Malta: Part Six

Our final day's adventures took us off to Marsaxlokk, a traditional fishing village at the south of the island. After a fairly lengthy bus journey (and some slight confusion over stops!) we found ourselves walking along the pretty sea front of the village. 

Floating in the bay were brightly coloured, traditionally hand painted fishing boats. Many of these had eyes painted on their bows, which superstition says protects the boats from danger. These little traditional boats provide the fresh fish cooked up in the numerous restaurants spaced out along the sea front.

After wandering the length of the village, we settled down in one of these little restaurants and tucked into some of the local produce, all of which tasted wonderfully fresh! 

The village was incredibly pretty and it was interesting to see how the fishermen still used the traditional boats to catch fish. However, before long, it was time to return to our hotel and hunt down dinner!

That evening (our last evening!) we walked into the centre of St Julian's and chose a restaurant called 'Zest' which turned out to be a real treat! The menu was, as far as I was concerned, perfect. Advertised as 'east meets west', it was full of sushi, Thai curries, Japanese grills and noodle-y dishes. I was in heaven!

We ordered off one of their set sharing menus and tucked in to the mountain of food which then appeared.

Firstly, an amuse-bouche and cocktails.

Then, we started with sushi, sticky chelsea buns, chicken and lamb satay, dim sum parcels and a fantastic glass noodle salad. 

Followed by a trio of thai curries (Lu had another noodle dish as well but I can't quite remember what it was!).

And then delicious deserts which included a fiery chocolate and chilli fondant with raspberry sorbet.  

I just wish I'd had more room to eat more- by the end I was bursting!

Zest was fantastic- the food amazing and the staff incredibly accommodating. They had delivered a truly wonderful last meal on Malta. 

I had a brilliant holiday visiting Malta. Not only was the island beautiful, but everyone we met was incredibly friendly and willing to share something about the island and its fascinating history. I learnt more than I could have expected from such a short stay and I would love to return in the future to find out more! 

Malta: Part Five

After our glorious pool day, we decided we should get back to seeing the island. So we pulled on our explorer boots and headed to Mdina, the old capital of Malta.

Mdina is also known as 'the Silent City' due to the fact that there are only 300 people residing within its walls. It was almost eery drifting through the streets, no other souls in sight bar the same tourists we kept repetitively bumping in to.

The city was stunning. Each building decorative, covered in beautiful stonework. We caught one of horse and cart taxis and trotted around the narrow streets, viewing the city from every angle before climbing up to the highest point of city and going for dinner at Fontanella, a pretty little restaurant with views looking over the whole of Malta!

Lulu was getting fed up with all the picture taking....

Just look at all that cheesy goodness! These next two photos were our view from the restaurant. They're of a city right by the coast, miles from where we were. The evening was really clear and the zoom on my camera is slightly incredible, but more incredible was just how far we could see from our vantage point at the restaurant!

Before we knew it, the sun was setting and it was time to head home. Mdina was a beautiful place to visit and I'd definitely suggest anyone who's in Malta goes and visits.

Malta: Part Four

Day four found us collapsed around the swimming pool, refusing to move. The sun was shining and I wanted to go home with a tan to prove it! Plus, the pool water was just so deliciously inviting!

Of course, all that sunbathing is hungry work and so that evening, my sister, Mum and I headed around the corner to the Westin hotel for a spot of dinner.

We attacked the terrace tapas menu with vigour, ordering chicken satay skewers, calamari rings, parma ham with fig chutney, smoked salmon piled on herby sour bread and marinated goats cheese.  When the plates arrived, we discovered they weren't your normal teeny tiny tapas portions, but easily enough for three people to share. In fact, there was so much food that the poor waitress struggled to fit it all on one table!

Apologies for the lack of photos but we were far too busy eating to photograph! 

Despite the mountain of food, we still managed to lick our plates clean and have room for more. Therefore we retreated into the bar for cake and cocktails. Ordering was quite a fun affair as a huge platter of patisseries was brought to the table for us to peruse, before we picked our favourite looking ones. Between us we had quite a selection, but I have to say that the little lemon meringue tart I picked was definitely the best!

By the time we'd finished munching, we were well and truly stuffed but very happy. We'd had a lovely evening of food and drinks- a perfect end to a sunny day!

Malta: Part Three

Day three's adventure saw us climbing onto a little speed boat and jetting off at top speeds to Comino Island. Comino Island is locally famed for its Blue Lagoon, where the sea is supposedly a stunning shade of aquamarine and the sandy bottom a glittering white. I was quite excited for spending a day sun bathing and soaking up the scenery. But first, the journey there and the caves!

We met at 10am outside our hotel and waited for the mini bus to come and collect us. It was late, but we were expecting this- one thing we've learnt out here is that everyone runs on 'Malta time' which is at least 10-15mins behind the rest of the world. However, it was worth the wait since we met the best bus driver we could have hoped for. He was friendly and determined to tell us everything about every place we passed- I felt we learned more from him in the 30min bus drive than I had from anything else so far!

My top five favourite facts were:

• Malta is teeny tiny at only about 17miles long and 9miles wide!
• Apparently, Malta was so heavily bombed in WWII that more bombs were dropped per day on the little island than on London in the entirety of the Blitz! 
• To escape this bombing, the island residents had retreated to the huge cave networks which run under the whole island.
• Malta has no naturally sandy beaches. At the end of the Cold War, Russia gifted Malta a load of sand and it has been imported from the Middle East ever since! 
• A large number of films have been shot on the tiny island, including Troy, The Da Vinci Code, Munich and Midnight Express.  

Don't we all feel more worldly now? 

Our driver stopped and let us all out at one point to see the Popeye film set which was visible from the road. We looked down this cliff and could see all the houses, set around a beautiful bay of some of the most strikingly coloured water I think I've ever seen! However, after our quick photo op, it was time to get back on the bus and trundle off towards our boat. 

Before long, we were clambering into the speed boat and skipping over the waves towards Comino. On the way, we pulled into some rocky areas and got to see some of Malta's dramatic sea caves. 

We then arrived on Comino and I was surprised by just how busy it was! The narrow area around the Blue Lagoon was covered in deck chairs, sharp rock and people- luckily we found a spot when we did- had we been any later, there wouldn't have been room to move! The bay was very pretty (the water a beautiful blue as promised) but the number of people there ruined it somewhat for me. At least the deck chairs were cheap, starting from 5euros for the entire day. However, we made the most of it and spent the day sunbathing and paddling in the crystal clear water. 

All in all, I had a lovely day and was very glad we'd gone on the trip, despite how busy Comino was.  We'd seen some very pretty scenery, the boat trip had been exciting and we'd learnt a lot about Malta. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that food, drinks and deck chairs on the island were cheap, despite the fact that you were trapped there until your boat came to get you and so they could have forced you to pay more for everything. I would definitely recommend visiting, but aim to get there as early as possible to beat the crowds!

Malta: Part Two

On day two of our trip to Malta, we decided to explore the island a bit. Therefore, bright and early, we hopped on a local bus and sped (....well, crawled) off to the capital city, Valletta.

First stop, breakfast. A very healthy breakfast at that. Consisting purely of lemon meringue pie and sugary doughnuts...

Once we had eaten our fill of sugary treats, we started exploring the fortress city. Each street held a different surprise, whether it was a beautiful secret garden, a saint perched on a plinth surveying the alley or simply another beautiful building or view.

We stumbled across the Knights Hospitallers museum, a fascinating place which told the story of the Knights of St Johns and their influence on Malta and the hospital they built. We learnt how surgeons in the middle ages were prized for their speed due to the lack of anaesthetic and how doctors realised that giving patients separate beds reduced the spread of infection (a novel idea at the time!). We also got a glimpse of the extensive cave system that runs under the whole of Malta, while learning about the gruesome effect of the plague on the small island. This exhibition was a lot of fun to explore but also very informative- I hadn't realised quite how steeped in history the tiny island was! Definitely worth a visit.

After roaming the length and breath of the sun soaked streets, we retired more than a little exhausted to the bus, where I sat dreaming of our air conditioned hotel room and our comfy beds!