Thursday 11th July
Our day started at 4am when we were walking to the airport, in 9 degrees, in the rain, in Poland.
Once again, it took the full two hours to check in and get through security. It's interesting how security is different in every airport we go to. Generally you have to take out laptops and liquids and that's it. In the Netherlands, we didn't have to take anything out. Here in Poland, we had to take all electronic items out of our bags including cameras and lenses.
We were flying Wizz Air again and unless you pay for seats they randomly allocate the seats so that you aren't sitting with the other person on your booking. Well, last time we flew with them I was at the front of the plane and Sam was way down the back of the plane. For this flight we checked in a couple of hours before hand and they randomly allocated us to the same row, just the window seat and isle seat! When we hopped on the plane the lady in the middle seat switched with us so we managed to beat the system and sit together!
A few hours later and we've landed in Malta! We're back in the mediterranean! Back to summer!
As we flew Schengen country to Schengen country there was no passport control which is still so strange to us! We walked through, grabbed our bags, changed into shorts because we left in 9 degrees and now its 31(!), and hopped on the bus!
We're staying in a more locals town, away from the tourist areas, so the bus takes about 45mins and takes the scenic route, so we felt like we saw a fair bit of Malta by the time we arrived! The stops seem to be every few meters because in the 45 minutes we were on it, there were 44 stops! It's so unlike anything we've seen before. It's gorgeous and has a great Mediterranean summer island feel to it. It sort of feels like a cross between Greece and the middle east. It's very cool.
We arrived at the apartment where we met Jono and Avi, Sam's friends who we are doing this part of the trip with. It was so good to see them after so long.
The apartment was amazing! It is so large and spacious, and really light. It is a two bedroom apartment, with a big bathroom, and a huge open plan kitchen, dining, living area. The best feature though is the glass double doored balcony that looks out over the bay. The view is incredible!
Once we'd had a bit of a catch up we headed out to find a grocery store to get some bits for lunch. We found a couple of stores but they weren't really grocery stores. One seemed to only have frozen meat and the other seemed to have everything but food. We ended up coming across an Iceland, a UK budget store and this was actually well stocked and became our grocery store while we were here. They still had a strange selection of food compared to what we're used to, and things in Malta are quite expensive, especially coming from Eastern Europe!
After lunch we all headed out down to the local bus stop and caught the bus into Valletta, the capital of Malta.
It is a really cool city! It is a walled/ fortified city and is full of amazing buildings and streets with incredible architecture that is so completely different to anything we've seen! It is so unique. Like I said before, it feels very Greek meets middle east.
We spent the afternoon exploring the beautiful intriguing city, wandering the streets and the Barraka Gardens which are lovely public gardens offering a view over the grand harbour.
We also were able to wander out along part of the fortress walls.
Once we couldn't stand the heat any longer, and we'd walked around most of the city, we hopped on a bus back to our town, Marsaskala. On the bus we drove past a festa being set up, it was so colourful and seemed so festive! Festas, are a Maltese religious event where they honour their patron saints. They love their patron saints, so there are lots of festas all throughout the summer. Every year there are 60 festas on Malta! It seems to be quite a bit of a party after the mass and procession with music and fireworks and decorations and statues all through the streets.
Avi introduced us to a Maltese dinner tonight. She cooked up some ricotta ravioli and homemade garlic tomato sauce for it, and I whipped up some sliced tomato with vinegar, salt and pepper. It was a very Mediterranean meal! It was delicious! The food is so fresh here, the tomatoes are so much tastier and fresher than home.
Later in the evening after dinner, we all went out for a walk around the bay. Apparently its a Maltese thing to go for a walk after dinner. I can't believe how lively the place is! Everyone comes out after dark! There are groups of friends and family all walking together, others sitting on benches having a chat, and others sitting on benches or in the park eating takeaway pizza. The place is buzzing! All the shops have really strange hours here, open for a couple of hours in the morning and then from 6pm in the evening, and there is no one around during the day. It is incredibly hot during the day, so presumably they come out at night to avoid the heat in the day.
We had a really nice walk around the bay, soaking up the culture, and then headed back to the apartment and crashed after our very big day.
Friday 12th July
After a very busy couple of weeks and a big day exploring yesterday, we had a bit more of a quitter one today.
We spent the morning chilling in the amazing apartment, looking out at the gorgeous views of the little bay town.
We nipped out around midday to pick up a couple of bits for lunch from the grocery store. It is scorching outside today!
We put a twist on a Maltese sandwich that Avi introduced us to and made it as a wrap. We had the tortilla, tomato paste, tuna, sweetcorn and then seasoned it with salt and pepper. It was really tasty and something a bit different for us! Normally its made on a roll and instead of corn it has capers, but neither myself or Sam were huge fans of capers so we subbed it out! Later on in the afternoon some of us just chilled and others had a little siesta, before we headed down to the beach for a swim.
I still find the beaches fascinating. We really are so lucky in Australia with the beaches that we have. The beach here was a really cool, classic Mediterranean beach. A little area with some sand and mostly rock with a ladder into the ocean, and it was packed! We found a little spot on the rocks for our stuff and then jumped on in to the water. It was so nice. It was really salty too, which made floating very easy! We had a great time swimming around, cooling off. The water was so clear and the atmosphere was just so lively, but relaxing.
We then walked back around the coast to the apartment and got ready to head out to get some dinner. We walked around the bay and found a pizza place that we’d seen the locals carrying the boxes around so we knew it must be good! It was packed when we got there which is a great sign! We ordered a couple of pizzas and while we waited walked around this side of the bay, passing all the locals sitting in their family groups and going for their post dinner strolls.
We then picked up our pizza and walked back around the bay and had a great evening eating the most amazing pizza, drinking wine, and chatting the night away.
Saturday 13th July
Everyone was quite tired today so we had a nice chill day hanging out together at the apartment.
We all embraced the mediterranean culture and even had a siesta in the afternoon!
We had a nice dinner together in the apartment and then popped downstairs for a gelato afterwards from the gelato shop. We then went for our daily after dinner walk around the bay, gelato's in hand.
It seemed to be even more lively tonight and when we rounded the other side of the bay we could hear music and there was a live band calling themselves the Beatles, playing covers of Beatles songs.
We hung around and listened to them for a bit, before continuing our walk. We then came across a fruit and veg truck/stand so I indulged and bought a nectarine and plum! They were so lovely and fresh! The supermarkets don't really have fruit and veg over here so you have to get them from the little trucks.
Sunday 14th July
We set out for a day on the water and visiting Comino and Gozo, the other islands that make up Malta!
The bus system in Malta isn't fantastic. When it works, its good, but it's not super reliable. The main line only comes once an hour and doesn't necessarily stick to a tight schedule, which can be a bit of an issue! It was an 1hr 40min bus ride from where we were staying to the port where our boat was leaving from. The first bus we needed to catch to get to the port ran every 20mins so we managed to get onto that one, along with every man and his dog. We then ran to make the connection with the other bus that comes every hour and it was either earlier than it was meant to be or just didn't show and we couldn't wait for the next hour because we'd miss our boat! So we had to quickly call a cab to pick us up and take us the rest of the way!
We got to the boat in much better timing and boarded our little boat and managed to get a nice booth on the shaded deck to sit at. The tour that we ended up on was a spill over boat from the main big tour boat, but I think we ended up with a much better deal in the end. While our boat was reasonably full, it was much much smaller than the main boat, and was actually a better boat.
The sea was a bit rough today, but not too bad, it just meant that the wind kept the heat at bay! We headed out on our boat and all I can say is that the Maltese coast is beautiful! The rocky coastline and amazingly clear blue water is stunning! It is like a paradise!
It wasn't long before we'd cruised to our first stop, Crystal Lagoon. As the name suggests, it's a beautiful cove with the most crystal clear blue water.
The boat had a slide that went off the side and into the ocean, so of course we slid our way into the water!
It was so lovely to swim in! Jono and Avi had brought snorkel masks with them as well, so we could see under the water, the visibility was insane! The water was so deep and clear! What we did realise when we looked underneath is that there were jellies in the water! They aren't jellies that I'd seen before, but from a bit of searching I think they were Mauve stingers. Only small jellies, with fat short tentacles and a small pinkish head. Luckily they all seemed to be deeper in the water so we were fine up at the surface.
We splashed about and slid down the slide multiple times over the hour that we were there, then we hopped back on the boat and started cruising to our next stop.
The next stop was the Blue Lagoon, which again was absolutely stunning! It was gorgeous, so blue and just like a paradise. It was much busier here though with a few more other boats here too!
We went to go in the water but as soon as we looked over the edge of the boat we could see jellies everywhere and floating close to the surface too! We decided it was not worth getting stung so disembarked the boat and climbed up onto the island of Comino where we did a bit of drone flying. It was so cool on the land, it was so almost deserty, sparse and rugged and then we look over the cliff and its rich blue water. It was such a contrast!
We hopped back on the boat and had our picnic lunch we'd packed before cruising round to the Island of Gozo where we had three hours to explore.
We caught a little bus from the dock to the little seaside town of Xlendi.
We walked around the little bay there and out to the rocks to go for a swim.
The water here was so much colder! It was still so nice though and the water was so clear. I had a little look around and couldn't see any jellies so we relaxed and splashed about in the water for a bit and then Avi who was swimming around with the goggles on saw a jelly! The next thing one of the locals says to me "excuse me there is a jellyfish behind you!" oooh nope! He tells us all that he's been stung by one as well! Everyone clears out of the water and seems he's already been stung he stays in and starts picking them up by the heads and flinging them out of the water and out onto the rocks! I can't believe they were just picking them up!
It was a lovely little swim while it lasted. It is such a hot day, but on the boat it's been a beautiful temperature. It was only being off the boat and walking around on the land that we noticed how hot it actually was, so this was a lovely little dip to cool off.
We walked back around the little bay and sat down at one of the little cafe/bars on the water front and had 4.50 euro cocktails! An even better bargain than in Greece!
We had a lovely time sipping our cocktails and we also tried a Maltese sweet treat, Mqaret. It was some sort of date filling rolled inside short crust pastry. It was delicious!
It was then time to hop back on the bus and to our boat. We had a beautiful relaxing cruise back to the main island, stopping at some beautiful rock caves with amazingly blue water along the way.
It was such a fun day! It was so beautiful, and just such a fun thing to do with everyone.
With buses being late and then getting stuck in traffic the journey back to our town took over two hours! The buses were incredibly packed as well, and we only just made the connection for the once an hour bus! It was a very long journey back and we were well and truly ready for dinner!
We did see a festa in action while we were on the bus though which was really cool after watching them set up for it.
We eventually made it back and had a fantastic night in with pizza, garlic bread and wine (we're close enough to Italy that it's fine!)
It was one of the best days and such a great night to top it off!
Monday 15th July
It's our last day in Malta.
We spent the morning at the beach, enjoying the mediterranean sea and soaking up the sun.
The rest of the day was just spent hanging out, wandering around Marsaskala and chilling, we even squeezed in one last siesta before we had to pack ourselves up and head to the airport.
The wind had even dropped off just enough for Sam to get his drone up finally!
We said goodbye to the others and left to catch our bus, hoping that it would show!
We made it to the airport in plenty of time, checked in and then grabbed something for dinner. We'd tried to beat the system again with the seating on the plane but we were seated a few rows apart.
We then made our way through security and passport control as we were leaving the Schengen state. Well, I am so glad that we were so diligent with staying within the 90 out of 180 day limit, because I was stood there for about 10mins as they went through my passport, questioned me and counted up the number of days I'd spent where and tried to figure out my route!
9:30pm came and we boarded the plane and funnily enough, I'd said to Sam imagine if we both sat next to people that were travelling together but had been separated like us and would swap, and then low and behold that is exactly what happened! So we did end up beating the system and got to sit together!
We've had such a great time in Malta and such fun catching up with Jono and Avi.
Goodbye Malta!
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