Rome left high standards for our next destinations. They not only had to be interesting, but also interesting enough to capture our waning energy. We were really looking forward to a couch and a season of Lost after our week of running around in Rome. I'm just keeping it real.
Also, do I even need to say that the food would have to be amazing?
We had decided to take a short trip to Malta. When I was researching the island I found that buses take you everywhere and anywhere (for €1.50 a day!) and that everything is about 30 minutes apart. It is a tiny island.
Well, we used those buses a lot. And places may be 30 minutes apart, but when you're on a bus, 15km will take you 80 minutes.
Our first day, we walked around Valletta. Which was an ancient city unlike any we had seen so far. The yellow/red stone used for building made the area feel very exotic. I suppose it is what I would picture for an Arabic city. We learned that the history here is quite ancient. As in older than Stone Henge ancient. But I'm ahead of myself.
We didn't do much, except walk around. The Apostle Paul was on Malta during his days, so there are some churches with his name and references to his shipwreck there.
The next day we moved to the north of the island and did some more exploring. We first took a bus to Rabat and Mdina, or the Silent City. Mdina was a game changer for us on Malta, which we were kind of on the fence about. It's a beautiful walled city surrounding a church. You can wander through the narrow streets, but it's so small that you really never get lost. Also, they have a cafe called Fontanella and there were at least ten types of cakes. We only got to try two, but they were amazing. Absolutely amazing.
We sat on the cafe terrace and it was so windy, but wind really doesn't affect the enjoyment of eating cake (although a small bite of mine blew away).
This is how we look when we're thinking about the cake we are about to eat, hoping that it doesn't blow away and also wondering how obvious our excitement about cake is:
From there we went to the Had Dingli Cliffs and visited an ancient temple that is being excavated.
The museum was one of the best we've been to. Really informative and hands-on. Major field trip material there. They also have a 5-D movie. This is a really common thing it seems, malta was really into them. You can watch a 20 minute movie and with all five senses experience the history of a particular place. Anyways, this one was about the temple being built, used, destroyed and resurrected. The music is really emotional. I love these 5-D movies.
Although they have a protective tarp over the temples you can still get quite close, even walking through parts. This is the evidence of a civilization here presaging Stone Henge. I believe it is the oldest building discovered. It was really incredible overlooking the sea. That was a great visit.
From there we walked to the Blue Grotto and then waited for a bus. Our bus never came, so we had to take the long way home (although, fortunately, it did not involve walking or hitch hiking, both options were discussed, obviously). The long way home was just two long bus routes. We could never figure out some of the turns on the routes, I guess they just like taking passengers for a drive.
The next day was the day we had been waiting for. I think Matt visited Malta for this day. We sailed out to the Blue Lagoon.
Malta is made up of three tiny islands. The middle, and smallest has a Blue Lagoon. When our boat entered the lagoon, I can't even describe how blue it was. I mean we spent a good amount of time in South East Asia and I never saw water so intensely blue. It was absolutely stunning.
There was a ridiculously small beach, suggesting this place could be a nightmare during the summer season, but that day it was fine. A few people were swimming, but the water really wasn't warm enough to convince us a swim was necessary.
Instead we walked around the island, sat in the wind and sun and reminisced on our trip and thought about the future and it was a perfect day.
On the way back, the boat took us along the cliffs.
We ended the perfect day with pizza, Maltese wine and TV. Honestly, that is perfect.
We got up very early to take one final and long bus ride (as in over an hour to cover 20 km!)
So, Malta was a bit unexpected with some hidden gems lying around the island. But, it was a quick trip and now we're on to Spain and Portugal.
