Don MillerI only have my phone and limited internet on this trip so content and formatting is limited.
I really didn’t do any research on what Malta has to offer a one week visitor. Especially in the off season. A week later I am still not sure.
It’s got its own unique look that’s some where between Italian Renaissance and Middle Eastern block and stucco with an overarching color scheme of beige. Beige everywhere and as far as the eye can see. There are a few outlier white buildings to shock the senses but everyone seems to have gotten the memo that Beige was on sale at the paint store. To be fair there is some relief from the beige with brightly colored doors, balconies and the fishing boats.
It’s a small island that could theoretically be walked across in a few hours. Probably not the prettiest walk because outside of the beige cities, it’s most rocky scrub land. Instead, I took the 2€ bus each day to the various tourist destinations across the country.
Malta have had people living on it for over 5000 years so there are a lot of rock piles around. Some imaginative guy was able to figure out that some of these piles of rock were actual walls to stuff. There is a pile of rocks that were lined up to keep track of solstices and equinoxes. Like Stonehenge but with more rocks.
There are legends of underground caves and tunnels criss crossing the island. They were most recently used as burial chambers. Small sections are open to the public. Not for the claustrophobic public who eat a western diet of processed sugar enhanced carbohydrates though. It’s pretty tight down there. Being off season, I had them all to my portly self. No dead people bits are down there so wasn’t creepy at all.
There is a more popular catacomb tour that I was tempted to visit but my hotel had a pretty sweet (literally and figuratively) breakfast buffet so thought better of it.
Malta is big on boating. I don’t know that for a fact. It’s just an assumption based on the number of full marinas and mooring buoys. Lots and lots of boats of all sizes and types. There weren’t too many boats actually boating though. The water was pretty rough even in the protected bay and it was pretty chilly. Not really pleasure boating season.
I was pretty lucky with the weather. I only got caught in a downpour once. And no one minded me taking cover under their entry way cover for a few minutes. Mostly it was just about to rain or it just stopped raining when I went out for a walk around.
I don’t really do nightlife anymore. Barely do evening life now so I can’t comment on Malta’s party scene. I didn’t find much local cuisine that I wanted to dive into. The restaurants are heavy on the Italian influence. I had a couple of Pizzas and a couple kebabs but nothing really stood out. Even on this tourist driven island economy where everything has to be shipped in, locals are complaining about the increased prices of everything. I was lucky to get dinner under 15€. And that was at Burger King.
Luckily I found a local LiDL grocery store. Like a Trader Joe’s but unlike Trader Joes, everything is crazy cheap. It can be pretty heavy with processed sugar snacks but they are cheap enough that I just will my insulin to just deal with it.
I was originally going to get a month long AirBnB there. Wiser people than I said that I would run out of things to do there long before 4 weeks went by. I am glad I took there recommendation. I was pretty well done after a week. If I was Canadian and didn’t mind sitting in cold beach sand calculating wind chill factors, it would have been fine. But I am averse to both activities, so a week was fine. I was happy with my week there but was pretty happy when I felt the engines of the early morning ferry to Sicily Rumble alive.
Photos are at trippinwithdon.com/photography