Arrivederci Malta, Buongiorno Sardegna!

My time in Malta is now over.  Tomorrow I'll be on my way to Cagliari, Sardegna where I'll be staying for about eight days...so that means I'm on my way back to Italy.  After Sardegna, I'll be flying over to Spain, but we'll get to that later.

It feels like I've been in Malta for such a short amount of time, but it's already been two weeks: the first week spent on Gozo and the second week on Malta.  There's a huge difference between the two.  Malta is a very packed and tourist filled island.  I wasn't expecting so much chaos from such a little place.  But even though it's so different from Gozo, it's still beautiful in it's own way.  While in Malta, I met some friends in my hostel -- two from Australia, one from California, one from Poland, and another from Brazil...so I definitely wasn't as lonely as last week.  

St. Julian's Bay -- the area that I was staying in

Another shot of St. Julian's Bay

I spent one day walking around the capital city (Valletta) and another day at a beautiful beach called Golden Bay where the water is literally crystal clear.  It's unbelievable that every time I go to a different beach around the Mediterranean the water is always a different rich and clear color.  Unfortunately though, during most of my stay the weather was overcast and very windy...not much sunshine.

The many harbors of Valletta

Golden Bay

After those two days of relaxation over the weekend, I got to work on Monday morning and met with my contact who lives in Malta.  We chatted, he showed me around a little bit, then he took me to some historic sites and a finally to a museum.  I spent the next few days going back and forth to the University of Malta where I met with three different professors who are all experts in Malta's history and/or Phoenician history.  They were all very excited about my research idea and were extremely helpful towards my project.  I had a long conversation with one of the professors (who is an expert on Hebrew, Maltese, and the Phoenician language) about the relation/similarities between Maltese and modern-day Lebanese.

Now, after all of my hard work and a lot of sunbathing I'm switching locations again...but guess where?  To another island surrounded with beaches!  Don't worry though, the Mediterranean Sea is great for the skin ;)

My red tongue after eating a strawberry granita (slushy)