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!

It’s Susanna writing again. Since Remus last post much hasn’t happened. We have start get used to our work place and working is easier everyday. Also we have been get to now our workmates little bit better and they had bring us some traditional Maltese pastry and they have been interested in Finland and our language. We have been doing now same kind of office work which Remu told you in last post.

Enough from work. Last weekend we explored this kind of weird culture and country more and last Friday after work we found our way to Mdina. Mdina is Malta’s  old capital city and it’s history has traces back more than 4000 years. It still has it’s walls and moat and when you walk from the city gate it’s like you have been time traveled straight to the Middle Ages. Its not allowed to drive a car there which make it really calm place. The quietness, churches, chapels and architecture which has been remain unbelievable well guarantees amazing experience.

We spent Saturday in Blue Grotto and it’s marvelous sea caves which are popular tourist attractions. Why? you should just take a boat and see it yourself. It locates at the coast at the southern part of Malta and the bare, rocky island and sea shows there whole new side of them. The Blue Grotto Malta started to get its name in the early 1950’s, when the British army personnel located in Malta at the time, used to ask the local fisherman to take them for a boat trip to the Blue Grotto sea caves.

At Sunday we decided to relax and go to the beach. We did some research and after hard choice we went to Golden Bay which is one of the Malta’s best beach.  It was a bit disappointment because that day was pretty windy and in the shore there was lot of dead reed but because the wind we didn’t even want to go swim. But it was still nice to see a new part of this island.

So I think there was all for this time so good night and sleep thigh!

Suski

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 ☻