Everything Has To Finish

So this is it! My final day in Malta, my final night, and my the end of one hell of an experience.

On arriving here I was buzzing with excitement, I had no idea what lay ahead of me and what people would be like. It was kind of surreal.

Starting off on the first night I landed, went to my apartment, dropped my stuff off and called a cab into the pub/club central of Malta. I met a mate from Uni - Greg- who introduced me to a lot of people that he worked with, the bar staff and some Maltese people. At that point I had no idea that this bar, the Dubliners, would be my second home for my stay.

The bar was nice, 80% of staff were Irish, Guiness was sold so obviosuly that was my choice. I also had my first experience of the local beer,, Cisk - pronounced CHISK which isimportant to know otherwise you look like you are telling the barman about your health deficiencies. Cisk is strange, it is like a stronger yet stranger Calring - it leaves an odd taste in your mouth and makes you feel more bloated than any other beer you will ever have!!! HOWEVER after having it for 3 months I'm going to miss it a lot.

The apartment I was in was amazing, it was close to work which meant it was 45 minutes from any form of social interaction. Swings and roundabouts I guess.
The thing with Malta is that it is a 3rd world country pretending it's not. Electricity seems new, and if you attempt to have a tv on and the air con then you are hoping for a lot, bang powercut, and usually happens in the middle of a poker hand your playing online. Tilting but you get use to it!

The people I've met have been awesome, I've never been in a work place where you actually socialise regularyl with your colleagues. I guess the reason for this is that Malta is an incredibly small island and on nights out you will see the same people you saw the last 12 times. Still it was great.

The world cup was fun to watch here, you get Maltese people pretending they are English/Italian/Spanish/Dutch/German/Uruguayan/Portugese/ North Korean - in fact whenever someone wins a game a car will drive past with the windows open and them beeping their horn like mad men! Driving here is weird, the drink driving laws seem to be as long as you don't crash there's no problem. Crazy and it means as a pedestrian intoxicated yourself you are playing chicken with them without meaning too. Zebra crossings just seem to be random lines on the floor forming pretty patterns that serve no purpose at all!

Still this has been a life changing experience, I have learnt so much, been given a lot of responsibility, and like I said met some awesome people. The people at work are really on the ball and they clearly work hard so that they can play hard.

We had a boat trip sea fishing which was awesome, a sort of goodbye to nmyself and the other two grads (although one didn't show) and everyone agreed to put 10 euros in, 30% went to most fish caught, 70% for biggest fish. As someone who had never fished before my gamble deserted me, poor show to be honest I never turn down a bet no matter how -EV it is but for some reason I did. Obviously the inevitable happened and I comfortably caught the biggest fish to win a grand total of 0!! Well played me! Always thought I was great at trapping fish reeling them in and then letting them get away for too little money for me - messed up poker analogies sorry!

Anyway tomorrow is my last day working in the office, it will be good to get home and see my family and friends, I've missed my mates a lot and although I've only been away for the same time as a term at Uni, being a 3 hour flight away in a different country completly changes the concept!