| Product: |
Malta |
| Date: |
08/09/05 (2248 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Hot, good food, good drink, excellent public transport, no hassle, big and very violent history,
Disadvantages: No sand, too many cranes.
Malta. The name conjures up pictures in your minds’ eye of big churches; big heat and pretty little fishing boats crewed by ludicrously old men. So, as you leave the airport, the first thing you see is none of these. No: the first thing you see at two o’clock in the morning is a McDonalds sign. The last thing an Englishman abroad for the first time (as I was) expects. Ironic to say the least.
The first thing you feel, however, is the heat. Even in the early hours of the morning Malta is hot. The minds eye certainly got that right. Sunrise only serves as a signal to start turning it up higher until by mid afternoon you need to escape to a shady area when even the breeze has given up the ghost and gently melted away.
The days in Malta are divided into three distinct parts. The morning is when everyone is busy and seems to be when everything that needs doing gets done. And the streets of the various towns throng with people, working, buying or just taking in the sights. Then as one o’clock approaches, people seem to gradually disappear and life shifts into slow gear, and in some places, it stops completely. The temperature hits it’s high for the day at about four o’clock (and 30+ in the shade). As teatime nears, and the heat becomes a bit easier to cope with, things pick up and the streets start to slowly come alive again as the tourists come out to eat and/or drink, the locals finish off what had been started in the morning and the bars and restaurants gear up for another busy night And so starts the third part of the day. The heat is bearable and so the evening sees everyone out eating, drinking or just sat on his or her patio/balcony/veranda chilling out.
During the afternoon lull, many shops close, then reopen later. However, many of the cafes, restaurants and bars remain open throughout the day (even on Sundays). I found it a particular pleasure to find a café and sit out under a canopy and watch the world slowly meander by whilst enjoying the various coffees available and sample a little of the local food, of which there is ample choice. Better still, the prices are not expensive so you can afford to loiter without breaking the bank. For example, a coffee costs about 40cents (about 60p), an ice cream about 80 cents (say, £1.20).
The currency is the Maltese Lire, made up of 100 cents, and when I was there the exchange rate was set at around 61 cents to the English pound. I just kept it simple by thinking of a lire as worth about £1.50. The coinage itself can be quite confusing and coins of the same value can have different appearances, so check your change as some of the shop assistants seem to be a bit confused by this aspect of Maltese currency too. If you need more money then there are plenty of places to exchange your travellers checks (suss out who offers the best exchange rate first though. Standard rate while I was there was 61c to the Pound Sterling, but some were offering as low as 58c) and there are plenty of cash machines. Some places even accept travellers’ cheques or English currency as payment.
Prices are not bad and in some cases very cheap. For example, a pint of beer is about 60c a pint, or if you buy it at one of the many small supermarkets then it’s 35c a bottle (and please note, there is a returnable deposit on each bottle, about 3c each. Handy to know if you find yourself skint). Food is fairly cheap, so if you are on a self-catering holiday you can feed yourself without it costing the earth. There does not appear to be any massive supermarkets in Malta, or at least I never saw any but there are small general stores on practically every street and they are usually open from eight in the morning till eight or nine at night. They stock everything you are ever likely to need too, including English newspapers (French, German and Swiss too).
Diesel worked out at about 35c a litre (very good when you’re used to it being at 96.7p a litre). So, as there is any number of car hire firms doted around, the cost of driving yourself around Malta would not be too great. Unfortunately I cannot remember the cost of a days car hire but I do remember thinking that I wasn’t too bad. However, a word to the wise here. Although I did no driving myself, it appeared to me that you need to have eyes not only in the back of your head, but all around it too. I’m sure there are laws of the road in Malta, but they seem to be pretty liberally applied and interpreted. Yes, drivers in Malta are mad! Maltese roads are not for the faint hearted, just the clinically insane.
As I said, I didn’t do any driving. Why? Well, apart from the fact that I hadn’t taken my driving licence with me or my certificate to confirm I was insane enough to try;
I didn’t need to. You can get anywhere on the Maltese islands by bus, including all the tourist attractions. The bus service is exceptional value and a source of great entertainment. For LM 1.50 you can get a day ticket that allows you to travel on any bus to any destination on the Islands. The buses run often, regular and on time. They are clean and the drivers, although mostly bad tempered, will help you out if asked. The drivers are excellent entertainment too. They are crazy; one guy in particular could be mistaken for Ernie, the bus driver from the last Harry Potter film. They take no messing from any one and if the local traffic wardens get involved then you’ll get a magnificent display of verbal abuse, Mediterranean style. But they get you where you want to go, and bring you back, on time and in one piece. Money can’t buy this calibre of entertainment. Truly magnificent. You can also get 3 day (LM 4), 5 day (LM 5), and 7 day (LM 6) passes. These passes include the use of the ferries between Malta and the island of Gozo and can be used from 05.30 until 23.00. Together with the plentiful supply of available overnight accommodation everywhere you could have a good explore of the islands away from the main tourist centres. If you don’t want to buy a day pass, the single fares are very good value indeed. The most expensive fare being 50c. The main bus terminal is in Valetta with another terminus at Qawra. Better still, the sights from the bus as you wander about can be quite engaging and you certainly get a good feel for the place. In short, the bus service offered is awesome. Use it!
Whilst I was there the weather, as I’ve said, was hot, and the countryside certainly reflected this. The scenery was almost biblical, with dry, tilled fields, small farms and dry stone walls. Though, I found the place remarkably less dusty than I expected. The heat shimmers off the fields and by mid afternoon nothing moves. You could imagine a little old guy on an exhausted donkey slowly appearing like a mirage out of the hazy distance. Very Sergio. It is quiet too. Apart from the occasional bit of traffic, the only sound is from the insects that emit a constant buzzing not dissimilar to what you sometimes hear from overhead electric power lines. And always, somewhere on the horizon, you will see the spire or dome of a church or the ramparts of old forts.
For those who are interested in history, Malta is steeped in the stuff, and a lot of it is violent too. If you are interested in architecture, especially religious architecture, then you could spend months here and still not get to see it all. The Catholic faith is strong in Malta with 95% of the population being of the faith and you can tell. The churches are lovingly cared for and they are huge. The graveyards are immaculate. As you wander around streets you will see glass boxes fixed to walls with a religious picture or item inside. In fact, the faith is so strong here you can almost taste it. For the military historians most of the old fortifications are still standing, some of which now house museums. Fascinating stuff. In Valetta, if you look at some of the older buildings closely, you can still see the evidence of the Axis Blitz that Malta suffered between 1940 to 1943 where the holes made by shrapnel and bullets have been left.
Many of the villages are now being developed, especially around the coast. The contrast between the old and the new is quite marked. You’ll see old houses and churches being slowly surrounded by newly built hotels and holiday complexes, massive edifices of concrete and steal. Qawra, apparently, was until a few years ago a little fishing village. Not any more. There are hotels all over it now and it is quite a sizable place. If you take the cruise around the island you will see the same process happening to even the smallest hamlet. There are cranes everywhere shunting concrete about. A note here for those of you who are involved with Health and Safety or Building Standards: leaving your work at home. If you saw some of the working practices on Maltese building sites you’d have a heart attack. Further still, close scrutiny of the work being done will show that although the builders may have got a spirit level, they seem to have mislaid the bubble as nothing seems to be level or plumb.
But this sums up the Maltese in general. They just get on with their thing. And if it doesn’t get finished today, it means it will get done tomorrow. And they are very relaxed about how it gets done. It’s too hot for a stress-fest I suppose. You never see anyone rushing about until the evening when the youngsters come out cruising the streets in their mobile “boom boxes” (moded cars).
The nightlife varies from town to town. The big club scene is mainly concentrated around Sliema, but all the main resorts have some sort of groove going on. Some places are more for eating out, others more for drinking and dancing the night away. But whatever your into, for whatever reason and wherever you are, there will be places where you can get the entertainment you’re looking for. More or less every bar offers some form of entertainment from a telly showing the football to late night dancing. Club singers are everywhere and karaoke seems to be a requirement-by-law if you want to get a licence to open a bar. Country and Western is also a very popular form of entertainment. I spotted one bar that catered exclusively for the devotees of the stuff. I also spent a hilarious half hour being entertained watching people line dancing at an open-air bar. As I said, there is entertainment for nearly every ones’ taste, even the God forsaken (Stetsons included).
And the same goes for those looking to shop. Although, to be honest, I found the shops not that much different from the ones you find at resorts here in good ‘Olde Blighty’. The Maltese shops sell pretty much the same trinkets and mementos but with “Malta” written on them instead. However, there is a crafts village at Ta’ Qali (an old WW2 RAF field) and if you search around the back streets of the various towns and villages there are plenty of tiny places offering handmade jewellery and leather goods. The same applies to the markets, which are pretty numerous. So you’ve just got to dig about a bit. A lot of the places who hand make stuff are delighted if you want to watch them do it. Mdina Glass at Ta’ Qali allow you to walk about the workshop whilst they blow their glass and we found a tiny little jewellers workshop where they let my wife watch them make a silver filigree ankle chain for her. All from scratch too. It’s a lovely piece of craftsmanship (and for those who are interested, it cost Lm 7, roughly £11. Not bad for something handcrafted).
For the sun worshippers, there is plenty of space around the coast, but don’t expect huge expanses of sand. There are four beaches in Malta, the longest is proudly proclaimed to be seventy metres long. The rest is rock. But the sea is blue and crystal clear and seems clean. There is allsorts of wildlife amongst the rocks to see (and aggravate if you’re a child). The Blue Lagoon is a must-see place. Enchanting.
The coastline is doted with small coves and caves most of which can be got to by small boat, watched over by fortifications all around, from old Hospitaller forts and watchtowers to WW2 gun emplacements. If you want to, you can hire kit to explore under the water too. There is plenty of fishing to be had, with rod or spear. However, much to my boys’ disgust, there is no real surfing scene in Malta (although, strangely, there are a number of surfing clothes outlets in the larger shopping places). The highest breaker we saw was 3inches high and even that was the result of a ferry passing by. There seems to be no tides here either.
And whilst your busy getting wet, suntanned, and skint, what do you eat? And where? Take your pick. There are eateries, cafes, bars and restaurants that offer all sorts of goodies. The food available ranges McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut to restaurants offering Maltese cuisine. You can get Chinese, Italian, Indian, fish ‘n’ chips and Pukka Pies. Kebabs too. Prices are not bad, so really, you’ve got no excuse to be slaving over a cooker in your apartment when you could be out enjoying yourself.
I preferred to try to take in the local food, which I found very nice. However, I found a smashing little café (The Milk Café, opposite the bus terminus at Qawra, just around the corner from our apartment) that served full English breakfast for Lm 1.20. Unforgivable I know, but to me there is nothing better than sitting in the morning sun with a coffee after a fry up, watching the world get on with it. The café is right next door to the police station and I would watch the police amble out at about half eight, chat amongst themselves for ten minutes and then four would disappear in a car whilst one walked into Bugibba.
I never found out where the four went every morning, but the one left to walk was discovered in a little sentry box in Bugibba doing exactly what I did on a morning in the café. Except he was armed.
Not that the side arm was needed. Crime in Malta is said to be very low. Of coarse you should take the usual precautions but I never once saw, heard or suffered any problems. People got a bit rowdy on a night but never violent or abusive. In fact, the atmosphere was quite cheery. You have to watch for pick pockets in crowded streets and markets, and of coarse, you must be careful when crossing the road as drivers don’t slow down until it’s nearly too late. Some of the bigger banks have armed doormen. BOV in Valetta springs to mind here. Now, where the police have small pistols, these boys at the banks have huge cannons strapped to their hips. Do not, under any circumstances mess with these guys. They take their jobs very seriously, and they have a bank to protect and they might decide that they have to protect it from you. Otherwise, there is not a lot to say. Even the occurrence of graffiti is uncommon, but where it does appear it’s obvious who has done it. Yep, Brits! (Stand up, ‘Shaz ‘n’ Dave 4eva’, and take a bow).
So there we are. Malta, in a nutshell, was a good place to have a holiday and a good place to start if you’ve never been abroad before. Although I’ve said it gets hot, it’s not as unbearable as I’ve heard other places can be. The locals speak English to some degree, which is handy if you’re an ignorant Englishman like me. There is plenty to see and do. The Accommodation wasn’t bad, basic in fact, but it did what it said on the tin. I can see why people retire to the island, the pace of life is just so much slower and more relaxed than in the UK, and if I ever get the chance I think I would do the same.
However, I did find it a bit too ‘touristy’, and the building work that is going on all over will, I feel, take something away from the island for the sake of cramming in a few more travellers. So, the place did not spin my wheels quite as much as it has for other folk. I think it will be a year or two before I return. But these are small quibbles, and I cannot otherwise fault the place or the experience of a holiday there.
This was the first proper holiday I’ve had in over fifteen years and the first one ever abroad, and I could have done a lot worse than Malta, and because of the really good experiences in Malta, I think my travels abroad will continue. In fact, the travelling bug has well and truly bitten me on the arse.
Malta, a must-see if you’ve never been.
Enjoy.
Summary: Malta, a good place for a first trip abroad.
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