Bratwurst und Bier (Bratwurst & Beer)

The decision to visit Malta went something like this… Searching for deals for the memorial weekend on the Internet, finding nothing for that particular weekend due to a German holiday coinciding with memorial day, found good deal on Malta instead on the weekend after, sold on the good prices and booked the same day the deal was found. We are keeping a list of ‘wish list” for all the places we wanted to visit in Europe. Malta’s not on the list, but sometimes when deals come along, you gotta re-adjust your plans. After all, that’s how we ended up going to Mallorca for Christmas holiday and it worked out great.

Malta is an independent island nation 90 kilos south of Sicily. Malta was under British rule for many years until gaining independence in the 1900’s. The official languages are English and Maltese, which was great for us since we don’t speak a lick of Maltese. There have been human inhabitants on Malta for at least 6000 plus years. During our four-day stay, we saw a number of ancient temples that were at least one thousand years older than the Great Pyramid. It was quite humbling to be in the presence of something so old. The Maltese cuisine is somewhat similar to Italian fare, most likely due to close proximity to Italy.

We got around the island using many of its bus lines. Since Malta was under British rule, they also adopted the custom of driving on the “wrong side” of the road. Most tourists as well as the natives take these buses to go from place to place.

A couple of unexpected tid bids from this trip, probably due to the fact we had not properly research our destination before arriving….
1. Maltese Lira is more expensive than the British Pound. 1 lira was approx $3
2. Despite the name “Maltese” dog… we actually didn’t see a single such dog while there

3. Despite the reputation of great weather all year round, in one case, we actually heard someone claimed Malta has the best weather in the world, we were rained on 3 out of 4 days during our stay. Our last day, the rain was coming down so hard, it had flooded the streets and we were afraid the flights would be grounded.
4. Malta actually consists of three main islands: Malta, Gozo, and Comino

It was a quick and enjoyable trip and one more country checked off the list.