We spent a good 20 minutes searching for La Mere for lunch as it was a tiny hole in the wall. We passed it twice before seeing the sign. When we entered, there were no other customers, but we were hungry and did not care. The menu was diverse without being scary, and James and I both ended up with pasta. James had a broccoli soup for his appetizer; it was HUGE. Actually all of our portions were huge and we didn't eat half of it. A couple of weird things about this restaurant: the kitchen was in the basement and they sent the food up in a little food elevator that had a wooden door and there was no tap water. I don't know if they didn't have running water or if maybe the water was not safe to drink, but you could not get tap water at this place. We enjoyed it, but were not blown away. At least it was fairly cheap. Oh, and it began to fill up with other tourists and Malta business men as we ate.
After, we walked out onto the street almost right into a temporary market. We began heading to the Knight's Palace and spotted some suitcases at the market. Remember, we only brought backpacks. Our plan was to buy a suitcase or bag in Europe to transport our souvenirs back to the states and here was our chance. I asked the price and it was 15 euros for a good sized suitcase. Although I probably should have bargained, I considered that a really fair price and paid it. So now I am trampling around Valletta in my new sandals, fast hubby and new suitcase. And Valletta is mostly stone streets. Fun.
We arrive at the palace and pay more than it is worth to enter. We breeze through the hall, see a few nicely appointed rooms and take pictures with suits of armor.
We pass a Disney tour that we are thrilled to not be a part of because whatever we paid to enter (10 euros a piece), they paid more. (And probably had to spend more time looking at boring stuff/waiting for people to use the restroom) We finally come to the armory which is interesting to James because he can see armor and weapons actually used by the knights in the battles he has read up on. I, on the other hand, pretty bored.
After the palace, James wants to explore and walk down to the fort that he read so much about to see if he can walk around it. On top of all the problems I have mentioned previously, I start to get this sharp pain in my foot that feels like a pulled tendon or something. Does James care? Um, no. I should just "suck it up" and am probably faking anyway to get him to slow down. So after we ramble all the way down to the fort and discover that inside is just a WWII museum (which I already knew due to my research), he decides to not go in.
Now we are on the other side of the city, which granted, is not that big, but we are not in the tourist area anymore. Now, as uncomfortable as I was, I kinda love this part about traveling: seeing how other people live.
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