Before I went to bed, I set my alarm for 730A so S. and I could get up bright and early and head to the Hop On/Hop Off bus at the Sliema Ferry port. I’m not entirely sure what happened, but perhaps subconsciously I shut off the alarm before we went to bed to catch a few more zzzs. Needless to say, it definitely didn’t go off as scheduled. I woke up at 930A and quickly woke S. up so we could get going. We ran down to the front desk and scheduled a Malta Sightseeing tour for 1030A. We jumped on at a pick-up point right outside of our hotel and began our journey.
Malta Sightseeing runs a North Tour, a South Tour and a Gozo Tour at €15 per person per tour. If you book the North and South tour together you can snag both for €26. Though it would have saved us a few euros, we opted for the North tour only to save some money and enjoy the tour a bit more leisurely (we’re planning on doing the South tour on Wednesday morning before we leave Malta).
We headed to Sliema by way of Qawra and St. Julian’s to connect with the other tour and begin the official route. The blistering heat was a bit worrisome but the open-air bus was actually cooling with the mild winds. While we got a bit crispy (in the words of S., “I feel like I’m a brownie; like I’m literally baking in an oven”), the heat was pretty bearable.
The tour was scheduled to pass by a number of Maltese sights, but we decided to pick the few we found most enticing. After passing Ta’Xbiex Harbour and Msida Yacht Marina, we jumped off at Valletta, Malta’s capital city. I had been to Valletta before with the family in December and remembered the gorgeous views from the waterfront and the historic nature of the city. It was just as I remembered it, albeit much more crowded and 35 degrees hotter.
We grabbed lunch at Kantina Café to charge out batteries for the day. A couple of sandwiches and caffeinated beverages later, we hit the streets of the capital city. We stopped off at the nearby St. John’s Co-Cathedral to snap some pictures and headed down the streets to the Valletta waterfront before departing. With the buses coming around every 30 minutes, we tried to plan our time strategically so we a) wouldn’t waste valuable in-city time, and b) wouldn’t have to burn to a crisp in the sweltering heat. We arrived at the bus stop just in time and continued our route.
The bus passed by Hamrun, San Anton Garden, Ta’ Qali Crafts Village and Mdina Glass before hitting Mosta. Mosta was on our ‘hop-off’ list because of the history of the city. Our grandpa is from Mosta, so the city held special value to both of us. Unfortunately, the city’s main site, the church, was closed so we hopped off for but a moment to snap some shots of the façade before getting back on the bus. Still, even though we only glimpsed the exterior (see pictures from my first trip to Malta to get some glimpses of the inside), it was beautiful. There’s also something awesome about S. and I seeing the city together, the city that was home to the person that made us cousins.
With our quick passing through Mosta, we jumped off at the next city, Mdina. I was excited for Mdina before we even stopped off. I remembered the city from my last visit to Malta and recalled it being cute, quaint and charming. Indeed, it was all of those things and the characteristic red doors and clean buildings made it a great stop for a half hour.
After passing through the narrow streets and grabbing a few postcards (we sent one to our grandma from a post box in Mdina!), we headed back to the bus stop. Again, we jumped on and passed a few more nondescript cities before a fifteen-minute break in Mgarr. Now, while Mgarr is home to a pretty-enough church, we wouldn’t normally have thought much of the city. It was fairly quiet, somewhat desolate, in fact, aside from a cool little shop:
This picture is effectively a shout out to my uncle, J. Falzon! While I’m pretty sure my San Diego- based uncle does not own a butcher shop in Mgarr, still cool that this place had his name emblazoned on the exterior.
Back on the bus we went, heading back to our drop-off point at Bugibba Square, a cute little touristy spot near our hotel in St. Paul’s Bay. After a few hours of down time, we got ready to head out and check out the Malta Arts Festival in Floriana where my other cousin, P., was performing with his band. En route, we stopped off at a little pub so S. could grab a pint of Maltese beer, Cisk, while we waited to head to Ospizio. From 9 until about 1030P, we caught a pretty cool (and very interactive) performance near Valletta. Even though the entire performance was in Maltese (and my Maltese is a bit… rough), it was still cool getting to experience something unique and cultural while we were in town.
Now, we’re mentally prepping for a fairly early morning and a trip to Gozo (Ghawdex) with P.! We’re taking the ferry over there and checking out the gorgeous Azur Window, Ta’ Pinu, Calypso’s Cave and some other quintessential Gozitan sights before we grab dinner with the fam.
Catch up with you tomorrow after our adventure on the Isle of Calypso!
See all of our pics from Malta here!
xoxo,
