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| Glowing in the dark |
True to the motto the last week wasn’t really one of my best weeks here. And yes the traffic still plays its role within the downs! Going to work took me nearly two hours every day for the last week which I could withstand by reading a good book and ignoring my stomach which doesn’t want me to read a book while driving.
I was really looking forward to another public lecture in the University of Malta for many days and when the day (Tuesday) arrived I made some plans how to get there on time as the lecture started at 5:30 pm and I usually worked until 5. I escaped from work a bit earlier – then hustled to the bus stop. I was lucky: after 10 minutes of waiting a bus came by – but – despite the fact it was nearly empty – didn’t stop for me. For some reason I really freaked out – I must have had a really bad day. I shouted out „FUCK“ – loudly. Probably a sign I assimilated well – language-wise but bad – patience-wise. I had to adjust the plan because there would have been no other busses at that stop for the next 20 minutes. I went to another station where there usually is 5 busses going to Valletta and it takes you an average 5 minutes to catch one. But not that day…. I waited for 25 minutes and was really close to just going home because I was definitely being late and was about to miss the beginning of the lecture. I was so mad but still I finally got in a bus, drove for 15 minutes and then ran to the location.
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| Paul Brady – Lecture |
I didn’t miss a lot of the lecture but couldn’t see my friends which were there as well. I just sat down somewhere in the back of the room and listened. I knew I had overreacted a bit but I simply couldn’t help it. The lectures title was: „BitCoin, SmartPhones and The Internet of Things – How the next technology revolution won’t be like any that have come before“ and was held by Paul Brody a former leader of IBM’s Mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) practice who had just recently switched to Ernst & Young to the advisory strategy group. The lecture was interesting and inspiring and I was lucky I still made it there. After the lecture I met Richard and Silvan and we stayed for some more minutes for free drinks and little appetizers. The rest of the working week passed slowly and I still stayed to be a in a bad mood for most of the time.
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| I reached my goal: 1,000km in less than 100 days |
As the weather improved during the following days my mood went back to good again and I had a nice last weekend on Malta which included going to several beaches while reading most of the time. I really enjoyed the fact that I have a lot time for reading because in Germany I don’t really do it as much as I would like to – especially as I feel to tired to read after work or am distracted by watching some serials. After hours and hours of reading I usually have a hard time „going back to the real world“ so it must have been pretty hard to communicate with me then.
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| Industrial Beach |
Another event I attended this weekend was the Malta Tattoo Expo. I thought about getting another tattoo for a long time and tried to evaluate every single tattoo I saw when being at the beach for the whole time of my stay but nearly 100 percent of the time I came to the conclusion that the tattoo I was looking at didn’t really look good. So when going to the Expo I already kind of decided I wouldn’t go for another one. But seeing all the nice tattoos and the great art works it was quite a hard thing to stick to my decision and at least I can say that it helped me recognize the style that I prefer and might want in the future. Instead of getting some ink under my skin I decided to go to a hairdresser and at least have some small changes. I was pretty happy with the results which most of the time isn’t really the case, so good job!
I was already pretty tired after the whole day of walking around and thinking about tattoos but there was the Birgu festival going on which distinguished itself by switching the electrical light off in the whole city after the sunset and putting on candles everywhere. So I went there and I can tell you I didn’t regret it at all. After a whole week of more or less bad moods I finally came back to a good condition.
When I arrived in Birgu the sun was just about to go down and the sky was coloured in all shades of red, purple and pink. As I already admired Birgu during daytime with the sunset it was even more pretty. Walking to the city center I started recognizing the candles. They were fondly distributed all around the city. People had put so much effort in placing them everywhere and it simply looked so beautiful – the narrow alleyways with all the lights. Some people that were living on the ground floor opened their magnificent living rooms which were also decorated with candles. Unfortunately my smartphone camera was really bad – so I couldn’t really catch the beauty of this night but I just tried to absorb it. The atmosphere was so special with some live music and people walking around – I think everyone had a smile on his face – I did for sure.
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| Birgu church |
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| Birgu harbour |
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| Historic bus |
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| Couldn’t stop taking pictures of the beautiful sky |
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| Harbour |
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| Time for a selfie |
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| My future car |
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| Awesomeness |
This was one of these moments – when you know why you love to travel so much. Witnessing special occasions, seeing places you’ve never seen before and getting lost in the moment. I just felt happy and was so glad I could be part of the adventure. Of course it is hard leaving friends and family back home. Going through all kinds of good and bad times on your own but also you just undergo so many new things, you get to know yourself better and just gain so many new experiences that will influence your life from the moment on.
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| Selfmade candle constructions |
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| Posing in front of candles |
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| Some streets shined in red… |
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| … some in all kinds of colours. |
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| Enjoying the turmoil from the inside |
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| Maltese cross in candles |
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| Luxury living rooms |
I went back home by taking the ferry to Valletta, climbing up the stairs to upper barakka garden and going by bus to Naxxar. Back home I finally met my two left flatmates ( the 2 german girls were already back home ) and we talked for a while. On Sunday I just spent some more time outside but felt pretty tired and exhausted so I went back home and to bed and literally slept over my last Sunday in Malta. Around 6.30 pm I forced myself to get up and eat something and also went for another run which already had grown to be my daily routine.
Now my very last week in Malta just started and I have to admit that I am really looking forward to going home. I try to enjoy the last days as much as I can and maybe will still discover some places I haven’t been to. I will definitely tell you about it!
Sonst nix zu tun - Oder was? 