Brown Girl in London: Malta some highlights

Friday, January 19, 2007

Malta some highlights

Our first stop in a new place is always the airport. This is Malta International Airport at approximately 10pm.

Our hotel was located in Paceville which is near St. Julian's on the east coast of Malta. Paceville is the nightlife centre of Malta so it was a good location because it was always pretty lively at night. The Baystreet Hotel is inside a mall - the Baystreet Complex - that was open 24 hours a day.

The first night we just went to find some food and went to bed shortly after.

Friday morning we got up, had breakfast and went to catch the bus to Valletta - the capital city of Malta.

Some of the buses look like this, some don't. Some are old and some aren't. But they were pretty reliable and easy to use. Many of the streets in Malta are so narrow it was thrilling to see how these large vehicles managed to maneouvre they're way through.

Valletta

This is Republic Street in Valletta - the main drag that cuts right though the city. Valletta isn't very large, we walked most of the city in a day. It's on the east coast of Malta so we followed the coast - the coastline geography is of made up of bays and harbours. It was a beautiful, warm day (18 degrees C) with a nice breeze. Men with horses tried to get us to pay 8 Malta Lira (also called the pound) to take a tour but we declined in favour of our feet. The terrain changes drastically - really steep steps leading far down and then huge hills going back up. Leg muscles were well worked out that day.

Here's the Siege Bell Monument erected in 1992 honoring the Maltese who lost their lives during the siege of Malta during WWII from 1940-1943.