Week 3: Fun, Ferries and Festivals

Week three brought in our first day off from university, despite the fact that we had only recently begun classes a week ago! This was due to it being a public holiday throughout Malta to celebrate The Feast of St Paul's Shipwreck. Making the most of our day off a group of us decided to venture into Valletta and see how the Maltese celebrated their festivals. Arriving in a packed bus we got off to a somewhat busier Valletta however apart from this everything else looked normal. We then bumped into a fellow classmate who told us that the parade was happening a couple of streets across. The atmosphere in the crowd was spectacular, I have never been to anything like it before. The streets were crowded with both people and paper confetti which was continuously pouring down. There was a real sense of unity as the parade passed through and people sang along to the different songs the band were playing. This has been one of the top highlights on my Erasmus experience so far, especially as Rachel and myself ended up being interviewed by a Maltese TV programme! (This can be viewed through the following link http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/49455/crowds_throng_valletta_for_feast_of_st_pauls_shipwreck_#.VOi1G_msWSo)
We ended the day by exploring Valletta a bit more and capturing some of the beautiful views out to sea. Having always wanted to live by the sea at home I am really enjoying the small feeling of Malta as you are never far from the ocean and everything is in reachable distance. I am looking forward to when the weather heats up so that I can discover some of the different beaches people have told me about.

Celebrating St Paul's Shipwreck festival

Night-time in the streets of Valletta 

After having been super impressed by the festival in Valletta and remaining in a festival mood we decided to make the trip to what had been described as a ‘crazy’ carnival in the island of Gozo at the weekend. This was the first time we would make the trip to Gozo and due to Tuesday’s festival having been really good and as this was a fancy dress carnival expectations were set high. A large group from the university residence left and got a taxi to the ferry where we arrived in Gozo however we had a while to wait before the festival in Victoria began so we took the time to explore this new capital. Just as we were grabbing some dinner it began to rain and as a result the carnival was called off. This was quite frustrating as we had made the whole trip out to this island and it hadn't rained until this point. It is also something we aren't used to in Northern Ireland as we always have to be weather precautions due to the high chance of it raining. Not letting this dampen our spirits too much we got a taxi to another part of the island were another carnival was happening. Here the rain didn't put off all people here however it certainly put a dampener on moods and after a while we gave up a made our way back home. Despite being disappointed by the lack of celebrations it gave us a chance to see about another island and I look forward to returning here and seeing some of popular sites it has to offer such as the Azure window and the blue grotto.

Getting ready for the Gozo carnival

Masks on!

Stran on tour!