It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Hi, Y'all! 

It's been exactly one month today, since we've come here to Malta, and I can say that it feels completely right! But in the meantime I've noticed a few more things which are smaller than in Germany: paper towels, toilet paper rolls, our mop, the ironing board and even Christmas trees!

I guess, I already mentioned that our flat is completely furnished including even a Christmas tree. When our landlords told me about it I was pretty happy, because I gave back our former tree to the original owners (my sister and her hubs) and thought I'd have to buy a new one. But last week, our landlords (fun fact: Mary and Joseph) came by and surprised us by personally delivering our tree!

Compared to the wine shelf you can see that it is on the smaller side... But don't look a gift horse in the mouth... Thus I took all the ornaments that made it into our moving van and busily decorated for an hour or so. And this is the little one all dressed up:

Cute as a (very small) button, right? But as I was in the mood for decorating, I decided to make some more ornaments. And because I packed only two boxes of Christmas decorations, there was room for some more... Thus I took some very old and scattered school books and recycled them into beautiful ornaments. In theory I could have hung them into the tree, but due to its size, I opted against. 

I started with simple stars which I cut from a few pages of the book and adorned them with snowflakes: 

After cutting, I was left with some paper strips which I stapled to heart hangers. Would even be nice for Valentine's day. 

Then I made this cute little Christmas tree which I absolutely love:

But what's a winter decoration without stars and snowflakes? Therefore, I made a few of them in various shapes and sizes: 

As I said, they didn't fit into my tree, and so I hung them as garlands like this: 

And on that note I wish you a happy first advent, Y'all!

The simple things in life...

Hi, Y'all! 

Of course, you can order with Amazon in Malta, but you don't have to. Well, it is possible, but shipping costs are rather high and delivery takes significantly longer than what we are used to in Germany or in the US. Nevertheless you definitely can order online here, you just can't get it at a one stop shop like Amazon, instead you have to find your way through the Malta Virtual Mall unless you find what you're looking for. 

Lately I did exactly that when I needed pet food for Heinrich. Due to the lack of pearly whites he swallows dry food whole and therefore he needs wet food. In Germany we fed him pâté with game in 300 g portions, to which he responded very well. I looked for something similar here and was lucky. But our local supermarket didn't have it in stock, thus I ordered online. Delivery was confirmed for Wednesday until 4 pm, but at 5 pm still no dog food. I called them and was told that the game flavour was out of stock and they had no idea when it will be available again. 

But then I found a teeny tiny pet shop here in Mellieha called Paws'n'Claws - I liked that. Therefore I took my shopping trolley and went to the shop where I was greeted by an English Bulldog girl named Kira - yay! Thus the shop already found my sweet spot. And the dog let me pet her thoroughly and then went down on my foot to sleep and snore :-) I was very tempted to add her to my shopping cart (although she was not for sale!), but then I thought, Heinrich wouldn't be amused... 

The shop owner was very nice and showed my their different dog foods and also recommended some. And I have to say that Heinrich liked it very much and even responded very well to it. I won't go into detail but you know what I mean, Jellybean...

Today I went again to restock, and they remembered me instantly. The pet shop boy asked, if Heinrich liked the food and if everything was fine. I quite liked that. And after checkout he put all my cans in my trolley and even carried it upstairs to street level.

I was very impressed - that was thoughtful, considerate and polite - and that wouldn't have happened if I shopped with Amazon. It's all about these simple things in life, right?

Heinrich did a detailed inspection and was fine with it :-)

Enjoy the simple things, Y'all!

Everything's bigger in Texas, but what about Malta?

Hi, Y'all!

We've been on the island for 11 days already, and I must admit, that I really like it... Sometimes everything will feel normal to me, but at the moment I'm busy comparing things to Germany. But I guess, that's normal, too. 

Anyway, you might know the saying: Everything's bigger in Texas, and for Malta that works perfectly, but the other way round. It's known as a dwarf state, and you often realise that this is perfectly true. To begin with the Maltese streets which are very narrow; therefore people tend to drive small cars. With such a little banger it's a lot easier to drive around. And to be honest: Destinations are not soooo far away here, thus a huge car to cruise endless roads might seem pretty useless.

And when the streets are narrow, the sideways are too - appr. 50 cm. But at least there are sideways at all! But when there is garbage waiting to be picked up, you might have to walk in the street. And no, there are no large trash cans in the street as in Germany, only garbage bags, but at least garbage disposal comes daily - organic waste for example three times a week.

Butter packages are smaller, too. Often I see butter packed in 200 g. The local Welbee's supermarket surely can compete with German discounters sizewise, but most of the other shops are pretty small. The Starbuck's just around the corner consists mostly of a counter and is roughly 20 square meters. (But you can sit outside.) The butcher, the mini market and Tony's bakery are similar in size, but I find that very cute and charming. It's like shopping in someone's living room. And Tony's bread is superyummy. Maltese like their bread with a crust but soft and fluffy on the inside. I can live with that! And in case I need a Vollkornbrot, I can bake it myself - as simple as that.

Even drying racks are smaller here! Please compare mine to the one existing here in the apartment: 

In fact even people :-) Surely you find a lot of expats here, but the Maltese aren't that large - compared to them Alex (1,73 m) and me (1,65 m) are giants! 

But what's totally written in capital letters is religion. When I consider that in catholic Rhineland parishes have to be combined and one pastor cares for three communities, so that there is one mass per week per church. In the church just around our corner there is church service every f...ing day. Our landlords go to service every morning between 6:30 and 7:00 - exactly the time when I go sleepwalking with Heinrich... 

And besides that there are surely a few things which are far from being small and nondescript: Meal portions in restaurants 😋, the landscape and the beauty of nature! Please have yourself a look at how beautiful it is: 

On that note: Enjoy the little things in life!

Malta Life

 Hi Y'all,

we are settled! Which means, hubs and me arrived by air, and the little black dog had his own two chauffeurs, and all of us made it safe and sound to Mellieha, Malta. 

I don't know exactly if all our relocation goods will arrive as safe and sound, but let's stay optimistic. Exactly a week ago, Laszlo, the Hungarian mover came to Magdeburg, and together we played Tetris the whole morning :-) We actually managed to condense all our goods (including my diy stuff and Christmas decoration, especially) to one ton which fit perfectly into his Sprinter van. 

Well, we might have managed to fit in even some more things, but then the van would have been too heavy, and Laszlo wasn't too keen on bribing Italian officials, who like to put these vans onto a large scale. Thus we shipped a few boxes with DHL, but it wasn't that easy to limit them to 31,5 kg, especially, if you have to weigh them on a personal scale. Therefore, one of the boxes exceeded the limit by 4 kg, and DHL refused to transport it. I had hoped to solve that problem by paying an increased shipping fee, but they didn't offer that option. There were only two alternatives: Send back to original address (where nobody lives any longer to receive the package) or dispose/auction the content. Well, I suppose, someone will be very pleased over auctioned bedding and towels :-)

Anyway, Laszlo will arrive on Saturday, and hopefully, the DHL packages will be delivered some time, too. And then we will be very busy turning the apartment, which currently feels like an airbnb, into our home (at least for the next two years). First steps are already made: 

At least we have some bottles to put into the wine shelf, when it's going to be delivered on Saturday. And the Frizzante we tasted yesterday was highly recommendable! 

As there is left-side traffic in Malta, we decided not to buy a car. Moreover, the public transport is not so bad here, and moreover it's completely free of charge since 1 October '22. Thus, I wanted to test the buses - and what shall I say? I chose the wrong day for this experiment! I arrived at the bus stop only to read a note that due to construction the main road is closed today. I had to change to another bus stop within five minutes walking distance. 

While I was digesting this, a red minibus drove by and the driver shouted: No bus today, I drive - it's free, it's free! As he didn't mention the destination and I don't hop on any bus just because it's free, I walked to the makeshift bus stop. Bit of excercise is good for me, I thought. There were already a bunch of people waiting and after a short while the first green and white busses came. I knew I had to take lines 221 or 222, and therefore I let the first ones pass. Then 222 arrived and just to be sure I asked the driver if he would pass the supermarket. No, he didn't (was headed into the opposite direction) and I should wait for the next bus. That may happen, if you install only one bus stop which serves both directions. 

The next 222 approached, but didn't stop. That can happen in Malta; in case the bus is too full, they don't let anyone enter. Understandable but nevertheless annoying. Well then, the next bus came - not my line, but I asked anyway. And thank all transportation gods I made the acquaintance of a very nice driver. He told me, he would be headed roughly in that direction and that he would simply let me out near the supermarket. Which he did - I only had to take 500 m uphill on a highly frequented road, but I finally reached the supermarket. Took me only one hour :-)

I braced myself for the way back, but in front of the supermarket there were two guys from Transport Malta who assured me there is a shuttle service which would be there any minute. And who drove by just a few minutes later? Exactly, the guy in the red minibus! :-) Thus it took me only 10 minutes to get home. 

Note to self: Count in a bit more time than recommended by the public transport app, stay calm and you might get surprised.

I've learnt so far, that the Maltese understand rules as recommendations which one can follow or bend if needed. In Germany, the bus driver wouldn't have let me out near the supermarket if there was no official bus stop. But he drove by and he might as well let me out - very pragmatic. 

The same pragmatism they show with other things. For example I noticed that there are a lot of water bottles placed in the streets. And no, they are not supposed to be picked up by garbage disposal (although they come on a daily basis and for free). No, it has a very handy background: If a dog marks his territory, you can use the water to dilute his message in order to avoid all the dogs in da hood commenting on your dog's initial message. In the Maltese heat that could get very... intensive... But instead of getting furious and installing angry signs stating that doggo isn't allowed to post something to read for his fellow doggies, they just provide some water to get rid of any markings (and btw water is pretty cheap here). Simple as that! 

And that were the first impressions about living in Malta. Will keep you updated on our expat life here. 

Stay safe and sane!