Malta Holiday Diary
Cranes Everywhere
June 19th 2022
We arrived in time, about 9.15, Malta time, which is 1 hour behind Romania and 1 hour more than England.
It takes about 2.50 hours to get from London to Malta Airport.
We stay in an apartment in St. Paul's Bay. It is nice, newly renovated, clean.
Simon asked for a taxi to wait for us at the airport. Being dark, we thought it is easier to be driven to our location.
The taxi-driver seemed alright, though not very talkative. To all our questions he answered monosyllabically. Later
we found out that they weren't truthful either.
June 20th 2022
We slept more or less alright. Probably the change of bed and the heat. It is hot, but it is nice, at least for me!
Simon likes to be warm, but not too hot.
We had a hiccup with the taxi that promised to be here at 10 and didn't show up, we needed to go back to the
airport to pick up our rented car. We called for another taxi, having some problems telling our address, but in the
end we got the taxi! We arrived at the airport, no problem. But the taxi driver didn't have a clue what we were asking
for, meaning the car rentals park or he didn't know and didn't want to say so. So he dropped us at the arrivals telling
some porkies about where is the car rentals park. Finally, asking around, we managed to find out where the place
was.
Here another adventure: Simon's booking for an automatic car didn't appear in the papers that the man in charge
had. And he didn't have any automatic car, at least so he said. He had to get in touch with the headquarters twice,
once for the confirmation of the booking and second time for the automatic car. And surprise, he got us a car and
an automatic one above all!
The Maltese people are really.... how to put it nicely? Very odd people. It looks like they don't like too much the
tourists, which I have to say that I don't blame them, considering what tourists we saw around us! And, even though
it is considered that the English language is a wide spread language here, they barely speak it and less understand
it, or they prefer to show this.
Alright, we got an automatic car, we managed to come back home, through a lot of traffic jams. It looks that every
person living here has at least two cars, there were so many cars on the roads and also parked! When you think it
is such a small island: 27km long and 14.5 km wide!
We decided to walk to find out where we are and what's around us.
We found somewhere nice to eat something, Simon enjoyed a pizza and I a chicken shish. As desserts they have
crepes, so we decided to come go later in the afternoon to have some.
After lunch we came back to our apartment and tried to cool a bit using the air conditioning. We are not keen on air
conditioning, but there are times when you really need to use one. And surprise: the air condition doesn't function.
Simon got in touch with the person that was suppose to look after us while we were booked in this apartment and
received the answer that they know about this and they are waiting for some spare parts to arrive and hopefully it
will be in order by Friday (today is Monday!). After Simon said something like this is not good enough, the person
he was speaking with said he will send somebody to bring us a portable air conditioning until ours will be fixed.
They didn't offer to change the room though. The unit proved to be old and making an awful noise. But we put up
with it hoping it will cool the room. We were told that this is until Wednesday when ours will be definitely fixed (now
it was Wednesday!).
Later in the afternoon, when the temperature went down a bit (here it gets dark about 8.30-8.45) we went for a walk
and a drink. We went also to the beach, which is in walking distance from our place. It isn't very appealing; it is
quite rocky and not so big. And who knows how is the water because there are a lot of boats close by.
Then we went to have our crepes, which were really nice. We walked a bit more around this bit of St Paul's Bay,
close to the bay. There are little shops, cafes, restaurants and lots of Chinese take-away, having also space to eat
there.
We returned to the apartment at about 8.00. We discussed about looking for other places with beaches and
decided that we will try to see all of them, there are about 6 main ones, including the one near us, starting with the
furthest one, which is to south-east of the island.
We watched our 2 favourite series at the moment, we checked, of course, our emails, after which I went to sleep
and Simon to locate on Gina (our new sat-nav) the 5 beaches we will see tomorrow.
June 21st 2022
It was a better night; as I said, probably starting to accommodate ourselves with the place. But Simon didn't
manage to sleep well, unfortunately.
He showed me what he has done the previous night, locating the beaches and how far they are.
After having our coffee and wash we went on our today's adventure. I named it "Driving across Malta", because it
is literally crossing the island, firstly in length along the north side, for the first beach, then going around to south,
then crossing again to north, north-west. I managed to take some pictures, trying to show the real Malta, not the
very few ones that one can find on the internet.
Considering it is such a small island you would expect to see some decent places, locations, buildings... The
ground is kept alright; I assume being not much, they try to use any bit of it, with small patches of vegetables,
orchards and so on. But the buildings are ... We keep asking ourselves about many of them if they are finished or
not. One could try to figure out from the photos. Everything reminds us of Egypt, the driving, people and buildings.
If one visited or drove from Port-Said to Cairo would understand what I mean. In Egypt the only rule for driving is
that one side of the road is for one direction and the other for the opposite one. It is something similar here, only I
have to admit it is a bit better here in Malta, they have also lights and they do take them into consideration.
We passed the Gate of Mdina, which is an ancient structure, Mdina being famous for its glass, a real art.
Gate of Mdina
I will not stop to describe the beaches we saw, it would take to much space and time and it wouldn't be very
pleasant either. Just to say that 2 or 3 of them are OK; for one you need to walk a long distance and on steps, one
is in a harbour, God knows what is in the water; another one is really crowded, probably because it is sandy and I
think the largest of all; once again is sandy but very close is a marina, a lot of boats; the Golden Beach seems to
us to be the best for our taste.
We also saw, to our shock, some sewers at the surface; it was a large area, portioned into rectangular smaller
sewers by stone walls and FULL of sewage and a horrible smell. We can't believe that it is possible something like
this in the 21st century!
Arriving at our place we went for somewhere to eat, a Chinese restaurant, we both like Chinese food.
Then back to our room, to try and rest a bit. But we didn't manage, it was too hot and the portable air conditioning
didn't decrease the temperature. And to add to all of these we both started to feel sick. Simon was badly bitten by
mosquitoes, even though we bought 2 plug-in devices with liquid against mosquitoes. But apart from having a
strong unpleasant smell, they don't seem to have any effect.
About 4.30-5.00 we drove to the Golden Beach. We were pleased to see there were long chairs with umbrellas.
We chose 2 with an umbrella, undressed and sat there, trying to enjoy the cool breeze. It didn't last more than five
minutes! The people in charge with the beach and the chairs came and collected the umbrellas, from the whole
beach, mumbling something. After a short while they came to tell that we have to move from the chairs because is
closing time and they have to collect the chairs too. It was 5.45! Simon asked if they close the sea as well, that we
will not be allowed to go swimming either. As usual, they looked at us as if they were zombies (this is the general
attitude of the people here when you talk to them, trying to have a chat or ask some normal questions), mumbled
something and left. This is another thing good to be known for somebody who wants a holiday in Malta!
Anyhow, we put a towel on the sand and sat there, continuing to enjoy the breeze, the sun set and we had a few
swims. After a while we got up and left.
The sea water temperature is nice, quite warm, very pleasant to swim. But the water is so dirty! Even worse than
the beaches at the Black Sea in Romania. It was like a soup. Imagine me taking the mask to go under the water to
see … what? Nothing. I tried, but I wasn't able to see anything. And this is about the Mediterranean Sea, crystal
clear! Yes, there are places for snorkelling and diving, but only from boats, around the cliffs.
I wanted to visit the famous Blue Lagoon, which is on Comino island, but after today's experience I am not keen
any more.
We came back to our room completely disappointed.
Malta Holiday Diary Continued >>
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