoolwork goes, however, the trip that I went on is one of the best I have ever been on. The place we decided to go was a very small archipelago country called Malta, and if you are like me then you most likely have never even heard of this place till just now. Turns out that Malta is a group of 3 islands that have had heavy influence from Egypt when it comes to the cuisine and architecture. But there are also many aspects of British culture that penetrated the local culture around the time period of World War II. So, when we got off the plane and started driving through the city on the first night, it was very cool seeing these narrow streets that almost consume you with these very tall limestone buildings that look like they came right out of an ancient civilization. Over this weekend, we left on Thursday to fly to Malta, and then came back Sunday night, so we really only had two full days there. Like last time, I'll talk about each of the 2 days since there really isn't much that happened on the day we flew there and left. The first picture I am going to add though, is a picture of our first sight directly out the front door of the hostel we stayed in. You can see just how different this place is right off the bat. Day 1: We got to our hostel at about 1 am the night before, but that didn't stop us from being up and at it bright and early at 8 am. To start off the day we decided to go try some local Maltese food at a little cafe that a bunch of local people were eating at. We weren't very sure about what to order to we decided to just order whatever they recommended. What we ended up with were these breakfast sandwiches made with a bread called Ftira, that had scrambled eggs, sausage, and lettuce, although they also usually come with lots of tomato as well. Also keep in mind that while the country is called Malta, the name of the island we were actually staying on during our trip was also called Malta, and we stayed in the capital city of Valletta. It was so delicious, and it only costed 4€ or about $4.50. After we left the day got very busy, so I'll put the rest in a list. 1: We went and toured St. Elmo's War Museum, which is a giant military fort on the end of the city of Valletta overlooking the Mediterranean. 2: Walked over and saw the upper and lower Barrakka gardens that overlook the harbor between the 3 cities and have many little temple-like buildings. 3: After walking around for a while we walked by St. John's Co-cathedral and got Gelato since the gelato there is very good due to Malta being in close proximity to Italy/Sicily. 4: We took a dinghy across the Grand Harbor to the city of Senglea where we saw a whole bunch of huge yachts, a very old cathedral called St. Lawrence's Catholic Church, and the American University of Malta. 5: After taking a bigger ferry back across the harbor, we went and got Gelato again... And went to see the city gate to Valletta. 6: We watched the traditional firing of the cannon that they do every single night to mark the transition to the night hours of the day. 7: To finish the night we went and got some very authentic Italian food at a restaurant that hand-made the pasta right out on the street and set up tables on the step of a giant staircase. I really should have taken a picture of this restaurant since we ended up coming back again the second day and my description really does a bad job at explaining just how cool this place really was. At the end of the day, we just went back to the Hostel and relax for the rest of the night because we walked almost 20 miles this day and it was significantly hotter from what we have been used to in London. That being said though, even after just the first day, this was instantly my favorite trip since coming to Europe so far. But to finish off this first day, here are a couple picture of the day. Day 2: While day one made me very fond of Malta right away, day 2 was by far my favorite day of the trip. On this day we took a ride over to the country's second biggest island called Gozo. But before I start talking about that, we had a very cool breakfast experience that made the day start off in a really great way. Basically, we needed to get breakfast really fast, and typically nothing opens till 9 am on the weekends in Malta. We quickly started to realize a problem since the bus that we needed was leaving at 8:45 am and we figured we should probably eat before we go to a rural island for the entire day. We decided out best bet would be to go back to the traditional cafe we ate at on the first day. When we got there it was closed, but the lady who had served us the day before was there and recognized us. She ended up inviting us back into the kitchen an hour before the restaurant opened and let us have fresh pastries called Pustizzis, which are like a very flaky croissant that is filled with ricotta cheese. It was really delicious, and the kindness that we were shown even as two foreign kids was unlike anything I have really experienced before. But anyways, now it was time to leave for Gozo. This required us to ride a bus to the very end tip of the island and then take a giant ferry over across the water. Then we went with a guide to tour the whole entire island, which was the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. We ended up seeing: 1: The temples of Ggantija, which is a UNESCO world heritage site and a very old place of worship 2: We had a very traditional lunch which consisted of a vegetable (tasted mostly like potato) soup, with bread, porkchop, and fruit for dessert. And then, of course, we got to taste some traditional wines, which were quite interesting. 3: We tasted a bunch of different traditional Gozitan foods such as goat cheese, Gozo coffee, and prickly pear jam/fruit. 4: We went to several viewpoints to see Dwejra Bay and the Sanap Cliffs (which were the most amazing sight I have ever seen in my entire life. They were covered in a thin mist the entire time from the waves crashing against them and the raw scale of the cliffs were insanely huge.) 5: Visited the capital city of Victoria (or also known as Rabat before being renamed) and hiked up the many steps to go inside the Citadel which is essentially a giant walled-in city on the top of a mountain. The view from the top of the wall gave a 360-degree view of the entire island. The view from the top was arguable the only thing that even came close to the how amazing the Sanap Cliffs were. 6: After walking around the Citadel and Victoria, we took the ferry back over to Malta and made a direct line to the Italian restaurant and some more gelato to finish off the trip. Day 3:
As I'm writing I realize that I would be doing a disservice if I did not talk about arguably the most exciting (not in the good sense) part of the trip on day 3. The only thing we did on this day was go to the airport and fly home, but it was not as smooth as you would think. To set the scene, we had just boarded the plane, and it was noticeably windy, but nothing really out of the ordinary. As everyone was fastening into our seats, they told us that there was a strong headwind and that we would take off when we get a window. The fact that they said we needed a window to take off was a red flag, but still, I didn't think much of it. We waited for about 30 minutes after we were supposed to take off and then started taxiing, and then we eventually made it to the runway. You could hear the engines starting to get ready to send us off and you could almost feel the plane start moving, and then all of a sudden, they said that we could not take off yet because it was too windy once again. We waited probably about another 25 minutes, when they finally said to brace and get ready for take-off. Once we were in the air, everything was pretty stable, and the sky was clear with the only difference being that we were flying higher than normal to avoid the wind. We got over Malta and Gozo, and Sicily was coming into sight when out of nowhere, the worst turbulence I have ever felt started. The whole plane was lurching around, and the flight attendants were getting thrown around as they were trying to hand out barfbags and get back to their seats. Keep in mind that the plane was also much higher than normal and was absolutely thrashing about, so it was very unsettling. I would imagine most people know how scary that type of experience is, so I doubt I really need to explain much further, but the entire 4-hour flight felt absolutely terrifying. I am unsure if I have ever been more relieved to finish a flight, but I was sure glad when that one was done! Anyways, even with the flight back being crazy for an entire 4 hours, it was an incredible trip and I will definitely be going back!
2 Comments
kitsmom
3/15/2023 03:24:34 pm
Beautiful pics, lots of questions. Did you actually eat the tomatoes? That first pic, is that a one way street, if not how do two cars get through. How clean are the hostels? Is Malta where Maltese dogs are from? If yes, did you see any?? Does the gelato come in different flavors? If yes, what was your favorite? How did you know what the lady at the cafe was saying when she invited you to have an early breakfast instead of inviting you to move a piano to the top floor? Is English the predominant language? How smooth was the waters riding on the ferry? Did you guys get sunburned or windburned? Who was the Citadel built to protect the city from? So glad you guys made it safely back to London. So turbulence for the whole 4 hours?? Did they say that was normal or just freak winds?? The adventure just gets better and better. Good luck on your assessment!!
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Jett
3/16/2023 03:06:51 am
Thank you for all the questions!
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July 2023
While I attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa, I was born in Littleton Colorado and grew up in a rural area. When I moved out to Hawaii for school, I quickly found my groove in Shidler College of Business as a triple major studying Marketing, International Business, and Quantitative Economics, and I was later chosen to be one of the Shidler Global Leaders. This and several other scholarships, including the Johnson Scholarship, gave me the amazing opportunity to go spend a semester abroad in the United Kingdom.
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