The Church View
It was quite the busy ordeal to get to Malta today! My day started around 4:45am when I met Duncan downstairs at Spirit of the Nights Boutique Hotel for a goodbye orange juice. He was so kind and packed me a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast! He was also super helpful in carrying my bag to the main road over the cobblestones, something I was not looking forward to this morning. After reaching the road and saying goodbye I walked to the bus station to head to the airport.
The airport was small and not very busy, and before I knew it I was taking off for Athens yet again. When I landed in Athens I was able to use my new Priority Pass membership for the first time. This will come up a lot over the course of my trip from here on out so I’m going to try and explain it here. Basically, I applied (and was approved for) a new credit card that includes an unlimited Priority Pass membership with the card benefits. Priority Pass will allow me to go in airport lounges around the world for free! I should have thought of this much sooner as it will make my life much easier. I’ll have a nicer place to wait, free food and drinks, and just overall better airport experiences from here on out. It’s not like I have had bad experiences, but I calculated today that I have flown over 130 times so far as part of my trip, so i just need a change of pace and a more relaxing environment if I’m going to keep spending so much time in airports. So at this point Priority Pass seemed like a no-brainer and I look forward to using it over the coming months.
The lounge was nice, almost empty, and had many good breakfast options. I was able to work in peace and quiet for a few hours before boarding my next flight to Rome. The flight was not too long but was a bit strange as when I landed I was dumped out into baggage claim instead of into the terminal, so I had to go through security again. Luckily the line was nonexistent and my next flight was running a few minutes late so I made the connection in time. I had enough time, in fact, that in my ten minutes in the airport in Rome I bought both pizza and gelato. It is legitimately impossible for me to enter Italy and not do so. It was a pretty good gelato, too!
My flight to Malta was a little longer than I was expecting but not too bad. I arrived in Malta around 3pm and took a public transit bus to where I’m staying in Malta, Pergola Hotel. The drive was very winding and the island was quite conflicting. I was not a fan of the architecture on Malta at all, but then it also had amazing views of the water. Another thing that I immediately noticed about Malta was the sheer volume of British tourists. It was January but they were everywhere! It seemed like literally everyone was British.
When I arrived to Pergola it was just right across the street from the bus stop. I took an elevator up seven floors to reach the reception desk where I checked in and was given a room on that floor. My room had an incredible view! Straight ahead was the town of Mellieha and the beautiful Parish Church of Mellieha stole the show. It was quite the site to have right off from your balcony. And to my right was the water and the beautiful coast line. It was a view that will be hard to beat! Thank you so much to Pergola Hotel for sponsoring this night of my trip and for giving me some great views. The best part was that I arrived right at sunset so it was even prettier than I could have imagined.
The unfortunate part of arriving at sunset, though, was not having enough time to go walk around as everything was already closed. At least I was able to see a lot from my room, I guess. I explored the hotel for a bit before Facetiming with my mom to show her the view and then heading to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant with an equally great view. I had a good burger before heading back to my room to work on a few things before tomorrow. I will be heading to Algeria tomorrow and won’t have reliable cell phone service for the next few days so there was quite a lot to prepare for and check on.
It was a nice and relaxing evening in Malta before another early morning and a crazy next few days. Tomorrow is my first African country and I am really looking forward it!
91 countries down, 105 to go.
To learn more about Pergola Hotel click here.
