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!