Spring break starting in Malta!

Woohoo! Spring break is finally here. I started off in Malta after hearing about an air traffic control strike in Greece. It ended up being a great choice because I got to dive! On Saturday we flew in and spent the day in the capital city of Valletta. We are here during carnivale and we got to see some parades, floats, and lots of costumes. It looked like a huge Halloween celebration! I’ve been vegetarian during my time abroad but I couldnt resist seafood here in Malta so I got some mussels. They were AMAZING! On Sunday I got to spend the day diving! It was definitely a unique experience here. Malta has thousands of years of history going back to the Neolithic period. On my first dive I got to see a bunch of old ceramic vessels about 80 feet down that had been over grown by the reef. You could still see the shape of the original vessels which was so awesome. On my second dive we waited a little while on the surface because the water was getting super choppy. We had to go to a different dive site because of the conditions but this dive site was a wreck! The ship was called Coralita X127 and it is a WWII wreck. It was really well preserved and I got to see lots of recognizable parts. The dive guide also let me borrow his flash light to look inside the wreck!
The next day we took a boat over to comino island and spent the day there. I’ll do another post with those photos! On our final full day in Malta we spent the day at some archaeological sites. We went to the Ghar Dalam cave which was so cool. They did major excavations here in the 20th century and found layers in the cave that told the story of life on Malta. They used to have elephants, hippos, deer, wolves, and so many more animals. Neolithic people also occupied the land. They found a layer in the cave filled with tools and ceramics proving humans lived here as early as 3500 BCE. I have found several tiles on the beaches here that have been clearly weathered. It’s got me wondering how far back some of these things could have been made! This morning we are spending the day at the beach before we take off for Marseille!Read more