If I’ve learned one thing from my travel experiences so far, it’s that something always seems to go wrong…
My time in Malta was certainly eventful – more on that later – but it’s a fabulous little country with so much to offer.
Sam and I arrived here mid-afternoon on a budget flight from Pescara, Italy where we had spent the previous two nights as part of our 2-week Europe trip. This was my first flight between two countries in the Schengen “borderless” area and it was very odd to just walk out into the terminal with no passport checks.
I’ll admit I was a tiny bit disappointed to find out that you only get your passport stamped on entry and exit from Schengen and not from the countries you travel to within it – I like passport stamps!
After being in Italy, where I understood almost nothing of the language, it was a little strange to hear and see so much English. English is one of the two official languages of Malta (the other being Maltese) and around 88% of the population are fluent English speakers.
A small digression, but the Maltese language is actually very interesting:
- It’s the only Semitic language written in Latin characters.
- It functioned only as a spoken language until late in the 19th century.
- And it has been influenced by many other languages, notably Arabic. In fact, studies have reported that speakers of Maltese can understand around a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic, whilst the Tunisian Arabic speakers can understand around 40% of Maltese.
Now on with the post!
Note: I realised that I have a lot to say about places and write in probably way too much detail so I’m breaking the Malta section of the trip into two posts. Check back soon for part 2 :))
Day 3: Pescara, Italy → Qbajjar, Gozo, Malta
Malta (the country) is in fact made up of three separate inhabited islands – Malta (the main island), Gozo and Comino. Our plan was to base ourselves on Gozo, day trip to Comino and spend our last day on Malta before catching our next flight to Athens.
From the airport in the south of Malta we took a public bus almost the entire length of the island, to the port of Cirkewwa in the far north. The journey was wonderfully scenic, running right next to the sea in some places as well as taking in the towns and countryside inland.
The architecture here is so different to other Mediterranean countries – think limestone, flat roofs and everything being sort of square. A definite contrast to Italy.
From Cirkewwa we took the ferry across to Gozo, passing by Comino on the way. I always like to spend ferry journeys up on the deck, and this particular crossing was lovely, with warm sun and gorgeous deep blue water.
We disembarked at Mgarr port and headed straight for our final destination – an apartment in Qbajjar, close to the small resort town of Marsalforn. We were prevented from boarding our connecting bus due to overcrowding, but we didn’t mind, there would be another. And besides, I wasn’t all that keen on being crammed in like sardines!
It also meant that we could fit in a quick Lidl trip for food supplies. I almost couldn’t believe that there was a Lidl on such an obscure island, but there’s actually also a (small and very expensive) M&S Food store here too…
All that being said, it was late afternoon by the time we finally made it to the apartment. We freshened up and then headed out to explore whilst there was still daylight.
Sam and I had decided to eat out that evening as it happened to be our 3rd Anniversary, so we headed to nearby Marsalforn in search of some local cuisine. We settled on a place right by the water, which looked popular and had some great dishes on the menu.
I decided to go all-out and order the mixed seafood platter, containing local sea bream, king prawns, mini calamari and mussels. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like everything but wanted to be a bit adventurous so went for it anyway. It turned out to be delicious, so I was glad I did.
Day 4: Marsalforn and Wied il-Għasri
Our first full day in Malta, and our first task was to hire some snorkelling gear!
The coastal waters here are renowned for their excellent diving and snorkelling opportunities, with crystal clear waters and a wide variety of marine life. I had been snorkelling once before, albeit many years ago and very informally, but I really enjoyed the experience and was excited to “do it properly” here.
After a quick breakfast we headed to a nearby dive hire shop run by a very helpful local, who not only fitted us with snorkelling gear, but also explained how to avoid the common pitfalls that newbies experience. Under his advice we decided to keep it shallow to begin with and stick to the local bays at Qbajjar and Marsalforn.
There didn’t seem to be anyone in the water at Marsalforn, so we walked around the headland to Qbajjar. Here there were a few locals taking a morning dip and we followed their lead. To begin with it was very pleasant, and I enjoyed being able to cool off from the heat of the sun.
It was not to last, however, and soon we were distracted by a sunbather on the rocks above the water who was frantically pointing at the water nearby and saying something in Italian. A little alarmed, we climbed out of the water and realised that we were swimming amongst several small purple jellyfish!
I wasn’t keen on this development, to say the least. And I was even more wary when a passing tourist showed us a painful-looking sting line on her arm.
It turns out that these are Mauve Stinger jellyfish and are known to have a painful sting. I’m all for experiencing local culture, but this was one thing I was not in a hurry to experience! They are kind of fascinating though, and we watched them for a bit from the safety of the rocks above before searching for a jellyfish-free spot to snorkel.
Luckily we soon came across a small protected pool which had a ring of rocks largely sealing it off from the rest of the sea. Although waves rolled in from time to time, the pool was (as far as we could tell) jellyfish-free. What it did have was a range of exciting small fish to look at, and we spent a very happy morning here learning how to dive underwater with the snorkel and following the fish around.
The UV levels can get very high in Malta and we were conscious of our exposed skin and suncream washing off in the water, so after a few hours we headed off on a walk to a nearby “sea canyon” known as Wied il-Għasri. On the way we also passed the Xwejni Saltpans – one of Gozo’s most famous attractions, and as it turned out, just a short walk from our apartment.
Salt production here in Gozo goes back as far as Phoenician and Roman times, and still continues today using largely the same techniques. It is a natural process, using just the power of the sea, sun and wind to produce the salt crystals through evaporation. The salt is then harvested by the farmers – often the 4th or 5th generation of their family to continue the tradition. VisitGozo offers more information about the process.
Once harvested, the salt is sold to local businesses and also in a couple of tiny shops set into the cliff-like hillside next to the saltpans.
As well as their interesting history and practical function, the saltpans are also just very pretty. We went on an evening walk back down there later in the day and took some nice photographs:
Back to our walk – well, it was very hot and we realised too late that we did not have enough water despite packing as much as we could. It was a beautiful route though, following the coastline along quiet dirt tracks. And we also saw a big lizard!
We eventually reached Wied il-Għasri and descended the steep track to the bottom of the “canyon” – essentially a very steep-sided channel cut deep into the coastline. I was looking forward to cooling off in the water at the bottom. Surely this far inland there would be no jellyfish?
You may notice there’s nobody in the water here… and the reason for that became clear when we reached the bottom. The water was gorgeous – almost green in colour – but was full of those Mauve Stinger jellyfish! I know it’s their habitat and they have every right to be there, but I couldn’t help being annoyed at the denial of a refreshing swim.
With almost-empty water bottles and no prospect of cooling off in the sea, we didn’t stay here long before moving on. We made a beeline for the nearest bus stop and headed into Victoria for meal provisions – and more importantly, ice cream!/
Day 5: Comino (The Blue Lagoon)
This day is so bittersweet to look back on as it was simultaneously so incredible and also the worst day of the trip for me…
Our plan was to head to Comino and its famous Blue Lagoon as early as possible, hoping to avoid the worst of the tourist crowd. We took a bus down to the port of Mgarr, and amongst the string of stands bombarding us with offers for boat trips, we somehow managed to find the right one to collect our tickets.
I had to firmly insist to the seller that I did not want a more expensive upgrade to visit some sea caves on the way back from Comino later that day. (We didn’t think it would be worth the extra money). When we were handed the tickets I realised why she was so keen to upsell – she had given us the cave tickets anyway! I’m not sure what went wrong on their side, but I definitely wasn’t going to question a freebie.
It was just me and Sam and one other couple on this particular crossing. As soon as we were out of the harbour, our driver very casually ramped the speed up to max. It was a bit of an adrenaline rush to be speeding fast across the ocean and bouncing over the waves! As we got close to Comino, the boat slowed, and I could finally see the incredible clear blue water of the Blue Lagoon.
Comino is a strange little microcosm of a place. As you approach, you can see a line of trucks winding up to the left from the port, selling pizza, burgers, cocktails and so on – but at the same time, most of the rest of the island is relatively untouched. Being there is a weirdly commercial experience, but we knew it would be, and we didn’t mind being “typical tourists” for the day.
The water is the star attraction here but there is little beach to speak of, so one of the trucks offers lockers to stow belongings. Being on a tight budget we just paid for a small one to share, and the owner kindly offered to let us store our shoes in the front of his truck instead of trying to squeeze them into the locker.
Later in the day when we returned to change, he also offered us another small locker for free as the tourist numbers began to dwindle. We really appreciated that he went the extra mile instead of just trying to make as much money out of us as possible.
We skipped down to the water and went straight in. It was an amazing experience to be splashing around in such beautiful surroundings and I was loving every second of it.
That is, until the SD card slot of my otherwise waterproof, brand-new (well, brand-new to me) GoPro came open somehow and seawater got inside it…
You can probably imagine what happened.
Long story short: the GoPro was fried, and I was very sad about it. But, that evening I put the SD card into my phone and discovered that all the pictures and video I had up to that point had survived! Whilst my GoPro was well and truly dead, I was happy that I had at least some footage from it.
I was pretty down about what happened but tried my best to enjoy the day regardless. As a bit of a distraction we decided to swim across from Comino to the little islet of Cominotto opposite, where we could see a few people on the shore. It was relatively shallow, wasn’t very far and we saw other people successfully making the crossing so thought we’d give it a shot.
Swimming conditions were perfect, and there was not a jellyfish in sight. Or so we thought… as we neared the shoreline of Cominotto and the water got shallower, we spotted a couple, but they were not too difficult to avoid. It was only when we got out of the water that we realised that there were actually rather a lot of them!
Cominotto was a nice little island, much less crowded than it’s larger sibling. There is an archway right through from one side to the other, where you can see the more open sea beyond. We only spent about 10 or 15 minutes here, though we’d have liked to have stayed longer.
Now to get back. We had no money on us to pay for a water taxi so our only option was to swim! Which raises the question: how do you navigate a 100m-long stretch of water filled with stinging jellyfish?
A group of us all in the same predicament clambered along the rocky shoreline searching for a good (i.e. jellyfish-free) entry point. We found a spot where we could jump from the rocks into deeper water and just had to go for it – then we swam like hell for the safety of the other side!
With some last-second dodge manoeuvres I managed to avoid getting stung, but Sam was not so lucky. Thankfully he only encountered a smaller brown species of jellyfish, which had a very mild sting.
It had already been a day of crazy highs and lows, so we decided to grab some pizza and chill. I also spied a cocktail bar selling piña coladas inside a hollowed out pineapple, which I just had to try! Not cheap, but definitely worth the money on a hot and somewhat stressful day.
I will admit that I also did the touristy thing of getting Sam to take a photo of me in the sea with the pineapple – in my defence they came out very nice, and we weren’t the only ones.
Later we decided to explore the island by walking across to the other major bay, Santa Marija. Luck was not on my side that day as I managed to drop my phone on a rock whilst changing and smashed through my screen protector into the screen…which promptly started flickering green and black. I quickly backed up my photos in case it fully died later on (spoiler alert: it did).
After all this drama I was not in the best of moods but tried to enjoy the walk regardless. It was nice to be away from the crowds and I got to see plenty of lizards along the way which is always exciting.
We then took the boat back to Gozo via the sea caves, which were cool, but we didn’t get very close to them. It definitely wouldn’t have been worth it to pay for them but that was of no concern with our free upgrade.
All in all, a very up-and-down day but I would 100% go back. I know Comino could have been such an incredible experience and I need to return there for a redemption visit one day!
