Day 1 – Thursday – February 14th, 2019

I arrived just before midnight to the only international airport in Malta by Ryanair. The plane was full and 15 minutes late. The 20 euro plane tickets might have something to do with it. I sat almost on the last row. There was a Russian man sitting behind me who was obviously drunk already when boarding the plane and more than  willing to talk to anybody who would be polite enough to listen. The four hours in the plane didn’t help. Somehow he got even more drunk. And just half an hour before landing he decided to have a smoke in the lavatory. The cabin crew were really pissed about it and the man was met by local police who picked him up from the plane.

Arriving to a country at midnight usually means that the options how to get to your hotel are limited usually to taxis. But not in Malta. I had booked a day before the flight a hotel transfer for 5 euros although I didn’t live in any of the hotels. But they didn’t know that. The taxi services between airport and any destination in Malta are available 24 hours a day at fixed rates. For example St Julian’s where I was heading costs 20 euros by taxi. I just picked Hilton and luckily it turned out to be the first stop in the long line of hotels that the transfer took, so I got there really quickly.

I had booked an apartment through AirBnb platform and went to look for it. It was really just around the corner from Hilton in St Julian’s area. The self check-in went smoothly, I found the keys from the mailbox and let myself in. There were no physical contact in any kind with the host. Everything was organized through the app and communicated in detail. That’s just the way I liked it. The first thing that hit me was the cold. Apartments back home are usually warm because we know what the winters mean. But in Malta double windows and other solutions that help to keep the warmth inside the apartment are obviously not known. For the most part of the year they love it when it’s cold in the apartment. But not in February. For that reason I turned on the two powerful AC units and waited until it got warm enough before turning them off again. By the morning every drop of this warm air had escaped again so I had to turn them back on. That became a ritual before leaving and after arriving each day.

After breakfast I planned to spend my first day in Valletta. In order to get the lay of the land and understand how everything works. I started by purchasing the 7-Day Explore Card with unlimited travel on all the public transport routes on Malta and Gozo form a local WHSmith store (in cash). It costs 21 euros but it’s the best investment you can make. Except maybe the ExplorePlus card that includes some other fun alternatives as well. My home was close to the bus stop called Ross. That was almost the only bus stop name that I could pronounce. The thing with Malta is that although English is an official language besides Maltese, all the locations have Maltese names. And that is one difficult language based on arabic that loves the letters like “Q” and “X” and stashing its consonants in unbelievable sequences.

The public transport system is really good here once you remember a few things. There is a useful Tallinja app for your phone that helps you to plan your travel from A to B (or Q to X). There are timetables in every bus stop. But somebody have forgotten to tell that to bus drivers. Because unless you are boarding from the first stop on the route then the timetables never-ever match with the buses. So you can be sure that there will be a bus on that route but you never know when. The other thing is that unless you raise your hand while standing in the bus stop then no bus will stop there. You learn that really quickly. Just don’t learn it in places where the next bus comes in a hour. The same thing is when you want to get off…you really need to push the stop button for that. And that doesn’t always guarantee that the bus actually stops. I experienced that as well. But more of that later. And then there are direct lines and all the rest. The difference is the number of possible stops they make. For example from St Julian’s to Valletta you could take the direct line TD13 with 4 stops in about 15 minutes or you could take the 13 (13A, 14, 15, 16) with about 30 stops that might take anything between 30-50 minutes. I’m happy that I took the longer route that went along the coastline. I used it like an hop-on-hop-off bus, so that I went out for a scenic video clip or a photo and then caught the next bus that came along.

During that first trip I also visited the Point Shopping Mall that’s allegedly the largest retail mall in Malta. I did it mostly because of the nice view over Valletta. I had learned this from book that I was reading on the way to Malta – The Malta Escape by Chris Kuzneski – whose main characters went there first as well for some shopping and also for the view.

The central bus station in Valletta is right at the city gate next to a recently built square with the Triton Fountain. The piazza and the fountain had been restored only a year before and it looked great. I spent an hour to walk on the straight streets (there is actually a Strait street in Valletta as well) without any specific goal. Just to get the feeling of my surroundings. Then I remembered that the characters in the above-mentioned book went to see the midday gun salute at Upper Barakka Gardens. From the 1820’s the gun was fired at midday to signal out the exact hour of the day by which Ship Masters would calibrate their chronographs on board. Nowadays it’s a vibrant visitor attraction. The Upper Barakka Gardens overlook the Grand Harbour. It’s one of the most beautiful panoramic views in Malta with an unique view of the only natural harbour in the Mediterranean with the fortified Three Cities as its backdrop. It is perhaps the oldest saluting battery still in operation anywhere in the world. See, it’s good to read a book on a plane, I had missed the Saluting Battery completely in my previous research of where to go and what to see.

I continued along the coastline through the Lower Barakka Gardens, passed the Siege Bell War Memorial and stumbled on the Malta Experience next to St Elmo Fort (movies like World War Z and the recent Murder on the Orient Express (2017) have used the fort as a stand-in for Jerusalem). The Malta Experience helps to discover 7,000 years of history with an audio-visual show in just 45 minutes and include the La Sacra Infermeria Tour as well. It gave a good overview also about the Knights Hospitallers in Malta (also known as the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, the Order of Saint John, Order of Hospitallers, Knights Hospitaller, Knights Hospitalier or Hospitallers, which was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, on the island of Rhodes, in Malta and St Petersburg.) La Sacra Infermeria or the Grand Hospital was managed by the knights and was one of the best hospitals in the world during its hayday. Like having a private toilet next to each bed with an orange-tree garden on the other end of the ventilation shafts.

I had walked through Valletta from the city gates to the other end at St Elmos. Now it was time to walk back and take the bus back home. Before going to the apartment I went some groceries shopping next to the apartment. It was called Arkadia. I planned to buy some breakfast ingredients, microwave dinners and drinks to really use the amenities of the apartment kitchen.

After late lunch and a short nap I was up again and ready to go back to Valletta. This time with a purpose. I had bought myself a ticket to the Unforgettable concert by Maltese tenor Nico Darmanin featuring the Big Band Brothers and Jasmine Abela. The concert took place inside the magnificent Grand Salon at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. So, check…been there.

Day 2 – Friday – February 15th, 2019

I had a good plan. To visit Birgu and other Three Cities across the Grand Harbour. I got as far as the central bus station in Valletta. Apparently the bus to Zurrieq which is on the south-east side of the island came first. Zurrieq is only another few bus stops away from the Blue Grotto. So there I went. The Blue Grotto refers to a number of sea caverns located on the coastline right opposite to the small uninhabited islet of Filfla, which is the most southerly point of the Maltese Archipelago. It’s important to get there before 1PM so that the caves combined with the rays of sunlight, lead to the seawater mirroring and showing numerous shades of blue on the cave walls and ceilings. I took the last seat in a 9 passenger boat that took about 15 minutes to cruise through the caverns. It was a beautiful location used also in many movie productions like the Troy. As there were no lines so everything went smoothly and quickly. By 12 I was already waiting for the next bus out of there. I had a good plan to also visit the Neolithic temples of Mnajdra and Hagar Qim that are located nearby. So I pressed the Stop button in the bus and waited. The moment I noticed that something is wrong was too late. The bus hadn’t stopped. So I decided to get out anyway and walk back. The information in the bus stop showed that the bus in opposite direction had left 15 minutes ago and the next one was due in 45 minutes. So I started walking back. It was a narrow country road by the cliffs without ant pedestrian road. Luckily almost no traffic either. After 5 minutes walking the bus drove by though. That same bus that was supposed to be there 20 minutes ago. But it didn’t matter. The weather was nice and I needed the walk anyway. The 2,2 km back to Qrendi took half an hour. The temple complex was totally worth it. Part of the UNESCO world heritage sites these temples date back more than 5000 years. The main temple was built between 3600 and 3200 BC; however, the northern ruins are considerably older.

It took me exactly enough time to walk around and have a maltese sandwich before the next bus arrived that took me to Rabat and Mdina. Today Mdina is a major tourist attraction recognised internationally as an important UNESCO World Heritage Site (currently on its tentative list). It used to be the capital of Malta before Valletta was founded. Its main entrance features in the TV series Game of Thrones as well as the streets and squares as the King’s Landing in season 1. Mdina, also called the Silent City, is surrounded by fortified walls and sits on top of one of the highest hills of Malta. Built in Medieval times, much of its original architecture has been preserved and its narrow streets are so winding that you can’t shoot an arrow there. The cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Malta.

Rabat, the village that neighbours Mdina, on the other hand, is known for its quiet, more rural character and natural beauty but also for St. Paul’s Catacombs. St.Paul’s Catacombs are a typical complex of interconnected, underground Roman cemeteries that were in use up to the 7th-8th centuries AD and represent the earliest and largest archaeological evidence of Christianity in Malta. But there are also burial sites for pagans and jews, some bigger and some so small that it was hard to move around. But nonetheless possible to get lost in the winding walkways dug in the limestone.

Now it was 5 PM already and the only sensible thing to do was to take the one hour back home.

There was a Couchsurfing event waiting for me in Valletta that I wanted to go. It took place on outside seated music bar that was playing live jazz music that night. The music was good, beer average and place itself reasonably crowded. The weather got worse though and I experienced my first rain and cold wind during this trip. So I took the Taxify back to the apartment.

Day 3 – Saturday – February 16th, 2019

Gozo, here I come!

It took an hour to get to the ferry but luckily again there was a direct route that took me there. The ferries between Malta and Gozo go very frequently, like every 45 minutes. So is you miss one then the next comes soon enough. Another interesting thing is that you don’t need a ticket from Malta to Gozo. Just board the ferry through the car deck and in half an hour you are in Gozo. You’ll need a ticket to get back though. Outside the ferry terminal in Gozo I took the first bus to ir-Rabat (Victoria) which is centre of the island. From there I started my walk through the island. In Victoria, the first thing you notice is its greener look compared to Malta island. It was a nice change. I set myself to find the Citadel/Citadella. That wasn’t hard because it loomed over the entire town from the hilltop. Like any other site managed by Heritage Malta it looked really good – clean, accessible, well maintained and serviced by polite people. The Citadella is rich in buildings of architectural, military and historical value. Only a couple of families live within the Citadel walls today. In the square you will find the magnificent baroque Cathedral of Gozo dedicated to Santa Marija, or more precisely the Assumption of the Virgin Mary; as well as the Law Courts and the Bishop’s Palace. I wasn’t lucky with the weather. It had been cloudy since the morning but once I was in the Citadel to see the view from the walls it started to rain. So I took cover by roaming the open townhouses and museums in the complex. It was safer also because the stone paths became really slippery with the rain. But it didn’t rain long. Just enough to ruin the experience for me.

After a quick lunch I hopped on a bus that took me to the Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary. Today’s monumental shrine to Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu was built between 1920 and 1931. It is an architectural masterpiece, especially inside with its superb sculptures and craftsmanship in Maltese stone. The sanctuary was constructed in front of the original chapel. It’s been a centre of pilgrimage since the year 1883. It is located in the middle of nothing so it’s seen well from afar.

The weather had turned nice again. As the bus traffic in Gozo is not as frequent as in Malta it usually means that buses come once in an hour. So I had 45 minutes before the next bus arrives that would take me back to Victoria to wait for another bus to take me to the site of the Blue Hole and collapsed Azure Window. It’s strange that this place is known for something that really isn’t there anymore. So I decided to walk there. 4,9 km and 53 minutes according to Google Timeline. Through small villages open countryside to Dwejra Bay in (dementia friendly) San Lawrence.

I arrived there 10 minutes before the next bus to Victoria. There was no way that I could do it such a short time so I relaxed and suddenly I had one hour and 10 minutes in my hands. First I went to the small inland sea Il-Qawra that is basically a pond connected with the sea through some caves. You can take a boat cruise from there that take you to see the cliffs, caves and the location of the famous Azure Window, that collapsed in a bad storm in March 2017. All of the bay is still a very popular diving site with its Blue Hole and the Chimney.

After the boat ride I had time to enjoy some soft ice cream, walk along the coast and catch my next bus back to Victoria and then another one back to the ferry terminal where I bought the ticket this time and found myself on the 16:15 ferry. On the way between Malta and Gozo you see the island of Comino passing by. It’s mostly empty island (3,5 square kilometers) is car free and with just some few registered inhabitants. This walk remains for the next visit. I’d really would like to see the locations from the movies Troy, Count of Monte Cristo and Blue Lagoon.

Day 4 – Sunday – February 17th, 2019

That was the day when Fort Manoel was opened for the public for one day. Usually it’s under construction (since 2001) but every once and a while they have these public days. I was lucky to be there when it happened. So I took the bus to Ponsonby, walked through the Manoel island and followed the signs to the Open Weekend. Fort Manoel was built in 1723 by the Knights to protect Valletta’s north-facing bastions from artillery action. The British military took over the fort in 1800, when it became known as HMS Phoenicia, and it remained in use by them until 1964. Fort Manoel has been on Malta’s tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998, as part of the Knights’ Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta. After being decommissioned, Fort Manoel was abandoned and fell into a state of disrepair. Fort Manoel is built in the shape of a square, with a pentagonal bastion on each corner, giving it the shape of a star fort.

A Piazza is located inside the fort, and it contains the rebuilt Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua, several barrack blocks, an armoury and other buildings.

The fort is supposedly haunted by the Black Knight, who wears the armour and regalia of the Order of St. John, and resembles Grand Master de Vilhena. In the 1940s, the knight began to appear out of thin air near the ruins of the Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua, which had just been bombed in World War II. The apparition was reportedly seen by Maltese and English men within the fort. When the rubble from the ruined chapel began to be cleared, the workmen reported that the knight was supervising their work. When the crypt beneath the chapel was opened, it was found that it had been vandalized, and the remains of knights which had been buried there were scattered around. After the crypt was restored and the bones were reburied, the Black Knight stopped appearing.

Nobody also expects the Spanish inquisition trial to be set in Fort Manoel with splendid views of Valletta in the background. But it was just that in the Assassin Creed movie that was filmed partly in Malta. Mostly in the narrow streets in the old quarter of Valletta and the fort itself. The fort is also used in season one of Game of Thrones as the Sept of Baelor as a location of the tragic beheading of Ned Stark .

After Fort Manoel I finally went to Birgu (that was my plan two days before) to another fort – Fort St. Angelo. Built by the Knights over the ruins of a castle dating back to Norman times (the 12th century), Fort St. Angelo lies at the tip of Birgu (Vittoriosa), which is one of the Three Cities. When the Knights landed in Malta in 1530 they found a castle that went by the name of Castrum Maris (Castle by the sea). The Knights made Birgu their primary headquarters and erected the fort in place of the castle. The reinforcements and remodelling proved vital in the Great Siege that followed. Fort St. Angelo withstood the Ottoman attacks, repelling the enemy many times during the three long months of the summer of 1565. The fort became the property of the Government of Malta after the British left the islands. In 1998, the Maltese Government gave the upper part of the fort to the Order of the Knights of St. John for a period of 99 years.

Fort St. Angelo is an important site in the history of Malta. It played an important military role throughout the centuries, withstanding attacks and providing headquarters for Knights, French and British armies. Panoramic views of the Grand Harbour and the cities that surround it are just one more reason to visit. The fort is one of a few that were chosen as Game of Thrones film locations in Malta as it was used as a Red Keep dungeon in S1E5.

After the visit to the fort it was already half past 4 PM. I was hungry so I decided to follow the footsteps of the characters of the book “Malta Escape” one more time. So I went to “a restaurant that served soup near the Malta Maritime Museum and grabbed an open table on the patio that overlooked the Grand Harbour Marina. Boats of all sizes bobbed up and down in the water as a gentle breeze came ashore…”. The lunch including fish soup and seafood risotto turned out to be “better than blowjob” as promised in the book.

Day 5 – Monday – February 18th, 2019

I was heading to Marsaxlokk. I was a day late. Every Sunday there is a open air farmers market taking place in there. But I wasn’t complaining. What I was complaining about was that I took a wrong bus. No, actually I missed my stop again. So instead on ending up to Marsaxlokk I ended up in Birzebugga (another fine name in maltese).  Luckily it was only a peninsula away of where I actually wanted to go. So I walked again. Which was nice. There isn’t much to see or do there except looking at the colorful boats in the harbour and colorful houses next to it. So I did just that.

After a short walk I caught another bus to Tarxien – a home of the Megalithic temples and even older Hypogeum.  The temples date to approximately 3150 BC. The site was accepted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 along with the other Megalithic temples on the island of Malta like the temples of Mnajdra and Hagar Qim which I visited on Friday.

The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum (or just Hypogeum) is on a level of its own. Actually on three underground levels. The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is an underground prehistoric burial site. Discovered in 1902 during construction works it dates back to about 4000BC. That means I was able to go back 6000 years into the past. Only 10 visitors an hour are allowed down there to keep the environment at required levels. So you really need to book your tour in advance. And you can’t take any cameras down there, which was a pity. It is after all the only prehistoric burial site which is accessible to the general public. The 45 minutes audio-guided tour took us to see the red ochre wall paintings and the beautifully carved features in imitation of architectural elements common in the megalithic temples above ground. There are a lot of pictures online to get a glimpse what to expect in the downworld realm or take a look at the video by World Heritage Journey (www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUjqnAn9nHo) who have the interior footage provided by Heritage Malta.

On the way back home I decided to go through the town of Mosta, which was a bit out of the way, but still on my list of potential visits to be made. As I missed the Rotunda shaped church on Gozo then I wanted to see at least this one. Mosta was surprisingly modern-looking town compared to all the archeological sites I had been visiting lately. The main attraction in Mosta is The Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, commonly known as the Rotunda of Mosta or the Mosta Dome. According to Wikipedia the design of the present church is based on the Pantheon in Rome, and at one point had the third largest unsupported dome in the world. The church narrowly avoided destruction during World War II, since on 9 April 1942 a German aerial bomb pierced the dome and fell into the church during Mass but failed to explode. This event was interpreted by the Maltese as a miracle. A similar bomb is now displayed in the sacristy at the back of the church. There is also a very nice (if you can call it like that) WWII bunker next to the church which was dug into the limestone and is now opened to walk through.

After returning to the apartment I went looking for some pizza. Every source told me that there should be Malta’s oldest family-owned pizzeria called Ir-Rokna somewhere close by. I couldn’t find it. A quick google search revealed that it had closed down after a solid 45 years of service at the end of January this year. So I was like a month late. Just my luck. So I went to the next pizzeria down the street and bought myself a 50 cm Maltese pizza. Enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.

Day 6 – Tuesday – February 19th, 2019

I started by walking around in the neighborhood around my apartment for a change. I had been around the islands but hadn’t really explored my back yard yet. So I walked through Spinola bay,

Portomaso marina, Paceville, St. George’s beach up to Corinthia hotel (another landmark in the Malta Escape book) and back again. On the way back I saw in the bus stop that the next bus should be coming along soon in a few minutes. After an half an hour it finally came. I took it all the way to Valletta. I had some souvenir shopping to do and some places I wanted to visit. Like the Auberge Castille, the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and sat outside the National Library in a cafeteria. The Caffe Cordina there was full of people but I succeeded to find a table, had a blueberry smoothie and listened for some really talented street musicians.

In the evening I went back to Paceville, which is a popular party area in Malta. It was football night so every bar had the games on. I went directly to Fuegos Speakeasy which hosted a Couchsurfing event. It had people there from all over…Japan, Brazil, Egypt, Italy, France, etc.

Day 7 – Wednesday – February 20th, 2019

Going home. Garbage out on the street corner (!) before 9 AM, check-out at 10 AM, direct bus to the airport. Arrived there a bit early, so I had time to sit on the 3rd floor viewing platform for a while and enjoy the food court downstairs before the check-in opened. It was good time to reflect what I had seen:

• Malta may think it’s a Land of Sea but to me it looked more like Land of Stone because everything was made of it. It’s also a Land of Forgotten Temples and Land of Knights.
• They keep on driving on the wrong side of the road and have those english electricity sockets in the walls which is a legacy from the British empire. At least the water installations looked modern.

• The people seem relaxed and polite. I didn’t witness anyone shouting or talking with their hands to someone.
• The Maltese language is hard. Probably. Didn’t understand a word. Although it looks probably worse than it sounds.
• Heritage Malta seems to do great work with all the archaeological and otherwise historical sites they have opened for the public.
• For all the “door-enthusiasts”, you know these people who love to take photos of different doors…Malta must be a paradise on earth for them. The doors look really amazing. The colors, the variety, the signs by the doors etc.
• In February it’s warmer outside than inside.
• Cost of goods and services feels relatively cheap compared with other countries in EU.
• The public transport takes you anywhere on the island if you are not too picky about the timetables. The explorer card for tourist is a very good product.