Malta

"Be kind and compassionate and the whole world will be your friend."

--Yogi Bhajan

This past weekend I went to Malta with two friends.  We found the tickets a month or so ago for €16 round-trip so we decided to go on a whim.  Of course, this little island country that nobody ever talked about has since been featured in the news as the place two pilots flew to after defying orders to fire on protesters in Libya and as a destination for evacuees.  In the light of this, the trip felt a little different than the island get-away vacation I had initially expected. We still did everything we would have done otherwise, but while doing that it was impossible to forget the current situation.  While taking photos on the coast, war ships came in.  While looking for lunch, we found a store-front window where someone had written, "war is coming" in the dust.  While going to the airport, we stumbled upon a televised protest.  But all the while, through all of this, all of the locals were the nicest, most charming, most friendly people I have ever met. So this is the Malta that I experienced: a series of encounters with strangers.

1. "Rico Suave" 

"Rico Suave" was the energetic American boy studying abroad for his freshman year of college who we met on the plane, waited for the bus with, and saw again later.  "You've just gotta let it happen.  Everything works out if you just let it all happen," seemed to be his favorite phrase.  Although I could have said that myself, it's always nice to be reminded from a stranger.  When we asked for his name he said "Rico Suave" as a joke.  But, now I can't remember his actual name.

 2. The old woman at the bus stop

Our first encounter with Maltese people came in the form of a whimsical old woman who sat next to us as we waited for the bus.  She was odd, friendly, and full of knowledge that was a little hard to understand through her thick accent. Ultimately she helped set us on the correct path to our city.  Our interaction ended with her handing us an orange, demanding, "Peel it. Eat it." 

3. The man from the car shop

After the bus ride, we had lunch at the classiest place in Malta: a fast food place called "Chick King".  We asked the woman behind the counter (who had long acrylic nails, sweat-pants, and a cell-phone glued to her head) if she knew where the street our hostel was on was. Her co-worker instantly went outside and called his friend over from down the street as he smoked a cigarette.

So while we ate our chicken outside we talked to a very chatty old man from a car shop.  My favorite quote from him: "Where are you from? I can tell you're not from around here because you're very white. - I'm sorry! I meant 'pale'.  You're very 'pale'."  He told us all about Malta, the Maltese people, and the Maltese language. And then he pointed us on our way to find a map.

4. The Polish man

When we asked how to get to our hostel inside the tourist office, a man about our age stood up in the back and said, "I'm going that way now.  I'll walk with you." He let us know that we had come to Malta on the coldest day of the entire year.  He also gave us practical advice about how late the buses run and where to go for nightlife. 

5. The Police Officer

The Polish man left us at a police station, telling us that they would have  the final directions to our hostel.  I only hoped that Malta wasn't secretly an extremely xenophobic country and that this Polish man wasn't in a deal with the police that he could stay in Malta as long as he turned in all other foreigners to the police station. Yes, I can be very paranoid.  However, it was not a trap and the police very nicely lead us to our hostel. 

6. Our Waiter

At about 10pm we had the most wonderful dinner at this little restaurant.  Why was it 10pm, you ask?  Well, we took a "short nap" that ended up lasting 3-4 hours right before this.  Who knew three college students could accidently nap that long.  But, since we were the only people in the restaurant at this time, our waiter stopped by our table often to joke with us and tell my clearly-not-straight guy friend how lucky he was to be with two beautiful ladies and wink a lot.  Overall, I thought he was funny.

7. Andrew, Julia, Maltina, Helena, (and 4 or 5 other names I have forgotten)

After dinner we noticed a karaoke bar down the street.  We wandered in just in time to see a group of Maltese friends hilariously singing a Britney Spears song.  We were dying laughing so they called us over to finish the song with them.  After this, we hung out for the rest of the night.  Based on their faces and the way the held themselves I thought that they were all maybe a year older than us or our age, until Julia said, "It will be my birthday this Saturday!" "How old will you be?" "Eighteen!" But they were so much fun it didn't matter at all.  The rest of the night consisted of more karaoke, compliments on our American accents, imitations of our American accents, and basically a monologue done by a boy from Belgium on how much he hates Malta and loves Belgium.

The next day is better expressed in photos than characters.  Until night came and we met:

8. The man at the convenience store  

This convenience store was located next to an area where we were going dancing for the night.  We stopped in before going out to buy some water, etc.  The man asked us where we were from which somehow struck up a conversation about everything.  One moment he was talking about Libya, the next moment he was

opening up packages of food from the store and offering them to us.  After reaching the maximum amount of time you can hang out in a convenience store, we left and he told us to come back when we were done with our night because he could call us a cheap taxi.  And later that night we did that, and he did find us a cheap taxi exactly as he said he would.

It was a great weekend that wouldn't have been the same had we not met the people we did along the way.  Also being in such close proximity to Libya really made everything feel real.  It's strange, but news from the Middle East or Africa or even Europe for that matter has never really felt real to me.  It's always felt so distant.  But now, I'm starting to realize that it's a tiny little world and we're all connected, and if I think that something that is affecting one country or area isn't going to affect all of us, I'm crazy.