Malta

We just got back from a lovely relaxing and hot (35 degrees +!) week in Malta. For our first European summer trip it was great, and the Med’s a million times warmer than the Pacific!

We spent most days exploring different areas of the country (it’s only 30kms long) and most evenings poolside. We managed not to turn lobster-red like the poms but stuck to our wise NZ roots and slipped, slopped and slapped.

Highlights

St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta

The home of the Knights of St John, this is an amazing display of wealth and devotion. Despite being plundered by Napoleon in 1798, it retains much splendor. The floor is totally covered in marble tablets celebrating the lives of famous Knights interred below. Each of the main chapters of the Knights were allocated a chapel to the side of the main hall, and they competed with each other to make their chapel the best. It resulted in some pretty amazing artwork and sculptures.
On reflection, we figured that this was probably in our top two churches worldwide after St Peter’s in Rome.

Boat trip to islands of Gozo and Comino

We spent a lovely day on board a boat which took us north to the islands of Gozo and Comino. Great crew and an amazing lunch. Had a few swims including one in an amazing blue water bay where a number of movie scenes have been filmed, including some from Troy.

Hypogeum

The Hypogeum, on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, is a series of halls, chambers and passages cut out of rock underground. It dates back to 3600 BC and was used as a burial chamber. Because it’s protected only 80 people a day can attend so you have to book in advance. We just paid double the price though for a “special ticket” – well worth it.

Food/Drink
The snack food of the Maltese was a small fried pastry containing either a pea or ricotta filling. It was so good that it became our breakfast of choice, 7 days in a row.

The national beer of Malta, Cisk, became a favourite and was ridiculously cheap at about 1.20 Euro average per bottle. Great for quenching your thirst on those hot days.

Transport

The bus system, while comprising of old-school orange and yellow painted English buses, was a reliable and cheap way of getting round. The bus drivers were always helpful in answering our questions about which way to go. One bus driver was particularly adept at simultaneously smoking, putting on his shirt, and going round a corner at high speed.

Lowerlights

Our hotel was terrible but cheap, and luckily we didn’t spend much time indoors. Things ranged from our inland view room being in fact an internal room (ie no natural light), sheets stained yellow and towels ranging from threadbare with holes one day to lush the next. That didn’t matter though as it had a pretty decent sized pool and bar, and the location was great. We got pretty annoyed at the number of people who clearly left towels on loungers by the pool all day long though, but think we’d best get used to that (and we did nick someone’s newspaper one day after they hadn’t made an appearance for two hours).