A short story about my last adventure.

I went to Malta with the attitude that it would be a bare and rocky island, and here and there there would be towns with something to see. And so it was, although Malta revealed much more to us than that.

The first day we traveled about 40 minutes from the airport, and the driver must have watched the “Taxi” movies. We quickly had to get used to the reverse movement (it is on the left, because until 1964 Malta was a British colony, while the Queen came and gave the island its independence). At the hotel we met Boyko, who came to tell us briefly about the country and the sights. After an hour of listening to his fascinating stories about the history and nature of Malta, we found ourselves loaded with lots of useful tips and a personally drawn map of the islands with the main places to visit marked. By the end of the trip, his map was a valuable guide for us, although we did not listen to his advice to take a bus and biked more than 30 km on the hills of Gozo the next day.

We spent the first night in Bujiba, the hotel area. A very beautiful promenade leading to the church of St. John, which, as Boyko said, is written in the Bible, but the locals deliberately kept the place a secret so as not to follow the fate of many beautiful but already commercialized places. And surely, if you don’t know about it, you may not notice it. We had dinner with the most wonderful steaks, made by a famous Bulgarian chef on the island, and tried the famous Maltese wine La Torre, it was really nice!
Most of the old buildings and fortresses in Malta date back to the 16th century and the appearance of the cities is a beautiful mixture of Oriental and Italian architecture (Sicily is only 89 km away). The local language is also a cross between Arabic, Italian and English. Walking around the cities, you have the strong feeling that you have entered Assassin`s Creed.

Gozo Island

The next day we set off at 7 am at breakfast to catch one of the first ferries to the island of Gozo. The island is 25 by 15 km in size and very rich in beauty. Very happy that I agreed to Itzo’s crazy idea and took our bikes instead of getting on one of the Sightseeing buses, as 90% of tourists do. After a small false start, where the brakes on my bike failed on a hill and I was going to end my tour very fast, I got a new bike and we headed to the first landmark.
It was one of the most scenic 2 hours I’ve had. Steep climb up the hills, then fly straight down. We passed through asphalt roads and villages like in fairy tales, dirt roads, rocks, stones, farms and cows. I was almost chased by a Doberman, Itso dragged my bike along a steep rock path. On the way here and there we met a lone traveler or a maximum of two. A little El camino I would say.

We reached the first landmark – Ta ’Cenc Cliffs. Incredibly beautiful place with high steep banks. You can stand on the very edge and enjoy the amazing view. You throw a rock and it flies for at least 10 seconds until it falls down into the abyss. I know they filmed Game of Thrones somewhere around, no wonder if it was there.
We continued to the second landmark, this time in the internal part of the island – the city of Victoria with the fortress and the church of St. George in it. Terribly beautiful, the fortress itself was like a fairy tale – high stone fortress walls, which reveal a view of the whole island.

We headed forward to the next landmark – Blue Hole, where somewhere was the famous arch of Malta, but last year after a storm it collapsed. On the way we came across something like Etara – a place for local crafts and arts and saw beautiful things made of glass, leather and ceramics. A very steep road lead us down to the Blue Hole, which we then had to climb, we tried by driving first, but then we just had to push the bikes up. It was worth the effort. We boarded a boat and walked through the stone tunnels leading into the open sea through the stone wall. We saw corals and the brightest blue water I’ve ever seen.

We took the north coast and passed through Wied Il-Mielaħ and Wied il-Għasri. The first place is again a beautiful window to the sea, and the second is a tunnel with incredibly blue water, where you could enter to swim. There we met Michael – a Canadian, whom we asked to make us a photo, and he spoke to us in pure Bulgarian – it turned out that his parents were Bulgarian. He had embarked on a two-month journey through Russia, Europe, and Morocco to celebrate graduation. Later we spotted him again on the last ferry back and decided it was a sign and offered to hang out together in the capital Valletta the next day.

We continued to drive along the coast – amazing sea views and steep shores. A strong headwind came out, almost stopping us. We were already quite tired and very happy, as we dragged ourselves to a fishing village and sat down to eat. I tried lobster for the first time here, but considering how much I had died of starvation (it was already 6-7 o’clock), whatever it was, it would have seemed terribly tasty. It got dark and we decided to ask the bus driver to take us with the bikes back to the ferry. Luckily he saw our desperation and took us against the rules and after about 40 minutes by bus we saved an hour and some driving in the dark on the steep hills and found ourselves in the port. We returned the bikes back and got on the ferry.

In the evening we took a night walk around Bujiba. Somewhere far ahead there was a great storm, there were lightning every two seconds, I had never seen such a thing.

Valletta

The next day we went to Valletta, where we met Michael and toured the old town. We visited St. John’s Cathedral, one of the most magnificent cathedrals in the world, where we saw 3 by 5 meters in the original painting by Caravaggio and countless other beauties in marble, gold and ornaments. The entire floor was lined with colorful and inscribed stone tablets of the Knights of Malta who were buried there.

The fortress in Valletta is terribly beautiful, you find yourself again in a city from the 16th century, all protected by UNESCO. From the fortress walls reveals an incredible view of the city and the port. The walls themselves are impressive – more than 10 meters wide. We attended the daily cannon blast at exactly 12:00 and 16:00.

It was beautiful, but I couldn’t wait for the next day to come again to see the natural sights.

Island Malta with sneakers

The last day of the trip we dedicated to Mdina – the city of silence and the cultural capital of Malta, as well as several other natural landmarks. That day I set a personal record of 32 km walking along the steep shores of the island.

The bus left us at the beginning of a dirt road and we took roads where tourists can be said not to set foot, except for a Polish couple who had gone by the same bus and to the same destination and I exchanged with incredible pleasure a few words in Polish with them.

We went to two Dingli Cliffs. At one point we left the road and went straight through the vineyards and down the steep slope to descend to the very edge. I can already say that we also got to know the Maltese villages. Then the beautiful views paid off with an hour of steep climb up to gain altitude again and walk along the coast.

I felt a bit like a part of the Fellowship of the Ring, we walk for hours just ahead and breathtaking panoramas unfold before us. We passed 1-2 more picturesque places with rocks, we went to a beach on Ghar Lapsi and already tired from walking we took a stop to the Blue Grotto. We got there hitchhiking, we were taken by a nice Maltese working in the European Commission, who came to visit Bulgaria during our European presidency.

Blue Grotto at sunset turned out to be a worthy end to our trip with sneakers.

We caught the bus to Mdina, where we walked in the evening around the fortress, it was again a fairytale experience.

The next day we visited the National Aquarium of Malta and headed to the airport.

We came home with full eyes and hearts from the beauties we saw in Malta and from the delicacies we tasted. We left a few sights in case we decide to return. We never went to the most touristic parts, the equivalent of Sunny beach, which I do not regret at all.

We took a lot of photos and videos that will keep the smiles on our faces for a long time. Thanks to our great best man and best maid – Georgi and Dilyana – for the wonderful gift to visit this special place!