{"id":13694,"date":"2019-05-19T10:23:06","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T04:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/?p=13694"},"modified":"2019-05-25T15:04:24","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T09:34:24","slug":"gozo-comino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2019\/05\/19\/gozo-comino\/","title":{"rendered":"Malta: Comino, Gozo & some fireworks!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part 1<\/a>, 2<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The islands off the main islan<\/span>d, that was our plan on the fourth day. While we were in the planning stage, we had considered taking the ferry from the northern tip\u00a0 of the island –\u00a0Cirkewwa, but then we decided to be a little lazy, and arranged a tour with Hornblower Cruises <\/a>for Comino Blue Lagoon and Gozo.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were picked up on time from the hotel on time and dropped somewhere near the Bugibba area where the boat was docked. The trip began at 10.30 and as we progressed, we realised that leaving ourselves uncovered from knee-down wasn’t a great idea. Thankfully, from the infinite innards of her handbag, D pulled out a shawl and the journey became much more pleasant!<\/p>\n

The boat hugged the coast at the start, passing\u00a0St. Pauls Islands and the statue of St. Pauls, and then briefly halting at the Ahrax Caves. The shades of water were simply amazing.<\/p>\n

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Next up was\u00a0the elephants head (easy to see why from the photo below) , the Santa Maria cave, and St. Nicholas bay. After just over an hour, Hornblower docked on Comino island in the Blue Lagoon. We had an hour and a half to spend here.<\/p>\n

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A pretty bay indeed! <\/span><\/p>\n

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We chose to have lunch on the island though the option was available on the boat. Rolls and skewers later, we walked around a bit before setting off for Gozo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The cruise also organises a Gozo (group) tour and we had chosen that option. Victor, an elderly gentleman, was our driver and guide. The first stop was the Citadella in Victoria, which had seen humanity from the bronze age through Roman occupation, Ottoman invasion, and is on the tentative list of UNESCO Heritage sites. In addition to structures like the Church of the Assumption, it offers an excellent panoramic view of the island.<\/p>\n

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From there, we set off for one of the places I was very interested in – the Azure window in Dwejra. Its claim to fame, outside of its natural majesty was that it played host to the destination wedding of Drogo and Daenerys in Game of Thrones. The window broke a few years ago, but as Victor said, “people still come to see what is not there”. A good time to note that Victor delivered his lines really well, and it was difficult to imagine that he probably did this daily!<\/p>\n

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Ta’ Pinu church was the next attraction. I wasn’t dressed decently enough to get in, though D managed! Victor told us that the church looked very pretty at night, when the entire path to it was lit up. Speaking of pretty, for the first time, D actually asked the driver of another tourist bus whether she could pose with his tiny, cute dog, which was wearing the same colours as she was – pink, including hair highlights!<\/p>\n

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We then made our way back to the boat, after making a quick stop to catch the lovely panoramic view of the bay. But not before Victor “demanded” we give him a little something since his birthday (72, if I remember right) was only a couple of days away! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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By 5.30, we were back on the main island. Sometime during the Gozo trip, we saw a flyer which mentioned a fireworks festival in Valletta that night. This turned out to be\u00a0\u00a0the 18th edition of the\u00a0Malta International Fireworks\u00a0Festival! We dropped our original plan of a leisurely night out and caught a bus to the capital. We thought the best place to see this would be the waterfront, and walked the long path (there is a short cut from the bus station). Since the fireworks were scheduled to start at 8, we decided to have dinner first.<\/p>\n

After getting an invisibility treatment at the first restaurant in the waterfront, we finally settled on Pepe Nero<\/a>. Turned out to be a very lucky decision because we had some great Paccheri pasta (with beef strips and shiitake mushrooms in truffle cream sauce), wild boar sausage pizza\u00a0 and I finally tried Cisk, THE beer in Malta. Wasn’t bad at all, for a bottled drink.<\/p>\n

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Our plan was to watch the fireworks during dinner, but it was delayed and the view wasn’t the best. So we quickly made our way to a better viewing spot along the Herbert Ganado Gardens. The fireworks were a lovely sight, and there was a fairly large crowd too!<\/p>\n