9th April 2023 - Malta days 1 to 4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written on a phone while sitting in a tent undergoing some strong winds! The past 4 days have been rather eventful. I am part of a team taking 15 Explorers, Scouts aged 14 to 18, to Malta to complete their Explorer Belt. This is an award gained for spending 10 days in a foreign country completing 1 major task and 10 minor tasks. Each tasks can be something silly like see how many people you can take a selfie with or serious about learning how local economies work. The aim is simply to explore and learn about somewhere new. There are 5 leaders on this. We set out on Thursday from Birmingham airport at an ungodly hour. At the second hurdle, we lost one of the kids. They could not check in thanks to only having a month left on their passport. Arse! We flew to Frankfurt, got a special shuttle through customs and then to join our flight to Malta. I got a stamp in the passport for entering Schengen part of the EU. That was something new for me. Brexit joys. Eventually we made our way to Malta. Sadly in the madness of Frankfurt, it appears our bags did not make their way with us. However, they will be delivered later that day. This meant we have no cooking or sleeping stuff. To waste some time we went where any teenager seems to gravitate and hit McDonalds. Yep, how original. Kept that lot happy though. Once we learnt that Maltese Maccies sell beer and ate something, we headed to our first destination in Zurrieq. We decided to walk there. My main impressions were that it was hot, lots of cactii and a weird amount of dead birds. Our accomodation was a field with a Scout hut. We had a lovely view of the sea. We also had a cacophony of animal noises to help confuse and delight through the night. Donkeys, dogs, cats, bats and chickens all fought to win most annoying animal. Zurrieq felt like a dead town. Very few people and lots of half finished buildings. Plenty of cats though. We got our bags eventually that day at least. The first proper day in Malta was Good Friday, the day that Jesus died. As leaders, we are free to roam while keeping an ear out for the phone going off. So I headed to the south east coast in search of a beach and ended up in Pretty Bay. Well it was pretty until someone built a free port there. After a coffee and a cake with added dog cuddling, we hewded to Rabat for the Good Friday parade. Rabat is towqrds the western end of the centre of Malta. The parade was odd. It was led by a Scout marching band who played funeral dirges while shuffling extremely slowly. A whole hoarde follow on dressed as various biblical characters. Huge statues and dioramas were carried along too. I sae Noah, a Pharoah, Salome carrying John the Baptist's head and what looked like the KKK. They wore the same pointed pillow case hoods but wore shackles around their ankles. Some worr purple robes but carried a cross as well. They are repenting but it still looks odd. It was a mad time and we had a faor bit of chaos trying yo get a bus back. Saturday was moving day. We ended up shifting across to a Scout hut in Mtarfa. This is just north of Rabat. A sleepy town with some impressive architecture. En route, we went to Marsa for a new sleeping bag as one leader was struggling with night time temperatures. This was a fairly slow day really. The Sunday was Easter Sunday where Jesus has risen from the dead. As such, we headed back to Rabat for another parade. Thankfully, this was a happy affair. More people dressed up and another marching band. However, once the diorama showing Jesus having risen got to the Basilica then fire works and confetti canons went off. Loads of fireworks throughout the day really. We ended up in Mdina, the formor capitol. This is just north of Rabat and very pretty. Then we headed to St Pauls Bay. This is a hell hole of a place filled with high rise buildings. The only good part was the Turkish restaurant. So we headed to Mosta, realised there was just the cathedral and left for Valleta. I found Valleta a fun place on the north coast. It is a walled city which retains most of its charm. Yes it is over run by tourists but still has lots.of quiet streets. A long bus ride home and then I found my tent had flipped over in the wind. Mtaefa is high up and the winda are howling. Luckily there was only space for leaders to camp so the kids are inside the hut. Tomorrow we have been invited to tour the President's summer palace and will head to Golden Bay/Ghajn Tuffeia to camp. Selfies have been had with: policeman priest monk mickey mouse long steep inclines climbed: 12 beers had: 5 ice creams had: 0 :-( Injured Scouts: 1 (cut finger)