Wow, Malta was a wonderland place. When we got off the plane I just knew that I was going to enjoy myself here, unlike our previous trip to Milan. What turns out to be an unwritten ritual, as soon as we checked into the hotel we headed straight for McDonald's. Our hotel was located in a mall so that was very convenient. We arrived at night so we decided the next day we would go to the town of Valletta.
Our first real day we got up had some free breakfast that the hotel provided and headed out to our first destination Valletta. Our means of transportation was public transport. As many of you who do know me I am not one for getting in public buses especially when I am on a trip!! But thanks to the motivation by RedCat I knew it wouldn't be that bad and it wasn't. Our whole trip we used the public buses and I must say I am very proud of us :-)
Valletta is the capital of Malta and has fantastic views of the Grand Harbour and other surroundings. It like a little town with various shops and cafes for tourist to visit. St. Johns Co-Cathedral is one of Valletta's main attractions, I found it to be a very lavish church filled with amazing art work.
The next day we hit the beautiful island of Gozo. Gozo is an island of Malta and filled with spectacular sites. We had to take a short boat ride to the island and even that was just breathtaking. Once we got off the boat we had planned to get around the island by public transport but then a man approached use he explained that he can give us a ride in his cab to the main town in Gozo at a cheap price. I should also tell you that the cabs in Malta and its islands are government runned so basically we knew the man wasn't shady... Anyway it turns out that this man would give us a tour of the island for a way cheaper price than the bigger tours. So we agreed and here are just a few pictures of some of the sites we toke in.
This is called the Azure Window.
I like to call this "The pile of Rocks", but its really known as the Ggantija Prehistoric Temples. Ggantija Temples are one of the most important archaeological sites in Malta. The origins of Ggantija date back to the Ggantija phase (3600 - 3200 BC).
The next day was a quite day, so we just toke the bus to another historical site called Tarxien Prehistoric Temples (as seen above). They comprise four temple units linked by a square court and they were the last to be built on the Islands. Their skillful construction and the elaborate design and workmanship suggest that the temple builders had gained considerable expertise over the millennia since the first phase of megalithic construction. Obviously I found that description somewhere, heeheheheheh. But is really was an interesting place and because there were not many people, actually we were the only ones there, one of the people that works at the site gave us a guided tour.
Overall, I had a wonderful time. This is one of the many places that I have to go back especially in the summer because I can tell it would be a lot more hype. I think it was because of the time of year we went, I found there to be mostly older crowd and from what we hear and read the younger crowd come out in the summer.
Anyway now its time to decide where to go next, ummmmmmm
Well yesterday we had our first big snow fall so far and man was that a site to see. First I woke up in the morning to find the ground was covered in snow and I was quite happy about that because I kind of missed it for some reason. Then I was listening to the radio while I was getting ready for work and they announced that there was going to be a whole 2inches of snow on the ground and to be careful when we head out. I couldn't believe my ears 2inches!!!! I mean please we go through way worse in Canada and everyone here was scared of 2inches, I could still see the grass by the end of the day so it was not that bad. They even closed all the schools, there was ciaos on the trains and the airports had to be grounded. Another funny thing I found interesting was that people used umbrella's when it was snowing, I don't know but I have never seen that before. Now if you guys back in Canada have seen this before please let me know, I just found it very very odd.
