Malta

Last weekend we escaped the cold rainy weather in London for warm sunny clear skies in Malta!  I'm so glad we did, it was just what we both needed.... some VITAMIN D!

Where is Malta? Its south of Italy and north of Libya.  A tiny little speck of an island.  It's a nonstop 3-3.5 hour nonstop flight from London Heathrow.

standing above the Blue Grotto

Air Malta:  This is the first time we flew Air Malta... What did we think?  Well... the plane was full of one rude crazy person after another and the flight attendants were not what we were use to.  For example: when taking off the guy in front of me basically had his seat reclined into my lap and the flight attendant didn't seem to care (I SURE DID)... I also realized that when we touched down that no one ever told me to turn off my iPad (that I didn't mind so much)  The agents at check-on were super nice though.

Is Malta pretty?  Well... it's tan. That's for sure!  Everywhere you look no matter where you are on the island the buildings are one shade of tan after another, no color at all.  I kept finding myself wanting to see some vibrant splashes of color, but never did.

The water:  The water was absolutely gorgeous!! Some of the prettiest and cleanest that I've seen anywhere.  I don't like getting into the ocean (yeah, I'm a bit of a weirdo), but had the water been the slightest bit warm I would have been swimming around all over the place.  It was so clear and so blue!

Spinola Bay at night (St.Julian's)

Where we stayed: Hotel Juliani located in St. Julian's overlooking Spinola Bay... just a 5 minute walk from the nightlife area "Paceville"...  Did we like it?  Yeah, for the price (a mere $150 a night) and location it could not really be beat.  Would we stay there again?  Maybe.  If the water was warmer, I'd probably stay somewhere with a private beach.  This place does have a rooftop pool though.

Places to check out while in Malta:

• Golden Bay: parts of the movie "Troy" (with Brad Pitt) was filmed here... it has golden sand, cliffs surrounding it and is secluded from the city noise
• Mdina: cool area and great views of Malta 
• Fontanella Tea Gardens (in Mdina) Eat there chocolate cake.
• Mosta: home of the world's 3rd largest dome (or so they say)
• Valletta: city capital... Republic Street is pretty busy and check out St. John's Cathedral it's home to a Caravaggio (signed in blood... or so they say) Check their hours though because it's closed on Sunday (the day we went) and closes pretty early other days...
• Marsaxlokk: cute fishing village - nice place to go have lunch, spend an hour and move on... They have a daily market... and the freshest fish that you'll probably ever get in your lifetime unless you catch it yourself
• Sliemma: a nice walk along the promenade from St. Julian's... you catch all the ferries, water taxi's, harbor cruises from here, cafe's and shops are all over as well... a lot of chain stores though...
• Hagar Qim and Mnajdra Temples: these temples are said to be older than the pyramids and they have no idea what they were used for.  They are located really close to the Blue Grotto.
• Blue Grotto:  take the 20 minute boat ride to/through the Blue Grotto and it's surrounding caves.  even if this isn't really your thing just being on top of the gorgeous clear blue water is worth it.  Mike and I wanted to jump in, but the water was FREEZING.
• Hop On-Hop off bus tour: Best deal ever. For 13 euros per person we got a 3 hour bus ride all over the island and it even included a 1.5 hour harbor cruise (which we did and actually enjoyed)  Like I said, BEST DEAL EVER.
• Tom Hanks is currently filming a movie there, Captain Phillip? or something like that? and on the Harbor cruise we cruised by the set.  The people who live in Malta are VERY excited about Tom Hanks filming here.  It was Tom Hanks, this Tom Hanks that... Tom Hanks just bought a house near the Blue Grotto blah blah blah.

How are the prices in Malta? Everything is AFFORDABLE!

Would I go again? yeah, maybe. It's a big world and I want to see it all so it's really hard for me to go to places twice.  As for the mister? Well, he was already talking about moving there one day. HA!

Things I didn't like about Malta?

1. Service is really slow there for the most part.  Like REALLY slow.
2. People cut line ALL the time.  No matter where you are, they will step right in front of you like you don't exist.  There is never an orderly line. Total line chaos. I never got ok with this.
3. Smoking was everywhere. Barf.  I hate the smell of cigarette smoke.