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Published: August 17th 2011
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The Amazing Malta
We started off our Maltese journey very well. After arriving at the airport, we met our transfer driver and he took us straight to our hotel which was about 10 minutes away. We arrived at the hotel in Marsaskala and checked in at around 6:30pm after a huge day of travelling. Malta is only about 250km south of Sicily, but it took us a whole day to get there thanks to the incompetence of the airports in Italy. But once we got there it was really worthwhile. We were staying on the 3rd floor so by the time we got up there the sun was setting and it was truly breathtaking. I’ve never seen so many different colours in a sunset. We got settled in and headed downstairs to the buffet dinner which was really cheap for only €5.The food was pretty good most nights too. After dinner, we made our way back upstairs and off to bed after a pretty exhausting day.
Our first full day in Malta had arrived and we intended to go out to the main city of Valetta and do some washing and post a parcel. Much to our surprise, the
hotel staff had a free washing service. So we handing over a few kg of washing and were on our way. We headed down the road about 10 minutes and caught the bus into the city. On arrive we were greeted by plenty of tourist from all around Europe. If all the residents of Europe come here for a holiday, it must be good! So after making our way to the gate of the city, we walked inside and found a monstrous amount of shops and places to look at. We searched around for nearly an hour before finally finding a post office. Contrary to what we had found in Italy, this was the best and most efficient post office I have ever seen in my life. Research Maltese post offices Mum and Dad, they really know their stuff! We got in and although there were about 10 people in front of us, we only waited about 5 minutes. We got our boxes without any trouble and began packing them. We then realised that we had no tape and due to the office clerk only having about 10cm left on her roll, we were forced to find some tape.
After
locating a stationer, we returned to the post office and sent our parcel. No worries, no argument and no mental videos of myself trashing another post office out of sheer frustration. It was too easy. So with that we went on our way and were amazed that we had finally gotten everything sorted and we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. So we did what we do best. Had lunch!!! And some lunch it was! We stopped in at a little restaurant called the museum restaurant and ordered a burger and pasta. It was delicious and I think the whole meal with drinks set us back about €10 which was super cheap! After lunch we headed up and down the shops looking at the different tourist shops and places. After a few hours of this we walked down towards the water and took some really awesome pictures that gave us a really amazing view of Valetta. After spending a few more hours getting a taste of the city, we made our way back to the bus stop and headed back to Marsaskala. We got back and had a bite to eat at the buffet and
headed upstairs. It was good to lie down and watch something in English as the hotel had the movie channel which was pretty excellent.
Saturday came and we had decided to do the hop on hop off tour to familiarise ourselves with all of Malta. We had a buffet breakfast which was included for free and then went to check on our clothing. It still wasn’t ready, probably because we had so much of it! Not too much of a problem though, because about 30 minutes later, a hotel employee knocked at the door and handed us our washing that had been all cleaned and dried. So with that we got dressed and headed back into Valletta to catch the tour bus. We did have to wait half an hour to catch the tour bus as we had just missed the last one. This didn’t really faze us though, as it gave us an opportunity to take more photos of the spectacular Maltese view. We finally got on our bus and were immediately greeted by a very impatient Welsh girl who couldn’t understand that everything in the universe didn’t revolve around her. We were two of nearly 20 people
trying to get on the bus and she was blocking the door whining about how the commentary system. After 5 minutes she gave up and went back upstairs. The bus driver then set to work trying to fix the thing, as it was pretty helpful to have so people knew what they were looking at. Within moments however, she was back downstairs having another go. Now it was pretty obvious that this fella was trying his best to get it working and if she had have shut her trap and let him work it probably would have worked in half the time. But no she went on and on and on. She went back upstairs and it became apparent that she was pretty vocal about the commentary not working. More and more people came down and kept asking and then once again Welsh girl came back. She then started harping on about how the driver should call another bus and it wasn’t fair blah blah blah. Now this was getting annoying to us because every time she came down, the bus would stop and we wouldn’t see anything. Finally he got the system to work and she went upstairs muttering
and all was well. So we were finally on our way and it was well worth the wait. Over the course of the next 3 hours, the bus took us to some amazing spots including Mdina Glass Factory, Mdina city which houses the highest point in Malta, Golden Bay beach, Bugibba which is famous for its nightlife and finally the Calamatta home of Sliema. So we toured around and got off in Bugibba for some food, which we found to be pretty good at a tavern just near our stop. Although I don’t think the chef knows the difference between a Caesar and Greek salad because the Caesar looked very much Greek. After lunch we jumped back on the bus and looked at the rest of the amazing sight. These included the beautiful beaches of St Julian’s and a really cool rock beach at Sliema. We headed back to Valletta and then back to the hotel as it had been a really long day and if we didn’t head back then, we wouldn’t be able to get back at all as it was getting late.
We went up the roof of our hotel and had a swim in the pool
before once again hitting up the buffet for dinner and headed upstairs.
The next day, we caught the bus to Sliema where Sarah’s Nan was born. We had a free harbour cruise that came with our bus tour from the previous day. So with that we jumped on our boat and started the hour and a half tour around Sliema and Marsa. After this we headed back to the main street of Sliema and had lunch at a great Maltese restaurant. I tried my first rabbit dish and it was sensational. It kinda tastes like a mix between chicken and lamb. Very, very good! After our amazing lunch we headed up the road and found the street where Sarah’s great grandparents used to live. We then walked further up and found the church where the Calamatta’s had been christened. After reliving a bit of Sarah’s family history, we made our way to the rock beach that we had seen the day before. We spent a few hours swimming and sunbaking before heading back to the hotel. We had dinner and watched another movie before heading to bed as we had a huge day of travelling ahead of us
Monday started at 2:30am for us as we had to get to the airport for a 5:30am flight to Crete. We packed our things and caught our transfer bus at 3:30 to the airport. After checking our baggage in and going through customs, we had a bite of brekky and boarded our plane. The stopover was in Athens but only for an hour or so, and before we knew it, we were off to Crete!
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