At the same time that Mom and Dad left for England, I went on my own trip to Malta. I’m a little behind but now that I’m back home I’m going to try and get my blog posts up too and hopefully it’s not too confusing!
After a long travel day (Atlanta to Copenhagen to Malta) I got to the apartment I was staying in Monday evening. It was the top floor of a traditional Maltese building, complete with one of their iconic covered balconies and a rooftop with amazing views of the sea. I went out on a short walk to explore Sliema, the town I was staying in, and got a great initial view of Valletta, the capital, across the harbor. I was pretty tired, so I went to sleep with plans to get up early and really start sightseeing the next day.
On Tuesday I got up and took the ferry from Sliema to Valletta, which is just a short 10 minute journey. I always enjoy being out on the water, so I was excited that this is the easiest and fastest way to get there from where I was staying. Once in Valletta I walked to Fort St. Elmo, at the far end of the peninsula where Valletta is located. Here, I waited to get tickets to the Hypogeum, which are extremely limited and sold out online months in advance. But, you can go to this location to buy next day tickets first thing in the morning if they are available. Luckily, I was successful so I will share more about my visit to the Hypogeum in the next post.
I then strolled through the city and grabbed an iced tea and pastry to eat while I killed a little time before my walking tour. I found a square where there was a really nice temporary installation of tons of flowers and trees and sat on a bench to enjoy this pseudo botanical garden. I learned later on that historically plants were not allowed in Valletta as they have a problem with getting enough water. It rarely rains in Malta and their only source of fresh water is groundwater from that rain. Now, they also desalinate sea water to supplement that. At 10:30 it was time to meet my free walking tour to get my introduction to Valletta.
Walking towards the tour I was shocked by how many more people there were. I clearly had found the busy tourist area, and quickly learned that Valletta sees up to 50,000 people a day (cruise ships dock here as well as it just becoming a more popular travel destination in the last few years). This is particularly impactful once you learn how small the city is. The entire city is only 0.6 miles long and 0.4 miles wide, making it the smallest capital city in Europe. There are only about 5,000 residents, so 50,000 people coming in every day is quite a lot!
The walking tour was great and I learned a lot of context about the history and culture of Malta. Valletta was built by the Knights of Saint John, who created the fortified city in order to protect the island that they called home. The city has a grid layout and a lot of the buildings we saw could be attributed to the Knights. We started the tour at the new Parliament building, which was made in the same yellow limestone that most buildings in Malta are made out of, but with an interesting tecture to represent how these stones wear away over time. Next to it was the opera house, which was mostly destroyed during WWII, but now has been reopened as an open-air theater. We ended the tour with a view of the Upper Barrakka Gardens, where they fire a canon twice a day. Our tour guide had timed it so that we could watch the canon go off, and it was a little underwhelming.
The tour also gave some great information about what Malta is like today. It has two official languages, Maltese and English, and both have equal importance, so most signs would have both. The tour guide also explained that Maltese is a mix from several other languages, primarily Arabic with some Italian, French, and English thrown in, which makes a lot of sense based on Malta’s location between Sicily and Africa. She also told us how before 2018 Valletta really run down, but was then designated as a European Capital of Culture, which gave a lot more funding and led to a huge resurgence of development and tourism. Now, the real estate in the city is super expensive, many of the buildings have been restored, and they see millions of tourists each year.
After the walking tour I needed a snack so decided to try a pastizzi, one of the traditional Maltese pastries recommended by the tour guide. They are filled with either ricotta or mushy peas, so I definitely went with the ricotta. I don’t know that I’d want to eat it every day, but for a quick and cheap snack it was pretty good. Then I quickly stopped to get a bubble tea before catching another ferry to the Three Cities, which are located on the harbor on the other side of Valletta.
The Three Cities are known for being quieter, more residential areas and the streets I walked down were definitely that. I made my way to a crafting class, which I had booked through Airbnb Experiences. It sounded like a fun way to spend an afternoon and make a souvenir in the process. I met Dilara, the host of the class, at her apartment and she showed me to her balcony with an amazing view of Valletta, where she had laid out all the supplies needed for our drawing and embroidery class. It turns out I was the only one signed up that day, so I had a private class and it was nice to chat and get to go at my own pace. Dilara had printed out pictures of different Maltese flowers to use as inspiration, and I was able to trace and color, and then embroider over the image to add some texture. I asked her which one she thought I would most likely see while I was there and she recommended the Prickly Pear, since they are everywhere (I can confirm this!). I had a great afternoon working on the project and was happy with the finished product that I could take home and frame.
After I finished that up it was getting towards evening, so I took the ferry back to Valleta, walked through the Upper Barrakka Gardens and back through to the ferry to Sliema, which I took back to where I was staying. Overall, a great first day out getting the lay of the land and seeing what Malta is all about!
Hammond Adventures 