blogging around the world_malta
TRANSCRIPT
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Blogging AroundBlogging AroundBlogging AroundBlogging AroundThe WorldThe WorldThe WorldThe World
Cover Design: Cara WilliamsCover Design: Cara WilliamsCover Design: Cara WilliamsCover Design: Cara WilliamsPhotography: Cara WilliamsPhotography: Cara WilliamsPhotography: Cara WilliamsPhotography: Cara Williams
Copyright 2007Copyright 2007Copyright 2007Copyright 2007 by Cara Williamsby Cara Williamsby Cara Williamsby Cara WilliamsAll rights reservedAll rights reservedAll rights reservedAll rights reserved
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By Cara WilliamsBy Cara WilliamsBy Cara WilliamsBy Cara Williams
CONTENTSCONTENTSCONTENTSCONTENTS
Chapter 1:Chapter 1:Chapter 1:Chapter 1: ValettaValettaValettaValetta 3333
Chapter 2:Chapter 2:Chapter 2:Chapter 2: GozoGozoGozoGozo 5555
Chapter 3:Chapter 3:Chapter 3:Chapter 3: XXXXlendilendilendilendi 9999
Chapter 4:Chapter 4:Chapter 4:Chapter 4: BugibbaBugibbaBugibbaBugibba 11111111
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Chapter OneChapter OneChapter OneChapter One
Aug 23rd
I started packing and looking for my passport after work today and
disaster! No passport. I cried, rang mum and dad who started turning
Seward upside down, cried some more, started throwing things round
the flat, rang Jon and had him searching his house and Vinka picked
me up to take me to work to check there no luck. Jon came back to
mine and looked with me. We moved all the furniture, split my bed in
half and tipped it upside down and there it was it had been wedgedbetween broken bed slats. I was on the verge of cancelling the holiday
this was a sign. I HAVE to enjoy this one after all the stress leading upto
it!
Aug 24th
Up at 7.40am. Mum (bless her) picked me up, picked up Jon and
drove us to Brentford Station. We got our 9.30 tickets to Gatwick and
got to Gatwick in an hour. There was a HUGE queue for security, but it
moved quite quickly and we even had time to buy Travel Scrabble
and I had a bottle of wine while Jonhad his huge cooked breakfast! After
I beat Jon drunkenly at in flight
Scrabble and 3 hours and 5 minutes
later we landed in Valetta, got our
bags and went out, found a bus, got
on it and drove the hour and a half
to the town centre. The driver kindly
let us have the drive or free. I like the
Maltese! I fell asleep on the bus it
was hot and I was feeling faint and
hungover. We had found guesthouse recommended in the book
which we waited outside as no
one answered the bell. We waited
for an eternity and eventually Jon
rang the number on the door. The
guy said we should wait for him
until 7pm. It was 5pm. We quickly
realised the Maltese run on their
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own time and assume everyone else does so we headed up and down
some more steep roads until we came across The Grand Harbour Hotel
and paid 25 lira each (about 18 each) for the night. After a much
needed shower, we wandered around town to find somewhere to eat
and ended up at Cafe Caravaggio (which was quite decently priced
(to figure out the exchange rate, halve the lira value and add the
original lira value plus a bit ie. 4 lira is about 8. Dinner was nasty by the
way. We went for a walk to purge our stomachs and noticed that The
Malta Arts Festival was in full swing. There was go karting, opera singers
in the main square and fireworks.
Vaeltta is very pretty it reminds me of Trogir (but with a lot of British
influence). There are British shops (with a much better M&S than us!)
Aug 25th
After a sleepless night (why didnt we pay 2 more for air con!) we had
breakfast on the 7th floor of our hotel which had amazing views. We
then packed up our stuff and headed out to do a recommended walk
around the city walls. It took about an hour we sat and chatted to a
local for 20 mins about the history of Malta and his experiencesabroad. The Maltese are very friendly. We then slowly headed back to
our hotel and stopped in Cettina Cafe for a pea pie. (We didnt really
have one but it is a speciality).
It is hard work walking up endless flights of stairs with two bags in 50
degrees!
We walked to the bus stop and got the
number 62 to Paceville. After a 15 min
journey we were in Paceville (which
could also be Touristville). It is all overpriced hotels, casinos, bars and
restaurants. A guy in cab tried to sell us a
ride but after we said no he said to follow
him on foot to the B&B he touts business
for. We followed him and waited for ages
for the hotel manager (again working on
Malta time). We eventually found out it
would cost us 24 lira (31) to stay. We
were looking for 10 accommodation but
haggled the guy down to 7 lira each for
a single room. We took it, put our stuff upthere (no damn air con!) and headed round the corner to a car hire
place. It cost us 16.95 lira each (a rip off at 35 for the day) We took it,
but wouldnt pick it up until tomorrow so jumped on the bus and
headed to St Georges Bay to a sandy beach and relaxed for a couple
of hours.
We headed back to the room a little more relaxed and then went for
dinner down the road at The Avenue (recommended in Lonely Planet).
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After dinner, we went to a bar and played pool, and went back to the
room to conserve money for tomorrow. It is unbearably hot but as it
was so cheap we paid for a second night. There are freaky noises like
gunshots outside every few minutes. Ok so maybe they were fireworks
but scary nonetheless.
ChapterChapterChapterChapter TwoTwoTwoTwo
Aug 26th
We got up early to meet the guy with our car. He was late surprise. We
almost missed him as he arrived in a
battered white Peugeot but found
ourselves jumping in the back as he
drove to a local hotel to meet his
friend and sort out the insurance
papers. Once we had done this and
taken extensive photos of the car, we
were on our way. I had been fretting
all night about my navigating and Jon
demonstrating road rage as I led him
down yet another one way street but
luckily, all I had to do was lead him
down route 1 to get to the South of
the island to see The Blue Grotto.About 20 minutes later we arrived, got
out, walked round a mountain to find
people sunbathing by the sea. Boats
were picking people up to go to The
Grotto (a beautiful Aqua Marine cove). We paid our 3 lira and hopped
on a boat and visited a series of caves, plus numerous poisonous
jellyfish along the
way.
We then got back
in the car andheaded for Hagar
Qim (supposedly
the worlds oldest
ruins). By the time
we arrived it was
about 50 degrees
and very difficult to
walk around in the
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open air. The ruins were quite a
walk from the car park. We saw
the ruins from a distance (we
had to pay to go in and werent
that bothered) so we walked
along the rough barren terrain
to the cliff edge and saw a
grave of one of the Maltese
Presidents. We sat and
contemplated for a few
minutes, Jon peed in the bush
and we headed to get a much
needed drink. In the cafe I asked the barman what all the explosions
were and he laughed and said The Germans are coming. Well that
reassured me. A local woman then told me that every Sunday is festival
day in Malta and each town tried to outdo each other with
celebrations and fireworks to honour their respective saints.
We got back in the car and drove West to Rabat (a place of historical
and medieval beauty) and specifically for Mdina (a walled citadel
inside Rabat town). It is majestic and
untouched
by tourists.
We
couldnt
stay in the
sun long
enough to
explore
Mdina
properly sowe got an
ice cream,
got in the
car and
went to
the far East
of the island to Golden Bay (a beautiful
sandy beach) but couldnt find a parking spot and the beach was crammed
so we decided to go and gate crash a
local hotel and use their pool instead.
The Corinthia San Gorg proved to bethe closest and I went in, put my best
flirty voice on and tried to charm them
into using their pool. They said of course
madam that will be 3 lira each. Damn.
We rested in the shade and went in the
pool for a couple of hours before driving
to the not very highly recommended
fishing village of Marxlaloxx (Marsh a
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shlock). It smelt of gone off fish and there were numerous old people parked
on benches along the water front watching the sunset. We found a place to
eat which was hideous. The orange juice was gone off and the meat was
horrible. I didnt think anyone could mess up chicken steak. Avoid the Cafe
de Paris.
Jon was ready to stop driving at this point, so we headed back to The
Radisson hotel where we left the car for the car hire people. Although the guy
was nice from the Briffa Rentals company, the car was dodgy as hell, as was
the arrangement we made with Joe. He told us to leave the car anywhere
with the keys in the glove compartment and draw him a map of where it was
parked and leave the map with our hostel owners. We did that and started
the 15 min trek back to the Hacienda (our hostel) to get ready to go out for
some alcoholic beverages.
After a shower, we went to an internet cafe to look at potential
accommodation on Gozo, got bored so we played pool and went to
Footloose bar/club and had some cocktails while watching the pole
dancing and salsa dancing going on simultaneously. It was a great bar
especially when Doug (or so we named him)
turnedup and
geek
danced
with his
friends.
After 4 or
5
cocktails
we
staggered to The
Peppermint Park bar for another drink. Paceville
is the ideal place for a girls or lads holiday. It is
drinks and clubs galore and loud music from everywhere. It was really nice to
spend an evening doing that but Im glad were moving on tomorrow. We
got some chips and headed back to our room at about 1.30am. For once, I
slept like a log!
Aug 27th
After dragging Jon out of bed, we wentto the no. 645 bus stop to the ferry
terminal, Cirkewwa (which was a lovely
45 min drive round the entire island).
We did the 25 minutes crossing to Gozo
(Mgarr) and realised we had no map of
the area. We started walking aimlessly
until a guy turned up trying to get us to
take a cab to Xlendi (recommended
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place to stay) but we wouldnt pay the ridiculous amount he was charging us
so he reluctantly pointed us to our bus to get to Victoria (you have to stop off
at Victoria in order to get anywhere in Gozo). The number 25 bus turned up
just as we reached the stop so we got on and sweated in the heat until
changing for the no. 87 bus to Xlendi (Shlendi) where we had already
decided to stay. The driver was displaying typical Maltese behaviour by being
fashionably late (we waited 35 mins for our bus) but luckily Xlendi was well
worth the wait. I loved it immediately. It is set tiny but based around the
harbour which they have cultivated into what seems like a huge turquoise
natural swimming pool. Hotels
and bars are scattered around
the sea and climb up a cliff. We
knew the place we wanted to
stay was up a steep hill so we
went up the only steep hill we
could find, but after 5 minutes
couldnt be bothered to walk
anymore and stopped at the
Serena Apartments to ask about
prices. It was a strangely furnished
hotel reception, with Victorian
brass fittings and chairs covered
with felt. We booked a room for 4 nights after we realised they had air
conditioning. It was 25 a night but well worth it as we had our own entire
apartment, with kitchen, bathroom, huge bedroom and living area. It was
amazing. There are two pools in the hotel, a gym and we get breakfast. There
is even a tunnel under the hotel to take people to the ground level to save
them walking down the steep hill!
We got our stuff together and
went to the terrace pool where
we had this gorgeous view of thesea below. I started reading The
Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl
which really are amazing. It kept
me entertained until I got hungry
and we went in to have a shower
and partake in the usual pre
dinner rituals including freaking
out about how much money we
have spent and whether to skip
dinner tonight. We decided to eat
and headed to a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant up on the cliff IcCimi. We were seated out overlooking the sunset. It was bliss. As was the food.
Oh my god. It was exquisite. I had a peppercorn steak and Jon had Dick a la
orange and both were the best meals we have ever eaten. The local Maltese
wine was also delicious. The meal cost us 25 (eek!) but was so worth it. We
walked off our full bellies around the town there was only one bar. I loved the
fact that it has so much character and wont change for tourists. We got an
ice cream (always room for ice cream!) and went for a dose of air con and
the Travel Channel (I am addicted!)
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CCCChapterhapterhapterhapter TTTThreehreehreehree
Aug 28th
I slept badly considering the nice place. Jon and I both have bad
stomachs (Im sure it was that orange juice) but naturally were well
enough to sample our continental breakfasts. It appears our hotel is
overrun with elderly Scottish people (thanks Ryanair) and we wolfed
down our scrambled eggs as they all
nibbled their dry toast.
After breakfast we went for a walk up a
mountain to discover a cove and a dead
end. A bit of a let down, so we went and
sat on the small piece of sandy beachand sunbathed instead. We snorkelled for
about an hour in the clear water until it
got too hot. We went in search of a
supermarket to get ingredients to make a
lasagne tonight to a) save money and b)
use the wonderful facilities in our
apartment. It cost us 4 lira (about 8) so it
was a good choice! Until we got back to
the apartment and realised we dont
have an oven! We will improvise. We were told it was 38 degrees
before 9am this morning (by one of the afore mentioned Scottishguests) so I wonder what temperature it is now at midday!?
We sat by our hotel pool in the afternoon and snoozed until about 5pm
to start cooking. We decided to make a microwaveable version of
lasagne, which we figured was okay and all went well until our
microwave stopped working and we were worried it was going to
spark and explode. It started working again randomly (we realised it
wouldnt work over about 40 degrees kind of a culinary version of
Speed. We waited and
waited but eventually we did
eat our lasagne and it was
damn good even if I do say
so myself. Jon felt really
unwell afterwards which was
not a great omen, but I
blame the orange juice still
from the other day. SO we
stayed in and happily
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enjoyed our air con and The Travel Channel!
Aug 29th
We were up at 8.45am (the alarm was set for 8 but it is THAT difficult to
get Jon out of bed in the mornings. We decided to brave the
unpredictable buses to visit Xhaghra (a pretty village with caves and
orleanders. I wasnt sure what orleanders were but I wanted to find
out. We waited for 40 minutes for the 87 bus to Vctoria. A bus cam but
decided not to pick us up so we turned to the smelly Hills Have Eyes
extra who was chuckling to himself oh the buses only come once an
hour round here so we gave up and
went to find out the cost of car hire
here. It was a lot more reasonable
than Malta - 9 a day so we signed
up for tomorrow. We did the usual
pool in the morning, beach in the
afternoon instead, snorkelled, swam
and had the rest of our lasagne for
dinner. We procrastinated, digested
and took the tunnel down to sit bythe pier to discuss plans for
tomorrows drive. We went to Moby
Dick for a drink or two and then went back to our hotel and heard
music coming from the roof top terrace. Yes, the Elvis impersonator was
in town. Jon and I played pool while he
sang, drunkenly argued and reluctantly
made up. We did what we usually do
when we argue. We went to the room
and ate a chunk of frozen Revels. (They
melted in the intense heat, we
froze/recycled them. Very Green if youask me).
Chapter four
Aug 30th
After breakfast, we met our second banged up White Peugeot in the
car park to find out it will cost us
double what we were quoted. We
were pissed off but paid the money as
we had already planned out our route.
So we tried to find our way to
Barbagan Rock (a viewpoint
overlooking Comino the third island
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after Malta and Gozo) but after very nearly running over a pedestrian
and freaking out about the lack of road signs, we got lost and ended
up in Qala.
Luckily it was right by the sea and we got a view of Comino from there.
Next, we drove to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. San Blas
was not really mentioned in our guide book but I think its well worth a
look. It has red sand, secluded lagoons and is very private. We did
have to scramble down a ridiculously steep hill to get to it (which we
later realised we could have driven down). We admired the view for a
bit and moved on to Ramla Bay (the main sandy beach in Gozo). We
got lost however and made a detour through Victoria. So we got out
and went to see Ninus Cave a freak of nature cave under
someones house containing
thousands of years old stalecmites
and stalectites. We were going to
see Xerris Grotto but once we
realised it was pretty much the same
thing, we mooched in a cafe with a
cold drink for a while.
Quote of the holiday, Look, theres a
lizard, pull its tail off. Once back in
the car, we headed for Marsalforn
(the tourist resort on Gozo). We planned to stay there and got some
prices of guesthouses. I wasnt taken with the place. It felt overly
crowded with Brit pleasing
establishments and there was no
sand or area to sit by the sea. I
suggested we moved on to St Pauls
back on Malta to stay tonight
instead as wed heard of a place for7.50lira that gets you breakfast,
dinner and air conditioned rooms. It
sounded appealing to my bank
account.
We got back in the car to head to Dwerja Bay on the West coast,
which was meant to have
amazing coastal scenery. We
eventually found Crocodile
Rock and Fungus Rock and
enjoyed the scenery whileslurping on a slushi.
We got back in the car and
drove to Victoria to get
ingredients for a Chinese stir fry.
After a hike and 2 supermarkets,
we tracked some Blue Dragon
sauce down.
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We had our lovely stir fry about 7pm and had to lie down as we were
so knackered from walking so much today. Jon got unwell again after
dinner (but managed to selflessly scoff his novelty sized bag of Jelly
Babies in one sitting).
Aug 31st
We had our final breakfast in Xlendi and after many protestations of
youre so mean and selfish Jon got up. We checked out (which I was
very sad about) and headed to the 87 bus stop. The bus turned up
right away (for once) and at Victoria our bus only took half an hour. An
improvement. We got the ferry back to Malta and a bus was waiting
for us. We very narrowly avoided running a pedestrian over and getting
killed ourselves as our bus almost collided with an
oncoming car. We didnt know where Bugibba
was (where we were staying) and got off at St
Pauls instead (which after a 40 minute walk with
bags) we realised was a long way away. We
found the Buccaneers Guest House and
promptly decided not to pay 7.50lira for the with
dinner option and went for the 6lira option andeat our dinner out every night instead.
Our room was rubbish compared to Xlendi but
its just a base as Jon kept reminding me. We
unpacked and went upto the pool basically
a paddling pool made of fiber glass. But it was better than nothing. I
sunbathed and enjoyed more of Dietgirls Adventures while Jon slept.
After a nap, Jon was unsurprisingly hungry so we went to find the
Wagon Steakhouse to satisfy Jons urge for meat. We had loads
between us and were sitting in there for 2 hours drinking wine. We then
headed down the road to Velvet bar, where we were given a rangeof food to entice us to stay. We began to feel a little nauseous after the
banquet wed just had.
We went to bed stuffed but happy at about
midnight.
Sep 1st
Woke up with a sore head and headed to
find our bus to the ferry terminal (we had
decided to go to Comino. It turned out to bea bad decision as far as I was concerned. It
was really windy and the sea was choppy.
Wind + choppy water = unhappy Cara. Our
ferry was actually a small boat and it rocked wildly in the bad
weather. Water was crashing over the sides and we were almost
capsizing. We had to detour from the usual 15 min route as the water
was too bad to cut through. It was the scariest boat ride Ive ever
been on and I cried when we got to Comino.
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We had to clamber across
rocks to get near the lagoon.
Along with a growing number
of tourists, we climbed down
the mountain to get near the
crystal blue water. There was
no space to sit down so we
went in the sea and
snorkelled. It was really cold
now and still so windy that I
didnt feel safe in the water as
the current was so strong. I
was miserable as I was
dreading the boat back so much and said I would pay for us to stay a
night here (there is only one hotel on Comino and it costs 100 a night!
Jon said no and we decided to get the next boat back and get it over
and done with. The journey back was not as bad, although it got worse
as it went on.
After kissing the ground back on Malta, we
got the bus towards Bugibba but at the last
minute decided to stay on the bus to Bahar
Ic Caghaq to a water park we had spotted
earlier in the holiday. It cost us 4lira each (a
discounted rate for after 3pm) and it was
great. We went on lazy river and slides and
played in Europes largest wave pool. We
left at 5 to head back to Bugibba.
After the obligatory shower, we went to
Cherry Tree restaurant (recommended in
Lonely Planet) but were very disappointedat the lack of service and atmosphere of
the place so walked out. Jon wanted to dine at Mr Kebab but I
persuaded him to eat at a family run place on a quiet side street The
Travellers Rest. We had set meals for 4.75 lira each which was good
value. The food wasnt great though.
Sep 2nd
Had a bad nights sleep. I think its pre going back to London syndrome.
We found out that there are 300 days of sunshine in Malta a year. This
has almost pushed me over the edge. The only saving grace is that Jonand I have discussed moving in together which I am quite keen to do
at the moment a positive change in my life.
Jon at breakfast: where are my buccaneers? On my bucking head
boom boom. Jon claims there are three of us on this holiday him, me
and this diary. TO be fair, if I could rely on Jon to retain all the moaning
and whining, I wouldnt need this diary though.
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We sat by the pool in the morning and went for a wander on the sea
front at lunch time and ate at the quality establishment that is
McDonalds. After lunch, we headed back to the pool to try and
scrape together some remnant of a tan to take back to London. It was
really windy again today so the sea was out of the question.
After drying of and packing, we went down to the Bigibba pier to
watch the sunset and right on cue at the most amazing moment, my
camera batteries died. I ran back to
the room, changed them and got
back just as the sun was
disappearing.
We walked around town for ages,
looking for a nice place to have our
last supper, but McDonals had
ruined my appetite so we headed to
The Heritage Bar which I had spotted
last night for a drink. We ended up
spending the entire evening in there
chatting to the friendly bar tenderand trying his cocktails. He took
great pride in his drinks and they
tasted
lovely. He
also fed us Bombay mix and mini garlic
breads with tuna pate so we werent
bothered about skipping dinner! We played
some pool and eventually headed back to
our room at about 2am.
Sep 3rd
Got up at 6.30am (we had pre arranged and
paid for a transfer to the airport). It was a
beautiful sunrise and I felt really melancholy
to be leaving the place. I feel worse for wear
but Ill bravely drink my way through the hangover for the flight ready
for my in flight game of Scrabble (for anyone keeping score, it is 2-0 to
me). Our bus arrived at .20am (Malta time 20 mins late) but we still got
to the airport at 8am and beat the crowd to check in and got through
everything in record time. We then went to a bar, had a nasty plastic
sandwich and I started the drinking ritual. Jon told me the saddest storyI have ever heard that made me ball my eyes out in the airport. He
heard it from Mal a Welsh guy he met yesterday while in the paddling
pool. Mal comes to Malta every year and knows the locals. He told Jon
that a guy who owns the building across the road form The Buccaneers
is running an illegal programme whereby he offers Nigerians from Africa
the opportunity of freedom and a new life in Malta as long as they pay
him a 3000 deposit. Many jump at the chance to make some money
to feed their families. So this guy sends speed boats across the water to
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Morocco to pick them up, takes their deposits and brings them back
across the Mediterranean and about 100 miles from shore tells them to
swim the rest of the way, leaving them to die. This disgusted me and
although I know it happens all over the world, I think we have a
responsibility as influential human beings to make this stop by raising
awareness and supporting those worse off.
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