Maltesers in Malta!

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Hi all. It's Dan writing this blog about our latest weekend trip in the Mediterranean. We were looking forward to our trip to Malta as the cold weather here in Denmark is making its presence felt. Sure enough, we landed in Malta on a Friday with a pleasant 25C and lots of sunshine.

Apart from New Zealand last year, we have not hired a car on any of our trips – we don't really see the need. This allows us to experience a bit more about what life is like in the places we travel. We stuck to this pattern and took the bus from the airport to our hotel in Sliema. This was a bit tricky, because the information we found on the Internet turned out to be wrong, but we managed to get to our destination by using a bit of common sense (thanks, Jes).

The first thing I noticed was that they drive on the left side of the road, just like in Australia. However, there seems to be a lack of order in the traffic system: they don't seem to understand the concept of lane markings or traffic signs. Most of the roads we travelled on seemed to be in poor condition, so a bumpy ride it was, whenever we got on a bus.

Once at the hotel, we checked in and went for a walk around the area. The weather was nice and we had nothing planned for that afternoon. Sliema seems to be undergoing rapid development with a lot of large new buildings being built in the area. We walked towards the ferry terminal and stopped for a snack at one of the local cafes and tried some traditional pastries (Pastizzi). Afterwards, we just wandered around the area a bit more and booked a bus tour for Saturday. Later that night, we had dinner at a very nice Japanese restaurant next to our hotel. The food was very good!

On Saturday, we went on the bus tour around the island. The vehicle was a large van, kind of like a Ford Transit and it was in desperate need of new suspension, so once again, a bumpy ride it was. Our driver was a very friendly local who spoke fairly good English. Most people in Malta speak English, so that was a plus! We also heard a lot of Italian being spoken, and of course, Maltese is the official and most spoken language... it sounded like nothing I've heard before, so I was glad that we could all communicate in English.

Now it’s Jes writing…..

Our first stop on the tour was the Blue Grotto, which is actually not one grotto, but many sea caverns. Not long into the boat trip to visit the various caverns, I remembered that I get seasick, so while trying take happy snaps of the caves, I also had to keep an eye on the horizon when possible. Needless to say, I didn’t feel the best when the journey ended, but it was well worth it. Our next stop was the Ta’ Qali Crafts Village, where we visited a glass factory and gold and silver filigree factory (a kind of handmade jewellery). I didn’t take to the jewellery, but I did find a very nice pink glass bowl to purchase. From the crafts village we could look up and see the town of the Mdina which was our next stop. Our driver dropped us off, and we had about 1.5hrs to grab some lunch and explore the town. We’d heard good things about a place called Fontanella Tea Garden, so we wandered through the small streets til we were eventually sitting eating pizza and chocolate cake while looking down over the many other towns of Malta. Surprisingly, we could see Valletta from our table! After we finished exploring the streets of Mdina, our next stop was Mosta which is famous for having a church with an unsupported dome – apparently the 3rd largest in Europe!

On our return to Sliema, we chilled out for a bit before finding a traditional Maltese restaurant for dinner. Dan tried the rabbit pasta and Lampuki fish, while I had the ravioli and bragioli (meatballs). The food wasn’t bad, in fact, Dan raved about the fish, but we were just so impressed with the Japanese restaurant, that we ended up eating there again on Sunday night!

On our final day in Malta, we took the bus to explore the old city of Valletta. As it was Sunday, most things were closed, but we managed to wander around and get a feel for the place and found a little café to have a coffee and bite at before peeking into St John’s Cathedral which is a gem of Baroque art and architecture. At the time, a service was in progress, so we only had a chance to have a quick look (and no photos).

While we got to see a fair bit of the country….it is quite small….all in all, we found Malta to be a bit disappointing. I’m not quite sure what is was about the place, but I guess we had conjured up a different idea of what we would see, feel and experience. After our trip, we discovered a few work colleagues had similar mixed feelings about Malta too. On the other hand, we hear of people that go there every year (or more than once a year) for a holiday. It seems it a place you either love or hate, so you’ll have to visit yourself and decide!

Oh, and I just remembered a conversation Dan on the bus on the way from the airport to Sliema...

J: I wonder what sort of food they eat here?
D: Maltesers?!?!
J: Ridic!

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