Malta the story

Yes, well I'm not dead, I've just been to lazy to write the last month and a half.... sorry about that! But I'll make it up now.

I finished last time after my first diving day, when I finished my optimum bouyancy course (I only had 1 dive left to do and did that on Monday). Well obviously there were more to follow... Tuesday we went to a dive spot called Blue Grotto, which is not in, but near the famous Blue Grotto. We dived the Um el Farud, Zurrieq (the link will bring you to an underwater movie of the wreck of people who were there just after me, in november) and did another deep dive around the wall, very nice, but there was quite a bit of swell and since they removed the ladder we had to get out of the water near the place where the boats normally go in (fortunately they didn't go out that day because of the swell), which meant a lot of crawling with all your gear on. We saw some pretty cool fish: loads of John Dory, Cardinal Fish, Damsel, Barracuda's, Breem, Scorpion Fish (poison, do not touch), some murray eels, clams, octopus and spiny starfish. I got all of these pictures from internet, so thanks for the original authors!

We were back in time, so I watched a Padi video about deep diving, which was terrible and enough to keep me away from those kind of video's for a lifetime. Got some groceries, studied again, shower, sleep etc. The great thing about this dive day was that my first specialty was finished: I am now an officially certified deep diver :) Oh and did I say the weather was brilliant: 24 degrees, loads of sun. Sigh.

Wednesday we went back to Cirkewwa to do 2 more wreckdives on the P29 Boltenhagen Wreck. During the first dive it was mainly reeling lines, measuring the wreck and checking it out. The second dive I had to lead the whole dive and we explored the wreck together on the outside and did a little swim through, all with me as a guide. Really cool! It also meant I finished another course: I am an officially certified Wreck Diver! We finished all the paperwork in the afternoon and did the theory for the multi level dives I had to do the next day. That was pretty interesting and looked forward to doing them. It meant that I had to make the dive plan and when under water keep that in mind and signal when we had to go to the next level etc. For the Padi specialty cards I needed to get some headshots, so I did. They are extremely ugly, but very cheap, so who cares. I also bought a card holder, which is originally meant for business cards, but does a great job with diving cards as well hihi. The weather sucked severely in the evening: lots of rain and a thunderstorm, so I stayed in, watched some tv, read a book aka: relaxed.

Thursdaymorning the weather still sucked. We had rain and a bit of lightning, but we went in at Cirkewwa anyway. Today we dived with Andy and Sarah, two Brittish divers, with Sarah as a novice diver trying to get her advanced (she had done about 10 dives). We were supposed to do 2 multilevel dives and the number one rule in diving is: always do the deepest dive first. So we tried. But then Sarah started to panick underwater at about 20 metres, so we changed the plan under water: first a two level dive and the three level one the dive after. Fortunately Sarah calmed down and we all had a nice dive. The second one we did go a bit deeper to 27 metres and did a three level dive succesfully.

In the afternoon I went on the internet for an hour to post the first Malta post, studied a bit for my work course and in the evening I went out for dinner at Vinnies, an Italian restaurant along the boulevard of Buggiba. Not great service (well if you're on your own, better when your with a group, because they paid a lot more attention to the other diners), but good and cheap food. I had a nice stroll along the boulevard and went in for an early night. All the diving makes you tired!

Friday we went to St Elmo's Bay near Valetta, Malta's capital, to dive the HMS Maori, of which I posted the mural picture in the last post. We dived with a Danish guy who was doing some fun dives after his Open Water course he finished the day before. Since I was done with my courses as well they were two very relaxing fun dives. First I wasn't a fan of wreck dives, but I must say: Malta and Mick have changed my mind. This wreck is definately one of my favorites so far, it has been under for quite some time and has changed into fish heaven. We did loads of swim throughs, played with octopusses, saw a flying gunard and a streaked gunard, weaver fish etc. Mick drove us around the Valetta harbour and showed us where to go etc. Very nice! It was my last diving day of the week, so time to chill out, relax and explore the island a bit more. After the much needed shower I walked around the north of Qawra, saw the tower and walked along the boulevard. I bought some cookbooks as souvenirs for myself and had dinner at Watercoulers (sucks, don't go, the spare ribs were discusting and I love spareribs) where I had my first beer of the week. Lovely. Just a relaxing evening and the next morning I headed towards Tarxien. The Hypogeum was fully booked for the next two weeks, so I just went to see the temples (which I think are overrated, but ok) and the Addolorata Cemetery, where I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but thanks to the internet: This is only a teeeeeny part of it. After that it was time to go to Valetta, to see St John's Co Cathedral, have dinner at Carvaggio and took the ferry to Sliema. There I went on a 1,5 hour harbour cruise, which was good and headed back towards Qawra where I did got some groceries and chilled out in the evening.

Sunday morning I headed toward the diveschool to check out their plans for Monday. Since they were going back to Cirkewwa again I decided to book myself on for the next day. I headed towards Valetta again to go to the St Elmo's Fort Parade. It was a great experience and if you have the time and it's on when you're there: go. Then it was time to see the Malta Experience (mwaa) and the Grandmasters Palace (ok). By then it had started to rain quite a lot, so I decided it was time for a lunchbreak. Pizza at San Antonio (where I got offered the waiters phonenumber which I politely, but firmly refused although he was very very cute). The rain only got worse so I went back to Qawra (the bus had to plough through half a metre of water at some places), where ofcourse it was dry by the time we got there. Hmm. Another quick stop at the internet cafe and of to the cinema! Yes I figured out there was one in Qawra and it was pretty cheap as well. The girl at the hotel reception recommended Taken, which was nice.

Monday was my very last diving day and holi-day for that matter :( We did one dive at the Rozi and one along the Left Arch where we did loads of swim throughs, really cool. It was time to say goodbye to Mick, get my gear, pack my bag and for the last night I went back to the Overflow restaurant. Tuesday everything went smoothly and when I arrived it was dark, wet and cold in the Netherlands, so I instantly knew I was in the right country ;)

Next post will be about the time after Malta (like my B'day and all).