The journey from Oklahoma to Malta consisted of 3 airplanes, 11.5 hours of flight time and 21 hours total from the time I left for the airport in OKC till I arrived at my hotel in Malta. Other than the flight from Chicago to Frankfurt being full and a sumo wrestler in the middle seat with me by the window (uncomfortable to say the least) - it was a pleasant journey, flights on time and since I was able to sleep some so it was fine.
Flying from Frankfurt to Malta was quite interesting with being able to view the Mediterranean, Sicily, the 'boot' of Italy and a good view of the island of Malta coming in. Above is my jet at the Malta Airport
Arriving in Malta I faced my first real concern - my dog! Did I have all the paperwork, were all the right shots given, did I meet all the stringent time requirements, would I get thru customs!!!??? Entering the airport I was separated from the passengers and sent to the private, secluded, hidden, scary corner where the customs main office was in the airport. "Oh, you have a dog eh?" laughing as he says, "ok, this way please so you can wait for vet" -- 10 minutes later a lovely lady is escorted in as well with her dog. She's a journalist living 50% of the time in Malta and 50% in Germany. She advises me that Malta is the easiest EU country to get your dog in and that makes me relax a bit....we chat...she is quite friendly and adorable....she gives me her business card and tells me to call her and we can walk our dogs....but, that will be another story as I have digressed ! The vet enters, I, of course, allow the lady to go first, she is out in 5 minutes, kisses my cheek and makes me promise to call. The vet looks at my papers...asks me three questions regarding additional forms, the answer to which I have to say no, I didn't have them. He looks at me, he looks at my dog and says "ahhh, they are not important anyway"... signs the clearance and welcomes me to Malta.
The customs took an hour, so of course my ride was gone! To take a taxi I need Euros....of course with all my advance planning, I only have dollars --- not to worry! A change machine is at hand!!! $100 bill in, 70 Euros back --- hmmm... so this is how its going to be huh!!??!! 20 euros to the cab and I have now entered the vehicle of a not to savvy wanna be Formula race car driver !!! But the size of the streets are too narrow for this! How does he manage not to wreck...I have no clue. One lane of NW Expressway, one individual lane...is the size of a two way street here WITH parking on the street! That is evidenced by the number of broken side mirrors as well as the scrapes and bruises on just about every car!
But we make it to the hotel with only few horn honks and quick stops so it could have been worse. My reservation was in order, I was taken to my room... I shut the door behind me and took my first deep and relaxing breath in 21 hours... BUT, although I'd been up 21 hours it was only 1pm Friday afternoon in Malta...so... time to get to work !!!
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| Hotel from Bay Side |
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| Back entrance to hotel |
I check my email....that takes about an hour, I arrange for a meeting with our relocation company who came to the hotel at 4pm, we spent an hour discussing their services and my needs
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| Hotel Lobby - Meeting point with Relocation Company |
and at about 5:30pm I'm reviewing more emails and a couple of contracts. I'm able to chat with a few people at the office since their day has now started, get Skype working, had issues with my IM's but got done what I wanted.... so at 8pm I'm done for the day so I head out to dinner, almost fall asleep waiting for my lasagna (which was amazing) and about 9pm I crash - welcome to Malta Mike :-)
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