Day 110 : Malta Wrap Up

My flight out to Porto is at 4.25pm. Since check out is at 11am, I spent the last few hours I have in Malta by taking a walk around Sliema coast before catching the 1.10pm X2 bus to the airport. 

It's a lot less windy today, which made walking around the coast much more pleasant. The coast has a very rocky but picturesque coastline. 

The trip to Malta has been unexpected. Before I started my big trip, I wouldn't had imagined coming here, but I managed to find some cheap flights that made it worthwhile to fly over as part of my route back up into Western Europe. 

Arriving here, I realised how much we have taken for granted drinking water from the tap. Before arriving in Malta, I did look this up, and a few sites indicated that tap water is safe to drink, but at every place I had stayed, there were signs which indicated that tap water is non drinkable. 

I also found out that Malta was once a British colony, so the power plugs were the 3 pin heads that we use in Singapore. Cars are also driven on the left side of the road, so I had to quickly readjust back to left hand driving since I had been driving on the right in Europe where car rental had been possible. 

The good thing is that roundabouts in Malta usually shows the direction you are suppose to take, so that helps me get back into the groove. 

Outside of Valletta and Sliema, it's fairly easy to drive around, with the occasional extra narrow lanes. Google maps generally works well in the country, though at times it doesn't realise a road is one way. 

Very often I was using only the 1st 3 gears, as it was very hard to go fast due to the way the roads are structured, along with heavier traffic in some sections. 

 

The country is very small, about half the size of Singapore and with only 500,000 in population (vs 6 million in Singapore). As it is small, I could cover most of the key places with a car within the 1 week I was here. 

There are also a lot of trekking routes one can hike on, and I was told that it takes just about 10 hours to walk from one end of Malta to the other!

Public toilets are much better than I had expected - I had entered a few during my trip and most were fairly clean. In contrast to a number of European countries, as well as even in Singapore, where public toilets can sometimes be a nightmare. I also noticed I haven't seen any homeless around. 

There were quite a few foreigners in Malta, with quite a few of them coming to learn English. I met a lot of Colombians, and even Asians from Japan, Korea or Taiwan doing the same. 

It's been really pleasant travelling this time of the year, as the temperature is an average of 16°C in the day and drops to about 12°C at night, and at times during the day, I would get so warm that I needed to take off my jacket and walk with just a long-sleeve t-shirt on. 

Food wise, the average meal in a restaurant is about Euro 20 at the low end. Meals had been average quality for the price, and not too much in variety. 

I did however love their Pastilles, a local pastry filled with either cheese or smashed peas wrapped in a crispy flaky skin. They are very cheap too, at average €0.50, although some places are even at €0.40.

The best ones I have had were at the Fontanella Tea Garden at Mdina as well as the food truck in Gozo. 

While we are still on the topic of pricing, it appears they have different pricing for winter and non-winter period, with prices being lower during winter season. I have managed to stay in a hotel at less than €15 a night, which I doubt I would be able to get during non winter season. 

Even public transport, buses are at €1.50 during winter and €2 outside of winter season. 

Looking at the beaches in Malta, it's highly unlikely I would come here for the beach, as they are mostly rocky in numerous places. The few sandier ones I had seen were located in Mellieha Bay, Golden Bay and the surrounding area. 

Possibly this would be the only time I would come to Malta, since I have seen most of what the country could offer, and especially since there isn't any direct flights to get here from Singapore either. 

And that's my 2 cents worth 😆

Bye Malta! Love this quote found at the Malta Airport. 

Day 109 : Malta Valletta and the Three Cities

It looks like I have saved the best for last, Valletta and the 3 cities are the only main unexplored area I haven't done in Malta.

The ferries from Sliema to Valletta weren't running today, so I had to take a bus over, which took about 25 mins (vs a 5-10 mins boat ride as I was told).

By the time I got into Valletta, it was about 10am. 

Walking into the fortress walls, one of the first interesting building I see is The Royal Opera House. 

It was designed by the English architect Edward Middleton Barry and was erected in 1866. In 1873 its interior was extensively damaged by fire but was eventually restored by 1877. The theatre received a direct hit from aerial bombing in 1942 during World War II. Prior to its destruction, it was one of the most beautiful and iconic buildings in Valletta. After several abandoned plans to rebuild the theatre, the ruins were redesigned by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and in 2013 it once again started functioning as a performance venue, called Pjazza Teatru Rjal. Smart of them to create an outdoor performing centre among the ruins.

I decided to randomly walk around Valletta and took the path that led towards Piazza Jean De Vallatte, with a lot of interesting buildings around the square eg. Pjazza Teatru Rjal, Museum of Fine Arts, Knisja Santa Katerina tal-Italja.

I continued on and in less than a minute reached the Auberge de Castille, Prime Minister's Office.

Malta Stock Exchange was round the corner and it was a first time I see a stock exchange with an emblem and a description of what the emblem means.

It was super quiet inside with only 2 people working at 10.35am?

Upper Barrakka Gardens, a must visit in Valletta, is located next to the Malta Stock Exchange, and in my opinion, have the best views in Valletta. While at the Upper Barrakka Gardens, I was told of a midday cannon fire that happens daily, and as I had about an hour till the ceremony happens, I decided to continue on with my random walking around Valletta.

I love the streets of Valletta with those colourful balconies and narrow streets. One of the streets I walked into housed the Ta Giezu Church which I quickly entered to have a look.

St. Lucia's Street is probably my favourite - such a quaint little street and with the street chandeliers and a view of the cathedral at the end of the street!

I somehow ventured into the centre square of Valletta where St John's Cathedral is located. From pictures it looked rather impressive on the inside, but there was a ridiculous charge of €15 for admission. I wasn't keen to be paying so much to enter a church, and I abandoned my idea of entering.

I walked back to Upper Barrakka Gardens to catch the mid day firing, along with watching the meticulous process leading up to the firing.

As it hit 12 noon, the soldier pulled the trigger and "boom"! It was over very quickly.

Time for lunch, where I settled in to Galeas Pasta Restaurant and ordered a seafood pasta. I was surprised to see that the restaurant also has a hair salon on the inside!

I continued on with my random walking and got to the Grandmaster's Palace. I only managed to enter the entrance briefly, before being told that it was closed.

Walking down to the end of the street, I reached the Siege Bell Memorial as well as the Lower Barracka Gardens. From here, you can also see the 3 cities, but not as well as from the Upper Barrakka Gardens.

Time to go check out the 3 cities! The 3 cities are Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua. They are also known as Birgu, Isla and Bormla respectively. I was told there were ferries that runs from Valletta to the 3 cities on the opposite side.

When I got to the ferry station, this guy just rowed in with 2 passengers on board that was disembarking on my side.

This certainly isn't the ferry I was expecting 🤔

I boarded anyway, along with 4 other passengers looking to get to the other side....

It was an adventure as we are on a really tiny boat in the open sea, in this area filled with huge boats. As we got closer to the 3 cities, I felt really small compared to the bastions and forts towering above us around the area.

I am also glad those gusty winds had died down this morning, so the water was fairly calm. I would be worried being in this boat on those kind of choppy waters.

The ride took just about 10 min to Vittoriosa. A very quick ride. 

I walked around Vittoriosa for a bit, passing by the maritime museum and the waterfront, as well as the Fort (didn't bother to go in since there's a fee). 

A number of movies were filmed around here, including Game of Thrones, Da Vinci Code, World War Z, Gladiator, Troy.

I went next to Kalkara, just to see what it looks like. I didn't venture too far and turned back and headed next to Senglea.

As I walked towards Senglea Point and Gardjola Gardens, I came across benches with very interesting quotes that were derived from seamen.

I particularly like this one!

I also then found out there were proper ferries, which were more inline to what I had expected. Oh well, too late! It was still quite fun to be on the traditional boat across the water though.

The view from Senglea Point and Gardjola Gardens was really nice too, as you get to see Valletta from the waters.

I was super exhausted by then, and decided to head back to the hostel, but stopping through Valletta on the way.

It was a good thing I did that, as I got to see a little of Valletta in the evening, and I also only just recalled wanting to see St. Paul's Cathedral from the Valletta side. It was closed by the time I got there, but I probably wouldn't had gone in anyway, since it would be chargeable.

On my way out to catch the bus from Valletta to Sliema, I found a couple stores selling Pastizzi! I already had 2 earlier in the day, but was still in love with these pastries that I had to buy more.

I also found one store which sold them filled with Chicken, instead of the traditional cheese or smashed peas. Couldn't taste much of the chicken filling in it though.

I am actually surprised I enjoyed the peas more than the cheese - the pea filled ones kind of reminded me of a curry puff.

By the time I got back into the hostel was 6.55pm! Just in time for my 7pm slot for the spa at the hostel - very cool to have such a luxury in a hostel, and private too! The only problem was the water in the jacuzzi wasn't hot, and the sauna could be a lot hotter.

Great way to end of a trip in Malta!