We discussed a long time about where to go on holiday. We thought about Italy, Morocco, Ireland... but none of the places really felt right: Italy was too close to home as I just moved from there, Morocco a bit too much on the senses at this moment in time and Marieke was afraid that it would be too rainy in Ireland. Now, I've been to Ireland last year August with Shawn, and the weather was gorgeous. But she wouldn't have any of it. Ahhh, stubborn woman! (Of course when it later turned out that indeed it did rain the whole time in Ireland I couldn't deny feeling relieved myself... )

And then Marieke came with the idea of Malta. It sounded dreadful to me: an island smaller even than Holland - and anyway, Malta??? I only knew it exists because they have a football team. I figured it'd be somewhere around Italy, but where? Do they speak Italian? Do they have the Euro? All in all, I was against. Until Marieke showed me the web site of the Maltese board of tourism (or so). I saw pictures of ancient towns, monumental buildings, near-African sceneries, beautiful beaches... And I was sold!

Read the full story in the July 2004 archive.