And all the pictures are UP!

Ok!!  Finally all my pictures from everywhere..well at least 999 of them are because that is the limit of the site. Are up on  http://austriamaltaadventures.shutterfly.com/   Just go there and you can see all my pictures! I just edited out the technical pictures and architectural details I needed for school and projects.  Otherwise, I left all I could in.  Hope you enjoy!

More pictures and the last of our adventures...

This was our main mode of transportation around the island (when we didn't have our own mini busses to take us to certain tours), and they even have crazy horns they use to communicate with each other! Good times.  

The Maltese busses...crazy looking!

We made it to the last of the main attractions on the island, Mosta, Mdina, and of course Popeye's Village!

Beginning with Mosta, the church that has the third largest dome in the world!  

The outside of the Church in Mosta

The entrance inside, the  detail in the every wall and every painting still amazes me!

The infamous DOME!

Again pictures cannot truly depict the actual size and beauty, but it is all I have.  There was a bomb that hit the dome during a war and did not explode.  This was taken as a sign, they even have a replica of the bomb in the back of the church! 

The bomb!

After Mosta, we went on to Mdina, the silent city.  It is completely walled in like a fort. But inside there are still people that live there, they have cafes and shops and of course the Church of St. Paul. 

The dungeons, where the knights were sentenced and tortured...I heard it was creepy and graphic so I skipped that museum.

The Church of St. Paul in Mdina

Interior of St. Paul's

Another interior shot including the dome

After we got back from visiting Mdina, we went back to Valletta to visit an architectural firm that is redoing the city gates. They gave us a digital tour of the construction project and the history behind city gates.  This was a view of the streets of Valletta, and the hills!

Yikes!

On our last free day, Friday.  A few of of decided to go visit Popeye's Village, where they built the set of the 1980s movie Popeye with Robin Williams.  They actually built the set into this cove because it was all rock and no sand and had no palm trees.  They have kept the blacksmith shop and the post office and all the little pieces of the story line, and even have people dressed up like Popeye and Olive Oil!  Then in the cove they have water trampolines and slides! And while you eat your lunch you can watch the movie!

Here you can see the trampoline and things in the water!

This was the waterfall next to the cove

A view of the Village

The streets of the Village

Popeye's House!

We had a great time, and in the wood shop you could even play GIANT JENGA!!!

We played!

There was also a creepy Christmas Village.  Yes Creepy.  I love Christmas, so me of all people would be the last to call anything Christmas creepy, but this was! But I got my picture taken with the giant snowman anyway.

Me and Frosty!

It was fine on the outside, but when you went inside the creepy elves we working away and the creepy music was skipping and lights were flashing.

That night we all went out to dinner for our last night.  This was the view...

Last night in Malta

The next morning we began our long journey home...Dave, the man in the pink shirt, had been luging our luggage around the island for the past 2 weeks and was probably glad to see the heavy suitcases go!  He was a character though!

Saying goodbyes to the drivers and to Andrea

Everyone waiting for the plane in Malta to fly to Frankfort...I think we are a little wiped!

This was everyone waiting to get onto the plane. They dont' really have a system like we do in the US, its just a big free-for-all to get on and board.

We flew from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany Saturday night and finally got to the hotel about 9:30. Myself and a few others had to be up by 4:30 to get to the airport for our 8:30 flight to New York.  And given our track record with travelling for this trip, we weren't too hopeful.  But we go to the airport and even boarded the flight on-time!  Crazy right?  It was a long flight to New York, 7 hours and 35 minutes.  We had a 4 hour layover, and managed to breeze through customs and recheck our bags without a problem.  We got to the gate, and still no delays to be mentioned. We even boarded early and were taking off on-time.  It was kinda scary how many things were going our way.  I thought we were fine and homefree once we got in the air...wrong!  We were about twenty minutes from landing in Cleveland and the flight attendant comes rushing through the plane and looks at me and asks, "do you smell burning!?!?!"...and yes I did (which is always cause for concern on an airplane!).  Why he thought I knew where it was coming from, I have no idea.  I told him that yes, I did smell it. And he asked me where I thought it might be coming from because the piolet was asking...I said well if he smells it in the cockpit, its has to be a plane problem, not just coming from somewhere in hereI would assume. He agreed and went on running around.  Two minutes later the smell was gone and there was nothing more mentioned of it.  With the luck we had had, I was kind of terrified for those two minutes, let me tell you. But we ended up landing early and everyone got their luggage!  It was a great trip and nothing short of an adventure every step of the way!!

Final picture count...1670 and 18 videos!  Success.

My biggest adventure at Comino

Now that I have internet that isn't running like dialup, I can post this video and many other pictures from my trip!  Yes I Elizabeth Nahup went cliff jumping.  This video makes it look like the water is only 10 feet down, when in fact its easily 50 feet. There was no good angle to take a picture so that you could accurately depict the distance.  It did take me a while to work up the courage and yes we had people scoping out the bottom to make sure it was deep enough and clear.  (as long as you cleared the first large rock in the water...)  It was exhilarating, and I'm glad I did it.  Yes I screamed all the way down, but hey this is the girl that is terrified of heights, what do you expect?  Sorry that it is tilted to the one side, but it was the only way to get the whole jump in the shot and it does flip right side up again at the end...

I made it! And I did not break my swimsuit, unlike poor Jodie who went just ahead of me.  Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip!

now that I have some time and WIFI

We went to Gozo, the small island next to Malta and stayed in a farmhouse...all 19 of us. Good times!!  It was much quieter in Gozo than Malta, much slower. 

This is the view from the pool upwards at the farmhouse

It was 5 stories and the laundry balcony was on the top, so our clothes could blow in the wind.  Rough life having to have class here...

Some Views from Gozo.....

I did a lot of touring of churches...wish we had churches like this in the US. The level of detail in every wall and every ledge is just amazing.

Inside St. John's Cathedral...beautiful!

And then the famous Maltese boats...that are hand painted with bright colors and have the eye on the front for safe keeping and good luck.

This is a picture of the water on Comino Island...clear water and great snorkeling. We did swim throughs and did some cliff jumping! Only problem, the beaches are all rock, no sand. Very tough on the feet.

Comino Island

Me scuba diving right before my camera died :(

And Many adventures stil yet to be posted. Including Popeye's Island pictures (where they filmed the 1980s film Popeye with Robin Williams!) and more!  Just trying to catch up while we wait at the airport to head back to Frankfurt, Germany for the night so we can catch our flights back to the US in the morning.  Right now we are on a 2 hour delay, given our luck we'll see how the rest of the travels go. Hopefully I will see you all soon and I will upload more pictures when I return. The picture count to date is 1630!!  I did my best to fill my 8GB memory card.  

gozo!

Found a little wifi in gozo! Had to walk to the town square to get it...oh well. I am alive  and soaking up much loved sunshine by the pool after "class" in the mornings.  Tomorrow we head to Comino just for the day to the beach.  We're really roughin it! Until the next trip to the town square...bye for now!

Adventures thus far...

Well seeing the island has been a blast.  One night we went on a dinner cruise...we almost died. The sea was so rough that in the US they never would have let us out of the harbor.  The ship was rocking back and forth so bad at the dock that I couldn't have imagined it would get worse, but man was I wrong!  We left the harbor and I am not one to be scared on a boat, but the trip out was very bad we were all clinging for dear life to the rails in the middle of the ship and then they pulled into the next harbor instead of doing the tour of the island because it was so rough.  Then of course we had to go back to the port at the end of the night, so before we left the harbor we took refuge in, they had us "take our positions"--that meant hold on a kiss your butt goodbye!  At one point the water came over the SIDE of the boat (not the front) and in the dark it was twice as terrifying.  It was an experience!  We danced the worries away in between the trips to and from the port!  Then Saturday we went exploring and had dinner with 2 Maltese students!  That was really fun!

I have lots of pictures, so far the picture count is 1071 and counting!! (not including the diving pictures)

Today I went diving!!!!  They picked me up from the hotel and we drove around the crazy streets for what seemed like forever.  I will happily admit that I have been VERY spoiled in my diving experiences up until now.  Aldora Dive in Cozumel, there is nothing better. I am convinced.  Having to wear a double  5 mil wet suit because the water was so cold and double the weight on the belt because of the suit, and then going diving off the shore so I had to walk from the truck to the drop off...very heavy.  I missed flipping off the boat in mexico in the warm water haha.  But I was the only diver today, so I had my personal dive master and we took our time and I didn't have to run around with 20 people and get lost, so that was very good!  The cold water really threw me I will tell you, I have never had trouble going under, but today the water went down my wet suit and I suddenly couldn't breathe.  I panicked for the first time ever diving.  But quickly got over it and went down.  Because it is such a small island and they rely so heavily on the sea for their resources, fishing included.  The aquatic life is almost non existant. No reefs, some minnows and some sea urchins, and lots of wrecks which were too far out because the water was too murky so we couldn't go see those.  So it was nice to be able to dive in another country, but I miss the reefs and warm waters!!  Pictures will be posted. I only have a few from the dive because the batteries only lasted through my first dive even though it said it was full!  Always the way!  I came back with a terrible pull in my back thanks to the tank and decided it would be good to relax by the pool...well bad idea because I fell asleep.  I had sunscreen on, real sunscreen.  By the sun is so hot here that if you dont turn over frequently, its like you dont have sunscreen on.  Needless to say when I woke an hour later I was a bit "crisp"!  Good times!

Tomorrow we have more tours which means more pictures!  Then Tuesday we leave for Gozo to stay in the farm house. I will try and post pictures before then because I will not have access to the internet while we are there for 7 days :(   I am also keeping a written journal so no worries I will catch you up on details when I am back to civilization again!

Arriving in Malta!!!

 Yesterday was a full day of travel!  We started at 6:45 am and missed our connecting train, then our flight from Frankfurt to Malta was delayed.  Well They boarded us onto buses and then took us out to the runway, just to find out that 30 minutes after waiting like sardines in the buses that they did not have security clearance to take off due to high winds! So we were taken back to the terminal and had to reboard an hour later. Finally taking off at 9:10pm. So we arrived in Malta after 11pm in the rain :(   No luggage went missing this time so that was very nice!  The hotel is a 5 star hotel and is beautiful! Here are the pictures!

Awesome hat we found that runs the fan off solar power on the top!

Here I am by the Sea!

Right outside our hotel!

view of the city!

Our hotel!

the lobby of the hotel!

Our room!

more pictures!

Bergisel Ski Jump!!

Breakfast at Bergisel


We leave for Malta tomorrow and I will post pictures of the crystal factory we toured today!   Will be in touch after our 12 hours travel day tomorrow!

Pictures from the Adventures

150 ft. spiral staircase I got to climb to see the top of a castle tower!

Light wall right outside our hotel

VERY ornate church in Munich

HUGE lantern in the mall!

Where Hitler gave his famous speech before the march to Berlin

Student housing blocks, literally blocks!

The streets of Munich, very tall trees!

Trip to Munich!

We had a free day today, so my roommate and I took the train to Munich for the day (2 hour train ride), well the train ride itself was "fun".  First we had these British people join us in the cabin, they were great!  They were on holiday, it was really cute to hear them make remarks to each other.  Then they got off and this couple came and sat in the cabin with us, speaking German of course that proceed to HARDCORE MAKE OUT.  I'm talking like something that should be in an adult film.  It was gross. They would stop and sit back and we thought they were done..OH NO!  We finally had to change cabins. Then they stared at us when we got off at the same stop as they did.  Oh and by the way they spoke English too.  Not Cool. So then we got lost for FOUR HOURS.  That was fun...also not cool.  We finally met up with an old professor from Miami and he took us on a tour of Munich, parts that we never would have seen otherwise! It was awesome!  We saw all kinds of churches and even where Hitler gave his infamous speech!  (no worries pictures to follow).  So far my picture count for this trip is 562.  We have been here 6 days.  I think I have a picture problem.  But the people hear make taking pictures WORTH it!  Today I saw a man with blue and white striped shorts on, shorter than any man should wear, it was great and yes I got a picture of it!  We went to the Beer Garden in Munich, VERY popular and VERY GOOD food!  YUM!

Tomorrow we are going to the ski jump here in Innsbruck, great pictures to follow that as well!