Family, Floods and France

Hello everyone! I’m going to make this blog post short, only because there’s so much more to come. This will cover the time I spent with my aunts, mom and cousin in Malta and Paris!

After staying a week in my “jail cell” of a room, I know my mom was more than ready to escape to Valletta to stay in the villa we rented. We were able to check into the villa early in the morning and it was BEAUTIFUL. There were windows all over the ceiling and the entire wall leading to the balcony was windows as well. The villa was super modern and spacious with an incredible view. There was a large balcony that overlooked Valletta’s Grand Harbor…it was seriously the most perfect view we could have had.

I went to the airport to pick up my aunts and my cousin, and they arrived no problem. After climbing five flights of stairs to get to the villa, they were finally able to relax on the balcony. That night we ate in a courtyard in Valletta and they went to bed early to recover from 20+ hours of travelling. The weather in Malta was really pretty when they were here, but there was strong wind that lasted for their entire stay. At least the sun was shining and the air was warm, though! We scheduled a boat trip that would take us around Malta, Gozo and Comino, but it was cancelled due to the strong wind. My mom, aunts and cousin took a hop-on-hop-off tour of Malta and they were able to see most of the major sights on the island. They said their favorite part was Mdina, the old capital of Malta. There, they explored the medieval city and ate cake at Fontenella (the best cake in the world..literally).

The next day, we decided to travel to Gozo and explore. We were able to see the Azure Window, Ramla Bay, the capital city of Victoria and eat at a delicious restaurant with free limoncello. That was my favorite part of their stay in Malta. We got some amazing pictures on top of the Azure Window, and surprisingly, no one fell in or got hurt!!! We had amazing food every day during their stay in Malta…I found a few new favorite restaurants as well.

Then…. catastrophe. The night before we left for Paris, at around 11pm, the power in the villa went out. It was annoying, but it wasn’t the end of the world. We were able to use our phone flashlights to see until bed. No one was able to charge their phones, but we set alarms for 3:45a.m. anyway. Thankfully, my mom’s phone was charged almost completely before the power went out, so the alarm went off as planned. When my mom stepped out of bed, her feet were fully submerged in water and the power was still out. When I woke up five minutes later, I stepped out of bed into at least two inches of water covering the bedroom floor. The entire left side of the villa was flooded with no explanation as to why. It was chaos as we tried to get ready to leave the villa with a flooded floor and no power. Somehow, we made it out the door on time to meet our taxi….but the taxi I booked decided not to show up. We carried all of our luggage through Valletta to find a taxi at 4:45 in the morning. Thank goodness, there was ONE taxi sitting in Valletta and he was able to cram us in his car and get us to the airport on time.

At that point, we were frazzled, hungry and exhausted. We boarded the flight with no problems, thankfully, and were on our way to Paris in no time.

When we arrived in Paris, it was pouring rain and freezing (yay!!!!!). My mom’s travel agent had booked a van to pick us up from the airport and take us to the hotel. He didn’t show up. Multiple phone calls and an hour and a half later, we were finally picked up by a taxi and driven to our hotel. Thankfully, the hotel was gorgeous and our villa was perfect.

Paris was beautiful, but it was hard to explore with the rain coming down like a tsunami. We used umbrellas and taxis frequently and were able to see Notre Dame and the surrounding areas as well as Sacre Coer. Both were the most beautiful churches I’d seen since being abroad. They were indescribable. We also visited the mall to escape the rain. It looked like we were inside of a kaleidoscope once in the mall. The windows and the lights were amazing. We took a river tour down the Seine in the evening and were able to see a lot of Paris from the water. Even though it was still raining, it was beautiful. I loved the architecture of the buildings in Paris as well as all of the trees and flowers. It was truly a beautiful place. Later that night, we were able to take a tour of the Eiffel Tower. It was completely lit up and breathtaking with the fog that surrounded it. We decided to travel all the way up to the very top of the tower. It was scary but SO beautiful. We were able to see all of Paris and even surrounding cities. It was definitely the highlight of my trip.

The next day we had to leave Paris (still raining, by the way) and go our separate ways. It was really hard saying goodbye to my mom after being with her for over a month straight, but knowing that I would be home in just a little over a month helped with the goodbye. I am so lucky that my family decided to come and visit me in Malta and that we were able to take a trip to one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It was an experience that I’ll never, ever forget.

Lauren is here right now, but I’m waiting to do an update on everything we’ve been up to…..in the meantime, school is actually hard right now. I have to read two textbooks and study for the LSAT, so my four-month vacation is definitely over. I’ll update you all when Lauren and I get back from BARCELONA!!!!

Xoxoxo,

Megan