Sunsets

Call me a procrastinator, but it seems fitting to be writing my concluding blog post nearly one year to the day that we left for our 10 month adventure in Jerusalem, Israel. We have been back in the states about 3 months now and I have been asked about a thousand times how I liked Israel. My short answer for them all is, "it was quite an adjustment at first, but it was really great".

I hope that some of my avid readers (thank you all, by the way!) were able to see the subtle change that happened. Subtle in my blog perhaps, but huge in my life.

When I arrived in Jerusalem, I arrived angry, close minded and ready to go home before we even found an apartment.

I was disappointed in the holy sites not being what I had imagined. I was disappointed in the extremely high cost of things. I was dreading the start of learning another new language from scratch, searching for the best shops and stores for our daily needs, learning the bus system, etc. I had already done that twice in a new city/country in one year. The difference in the previous year was I was super excited about Germany.

I arrived in Jerusalem knowing very little about Judaism, Islam, Israel, Palestine, and quite frankly the middle east in general.

I hated our apartment, I hated our neighbor's 17 children (ok, maybe 7 or 8), I hated the 90 to 100 degree weather in September and October, I hated that walking anywhere was always uphill. I hated that they didn't put cheese on their meat! I hated that everything was covered in a layer of sand all the time. I hated that everything shut down on Friday night, and that Sunday was Monday. I hated fighting other people just to give a vendor my money. In fact, everything was a fight. And I hated it.

Every single day felt like a week. When October came, I thought we must be half way through by then. I started Hebrew class and the time moved a little faster, but it was the most stressful, overwhelming class ever! So I hated it also! I wasn't getting credit for it so why should it be so stressful! I began to get used to my schedule and my routine and we were slowly beginning to meet new friends.

Next up, our apartment turned into Niagara Falls and the ceiling was pouring water in several spots. I was attacked by a crow who clawed me in the head, and we experienced a mini war.

Thanksgiving came and I was traumatized by a butcher (not my hot regular one) who ripped me off. But then I was blessed by Katherine's mom sponsoring it! Christmas came and felt so forced and depressing that all I wanted was for it to be over with. I had class early the next morning. The only two good things at Christmas were that my Israeli friend Maayan came to Christmas carols with us on Christmas eve. She had never heard them before! And that Skye surprised me and took me to my favorite restaurant for lunch.

But then New Year's came. It was a New Year, time for a fresh start. We would be in the same apartment and in the same country but I decided I had had enough. Enough of my poor, negative attitude. Enough of my self pity, 'poor me' attitude. I had wasted away 4 months of being in a new country by pouting and fighting rather than accepting and participating in a new culture. This isn't an opportunity that many people got, and it was time for me to take advantage of it.

That's when everything changed. I opened my eyes and realized that I loved my Hebrew class! There were some really great people in that class! It was such a fun unique group! The students were amazing, but I had one of the best teachers on the planet, Sarah! I'd be willing to bet that a better language teacher does not exist! Also, I know a language in another character! (a little of it at least) That's so awesome!

I had cats! Dwayne and Archie! I trained them (older, not yet mangy kittens) over the months to come to certain sounds I made and to meet me at the door if they wanted to be pet. No food, no shelter. Just some kitty love! They were so sweet!

I didn't actually hate the neighbor's kids. One of the younger girls, 7 or 8, was beautiful and she always said hi to me and her smile always brightened my day.

Our landlord, Tomer, was awesome. He was so cute and sweet and his English was ridiculous. But he was always there when we needed him, always fair, always honest, and he told us some crazy contractor stories. He had the silliest laugh!

I was going to gym classes regularly, zumba was my favorite. My zumba teacher was so peppy and cute! Her dances were so fun I felt like I was there to party rather than to workout. I loved the awesome Jewish women who also went to zumba in their skirts and with their heads covered. I loved how into it they got and how they would let loose and even shimmy!

I loved our running park. I could find so many route combinations as I trained for a 10k. Through the Rose Garden, by the Science Museum, next to the old Monastery, by the Knesset, and in front of government buildings.

As pathetic as it is, I love that I learned to like beer in Israel and not Germany with Jerusalem's local beer, Shapiro.

I loved all the trips we got to go on! To Jordan and Egypt and all over Israel. It was so cool to get into the Mediterranean Sea in so many different places! I left my mark there, in the form of an expensive pair of sunglasses!

We met so many amazing friends! Friends from Europe, America and even a few Israelis. I wanted to take them all home with me!

I loved our crazy, windy-street, random neighborhood and that you could take a couple turns, be completely lost, take the next turn and you knew where you were.

I loved that I wasn't fighting against the locals anymore, I was fighting with them! Fighting is their culture! I loved my shuk vendors and the fresh pitas and amazing produce. What am I going to do all winter now that I can't eat a pomegranate every day for 3 months?

I learned to live happily in Jerusalem. And I'm so thankful for that, and I'm thankful to the people like Skye and Katherine who supported me through it.

I started to learn a lot about Judaism and Islam, and the conflict between Israel and Palestine. I also managed to learn more about the Bible, even though I had been disappointed with the holy sites.

Regardless of where I was, I learned to be more open minded in general to other cultures and religions. I let down my guard in a way that seems to have torn down stubborn walls that I had been building over the years. Like knowing that your opinion is the right one and feeling that everyone else needs to believe what you do. But isn't that one of the main components of conflict? It is important to question our own beliefs and to respect that others have theirs. And not just respect it, but to put yourself in their shoes. I feel like Israel really taught me how to do that, and I'm grateful.

My year in Germany was full of its own ups and downs. I had never felt lonliness the way that I did in Cologne. Skye was commuting an hour each way to Aachen for the archives, so I was alone about 10 to 12 hours a day. Our only friends in the area both worked full time, so we only saw them on weekends. I had just barely started learning German, so I couldn't talk to neighbors or strangers very well unless they knew English. Plenty of Germans know enough English to get by, not many of them are interested in having friendly conversations with strangers though! Luckily I had a near by park and a cool neighborhood to explore. But one can only do that for so long. And even that was lonely. I only had German class two days a week, 3 hours a day. However, I did meet a great American couple in class and quickly got to know them.

Then all of our friends and family came to visit, and I was forced to use my German every day for about 5 months. It was so great! I felt comfortable, stopped caring about my language mistakes and just went for it. I love the culture in Germany and was thankful for my German friends, Barbara and Julia who were always willing to teach me about it. If I could have a Christmas market year round, I'd be in heaven. Germany is a beautiful country and I cannot wait to go back!

Most of our trips in the 9 European countries that we saw consisted of sleep deprivation, walking for 10 hours a day, and long train rides because they were the cheapest! It was exhausting! But my gosh I can read a map to save someone life! I can find my way around a city with the snap of a finger....that is if I'm on foot! I can shop for a shoe that has practicality, attractiveness, and longevity like there is no tomorrow. I can barter my way to the best price for anything, no vendor stands a chance with me. Probably the most valuable thing I learned in my European travels, is to pack for 4 days in one backpack and still look good, AND SMELL GOOD, each day. Thank you, God, for creating me with curly hair!

I learned so much while living in Europe and Israel. Flexibility, patience, perseverance, openness, the value of a second language, and much more!

Now.....to get sappy......

I can't express how thankful I am to our families and friends who supported us these past two years! First of all, I couldn't get through life without my mom and her enthusiasm for me and all that I do! My mom is my 24-7 cheerleader, and my Dad is always a rock for me and my family! So from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Mommy and Daddy!!!! Chara who was always eager and ready to FaceTime with me and kept me going with her excitement for my simple tasks like going to the grocery store! Holly who always knew what I was in need of, LIKE GOOD SHOES or a flat iron and always making that happen for me. Most of all, I'm thankful for Skye without whom NONE of this would have ever happened! Thank you for your hard work and dedication including your wicked grant writing skills! Thank you for teaching me German and how to use trains. And for supporting me these past two years! I'm so thankful for our experiences together, and broke as we were, I wouldn't have changed a thing! I wouldn't choose any other person on the planet as my companion! I love you like crazy!

Also a big thank you to all of you blog readers who have kept me writing and helped me to freeze my memories in time, I will be thankful for that until the day I die! To Jess, Eileen, Katherine and April for keeping me sane. To Heidi and Susan for sending me the most thoughtful care package ever when I needed it most. To Megan who always packed us amazing Christmas boxes. To Mindee and my boss, Kelly who sent me my Aveda lotion...stat! And to George, Barbara, Ed, Honey, Julia, Christian, Jason and Kate H (who knew where all the domestic items like brown sugar and bleach could be found)--thank you guys for being our closest friends in Germany! And to Tricia and crew who helped make Karneval unforgettable!

I mentioned we got to see 9 countries while we were in Europe, and after we lived in Israel, the number jumped to 14 countries total. Seeing the world has been something I've wanted to do since I was a little girl and knew what a map was. Most of our travel would not have been possible if it weren't for the generosity of the following friends and family: My mom and dad (Tim and Kathy), Holly (Holly has paid for us to see a lot of the world, both in Europe and Israel!), Chara and Brad, Matt and Katy Estel, my father in law (Brent), and Connie and Alan Eade. So thank you all so much for helping make my dreams come true!!!!

So am I happy to be home? YES! It was an exhausting two years! But it was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and though I struggled at times, I wouldn't change any of it and I'd do it all again (just let me recover this year in the states where everyone speaks English and I can get cheddar cheese)!

It's been real, blog readers! I'll leave you with some of the most breathtaking sunsets I have ever seen, taken from our balcony in Jerusalem.

Malta and the Conference (June 25th - June 27th)

We attached a Malta trip onto our Athens trip because Skye was presenting a paper at a conference there. We had almost two full days to check out the island before the conference started.

Malta is a small island just south of Italy. It's its own country and they even have their own language, Maltese. You may remember it from the book of Acts, the island where Paul was shipwrecked.

We arrived in Malta on a red eye flight and got to the hotel around 2:30am. The hotel sucked! It was in a beautiful location on the water front with an amazing view of Valletta, the capital, but it looked like something straight out of the 80s. Our bed was so old that it squeaked loudly and had a huge crater on one side. They did have a nice breakfast on the 7th floor with a fantastic view, so that was nice at least. There was also a crib in our room blocking the walk way and we were so tired and frustrated that we just hauled it out into the hallway.

We tried to wake up at a decent hour despite not going to sleep until 3am so we could make the most of our day. Before we ever left Athens we knew we'd be doing the city site seeing tour again because our Athens one offered a discount for the next one, and it just so happens there was one in Malta!

The entire island is only 122 square miles with Valletta as its capital and many small towns and villages including The Three Cities. The Three Cities are Vittoriosa, Senglea, and Cospicua. They are the three fortified citied in Malta. They were sieged in the the Great Siege of 1565 and after the siege, Valletta was built and made the capital in 1571.

DAY 1

The tour bus offered three different routes, green, blue and red. The green one went mainly to the different hotels on the island to get those people transported to the blue and red lines. We hopped on the green line just outside our hotel and made our way to the blue and red. Just like in Athens, we wanted to ride each through to get a good idea of the island and to choose the most important things to see. The tour also included a harbor cruise on a boat. The red and blue lines and the harbor cruise were each 90 minutes, so that would be basically our entire day. This worked well because we were still really tired from our red eye flight.

We got on the red line first which took us to the Valletta water front, the Vittoriosa water front, different temples, Marsaxlokk the fishing village, Valletta Castille which is the prime minister's office, a rock formation on the coast called the Blue Grotto, and more. It was beautiful! Malta is very interesting because it's extremely old so the architecture is very unique.

After riding through the red line we got back to the beginning and and jumped on the blue line. The blue line took us to the San Anton Gardens, some tourist traps with an aviation museum and Mdina glass from the little village of Mdina, Mdina gate, the Mosta church and Valletta again.

We made note of the things we wanted to return to the next day to explore on foot, the caught the green line to the harbor cruise.

We grabbed some ice cream and climbed aboard to the top level, of course. We were the first ones on the boat so we had to wait a while for it to fill up and then we were off. Once we left we had to turn back around to pick up a group of students who were late. That was annoying but we finally got back on track and were on our way. The tour guide told us about all the important sites and landmarks in the harbor including a watch tower built by a Frenchman with a carving of an eye and ear to represent being the eyes and ears for the city.

After the harbor cruise we got back on the green line for the hotel. There was a lot of confusion with the driver about where the hotel was so he told us to wait while he figured out the rest of the group. Skye decided to show him the address to the hotel, and good thing because it was right in front of us! We would have gone so far out of the way! We walked the 5 minutes back to the hotel and freshened up a bit before dinner.

There were tons of cute cafes along the water front so we decided to walk until we found something that looked good. We stopped at a cute Italian place because Malta has a lot of Sicilian influence. One of the Maltese specialties is marinated rabbit, and neither of us were feeling brave enough for that!

The place we stopped at had a nice sidewalk patio so we sat outside. Though we weren't up for the rabbit, Malta does have some local drinks we were excited to try. The local beer is Cisk (pronounced chisk). It's a lager and quite good. Skye got that and I got a Kinnie. Kinnie is a locally made soda that is bitter orange flavored. It's sweet at first but has a very bitter after taste. It was also very good, especially if you like bitter things. Skye got pizza with spicy salami and I got a calzone stuffed with ham and cheese. HAM!!!! Yum. I'm trying to make up for my lack of ham over the last year (with great success).

After dinner we walked around and explored the area. We walked along the marina a bit then made our way into the neighborhood. It was so cute and quaint! Malta is famous for its gallarijas, or colorful balconies. They were so pretty! Apparently the balconies are a tradition and the government has set up a fund to help pay for people to restore their balconies. The neighborhood also had many beautiful doorways to people's homes. They were all so unique and clean looking. Malta makes special glass and ceramic and many of the doorways also had a really pretty glass nameplate on the wall. There was very little graffiti in this area, even on the garage type doors for shops, everything was so nice and clean.

We had a lovely day, saw the majority of the island, and we were very ready for a good night of rest.

DAY 2

The next day we caught the earliest possible tour bus because we were meeting the conference group in the hotel lobby at 5:30pm, and needed to shower and change beforehand.

We jumped on the blue line and our first stop was Paul's church in Mdina. Mdina is a tiny little medieval village in the center of the island still surrounded by walls. It's full of very cute narrow winding streets. It also has a beautiful view of Malta. The population of Mdina is around 300, but it's also considered to be part of Rabat, one of the other villages.

Our first stop was The Cathedral of the Conversion of St Paul. It was completely amazing! Israel has deprived us of these ornate and beautiful churches, so we were very impressed. It cost 3.50 euros per person for students, so we almost didn't go inside, we have always felt it is so ridiculous to charge for church entry. It did include entrance into the church museum as well, but we didn't want to use up our time with that. We walked around some before catching the bus to our next stop.

We got off in Mosta at St Marija Assunta Church. This church has the Mosta dome which is the 3rd largest unsupported dome in the world. In 1942 during a church service a bomb hit the dome of the church, went through and hit the floor without exploding or injuring a single person! A replica of the bomb is still on display. The church itself is amazing! The dome is so wide and open! We got kicked out after about 20 minutes because they were closing, so thankfully we made it just in time!

It was time to choose our last stop before heading back to the hotel. All morning we had been trying to figure out how we could make a stop at the Blue Grotto and make it back on time. It seemed impossible because it was across the entire island and the schedule to get there was so weird. We were at the Valletta stop when we just couldn't decide and just before the bus drove off we got out. I decided the Blue Grotto probably wasn't as cool as whatever was in Valletta. This seemed like a bad decision at first because there wasn't much around. All the times we had driven past it on the bus, it just seemed sort of boring. There was a really cool fountain but that's all we could see. However it was a major stop so we thought there had to be more to it. We finally wandered into the gate which didn't look like much of a gate because there was a lot of construction around. We came upon the Valletta Castille which is where the Prime Minister lives, then kept wandering. We came upon some of the cutest streets and neighborhoods I have ever seen! Each turn was picturesque with colorful gallarijas, cute shops and the Grand Harbor in the background. You couldn't see any of this from the bus! We were so glad we had gotten out! So this was Valletta! Hidden behind walls and tightly built buildings!

We made our way to the water front and came upon a really cool garden over looking the water. We hung out there a little while then made our way back through the neighborhoods. We got a little snack from a stand, we had heard Malta was famous for these little stuffed pies so we got one with ham, cheese and egg. It was delicious!

Then we stumbled upon this beautiful square with cool fountains and people everywhere. We needed to catch our bus back to the hotel soon but we wanted to find the church whose dome you can see from the water front view. The church was easy to find, but the door way was sort of hidden. We went into a protestant church thinking it may be part of the big dome, but it wasn't so we kept wandering, and finally found the door. Just as we stepped in a bunch of altar boys were kicking us out because they were closing. That was disappointing, but what we could see in those two seconds was beautiful!

We caught the bus and got back to the hotel to get ready for the conference. Everyone met in the lobby and they bused us to the Office of Tourism. This portion was only a meet and greet, so they greeted us with fancy drinks, brought out a huge variety of delicious and filling appetizers and everyone visited. The cool thing about the wait staff was that they were all students learning to be professional servers. They did a great job. We met a lot of nice people, then we all returned to the hotel before the big day of presentations.

DAY 3

I was sort of on the fence about whether or not I would join the group on the bus the next morning. I wanted to see Skye present, but he wasn't up until 1pm. At the same time, the main reason the conference hired a bus for us was because the public buses were quite unreliable. So I decided to go to the conference where I could work on my blog and have all the free coffee I wanted. Before I dove into my blogging I decided to wander and search for a way to go see the Blue Grotto. We were on the opposite side of the island from our hotel, but it was an area full of hotels. There was a public beach, a mall, tons of restaurants, cafes and tourist shops, but nothing historical, old or natural. There wasn't really much to look at around there, but I stopped in every single place I could find that might take me to the Blue Grotto. They were all lumped in with other sites and would have been just the wrong amount of time causing me to miss Skye's presentation, so I decided to skip the Grotto.

I made it back about 5 minutes into the first of four presenters in Skye's panel. This man's presentation was really good! It was intriguing, easy to understand, and very well done. Skye was third. The woman who went second spoke for a while after her time was up, even after the time keeper made several attempts to cut her off. Her presentation was not nearly as good as the first guys. Then Skye finally got to go! His was really good as well. I know you all think I'm bias, but he really does have a gift for this academia stuff. His presentation was much more disciplined than everyone else's. If I'm not mistaken, he is the only one who technically studies history, so his format was a little different. He stayed right on time, made all his points and was clear and concise. That's my husband!

When his panel finished I went out walking around again and stumbled up the hard rock cafe!!! Thank goodness! If we had tried to find it on our own, it would have been terrible! This worked out perfectly! I went in, got Skye a pin and walked back to the Office of Tourism. The waiter and waitress students served us a delicious lunch of different types of pasta with a fancy chocolate mousse dessert. I sat through (and by sat I mean hid in the back and worked on my blog) a few more presentations until it was time to leave. They took (and by they, I mean I took, with one of the leader's fancy cameras!) group pictures and the man who runs the Office of Tourism told us some interesting facts about Malta. For example, there are more tourists per year than residents of Malta! The population of Malta is 420,000, and every year there are 1.4 million tourists. 600,000 of those tourists are from cruise ships.

After that the bus took us back to the hotel. It was around 5pm and we were supposed to catch our airport taxi back to the airport at 10pm. I wanted to go back to Valletta for dinner because it was so  beautiful there! Valletta would be a 20 minute bus ride on the public buses, and as I said before they were unreliable. If any of you know Skye at all, you know this idea made him absolutely crazy and on edge. He wanted to stick around the area for dinner, but a few of our friends from the conference wanted to join us, so it was four against one! Poor Skye! I felt that 5 hours was more than enough time, and he felt we couldn't risk the unreliable buses. All of our new friends were European (the most laid back relaxed people ever) so they all reassured him timing would be fine. I felt bad almost giving Skye heart palpitations, but it's not very likely we would ever have the opportunity to be in Valletta again!

Apparently Valletta isn't the place for nightlife because once we got there many things were closing down. We finally found a restaurant outside in the middle of everything, it was great! The food was decently priced and tasted fine. It was a lovely, relaxing, and perfect end to our time in Malta. And no, it was not relaxing for Skye! haha. I'm such a bad wife sometimes!

We caught a bus immediately and got back to the hotel with an hour to spare. But for some reason, Skye was still on edge. We said our goodbyes to our friends, though one guy was so sweet and invited us to the balcony in his hotel room so we wouldn't have to wait downstairs. We took in the views for a few minutes then went to wait for the taxi. Skye was still so anxious, so at 9:30 he went to ask the receptionist to call the service to confirm. She refused saying she knows this company and they may be late, but they always come. So she just didn't call. I also had a terrible encounter with her on the phone, and had seen her having terrible encounters with other guests. Why she is in the hotel business, I'll never know. 10pm came around, and our taxi was no where in site. Keeping in mind what this awful receptionist said, we waited. 10 after 10 came along, no taxi in site. 10:15, same thing. Luckily our friend came down and let us use his cell phone to call (our Israeli phones wouldn't work at all in Malta). We called the taxi company with our confirmation sheet in hand with the date and time clearly printed on it. They had no record of us. None whatsoever. How we had a printed confirmation but were not in their system is beyond me. I guess Skye was anxious all this time for a reason! They said they'd send someone right away. Meanwhile we're getting increasingly flustered and stressed as we were supposed to be there at 10:30. Part of the reason this was all so stressful is that when we planned these trips all squished together, we left little room for error. We had to get back to Tel Aviv to get back to Jerusalem to get our stuff, to then get back to Tel Aviv to catch our flight back to the USA. We were also pretty exhausted so that didn't help the situation.

We were still waiting for our taxi, when finally, Skye saw a taxi a few yards down and ran to it as fast as he could. I wasn't sure why, but I followed (they should have come directly to us). The driver had gotten out and was inside the hotel where Skye caught him. This wasn't our driver at all! But he said we could get in. This guy was new and the only reason he stopped at that hotel was to ask for directions because he was lost trying to drop someone off at their hotel. Oh boy! We dropped the girl off, who by the way was German, saw Skye, and immediately spoke German to him as if it was his native tongue. Thank goodness for her, that was such a compliment to him that it calmed his nerves a lot! We got to the airport with no problems, despite the driver smoking directly beneath the no smoking sign in the taxi, and though we were at the back of the line, made it with enough time.

We were really excited when we saw a direct flight to Tel Aviv leaving in about 30 minutes. I had searched far and wide for direct flights to/from Malta and Tel Aviv but they were all crazy expensive. Our flight was back to Athens where we would arrive at 3am, sleep on airport chairs, then catch a 10am flight back to Tel Aviv. This direct flight was a charter flight I guess so it didn't show up in my searches. In my cutest, most patient, nicest voice possible I asked the Air Malta staff if there was any room on that flight to Tel Aviv. I explained our situation and to my surprise, the ladies were very nice and understanding and began searching stuff on their computers. She called down and asked about getting us on that flight. It was so close. WE ALMOST GOT ON IT! But the man in charge had just left to go home, and he was the only one who could legally authorize the switch. That moment of hope was almost worse than outright being told no. But, I was thankful that they had tried their hardest, and I was glad I at least checked into it. So off to Athens we went.

Airport chairs are lacking in sleep-able comfort. It was also freezing and crazy bright. But somehow we survived and made it back to Tel Aviv and to Jerusalem right on time and our plan was not shaken at all.

It was a long but absolutely fantastic trip! It was the perfect trip to round out our time abroad.

Day 1 Pictures, views of the island

View from the 7th floor breakfast balcony

View of Valletta from the 7th floor balcony

Another view from the 7th floor

Views from the bus tour

Marina, views from the bus

Views from the bus

Malta cities, view from the bus

Mosta church, from the bus

I thought these little boats were so pretty! 

Views from the bus

Malta's edge, you can see one of the small islands in the distance

Malta's edge ear the Blue Grotto

Malta's edge

Statue near the entrance to Valletta

Church, views from the bus

Malta church

Mdina from the bus

Entrance to Mdina

View from the bus, near Mdina

Harbor cruise time! 

Valletta from the harbor

Onward says Skye

Another view of Valletta from the harbor

Old arches

Lighthouse

Lighthouse

Lighthouse close up

Eyes and ears of the city tower

Malta Harbor and city

Malta harbor

Cisk and Kinnie! Yum!

Beautiful gallarijas (colorful balconies)

Cool doorways

Day 2 Pictures, architecture around the island

More gallarijas

Mdina

Mdina entrance 

Narrow streets and walkways in Mdina

More pretty gallarijas in Mdina

The Cathedral of the Conversion of St Paul, in Mdina

Cathedral doorway

Inside 

Floor inside

More floor

Beautiful ceilings inside

Full view inside

Best angle I could get of the painting of Paul's shipwreck above the altar

More cool Mdina narrow street ways 

Mdina streets

View of Malta from Mdina

Just outside Mdina walls 

Worst sandal tan ever. Wedding in a week, people don't look at a bridesmaid's feet, do they?  

Last view of Mdina

St Marija Assunta church in Mosta

Statue outside the church

The Mosta Dome

Inside the church

Replica of the bomb that came through the dome. 

Valletta Castille, where the Prime Minister lives

Valletta streets

I love Valletta! I think these treets are so amazing!
That's the sea off in the distance!

More awesome Valletta streets

View from the edge of Valletta

Gallarijas in Valletta

Garden in Valletta on the edge

I LOVE these two toned flowers in the Valletta garden

Skye on the edge in Valletta

Oh so that's what we look like when we're in our tour bus! 

Sea from Valletta's edge

Random catholic statues on buildings in Valletta

One of the many churches in Valletta

View of Malta from Valletta

More cool little boats at dusk

Day 3 Pictures, conference and dinner in Valletta

Skye Doney, my favorite historian, on Pilgrimage. 

Dinner in Valletta

Valletta at dusk

Our new conference friends, representing Germany, France and England! 

Valletta at dusk

Fountain outside the Valletta walls

Malta at night from our friend's balcony

Goodbye Malta, goodbye, Europe! I hope to see you again one day!