Mal-teasers - Part 1

 This trip had been planned for ages… yet it caught us rather unprepared to leave — you see, the plan was to travel with bag, baggage and child 2 to meet child 1 (well, he’s not a child anymore, but not-quite-a-child-anymore-1 doesn’t seem to have the same ring to it). But child 2 threw a spanner in the works by announcing that football trials were on, so we needed to scramble to make arrangements for her stay - our tickets weren’t refundable or flexible. Before you start gasping at our sheer negligence as parents, child 2 had local guardians, and an army of support staff who almost made child 2 wish we didn't have to return anytime soon. 

But we finally did set off, and our first port of call was Fiumicino. 

Nice enough town, if only we got the hang of their public transport

"See bridge that opens? Must wait until you see it open." Ancient family saying

We had a few hours before our next flight, so we took a small stroll along Fiumicino village to stretch our legs. Lovely little port-side village to start the holiday off on the right note. Also gave us enough time to check in on the abandoned child back home. 

Nothing to see here. Just some pictures we sent on the family group so child 2 feels like she's on this trip with us. 

We reached Valletta late in the evening and spoke to child 1, who had already checked in. Valletta from one end to the other can’t be more than 30 minutes by car, and so we assumed we would be reunited with child 1 in the next few minutes, once we had our luggage and rented car. Ah, if only things were as simple. Apparently, both our hotel name and street name were common enough to have more than one address, and as luck would have it, we arrived at the wrong one - the one with no parking, a steep climb, and a street party happening. So there I was, dropped off at the noisy street corner while the spouse drove off to look for parking. It was only after I asked child 1 to come and help me with the luggage, and he insisted that our place wasn’t slap-bang in the middle of a raging street party, that we realised we were standing at 2 totally different addresses. Took another 30 minutes for the husband to come back with the car, and another 30 for us to find the right street, but we arrived, finally, in our lovely, cosy Airbnb. 

The next day, we decided to set off to explore Malta. The country has 3 large islands- Malta, Gozo and Comino. We had planned to head to Gozo in the latter half of the trip, so we skipped the day tours to the island. 

If this feels vaguely familiar, think GoT. King's Landing. Season 1

First stop, the historic city of Mdina. Apart from it being a city that carries so much history - it looked as though we had the whole city to ourselves - we came in around breakfast time, and it really lived up to the ‘silent city’ name. Also, I’m not sure what it is, but the doors have some of the most beautiful doorknobs I’ve seen. 

see? Prety doorknobs. 

Fair bit of British Influence, and it's not just in the language. They even drive on the 'right' side of the road, unlike the rest of mainland Europe.

Cosy little sitout. They're scattered around the city, inviting you to slow down. 

St Paul's, Mdina, designed by Lorenzo Gafa

'Silent city'. We hit the streets before the crowds arrived. I'm glad we did. 

Lovely little street sign.

The next stop - Dingli Cliffs, which afforded fantastic views of the city and out to the sea. 

 From there we headed out on a short boat ride to check out the Blue Grotto.

Short boat ride, but packed a punch

 The water looked tempting enough to dive into. But of course, we were instructed to rein in all such urges while they shepherded us safely back to the shore. 

Didn't think to take videos, where you could've heard the boatman asking us to cease and desist. 

We stopped at a few scenic Wadis before making our way back to Valletta city. 

The trek that demanded the sacrifice of a shoe not equipped for the terrain. 

We then headed out to Valletta - as I mentioned, it's a tiny city, but boy does it pack a punch. Every street, every corner is picturesque - from Republic Street, to the 33 steps to the city gates designed by Renzo Piano, to St Elmo’s Fort. We did catch the tail end of the cannon firing, but what really has us was the view of the city from the edges of the Fort. 

It was a bit rainy, so we took shelter in this lovely museum and gallery 

The city gates of Valetta

The Valetta skyline and port

The saluting battery

While roaming all over Valletta was great - it was something we could cover in half a day, so we decided to do a few easy walks around the island. We started off small, from St. Peter's Pool to X Robb I-Ghagin. 

You can see why we got sidetracked while trekking

more of the coastline we walked across

Easy enough to start, but once we started, we sort of just... drifted along the coast. Why, you ask? Well, partly because it was just so beautiful, we let our eyes lead the way. And partly because we couldn't get ourselves to pronounce the destination, so we basically just failed miserably at asking for instructions. We also decided to walk the Ghajn Tuffeiha bay the next morning- but not before we stopped at a local Decathlon to replenish my walking shoes, a pair of which I'd sacrificed to the cliffs of X Robb the previous day. Small sacrifice to make, and lesson learnt on choosing the right shoes for trips. 

The boys at Ghajn

The two sides of Ghajn Tuffeiha

The various colours of the island

In the afternoon we drove to the top of Anchor Bay to look at 'Popeye Village'. Yup, that's right. Popeye Village. It started with the film set for Popeye being built in the 1980s and has remained ever since. It has now become a major tourist attraction with all things Popeye and lots of fun activities to boot (we skipped this part - none of us are particularly huge Popeye fans). 

The Popeye village

complete with cafes and sunbeds

But fun, on the whole. That evening we set out on the ferry to Gozo Island. Gozo deserved a few days of stay, and not just a day's trip. Gozo will thus deserve another post.