Our supply of Japanese tea is gone and the other teas we purchased in Australia are dwindling fast. So we followed up on a lead from Mara about a tea shop across the bay in St. Julian. I mapped it on my phone but oddly it did not offer up any public transportation options. Leslie had the same lack of options and it got us thinking that perhaps it was a bus driver holiday that we were not aware of. Undeterred, we went out and stood at a bus stop anyway. The bus was the 13A and not the 13 so we hoped it was going to take us were we needed to go, but we were not sure. The first three stops were spot on and we felt like this was going to be easy. Then the bus took an unexpected left turn and started climbing up large hill. This was not in the plan, we vacillated between getting off at the next stop or staying the course. Two other passengers, local folks, stood up and were yelling at the bus driver that they wanted to go to St. Julian. Perhaps the bus driver reassured them because they sat back down. At the next stop the entire bus exited and again we wondered if we should also get off. However the bus had turned back in the general direction that we wanted to go so we stayed the course. Incredibly the next stop was indeed our planned destination. We wandered about in the Mercury shopping area a bit but did not find any of the items we needed. Then we walked down to the tea shop and what a delight. Svetlana helped us find exactly what we wanted and even made us a few cups of tea to boot. we got four Japanese teas, a gyokuro, a sencha and two flavored green teas. Our walk back was along the water and we had a fine outing.
At the mall, a funky mascot and an old El Camino
In the Mercury shopping district
Leslie thought about this for zero seconds
Snaggle tooth purse
The stylized buildings
We have arrived at the newer part of Malta
Good to know
The smaller the inlet the bigger the boats
Inside the Hilton we finally found the tea shop
Steeping tea for us
Precious gyokuro!
Svetlana was very nice to us
The hotels are modern but still have a Maltese look to them
Ballerina
Big birds!
All the finery, iron gate, wooden shutters and iron on the wall
Getting comfortable on an otherwise hard bench
