Wednesday 1st August 2018
I just arrived in Malta a few hours ago. It's burning hot (35 degrees Celsius). I took the bus from the airport to my hotel which was like an hour long journey. What I find interesting is that Malta is a former British colony. This means that a lot of things are the same here. Like for example, the bus company is the same and the interior of the bus looks the same as the ones in London. They also have all the British shops in Malta. Anyway, so I checked into my hostel at 3pm (yes i'm in a hostel this time). I don't know who I am sharing with yet but the shoes are all men's shoes which makes me nervous. Not sure if I would feel comfortable sleeping in a room that is full of men. I put my luggage away and then went to try some traditional Maltese snacks.Pastizzi is a popular Maltese pastry so I bought a chicken one for €0.50. I also tried some Cisk beer which tasted very bitter. After that I took a short walk to the beach, which is exactly where I am writing this from. The internet tricked me into thinking that this was a sandy beach but it's not...it's all rocky. But I guess it's okay because I am planning to visit a sandy beach on Friday. This area that I am staying in seems to be crowded with wild drunk tourists. I am getting the impression that i'm staying in an area that is like "the Ibiza" for Italian tourists. I need to explore some other cities/towns in Malta before I can make any proper judgements. Tomorrow morning I have a tour to Gozo Island which should be cool. Now I'm going to head back to the hotel to shower and get an early night.
xxx
Thursday 2nd August 2018
Today I went on a tour of Gozo Island. I think that I might prefer it to Malta island. It seems to be very quiet and peaceful in comparison. I feel like Gozo was less concentrated with tourists as well, which allowed me to get a real feel for Maltese culture. I also noticed that it seems to be a lot cheaper in the shops here. During the tour today I got to see the Ggantija temples which reminded me of Greece. We also saw a lot of amazing views of the ocean. The tour included lunch and wine which was nice. It was a very long day and I don't have much to say (because I can't remember everything).
I have planned for tomorrow to be a relaxing day at the beach. But I guess that I will have to get up very early if I want to get some nice pictures and a good spot. Here are a few things that I have noticed so far about Malta...
- The Maltese language is like a mix of Italian and Arabic.
- The traffic is horrendous.
- They don't have enough toilet cubicles anywhere. There is always a long queue.
- Maltese people are very friendly.
xxx
Friday 3rd August 2018
I just got back to the hostel and I am waiting to have a shower. Today I got up really early and went to the beach. It was in the North of Malta and took 1 hour to get there by bus. The bus was full of tourists going to the beach but only a few of them went to the same beach as me. So I arrived at the beach at 9.00am and it was almost empty (thank god). This meant that I got to pick a sunbed right at the front of the beach next to the water. I stripped off into my bikini and relaxed there for the next few hours. After this I went to eat a chicken salad and drink some local beers. I tried two different flavours of Cisk beer this time. One was ginger/lemon and the other one was mixed berry. flavoured beer is so tasty!. The beach that I visited was in an area called "mellieha" which was very nice. Everywhere that I have been so far seems nice apart from the area that I am staying in. I am literally in the sleaze area of Malta. There are lots of strip clubs and drunk people parading around everywhere outside the hostel. Oh well!.
So anyway, I came back to the hostel in the afternoon and decided to relax for the rest of the day. I went back out in the evening around 5pm to find the "cat village" which is supposed to be full of cats. It wasn't actually there...either that or it's some kind of scam. There were toy cats and a sign asking for donations. So I continued to wander around and found Portomaso Marina. It was full of locals eating at restaurants next to a dock of boats/yachts. It definitely looks like an area for the rich and famous. I kind of just went back to the hostel and here I am. I'm going to have a quick shower and continue my mission of finding some local Maltese food. I am also contemplating whether to visit the Blue Lagoon on Comino Island. I hear that it's a "must see" but it's also horribly crowded to the point where it is unpleasant. I will check the reviews online and decide tomorrow.
xxx
Saturday 4th August 2018
I am back at the hostel but my day is not over yet. I am just relaxing until the restaurants open. So today I got up early again and visited the capital city of Valletta. It's such as beautiful city! everything is like very yellow in colour. I absolutely loved it despite not going into any attractions. I chose not to because some of the entry fees were unreasonable. Like they were charging €10 to get in to a cathedral. I just think that is ridiculous considering that it's a place of worship. Plus I have seen more than 20 cathedrals in Europe so there wasn't really a need for me to go in.
So I went to see some free attractions and wandered around the city instead. I also got to eat some more Maltese food which was nice. I had a dish called "ftira ta kalu" which was like the Maltese version of a pizza. It is a flatbread topped with sheeps cheese, tomato, olives, and some other things too. I am hopping to eat some Maltese food again for dinner if I can get a table. I'm thinking about trying rabbit spaghetti because rabbit is their national dish. Well...I tried reindeer in Sweden so whats the difference? Can it really be that bad?. After dinner I think that I will relax on the local rock beach with a mini bottle of wine. The forecast for tomorrow mentions thunderstorms and rain. I wanted to do a day trip to Comino so hopefully this is not true. I guess that we will see.
xxx
Sunday 5th August 2018
So I drank too much wine last night on the beach. I woke up with a slight hangover today but it's okay. I woke up at 9am which meant that it was too late to visit the Blue Lagoon. They say that you need to be on the first ferry at 9am if you want to enjoy it for a while without the crowds. I have been going on about the Blue Lagoon for days but still haven't made it there yet. Maybe that is a sign that it's not worth it.
So today I decided to do some beach hopping instead. I took the bus up North again but to a different area. This time I went to Golden Bay which was beautiful. Some thunderstorms started after a couple of hours, so I took my ass back on the bus to San Giljan. This time I tried some different pastizzi for lunch (one pea and one ricotta). They were both tastier than the chicken one that I ate on the first night. After that I went to the local stone beach because it wasn't raining here. I actually sat in the water this time...until some 40 something year old perverts started creeping towards me. They were staring at me for a good 10 minutes and gradually floating towards me. It was very uncomfortable so I just left.
xxx
Monday 6th August 2018
So today was my day to visit Mdina and Rabat. It was very quick and you don't need more than a few hours to see the cities. It took ages to get there though because I had to get a bus to Valletta (45 minutes), and then change and get another bus to Rabat (40 minutes). This is the Mediterranean so buses come whenever they want. Most services are scheduled to run once an hour so if you miss a bus then you're screwed. Anyway...Mdina is a beautiful area that is picturesque. The buildings are yellowy with colourful windows and doors. It reminds me of a village kind of area.
Rabat is more "city style" with squares and restaurants. I went to St Paul's Catacombs in Rabat. It was interesting how they told the story of St Paul. He came to Malta on a boat and the people were friendly....until a viper snake wrapped itself around his hand. So then the Maltese started to believe that he must be evil, until St. Paul got the snake off himself without any harm. So then they started worshiping him as a god. He stopped them from worshiping him and started spreading the word of Christianity. Interesting right?
After this I made my way back to the hotel but stopped off halfway in Valletta for some Lunch. I visited a Maltese restaurant and ate "brungiel mimli" which is aubergine stuffed with mince beef, cheese, and tomato. I didn't eat dinner today because that meal was literally enough to fill me up until the next day. I'm not sure what I want to do tomorrow but it will be my last day. xxx
Tuesday 7th August 2018
It was my last day in Malta today. I have just showered and finished packing my luggage. Today was a VERY relaxed day and I did not do much to be honest. I went to a fish spa in the morning to sort out my awful feet. It didn't do much to be honest...the one that I visited in Greece actually left my feet soft. Or maybe my feet are just beyond repair haha. The worker was a very nice girl from Poland. She gave me an extra 40 minutes for free and we spent ages talking about travelling. After the fish spa I relaxed on the beach for about an hour...but the weather was not great today. It was cloudy and rainy so I decided to head to a bar instead for a cocktail. I don't usually go to bars when I travel alone (because I don't want men to assume that i'm looking for "fun"). But it was like 3pm and the bar wasn't full of men. So I thought why not? and got my favourite type of drink...a beloved cocktail. For dinner I had fried octopus with salad. This is another traditional Maltese dish and it tasted very nice. It was a very lazy day today...I didn't really do anything else. xxx
