Sights and smell of Malta

Valletta:
I went there first on a saturday afternoon, still weary from the 4am out of the bed and 6.30 am cramped class flight on budget airline Ryan Air out of London Luton airport. And my first impression was that of an ordinary renaissance Eurpoean capital, evidently ( I thought ) in decline, with all the gritty bylanes and doors to sandstone terraces accumulating dust as if they have not been opened for months. I could not see anything of remotely the same grandeur as I had come to expect, from my previous trips to other Med cities like Firenze, Rome etc.(Perhaps that's an unjust comparison). But I must admit, I was indeed misguided by the first impressions.Being a saturday afternoon, the cathedral had closed. I missed the last public admission at 12:30pm. And there were a few overpriced restaurants in the vicinity, from one of which I savoured some traditional Maltese rabbit in garlic and herbs sauce.My impression changed when I took the Valletta harbour cruise the next day, allowing you to see the city from the water, from the 10 odd creeks that surrounds it. The Grand Harbour was quite an experience. The establishment of the Order of the Knights of St.John and fortification of the island, great Siege of Malta ( by Ottoman turks ) in the sixteenth century, the subsequent French occupation ( by Napoleon ) and British colonization have imparted it a rich maritime history and military heritage that few other European cities can boast of. Valetta is unique in that aspect.


Harbour Cruise:



Mdina:



Diving in St. Paul's bay:
Read all about in my post.

Traxien temples:
There are plenty of buses that go from Valletta terminus to Traxien, I hopped on one ( My hotel receptionist was kind enough to offer me a handy guide book with bus numbers. The ticket was 47cents but I had a bus pass for the day ( cost me 3.49 Euros , which was good value I thought as I had travelled to and back from the Blue Grotto earlier in the day ). 15 mnutes or so later, I got down and walked to the temples. The Temple is a UNESCO world heritage site, with the structures dating back to around 3000 BC. The entry ticket cost 6 euros, bit over prized considering the attraction takes less than 15 minutes to walk through ( unless you specialise in archealogy ). But maybe that helps keep the visitors down and preserve the place.

Blue Grotto:


Paceville:

Aparently, this is where all the young people hang out at night ( the noise levels and young people on the streets on saturday night were quite high ) but I did not feel threatened as I feel when walking next to youngsters back home in Britain. Nice kids most of them, minding their own busniess and having fun. Being a stones throw away from where I stayed, my only interest in the area was gastronomic, me well past the partying age ( and not a party animal in any case ). Below are the two which I thought were decent places serving right priced stuff that does not make you sick.

Eating places:
Maltese mama - Pleasant welcoming staff, served up a well presented platter of nibbles ( without me asking for it and did not overcharge either ) containing crackers, cheese bite , smoked and pureed aubergine (?), olives and peppers sauted in a sauce with tomato base, garlic and herbs. The spagetti was not cooked enough to my liking(me being the guilty one here as I didn't ask for it to be cooked well) but the fish ( the waiter presented one of the exhibits on display as the victim but looking at the size of the fillets in the sphagetti, I doubted if even half of it went in ultimately ) and sauce in the sphagetti were nice. And they don't serve tap water, so I had to pay for a bottle of H2O.Slightly expensive but better value than what I paid for the rabbit in Valletta.

Answers restaurant - claims to have answers to the question what to eat? And they do. Simple no frills food, serves good coffee and good value for money. And they have free wifi thrown in. ( unless you prefer kebab shops or cheap pastizzerias, that sell kebabs for two euros and chicken mushroom pies for an euro, which are also present in the area. They dished up some pasta marinara for lunch ( prawns . octopus and assorted fish ) which was cooked al dente ( on request ) and served in pleasing manners.

Alfonso hotel:
Value for money hotel, helpful staff, clean rooms. I got a room with three single beds though I paid for a single ( for about 28 euros a day - I went in mid April 2010 ), was cleaned and beds made daily.
It's right next to the road, so bit noisy at night but me being the sort of person who can resume sleep in spite of being waken up a couple of times by the noise of screeching car tyres, revving engines or teenagers shouting, it was not a big problem. And they advertise wifi in the rooms, but the connection dos not work ( You do see the wirless network of the hotel in your computer but nothing comes through on the pipe ). But they do have internet in the lobby ( a euro for 30 minutes or so, I think ). Overall, good value for money. Convenient bus stops next to the hotel for Valletta, Mdina, Sliema.Breakfast included in the price, standard continental fare.