Malta (or officially known as Republic of Malta) is a
southern European island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the 10th
smallest country in the world. Malta is a small island, but it has its hands
full of everything a tourist destination requires; Beautiful landscapes, fascinating
treasures, breathtaking ancient sites, rocky caves full of marine life, charming
cities and turquoise beaches. The Malta Islands (Malta, Gozo and Comino) have
an intriguing heritage encircled by the indigo waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
We reached Malta around 8 o’clock from Switzerland due to
delayed flight. Thankfully, our Airbnb host Franz himself came to pickup us
from the airport (as there aren’t many cabs available and with luggage it would
be really difficult to hop on bus with multiple stops). We stayed at San pawl
il-Bahar. It was a residential area and it has quite of hustle bustle around but
it is very far from the Malta airport. Please note that Malta is a very small
country and sleeps quite early, hence it would be tricky to find any dinning
places open after 10.00 PM. We directly went to a supermarket and to a burger
joint and grabbed some burgers and fries.
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Day1 à
Next day morning, first thing to do is to get a day bus pass.
You can opt from multiple rage of bus pass available with an option to top-up
as well. We bought Tallinja card which has 12 single day journeys free for 15
euro. Malta has a very effective
bus system which you should definitely use to travel to all the places
across the country. Once we sorted our travel for the day, we went to Malta
National Aquarium. The sea at the backdrop of the Aquarium was giving a
perfect view to the place. The Aquarium is full of very rare and endangered species.
So, if you have kids this would be a perfect place to start your trip, however youngsters
who would like to be more adventurous, may give it a miss.
Note: No flashlights are allowed inside the
aquarium, so your DSLR might not work here as it’s quite dark inside the
aquarium.
Jelly Fish
Unique underwater experience
After that, we took a long walk back to the
bus stop next to our Airbnb. Although the walk was little long but it was worth
every bit of it as we get to see local shops of Malta and beautiful city by
walking side by side to the ocean.
A
walk to remember
Then we took a bus to Mellieha Bay (also known as Għadira Bay) which is the longest and
most popular sandy beach in the Maltese Islands which boast of pretty clean
water; but we were at the not so beach friendly side of the beach with rocky
terrain. But it’s a good place for fishing. Malta boast of many fishing
hotspots across the country and you could also spend some quality time if
interested. Since we were out of the fishing gears, we gave swimming in this
beach a miss and headed towards the Noah’s ark. It is a big landscape
with main attraction as dog sanctuary, unique sculpture and is good for
archaeology enthusiasts.
Mellieha Bay
Map: Mellieha
Bay
From the Noah’s ark, we went towards the
main attraction of Malta, Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon provides one of the most
spectacular sights of the Maltese islands. It’s quite a shallow bay in between
two islands with crystal clear azure water and is a great place for snorkelling and scuba diving and; has
been hot spot for many Hollywood blockbuster movies.
To reach blue lagoon, we reached to Cirkewwa
Ferry Terminal from where you can take ferry after every 20-30 mins depending
on the season. There are various ferry companies which you
can hire and travel around Comino and Gozzo islands. You can either travel in a
ferry, or take a boat or even a seaplane. The to and fro bill of a ferry is
around 10-12 Euro, again depending on the season. Also, the fare differs if you
want to cover Blue Lagoon and Gozzo as well. The price is little higher if you
want trip to both the islands. Please make sure you don’t miss the last return
ferry either from Blue lagoon or Gozzo.
Blue
Lagoon: You can see the difference in the colour of water
We dived in the water and it was freezing
cold in February end, but it was worth every bit as this was indeed the best
beach I’ve dived into. Due to the shallow water you can go little deep as well
while swimming. The water is so clear here that if you take a look at satellite image
of this place, you can see the sparkling light blue water around Blue lagoon. Only
thing to beware of during swimming is the Jelly fish, they are in abundance and
they can sting real badly. One drawback this place has is the changing room.
There is only one changing room for the tourists and that too was in very bad
condition.
Map: Blue
Lagoon
From blue lagoon, we went straight to see
the ancient capital of Malta- Mdina. Mdina is one of
Europe's earliest and finest examples of an ancient walled city and extraordinary in its mix of medieval
and baroque architecture. With only 300 families residing in this old city of
Malta, it has become a ghost town now and only tourists are keeping it alive.
Due to its peaceful and quiet narrow lanes, it has become pinnacle for any
historic movie setup (ex. Gladiator, Troy, Game of Thrones etc). It also has
many ancient architectures like St. Paul’s Cathedral and very famous Malta’s
Knights museum (the history of how Malta was invaded by Arabs and how the
Knights of Malta had took the city back is a tale of its own league). We were
little late to the place as the museum was already closed. After moving around
the town, we went ahead to dine at one of the restaurant inside the city - Fontanella Tea Garden. The food was delicious, especially the
Bailey’s cheesecake, the staff was very courteous and the place had without a
doubt the best city view in the night.
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Bailey’s Cheesecake
Bird
view of Malta at Night
Map: Mdina
City
We took the bus around midnight (yes, very
rare in any of the European cities) towards our Airbnb and called it a night.
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Day 2 à
Next morning, first thing we did is to top up our bus pass and started towards Valetta, the capital of
Malta. It was uniquely built with state of the art architecture and the best
way to explore Valetta is on foot. Valetta is an UNESCO world heritage site and
boast of many architectural gems like St. John’s Co Cathedral, Upper barrakha
garden, Triton fountain, Saluting battery as well as take the lift down the
bastions to sea level. It’s a good place to get some souvenir from Malta or do
some shopping if you want to.
After reaching Valetta, we first saw the
Triton fountain situated in the middle of a very big open well constructed
space and looks majestic with detailed statues and clear sky. It reminded me of
‘Fontaines de la Concorde’ fountain in
Paris, France.
Triton
Fountain
Once you move further, we reached to Upper
Barrakha Garden near Castille Place which is little steep for a walk. The
garden is beautifully maintained and possesses unsurpassed views across the magnificent
Grand Harbour over to the Three Cities and top view of the Saluting Battery. If
you are in Valetta around noon, make sure you don’t miss this opportunity as
shots will be fired from Canon’s at noon. You can watch it from the top or pay
small donation 2 Euros and go inside as well. The garden is a spot to relax and
have direct access to the lift to the shores below where you can take a boat
ride or ferry across the bay to the three cities.
Saluting
Battery
Harbour
Map: Valetta
City
Then we roamed around in the beautiful city
of Valetta raving about the marvellous Baroque architectures and did some shopping as well.
We then went towards the bus stop of
Valetta from where we took the bus for Airport and reached there in around
40-45 mins on course towards our next destination - Rome.
