Island Hopping in Malta

Last week we were on a 7 day trip through Brussels, Budapest, and Milan. While I had an awesome experience traveling, the weather had been very cold for the majority of the trip. It was hard to not get slightly jealous when I saw pictures of all my Virginia Tech friends in Jamaica and Key West for spring break wearing bikinis and drinking margaritas on the beach. Yet, our time for warm weather and island hopping was about to come. This past weekend a group of 22 guys and I ventured to one of the most southern points in all of Europe and one of my favorite destinations so far, the tiny island country of Malta.

The idea of going to Malta occurred to me while I was looking at a map of Europe and trying to figure out what city to visit for our three day weekend. Eventually this tiny country caught my eye and after doing a little research and looking at the extremely cheap flight prices, I decided this was the place we had to go. After telling a few guys about my plan, it was only a matter of time before everyone was trying to get in on the excursion.

The week leading up to the trip had been unusually cold and rainy, so by the time Friday rolled around everyone was ready to get to the airport as soon as possible. So around noon our huge group of guys piled on the bus and we were off to spend our weekend in Malta.

After two hours in the air we had made it past Sicily and we could start to see the island of Malta as we began our decent to land. Looking down we could see the turquoise colored water right near the shore and the huge cliffs on the northern side of the island. We could see all the tan colored buildings and the marinas packed with boats. As soon as we landed and stepped off the plane I got this feeling that it was about to be a great weekend. Wearing nothing but a T-shirt, jeans, sunglasses, and my small backpack, I soaked in the warmth as if I had been living in the arctic for months.

After getting in the taxi to our hostel, our driver gave us tons of tips and details about the island. We were pleasantly surprised to learn from him that Malta is a bilingual country; the languages being English and Maltese. While this is probably a fact that someone should have already known, I am pretty sure everyone in our group was a little shocked that English was a national language given the country’s location. Once we arrived at our hostel (Hostel Malti) we all put our stuff down, immediately changed into our bathing suits and headed for the beach.

The St. Georges bay beach was only a 15 minute walk from our hostel. Once we got there we quickly realized that the water was much more brisk than the air so we all decided to stay dry. At the beach we managed to meet a few Italian girls who were fascinated by Miles and Denzel. The girls all thought that Miles was a spitting image of Prince Harry and that Denzel was Wiz Khalifa. So after Harry and Wiz had snapped some photos with their fans we walked back to our place to get ready for dinner.

That night we ate at a delicious local place called The Avenue and then went to the Dragonara Casino. Unlike many of the guys I was with, I had never stepped foot in a Casino. Given my lack of money and lack of gambling knowledge, I decided to play it safe and just play a few rounds of blackjack at the low-rollers table. Some of the more ambitious and experienced guys played roulette and/or stayed on the blackjack table for much longer. As much as I wanted to keep playing, I actually really enjoyed watching everyone else win and lose their own money for a couple hours.

The following day everyone had planned different things to do around the island. Some of the Kansas guys chartered a fishing boat to go out on the Mediterranean all day. Another group decided to go golfing at one of the courses along the coast while Miles and few others booked a trip to go rock climbing near the Blue Grotto Caves. Chris Badenhoop and I met up with some of the rock climbing guys after their excursion around 1:00 pm to go on an all-day snorkeling trip in Gozo (on the map above).

After getting fitted for all our snorkeling gear, the 6 of us and our guide made the 45 minutes cross-country trip to the ferry that would take us Gozo. Driving through Gozo, you could tell it was a lot less populated with much more country side and open space then the mainland. Soon we arrived at our snorkeling destination, The Blue Lagoon. The location was absolutely amazing. To the left of the lagoon were massive cliffs that went straight down into the sea and to the right was an incredible rock formation known as The Azure Window. I had seen pictures of this spot before we had left Italy but I had no clue that it was the place we would be snorkeling.

Once we were all suited up, we took a few cheesy pictures and got in the water. After getting used to the snorkel and chilly water we began following our guide around and looking at the reefs that covered the rocks down below. While most of the reef was much closer to the surface, the water was so clear that we could probably see 40 to 50 feet down when it dropped off past the rocks. When you got up close to the reef you could see tons of little colorful fish swimming around. As we got closer to the arch of the Azure Window we started swimming into a huge school of jelly fish and had to turn around before getting stung. After about an hour of exploring the reef we got out, ditched our wetsuits and made our way back to the mainland.

We made it back to our hostel just in time for the cookout on the rooftop balcony that we had all paid for earlier in the night. They had burgers, sausages, chicken wings, chicken wraps, Maltese salad, and Sangria that we indulged in until we were stuffed. After cleaning up we started our short walk to Paveville which is famous for its variety of bars, clubs, and restaurants. After a while there, the streets started to fill up with a mix of local students and tourists. Because everyone spoke English we were able to strike up conversations with plenty of locals who all seemed more than willing to talk to us. One of the things I noticed about Malta is how friendly and helpful everyone was. It was an outstanding characteristic that I haven’t encountered in many of the cities I’ve traveled to. While we probably could have stayed out until the sun came up based on the lively crowds, we had an early flight to catch in the morning.

A couple of weeks before we got on the plane I had never heard of Malta, and by the end of our weekend I can say the tiny island country was one of my favorite places I have traveled so far. My one regret is that we were unable to make it to the capital of Valletta to see some of the old architecture and learn about Malta’s rich history. However, the combination of warm weather, nice people, no language barrier, beautiful landscapes, and endless possible outdoor activities made our trip a huge success.