Hey friends/family/random people creepin on our blog,
I figured I’d update y’all on the trip. I’m currently sitting in our Hostel “living room” for lack of a better term. CL is talking to our new friend Ieva from Lithuania. I’m listening to a new song “Sing to You” by John Splitoff (I love this song! It’s Bruno Mars type catchy). Our friends Johnny, Gio, & Carolina are hanging out at the kitchen table laughing and speaking spanish. I think they speak spanish around me when they want me to be clueless. I still love them anyway.
So now that you know my setting I’ll get to the update…
^^^Dingli Cliffs on the coast of Malta^^^
Yesterday we drove around with our other friend Bjorn & Mari into the country of Malta (video above is an example of the scenery). We watched our friend Bjorn struggle to drive on the left side of the road. He’s from Norway and drives on the right/correct 😉 side like we do in America. It was honestly scary at points. He would say things like, “Am I allowed to be here?!?” and CL and I would be like, “I don’t know man, we’re just as confused as you are!” We survived obviously so that’s good.
We tried to go see Paul’s (like THE Paul who wrote like half the Bible) catacombs, but we didn’t make it in time. We ended up walking about a mile or so to the nearest attraction, the city of Mdina. This city was incredible! It honestly felt like I was in an old Game of Thrones city (which was actually filmed here in Malta and in that city actually, look it up). There are 50-75 sandstone walls surrounding this city on a hill. It was magical. There was something about it that I still can’t put my finger on. It’s so fascinating to think people live like this. I see people living there and I think to myself, “They’ve been here their whole lives, and I for one second, didn’t even know they existed.” For some reason that thought has stuck with me. I also feel inconsiderate for not knowing of their existence. Anyway, I digress. The cathedral was absolutely breathtaking.
^^^The Cathedral inside Mdina^^^
I’ve always heard of these chapels in Europe. I’ve only been in a few and I’m already addicted. I think being someone who’s really experienced God in my life makes this an overwhelming thing. I almost got a little teary eyed in there. You can just feel something. It was a really cool experience, so I can’t wait to see more.
On to today…
Today we went to an island called Gozo. It’s just north of Malta. Even though Malta itself is a very historical country, Gozo is even more so. It has a lot of countryside. We took a “hop on hop off” bus tour. It’s really nice. You just do like it’s named. You can hop off at any of the popular locations, then another bus will let you hop on when you’re done there.
Our first stop was at the citadel/capital of Gozo. It had yet another fortified city that was pretty cool. Then it started to rain. This was pretty unfortunate because we didn’t bring an umbrella. In our unlimited wisdom we checked the weather where our hostel is and forgot to check it for Gozo (brilliant right). I proceeded to slip on stone and scratch up my knee and foot. Thankfully I didn’t break or twist anything. My ego was more bruised than my knee. As all this happened we got absolutely soaked. Like it was pointless for me to take a shower that morning soaked. We pushed through though and went on to the next spot…
We went to Azure Window (another place Game of Thrones filmed).
The pictures don’t do it justice. The arch you see is probably 100-150 feet tall. It’s such an interesting phenomenon. The middle pic is looking the opposite direction. There are such cool bluffs and cliffs here! The third pic is of the most beautiful scenery in Malta with the Azure Window in the background 😉
So sorry that seemed like a long update, but wanted to keep everyone in the loop. If you made it this far I’m impressed that you’ve followed my writing skills and care enough to read about us. Love you guys.
If you want more current up to date pics and videos of me trying to be clever follow me on snapchat (jrodey8512).
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by”
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