Twisting roads

Angela and John have left New York to go on a round the world tour. They have posted their diary of their stay in Malta in the RealTravel site:

We decided to stay on Gozo because it is less crowded and less touristy than Malta. When we called to book a room, the lady at the hotel offered to arrange a pick-up from the airport to the hotel. Luckily, we accepted. When we arrived at the airport in Malta and found our driver, we drove for almost an hour clear across the island of Malta to the port city of Cirkewwa. From there, we embarked on a ferry to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the island of Gozo. We arrived at Gozo’s port city of Mgarr and found our second driver, who also had our room keys. He took us on a 20-minute ride to our hotel. It was around 11 pm by the time we made it to our hotel. Had we been left to our own devices, we probably would have arrived at the hotel in the wee hours of the morning and without a room key as the reception closes after 5 pm.

The Maltese currency is the Maltese lira (Lm) and $1 USD only gets you 0.32Lm. Malta is part of the EU and has plans to adopt the Euro in early 2008. Since joining the EU, Malta has seen the arrival of thousands of illegal immigrants from African countries, many from Libya. Driving around Malta, John and I saw a refugee camp—a fenced area with a sea of army green tents erected with people milling about. It was located in a sparsely populated interior portion of Malta and we stumbled upon by chance. There has been a backlash against immigration in Malta, and there have been instances of arson against those who help or support immigrants’ rights..

..The next day we decided to rent a car as it was recommended in the travel book, the public transportation system did not seem very robust, and it was hot as hell. Again, the hotel helped with the arrangements and we were delivered a car with air-conditioning that afternoon. We spent the afternoon exploring Gozo. It is a very unique little island that is riddled with twisting and turning roads. Oftentimes it was hard to tell if we were on the right road or an endless driveway as many of the roads were no more than narrow dirt paths that turned and curved at its whim. Thankfully, there were decent signs directing travelers to various cities. In addition to the condition of the roads, cars are driven on the left side of the road. Given this, John did a great job driving (with my navigational skills) and I thoroughly enjoyed the twisting, turning roads that felt like we were discovering something new at every turn.

Still exploring Gozo, we happened upon a restaurant in the city of Ta’Cenc after passing a sign that said, “You are now entering private property. Hunting is prohibited.” (Apparently, bird hunting is a big pastime (and a problem) in Gozo). The restaurant was perched on a cliff overlooking the bay, had a thatched palm roof and no walls to obstruct the heavenly view. Further enhancing the ambiance was the setting sun and the live musicians playing softly in the background. We dined on shrimp, pasta and tuna as the sun set and the sea rolled below us...On Friday, we set out to explore the island of Malta, which entailed driving to Gozo’s port city of Mgarr...