Malta - Fair to say Nicole was excited about getting back to Malta. She really does love the beach and perfect sunny weather! Also keen to show me around the country of her fathers heritage and meet an uncle and cousins along the way.
We split our 9night stay up at two different hostels, in St Julians and Silema! Even though they were only 200m away from each other. Basically Malta was our perfect holiday destination within a holiday. We decided to spend 5 of the days totally at a beach swimming around where 4 of the days doing day trips (which included beaches anyway). There are plenty of options for beaches so mixing it up was no challenge and the bus network makes it too easy to navigate from one to the other. Some would take an hour but to get from one side of the country to the other, you can put up with that. First day trip was into Valleta, mainly for the Malta Experience which is an excellent Documentary screened at a cinema in 40 different languages which outlines the full history of the Islands. With Malta placed in the middle of the Mediterranean and between North Africa, Europe and Middle East, it had many battles to hold ownership of its ports! Very similar to the battles which Istanbul had over the years due to the location between different worlds.  This experience however manages to show the strength and will of its people. During WW2 it was constantly bombarded with bombs from the air resulting in wide spread distruction of the islands. Something in which Nicoles grandparents lived through and is close to her heart. Even after this constant bombing from very large powers the Maltese held there own and never surrendered there country. A walk around Valetta was not complete however without the purchase of some Pastizzi's  at 25 cents each they easily became my favourite snack. Other day trips included the Blue Grotto, a wonderful set of caves with wonderful blue water.  Also Day trips out to the other two islands Comino for a swim in the amazing crystal clear water of the blue lagoon and Gozo for the extra history in which that island still has to show along with the amazing Azure Window. So overall we did alot of swimming and relaxing but to see the country that i have heard so much about over the last 8 years from Nicoles family, was fastastic. Back to chilly England for the weekend, before heading into a rail leg around western europe!