Good morning!

Today is (finally) our last day in Malta. Our flight leaves at 17:20 from Malta to Frankfurt and we’ll be in Finland after midnight. I’m missing my pets, friends and family so much. After all, six weeks have gone by very quickly. We’ve had a lot of fun!

This week we visited Manoel Island in Gzira. It’s located right next to Sliema. Manoel Island’s population is zero if you don’t count in the ducks, hens, geese, guinea pigs, rabbits and cats living in the Duck Village. Duck Village is maintained by one man who has built it from trash and things he has found in the streets.  Funny to see cats and birds getting along so fine!

On Manoel Island there is Fort Manoel but it’s not open to public. It’s an old war fort and it was built in the 18th century. It has been restored after WWII. I was a bit disappointed that we couldn’t go around the fortress but we walked around the island itself. Needless to say, it was stunning! Nuff says, the fort is haunted by the Black Knight but we didn’t catch a glimpse of him.

Tuesday was our last work day at the head office in Qormi. We made wallets for the customers and organized them by the meeting dates.

Before every tour the customers have a meeting in the head office where the tour leader tells them about the trip and gives them the plane tickets. It’s usually kept one or two weeks before the departure.

After we had done all our work, we bought 11 doughnuts for our co-workers, gave them Karl Fazer’s chocolate and fed them salmiakki. Surprisingly, no one even grinned when tasting it! It was kind of sad to leave all our workmates there, but I’m sure we’ll be in touch in the future.

On Wednesday & Thursday we went to the Mosta Branch. We invoiced customers and made bookings with the Group Travel System. It was a lot of fun to work with Natasha, Maddie and Andrew! After work we had a closing meeting with Paragon.

Our last three days we’ve spent well in the beach. I’m going to miss the sea so much! I love swimming in it and watching the waves hit the coast when it’s windy.

This has been as great adventure for the both of us. We’ve learned a lot about Maltese culture and working as a part of a big family business. I recommend this for anyone who has ever thought about working abroad. You should follow your dreams and go already!

Best wishes,

Remu

Four weeks have gone by so fast! After today, we have only 13 days left in Malta. A week ago on Sunday we went to Mdina to see ”The Medieval Mdina Festival”. There were all kinds of stuff from the Middle Ages and we even got to see old-school torture equipment. Some people were dressed to fit the festival and we witnessed duels, archery battles and so much more.

On Monday was a public holiday (May Day) so we didn’t have work. Instead we decided to travel to Blue Lagoon in Comino. We took a ferry from Ic-Cirkewwa to Blue Lagoon and after 10 minutes we arrived to our destination. It was mesmerizing to see such landscapes I’ve only seen in photos and advertisements. The water was so clean and turquoise! We stayed the whole day there exploring the island and adoring the views.

Yesterday we explored Marsaskala, which is a sea-side village in the South Eastern Region of Malta with a population of 12 00 people. Even though it’s right by the sea, it was so hot I felt like I was melting. We saw some pretty rad street art and a few abandoned houses. We also discovered a beautiful and peaceful beach there.

When we walked along the Promenade, we saw salt pans on the shore. Salt pans have been used at least for 350 years in Malta. Basically, the sea water fills the crevices in the coast line. It is left settled for eight days and then it is moved to smaller salt pans, further from the sea and in a warmer temperature. The salt starts to dry and form salt crystals. After it has dried enough, it is collected, processed, packed by hand and distributed to markets, food shops and souvenir stores.

Kind of amazing, huh?

At work we have been filling in envelopes that will be given to the customers at the start of their tours. The envelopes include a feedback poll, airport policies, luggage tag and such things. It sounds easy but it’s very precise, we have to write every customers name separately on the envelope and on the feedback poll we write the tour names and dates.

Today our co-worker Isabelle brought us pieces of chocolate cake in the middle of the day! It was a cheerful surprise. On Wednesday we will go see Valletta’s branch of Britannia Tours and meet other people that work for Britannia Tours.

Have a nice day! Or as the Maltese say, Il-gurnata t-tajba!

Best wishes,

Remu

Evening everyone!

This week’s gone by fast. We started at our workplace on Tuesday and our days have been full of learning everything new.

Last Sunday we traveled to Mosta, which is a city about 9 km to west from Msida. We wanted to see how Maltese people celebrate the Easter Sunday and we weren’t disappointed! Our destination was Mosta Church in the city center. The celebration started at 18.30 and before that there was a normal Easter service in the church. The church itself was amazing. It was kind of weird listening to the service because it was all in Maltese and I haven’t figured many words out of that language (just yet).

After the service people started gathering outside the church. Of course we just imitated everything all the local people did, so we followed the mass.

Outside the entrance there was a marching band preparing for their performance. They played two songs and afterwards children started to come out of the church dressed as the characters from the Bible.

After the children there were men dressed up as Pontius Pilate’s soldiers. It was so cool. They all looked so majestetic with the gear they were wearing.

After the soldiers had walked through the ”aisle” with the band playing, there were only left the men who carried crucified Jesus.

After all the people had gone through the aisle, they kept on walking through the crowd and the streets of Mosta for the next (at least) thirty minutes. It was pretty cool to testify all this celebration and the happiness of Maltese people. While some of the citizens followed the marching band, Susanna and I went underground! There was an entrance to old bomb shelters and halls from World War II that led us obviously under the ground. When we walked along the chilly and surprisingly spacious corridors, we could read through Malta’s history from the times of WWII. There were old pictures and info tags on the walls. It was exciting and I learned a lot more about this country’s history.

Now back to reality. On Tuesday it was our first day at work. We were pretty excited in the morning before we left our apartment. We had a few problems with the buses but luckily we had a lot of spare time (learned from past experiences: always have spare time). 

When we finally got to Britannia Tours Ltd’s office in Valletta, we introduced ourselves to everybody present and our boss Kris assigned us to our computers. The first job we had was filling in Hotel Fact Sheets in Excel. After filling them in, we sent them to the hotels to make sure all the facts were right.  When I was sending the first email, I had a great trouble: I couldn’t find the ”@”-sign anywhere. Indeed, I searched for it like five whole minutes. Take a look at the keyboard I use below.

I have been learning to write with that thing ever since Tuesday morning. It’s pretty weird but I will hopefully get used to it soon. I keep also forgetting that there are no Ääkköset here.

Today we filled in Tourist Route Sheets. Oh, what does that mean? It means you look at the Britannia Tours Brochure 2017, pick a tour and write it all in Excel. Not actually all of it, just the distances between place A and B, B and C etc. Also you have to look up on the Internet all the extra fees during the tour and write them down as well. It sounds very simple but it’s actually very precise and time-taking.

Nonetheless, I’ve enjoyed my first three days at work. All the co-workers are very friendly and even the managing director jokes with us!

I guess that’s all for now. Thank you very much for following this exciting journey!
Sincerely,
Remu ☻

Howdy from sunny Malta!

Today we visited Valletta. Using the public transportation has turned out to be pretty easy. On every bus stop there are timetables so it’s easy to make sure you’re in the right place. Pretty much every bus from Kullegg (our ”own” bus stop) goes to Valletta. Kullegg is one of the main stops in every route.

Visiting Valletta was great. The architecture of the buildings is beautiful and very decorative. I made a quick video to combine the best pictures of Valletta that we took.

That’s all for today. Wish you all a nice Saturday!

♥: Remu

Hello everyone! It’s Remu writing here from sunny Malta. It’s 18°C.

Our flight from Helsinki – Vantaa airport left at 6am. We had to change the plane in München to get to Malta. München’s airport was really great, large windows brought the warm sun inside. We were really tired when we got to München, so we mostly just lied on the chairs and browsed Facebook with the free Wi-Fi. Finally our flight took off and two hours later we arrived to our destination: Malta.

At the airport we waited for our luggage to arrive for a half an hour. Then we walked into the lobby to search for our very own taxi driver. He turned out to be a real gem: he showed us the nearest grocery stores on our way here and helped us unlock the front door to our accommodation. The locks around here are very fragile, so you have to be careful when opening them. Also on our way here I was amazed by the traffic: everyone drives on the left and the driver sits on the ”wrong” side of the car, compared to Finland of course. That’s just something we have to get used to!

Soon after getting settling down in our apartment we met our flatmates, they’re very nice. After that we hurried to buy some groceries because we hadn’t eaten in a very long time (if you don’t count the strange things they tried to feed us on the airplane).

Now we’re just chilling together in our flat. The clock here is one hour less than in Finland.  Not so bad to get used to 🙂

Sincerely,

Remu & Kirppu