Malta, Aug 2012

Malta is one of the world's smallest countries and one of the most densely populated one. It is an island just south of European mainland and north of African mainland. It is rich in human history starting from 7000 BC i.e. the neolithic period. It is also a very beautiful island that have been through a lot of struggles and have witnessed the rules of Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish, French and British. It has quite a few great beaches and the official languages are Maltese and English. This is what we knew about the island, we just didn't know that it was a party n fun place as well until we reached there in August 2012.

We were six friends all from Trieste Francesco, Elena, Marco, Mauro, Carmelo and me. We planned for the trip in Malta for eight days in the end of August. We flew from Treviso airport to Malta on 22nd Aug 2012 morning and reached there by the afternoon. We had booked a 3 bhk apartment for the week and the owner was supposed to pick us up from the airport but he was not there when we landed so we called him and took the suggested bus to reach at a meeting point, after waiting for 40 mins he came with a vehicle to take us to the apartment.

a walk in the evening

Sliema

After relaxing for some time we went out to a nearby shop to buy some beers, water, milk and cookies. The plan of the evening was to keep it calm so we went to a bar to have some beers and snacks, later after having a walk in the city centre we barged into a Sushi place, we ordered 2 sushi combo plates that contained sufficient amount of various kind of yummy sushi. With a stomach full of sushi we walked back home to sleep. Next day we went to the Paradise bay and spent the whole day in the clear water of the sea and relaxing on the beach while sun bathing.

Paradise bay

After having a shower in fresh water at the apartment we relaxed in the afternoon to go out in the evening to the party place of Malta, Paceville, it is an amazing place full of young crowd, loud music and bright lighting motivates you to party whole night. We got many coupons for 1 euro shots that we used that night. 24th Aug was another day full of sight-seeing, we went to Mdina the old capital of Malta, I was amazed to see the architecture of the city, all the main cities were fortified and had a ship port built especially keeping in mind that the sea is full of enemies as in past sea was the only route to reach this island.

Mdina

Mdina

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Indian Restaurant

The city had narrow alleys with high walled houses and small balconies giving a look of Arabian nights, telling us about the rule of Arabs on the island. Had lunch in an Indian restaurant followed by visiting Valetta, the capital of the country, to see more of the island's historical architectures, ending up having dinner there. 25th Aug, Saturday was for the Golden bay where a scene of "Troy" was shot, this was another fun day full of sea and sun bathing. In the evening we went out for dinner and I wanted to try Rabbit as I had heard that Rabbit was a traditional meal in Malta, it was delicious very soft and sweet meat. Later at night we went to Paceville to enjoy our Saturday night, we were out till late at night drinking and dancing. We took Sunday abit calmly and spend the day in the nearby area in St. George bay again in sea and under sun. On the way back we bought some easy-to-cook food for dinner and things for breakfast. Next day was spent on a ferry to see Gozo, Comino islands and Blue lagoon, though I enjoyed the scenery, the trip would have been more fun for me if I would have known swimming.

Golden bay

We

Blue Lagoon

Tuesday and Wednesday was spent in archaeological museum - to see the history of human civilization witnessed by the island since the neolithic period (new stone age era) i.e. around 6000 BC, even older than the pyramids in Egypt that dates back to around 3000 BC (bronze age era). I am always interested in seeing the lifestyle of old human civilizations on earth devoid of the modern technologies and luxuries we have today, ancestors always hold my respect because they started from scratch and gave a direction of development and building huge stone structures like megalithic/neolithic temples or pyramids without today's machines seem impossible for us.

St. John's co-cathedral

Mosta Dome

interior of Dome

I also saw the St. John's co-cathedral in Valetta that was built by Knights of Malta in 16th Century to save Christianity during the era of Arabian attack on south of Europe. It is a very beautiful and huge cathedral that has 9 chapels belonging to different knights from Europe like Germany, Italy, France, Spain, etc. The ceilings are covered with paintings and the carvings are golden in colour giving a rich and royal look to the cathedral. It also contains a painting by Caravaggio depicting 'The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist'. Also saw the Mosta dome or Rotunda of Mosta, the third largest unsupported dome in the world. The internal diameter is 37.2 metres and it contains a replica of the bomb that penetrated the dome but didn't blast during an afternoon air raid. In the evening we played a funny drinking game Mauro and Elena went to sleep but Marco, Carmelo, Francesco and me finished Beers, a bottle of red wine and a bottle of vodka while playing. That was really a fun night. Soon came 30th Aug when we had to leave for Trieste, the owner dropped us to the airport and we boarded our flight back home with some cherishable memories and a hope of having more such vacations.