This is the 7 millionth time I have attempted this post and for some reason, it keeps deleting instead of posting. I am now angry at the world, the internet and all technology. But alas, if Hilary Duff can make a comeback, who am I to give up on my adoring fans?

Here goes nothing!

Day three in Malta took us to the island of Comino. We did a little tour organized by a guy who worked at our hostel named Javier or Habib. (His name may not be either of those. I’m super bad at other language names. Sorry, world.) We went with a few folks travelling on their own and a group of drunk Polish guys.

I am not normally a “guided tour” kind of person, as I consider myself more of a free spirit. (Okay, I’m super anxious and hate feeling stuck doing someone else’s plans.) But off to Comino we went. I finally saw the Blue Lagoon, which was a bucket list item I finally got to check off. The water was freezing, so I sat on the beach and gossiped with another guy who stayed behind, while the rest of the group swam across the water to a cave to go snorkelling. Brittany’s Life Tip #1: Know your adventuring limits. Are you afraid of fish? Yes? Don’t go snorkelling. Enough said.

Some of the guys jumped off a cliff into the water and died and then we spent the rest of the day climbing the cliffs on Comino and exploring the island before we ducked out a bit early to get away from the drunk Polish guys have a little birthday date.

On Day Four, we took the donkey bus to Valletta, the capital of Malta. It was more of a small little town, but it was filled with shops and cafes and was quite charming. It was super cute, if not a bit touristy and we ended up walking the winding streets for hours before an afternoon lunch at McDonald’s. (You can take the girl out of Canada…)

On our last day in Malta we went into Sliema, which is the shopping area of Malta and then we went to Mdina. It’s a super old area with a lot of history and I will never pretend to know all of it. Like almost everywhere in Malta, it was dusty, but adorably charming. It is also super tiny, so even though we finished walking through the area in about 45 mins, we stayed and kept walking through the narrow little streets, looking for cats taking it all in. We also needed time to figure out how to sneak into the cathedral without paying the €5 entrance fee.

Overall, Malta was a decent trip. I’ve learned that culture shock can happen anywhere, even when and where you least expect it. I’ve also learned that a little bit of planning can go a long way, even if you think you prefer being spontaneous. Of course, not everything is peachy and perfect and things happen. Planning a trip to a new country, for an important person on a special occasion was mega stressful. I’ve been known to be a tad bit controlling (all those who have told me that are no longer in my life. Ha!) but I just set high expectations for myself and I wanted this trip to be perfect. It ended up causing me stress in the end, because of course, you can’t control some things. I wrote about almost missing our flight, but not about losing our phone in the back of a cab, finding it again but having to pay to get it back, or switching hostels to try and save a bit of money, only to realize you’ve just checked yourself into the kind of place people are known to try to escape from. And of course, you’ve just paid and now can’t get your money back, because Malta.

There are still a milliom things in Malta I would love to see that we simply didn’t have the time to get to. I will get back again, but first there is a little trip in July I need to prepare for….;) Stay tuned!