In the middle of a delayed, sweaty, overcrowded train ride from Naples Central Station to the archaeological ruins of Pompeii — somewhere around Torre del Greco — it dawned on me: maybe all the rumours about Naples are true.
It was my girlfriend and I’s first international trip together. After considering our options for a few days, we decided to head to the colourful Amalfi Coast. It looked like a destination that was romantic, relaxing, and reasonably priced. I had rarely been more excited to embark on an adventure.
Until I realised that the easiest way to get from Belgium to Amalfi without a car is flying into Naples.
Now, I had heard stories about Naples. How the city’s trash problem hadn’t been fixed in years. How nearly every building was covered in graffiti (and not the fun kind). And how the public transport was unreliable and inefficient — at best.
You may say Naples is the most unfiltered, gritty version of Italy you can find. And you may even believe that’s a good thing. But I don’t.
If you like Naples, good for you! I’m not trying to get you to dislike the city. It has wonderful places waiting to be discovered, the food is to die for, and the centuries’ worth of history hidden in the city are unfathomable.
All I’m saying is: it’s not a city that immediately enchants everyone.
To a small-town guy like myself, Naples feels a lot like the New York City of southern Europe. You feel like you just have to visit at some point, the place has plenty of things to do, and you need a few days to decompress when you get home.
The only way to find out whether the destination is worth your time is to give it a try.
Reading this article may lead you to believe that I hated every minute of my time in Naples. But nothing could be further from the truth. After all, you can’t hate a city you’ve only spent two days in.
We decided to explore Naples before continuing to the Amalfi Coast. We were going to be passing through anyway, so why not slow down a bit and take a gander at the city?
As it turns out, two days was plenty of time to do everything we wanted to do in Naples. In short: walk around, eat and drink to our hearts’ content, and soak in the atmosphere.
One thing I liked about these two days is that we didn’t feel the need to cross off things from a list of “things to do in Naples”. This allowed us to spend quality time together without feeling anxious about missing out on certain experiences.
I’m sure we skipped a few things that would have been worth our time, but I don’t regret any of the decisions we made on this trip. I will look back on our time in Naples and remember the conversations we shared on a rowdy square and the dogs who came to say hi when we were having a drink.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When you’re talking about the literal birthplace of the pizza, you’d better have a good reason for criticising the food.
Don’t get me wrong — some of the food we had in Naples was mouth-watering. We were blown away by the sfogliatelli, arancini, sgagliozze, crocchè, and other food with names that are tricky to pronounce for non-native speakers.
Remarkably, the one thing that disappointed us was the pizza. Maybe it’s because we were only there for two days and we didn’t venture far enough into the lesser-known depths of the city in pursuit of the perfect pizza napolitana. Or maybe it’s because we were anticipating a life-changing meal.
Either way — we expected more from a city known for its pizza.
We were told the best pizzeria in Naples was L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele. So, of course, we were more than happy to wait in line for 15 minutes before a middle-aged Italian man shouted my girlfriend’s name and handed us our dinner in the typical square cardboard boxes.
Again, don’t get me wrong: in terms of value for money, we got a deal that was hard to match. €5 for a pizza we both struggled to finish? Come on.
Could it be that I drew the wrong conclusion from this experience? That Naples does have life-changing pizza — and it’s just a matter of managing expectations?
Maybe Naples is a city that will grow on me with a second visit. Or maybe it’s just not my cup of tea. And you know what? I think that’s okay.
PIN IT!
Photo credits
I wasn’t planning on writing another blog post before my Erasmus stay in Spain ended, which is in about three weeks. Then again, I wasn’t planning on being stuck in Ávila and spending the night here. Thank you, Spanish public transport.
Okay, so today was supposed to be the day that I flew back to Spain and then took a bus from Madrid to Salamanca. Badabing badaboom. But, of course, as my luck would have it, there’s some pretty heavy snow in Spain at the moment. This complicated my travel plans quite a lot. This is the story of how that happened.
Disclaimer: this post will be rather short and it won’t contain any pictures.
According to the original plan (plan #1), my dad drives me to the train station, I take two trains to get to Brussels Airport, where I catch a flight to Madrid. After that, a bus takes me from Madrid to Salamanca. By now, it should be clear that that’s not how it happened.
We had a family Christmas thing yesterday, so nobody was looking forward to driving me to the train station. Eventually, we decided that my dad was the person who had to get up at 6:30 to drive me. (Dad, if you’re reading this: thank you!)
So far, so good.
I managed to buy a train ticket before my train left the station, and I caught the train. Luckily, it was one of the newer trains in Belgium, equipped with an electricity socket. I say ‘luckily’ because – for some reason – my phone refused to charge last night. No harm done, because I was able to start charging my phone on this train.
I also watched two episodes of 11.22.63 (a show about an English professor who travels back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy). I highly recommend you give this show a try if you’re into history and conspiracy theories.
This is where things started to go wrong.
Well, nothing too big happened. I didn’t miss my flight. It did leave about half an hour late, though. Presumably because of the bad weather conditions in Spain. This meant that the time that I had counted on for lunch (and to find my bus) was cut short, which started the avalanche of stress.
For lack of a better alternative, I ate at the first airport restaurant that I came across, which happened to be Burger King. Add to this the fact that I wasn’t even sure I was going in the right direction and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
I had booked a spot on a bus from Madrid to Salamanca at 3 pm. After losing half an hour on the plane, I finished eating my burger and fries at around 2:30 pm, which gave me plenty of time to find out where my bus was supposed to arrive. And I did.
I went to the bus parking, and I started waiting for the bus.
This is where the public transport system of Spain started to fail me.
After waiting for the bus until 3:20, I saw people start to leave the bus parking, heading back inside (where it wasn’t as cold and it wasn’t raining). I obviously found it rather odd that the bus still hadn’t arrived, so I decided to check Twitter for any news.
And that’s when I found out about the snow crisis in Spain. This was the Tweet that informed me about the fact that all buses in Castilla y León (which is where I had to go) had been canceled until further notice.
Great.
Información sobre corte de servicios y carreteras por temporal. Servicios AutoRes. Día 7. Todos los servicios Castilla Leon y Galicia están suspendidos en la AP6. Disculpen las molestias.
— Avanzabus (@avanzabus) January 7, 2018
This is when the “Googling for viable alternatives on my phone, which desperately needs to be charged again” started. I looked at taxis, buses, trains, Blablacar, hitchhiking, … You name it, I probably considered it.
In the end, I decided to go with an updated plan (plan #2), involving another buttload of public transport.
I take a bus to Terminal 4, I take a train to Madrid Chamartín, I take another train to Salamanca, and that’s it. Can you guess whether or not this plan worked? (It didn’t)
It started out fine, though. I feel like I owe you a bit of an explication as to what Terminal 4 and Chamartín are. Let’s see: Madrid Airport (full name: Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas) consists of two buildings. The main building houses terminals 1, 2 and 3, and it is (obviously) the largest of the two. The second building takes care of terminal 4, and it’s smaller and newer (built in 2006) than its big brother.
When my plane landed, I was in the big building, and my bus was supposed to be there as well. Upon finding out that it wasn’t going to come, I found out that the train station was located in the other building, so I had to take a transfer train (which was free, thank goodness) to T4.
The transfer train took me to the T4 building rather quickly. This was when I was introduced to the wonderful world of Spanish trains, Renfe. I bought a ticket to get me from the airport to the main train station of Madrid, also known as Chamartín.
This was rather stressy, as I couldn’t find any way of finding out whether or not I was waiting at the right train track. Turns out I was.
Once I arrived at Chamartín, I started looking for a train to take from Madrid to Salamanca. The ticket machine told me that every direct train between those two cities had been fully booked, so that wasn’t an option any more.
My dad recommended that I take a train to Ávila, and then transfer to another train to Salamanca from there, which was what I was about to do anyway.
I bought a ticket to Ávila, and I got on the train.
Now, I’ve arrived here, and I’ve figured out that there is no way I’m making it to Salamanca today. All the trains had been booked again, the buses are still not driving, there are no Blablacars and a taxi would be way too expensive.
I informed my family, and they told me to stay here and take the train tomorrow. My dad booked a hostel room in my name (again, thanks!) and he gave me the address.
I’m now in my bedroom as I am writing this blog post. I’ve just gone out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant and I feel like I’m about to fall asleep any moment now.
I’ve booked a seat on a train bound to Salamanca tomorrow morning. It might be a little tight, because the train leaves at 9:15, and breakfast in this hostel only starts at 8:30. And it’s still about a 15 minute walk to the train station. We’ll see how it goes.
With a little bit of luck, I’ll be in Salamanca by lunchtime tomorrow. I’ll be sure to keep you updated.
Thank God for public transport. Right?
Malta. Many people have heard about it, fewer people know where it’s actually located and even fewer have actually gone there. But let me tell you: after spending six days on this Mediterranean island, I’m recommending it to everyone. And here’s why.
Heads up: this will be a substantial post (5000+ words!), so if you don’t feel like reading all of that, I’m giving you a chance to click away now. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
If you don’t feel like spending your time on reading all of that, you could also take three minutes out of your day to watch my travel video.
For the unaware, here’s some background information to get you started. Malta is a tiny island located in the Mediterranean ocean, to the south of Sicily. Correction: Malta is a country made up of three main islands (Malta, Gozo & Comino).
The country’s capital is Valletta, located at the northeastern coast of the main island. Fun fact: Valletta isn’t even in the top 10 biggest cities of Malta (it only has about 6400 inhabitants).
The national language is Maltese, but everyone speaks English, so you won’t have any trouble as a foreign traveler. You might have to try a little bit harder to understand the people, but I’m sure you’ll get there eventually.
Without any further ado, let me tell you about how this was – almost – the perfect holiday.
Disclaimer: this is going to be a day-to-day diary of some kind. If you want travel tips because you’re going to Malta yourself, I’ll list everything at the bottom of this post so you can just skip ahead.
Evidently, I spent some time planning this trip. Around May, I started looking for things to do in the summer and I came across some fun travel destinations. After some contemplation, I decided to go to Malta. And I’m glad I did.
As you can read in my almost-6000-word guide, I read up on what Malta was all about and I picked the things I wanted to see and do. I made a handy map on Google Maps, pinning all the locations I wanted to go to. This gave me a convenient overview of my trip, on a map I was always bringing along on my phone.
Then again, you’re not really interested in that, are you? You only want to know what I did and what I thought of it. And I don’t blame you. So here we go.
My wish list included various things in different cities spread among the islands:
Buckle up!
Of course, my first full day in Malta had to be spent in the capital, Valletta. I say first full day because I arrived at 11:35 pm. Technically, that’s a day as well, but yeah. You know.
After taking a ferry from my Airbnb apartment to Valletta – I was staying at the opposite side of the Grand Harbour – I had to take a lift to get up to the city centre. In doing so, I reached the Upper Barrakka Gardens (totally not worth it, by the way).
The attractions I was most looking forward to were St. John’s Co-Cathedral and the Malta Experience.
Before actually embarking upon my magical adventure, I decided to stop at the Chocolate District and get myself some iced chocolate milk. That turned out to be a very smart decision, because it was just what I needed.
With a belly full of delicious chocolate, I continued up to the Cathedral. Although the entry fee was quite steep (€10 for a regular ticket, €7.50 for students), I think it was totally worth it.
As you can see, most of the interior is decorated royally with all kinds of gold, satin and other expensive things. The entry fee also included an audio guide (available in a wide range of languages) and a visit to the museum. Sadly, this museum was closed when I visited.
One thing I did manage to see was a room dedicated to Caravaggio. Quick background for anyone who doesn’t know: brilliant baroque painter whose name is actually Michelangelo, known for revolutionizing painting techniques with chiaroscuro.
In high school, I had an art class where the teacher was kind of obsessed with Caravaggio. He had a way of conveying his passion to us, the students, which is why I felt like this room was worth a visit.
After spending some time in this gem of a church and getting some quick lunch at a nearby bistro, I made my way up to the Malta Experience. This was a 40-minute audiovisual spectacle where the history of Malta was explained in a concise and entertaining way.
I would definitely recommend going here to any history buffs out there, or to anyone in general, really. Even if you don’t like it, you can just sleep for 40 minutes and listen to what other people thought of it.
Apparently, when I bought my ticket to this history show, the clerk behind the counter misunderstood me and gave me a combo ticket for both the Malta Experience and a guided tour through the Sacra Infermeria.
This tour was supposed to be me and two other people, but they never showed up, so I got a private, guided tour through a 1574 hospital. It was a pretty cool tour, but it’s not worth it to get the combo ticket. Just visit the Malta Experience and get on with your day.
So, let’s see. After everything that happened so far, it was about 5 pm. Earlier, I had sent my host Daniel a message, asking if he wanted to get some dinner with me. He agreed, and said he’d come to Valletta around 7. This meant that I had two hours to fill and no activities to fill them with.
Until I noticed a walking route along the seafront of Valletta. Well, to be clear, it wasn’t really a walking route so much as a secret-ish pathway through the rocks and nature.
So, I followed it. And I’m very glad I did. The path led me to some of the most beautiful things I saw in Valletta, like this shot of the coast line. (The picture is #nofilter, by the way)
After some more light hiking, I found myself at the other side of Valletta. That was fun. Until I realized that I was going to meet up with Daniel at this bar/restaurant called Gugar, which was like another 15 minutes’ walk from where I was.
By the way, I really recommend Gugar to anyone who is looking to grab a quick bite. It might not look like a place you’d spontaneously go to if you want to eat, but it really is worth it.
After sharing a meal with Daniel, we walked around a little bit and took in the atmosphere of Valletta. Of course, at one point, we had to go back home.
Daniel’s house isn’t located in Valletta, but in Bormla (also known as Conspicua), a town at the opposite side of the Grand Harbour. This meant that we had to take a ferry to get back there. While waiting for the ferry, this is what we were looking at.
I spent my second day in Malta wandering around the beautiful cities of Rabat and Mdina. I don’t have a lot of pictures of this day, because I spent most of it either walking around catacombs or accompanied by an American family.
I started the day off by taking a bus to the city where every building is made of limestone, where silence prevails and where every road looks so alike that you won’t get out of there without getting lost. That city is called Mdina.
It’s so much fun to just strolling around and taking in the beauty that is Mdina. Looking at the buildings and realizing that this town has 4000 years of history worked into it gives you an amazing feeling of insignificance.
My plan for Rabat was to visit one museum, one church and one set of catacombs. I got started with the catacombs. And of course, my plans quickly changed.
While exploring the catacombs, I found myself in one room, together with an American mother and her son and daughter. The daughter was reading the explanation of the room aloud to her brother and I was listening along (because I was too lazy to read it myself).
At one point, we started talking and I asked them whether or not it was okay if I stayed with them for the rest of the catacomb tour. Luckily, it was, and we discovered all the secrets the Maltese underground had to offer.
When we left the catacombs, we quickly found out that our schedules for the rest of the day pretty much collided. We visited a museum and a church together after that.
Eventually, we had to go our own ways. We quickly exchanged telephone numbers before they hopped back on their bus. (@ Family: if you’re reading this and you’re ever coming to Belgium, you’ve got a place to stay!)
So let’s recap. We’re two days into our Malta trip, and we’ve seen the (arguably) two biggest and most important cities on the main island. However, one thing we haven’t done is take a look at the other two islands that make up the country of Malta.
The second biggest island, Gozo, is mainly known for its relaxed attitude and beautiful nature. I experienced both.
My main plans for Gozo: make my way to the beach, chill there for a while, make my way to the other side of Gozo and sleep in a temple. Yeah.
Okay. So the main goal of my day in Gozo was to find a nice beach, lie down and chill for some time. To some extent, that actually happened. But other things happened as well.
The most annoying part of Gozo was transport. I had to take a bus from Bormla to Valletta, then transfer to another bus from Valletta to Cirkewwa, then take a ferry from Cirkewwa to Mgarr, and then take yet another bus from Mgarr to Qorrot.
If that was confusing to read, try doing it in real life.
I’m coming at you with another Google Maps screenshot so I can show you just what I had to do to get to the beach.
Three buses and one boat ride later, I arrived at the last bus stop. From there, I still had a 25-minute walk left to go until I reached the beach. That walk was mostly downhill, which was a blessing. Well, it was a blessing until I realized that I’d have to walk uphill for 25 minutes when I went back.
Anyway. On the way to the beach, I noticed two people holding hands, walking in the same direction as I was. I accelerated a little bit until I was walking alongside them.
The girl was the first one to start talking. She asked me if I knew where the beach was. I told her I was looking for the same beach and I joined them. We started talking and I found out that they were from Poland. They were also on a holiday, exploring Malta for about a week.
After a while, we arrived at the beach. There was nobody else there, so we had the whole thing to ourselves. So we got out our towels, found a sunny spot in the sand and got settled.
Of course, I didn’t try to intrude into their romantic getaway too much. I went for a swim went I felt like they needed some privacy, and I think they appreciated that more than they let on.
After about an hour and a half, the Polish couple said goodbye, got up and left. I stayed at the beach for another half an hour, and then I got going myself (you know, because I still had to find my way to the other side of the island).
“Wardija? What in Pete’s name are you on about?”
I can hear you think it. Remember when I told you that my plan was to sleep in a temple? That temple is Wardija. More specifically, it’s called Wardija Punic Temple and it looks like this.
Also, here’s another Google Maps screenshot to indicate just how far this temple was from where I was at the time (Dahlet Qorrot Bay).
Again, it might not look like much, and if you try to look this route up yourself, you’ll find that it takes around half an hour to get to the temple. By car. Of course, I didn’t have a car, so it took me quite a bit longer than that.
For me, this route was the most adventurous one I went through during my week in Malta. It involved missing two buses, hitchhiking, just barely catching yet another bus and 45 minutes of hiking.
Situational sketching: it’s 4:30 pm, I’m alone at a beach (Dahlet Qorrot) and I need to get to the other side of Gozo before dark.
Earlier, I had to walk downhill for 25 minutes in order to reach the beach. Well, now was the time to do that walk in the other direction. Of course, as my luck would have it, I was out of water, it was 32°C and there was no shadow at all.
After about 15 minutes, I started feeling kind of dizzy. While I was walking uphill, I noticed a rental car on its way down to the beach. I stopped the car and asked the driver (who was a French man on a holiday with his family) if he had any water I could take a sip of. Luckily for me, he did, and he was kind enough to give me some water.
French guy, if you ever stumble across this post and somehow get to read this, I’m eternally grateful. You may have saved my life that very day. Thank you.
With this renewed power, I managed to make my way up to the bus stop. There, I waited for another 10 minutes, only to realize I was waiting at the wrong bus stop, and the bus I was supposed to take (which passed a bus stop right around the corner) had already left 5 minutes earlier.
Although slightly demotivated, I quickly thought of how I still had a long road ahead of me and started walking toward the next bus stop. On the way there, I had the brilliant idea to start hitchhiking, as a way of getting to my destination more quickly.
And what do you know? It worked.
After another 10 minutes of walking and hitchhiking simultaneously, there was this one guy named Mike who was friendly enough to stop his car and let me (and my backpack) in. He took me to Victoria, the main city of Gozo, where I was supposed to transfer and take another bus.
While we were in the car, Mike and I started talking. I found out that he was born in Australia, but his parents moved to Malta right after his birth, so he grew up there. Later, when he was an adult himself, he moved to Gozo, because he liked the way life moved more slowly there.
It was an interesting talk and I’m very grateful to Mike for picking me up and shaving some time off my trip. He dropped me off at the bus station of Victoria and he got going again.
When I got out of Mike’s car, I looked around me, a little confused, and found my way to the information board right next to the bus terminal. Just as I figured out which bus I had to take – thank you, Google Maps – I saw that bus arrive.
I hurriedly got out my money, paid for a ticket, and got on the bus. After a 15 minute ride, the bus arrived at the last stop: Dwejra. You might know Dwejra as the location of the Azure Window (which recently collapsed).
Earlier that day, my host Daniel had told me how to get from the last bus stop to the temple. There was a path through the mountains and plains that would take you all the way there, if you were willing to hike for another 45 minutes.
Of course, as it was my intention to go sleep in the temple, I was more than willing to do that.
When my bus arrived at the Azure Window, I took in the beauty of the ocean’s waves crashing against the rocks and the smell of the salty water. After this #blessed moment, I decided to get up to strength and get some dinner. After all, this was going to be my last meal until I woke up, hiked back, and found something to eat.
I started hiking. And I continued hiking. I’m talking about 45 minutes that were too boring and uneventful to even talk about. So I’m just going to skip ahead to when I arrived, if that’s okay with you.
Eventually, I took the last turn and arrived at Wardija. But then, I noticed that two other people were already in the temple that was supposed to be my bedroom for the night.
I quickly found out that these two people were a French couple who were hiking around. They were planning to watch the sunset at this temple, take some pictures, and head back to their hotel/hostel/dorm/…
And then along came I. I introduced myself to them and I proposed to watch the sunset together, because I was going to have to spend the next 12 hours there anyway. So, again, I ruined a couple’s romantic plans, but I don’t think the French guys minded as much.
Luckily, they agreed. We sat alongside each other, talked about everything, took pictures and listened to music. And then, suddenly, it was time for them to get back, because they wanted to be back by nightfall.
It was at this time that I realized the time was perfect to take some pictures. After all, it was the perfect hour, and the scenery around me was already so beautiful as it was. And that’s the story of how I, a photography newbie, managed to take this picture.
So, I was now alone. In a temple 45 minutes from the nearest sign of human civilization. As I had no cell reception, I kept myself busy watching the sun slowly fall down into the ocean, listening to music and dancing around like nobody was watching – because, you know, nobody WAS watching.
Around 9 pm, I literally decided to go to bed out of sheer boredom. When I went back to the temple, I noticed a crack in the back wall. Upon closer investigation, that crack seemed to be housing a number of beetles. It looked terrifying in the dark.
After making sure that the beetles weren’t going to hurt me (like the scarabs in The Mummy), I was able to fall asleep rather quickly, considering my poor sleeping position (my mattress was a towel).
I only woke up once during the night. At around 1:30 am, I decided to check out the stars and listen to some more relaxing music. I was awake after all. The stars were magnificent, and I’ve never seen so many at once. Sadly, I wasn’t able to take any good pictures of this, because my phone camera isn’t the best.
At 6 am, I was awakened again. This time, it was the early morning sunlight that woke me up. Luckily, I fell asleep again quickly. I woke up two more times, at 7 and 8.
Eventually, I decided to head back home at 9 am. While I was brushing my teeth (yes, I brought a toothbrush and toothpaste), two Spanish people walked by. I had a chat with them and found out that they were father and daughter, hiking around in the area.
After that, I finished packing up my stuff and headed back to Malta.
So now, three days and one morning have passed, and I’ve been to Valletta, Mdina, Rabat and Gozo. As I was already close, I decided to dedicate day 4 to visiting Comino, the third island that makes up the country of Malta.
As you may or may not know, Comino is most known for its Blue Lagoon. Well, when I say it’s most known for the Blue Lagoon, I really mean that there is literally nothing else to do on the island.
Comino is 3.5 square kilometers, car-free and it has one hotel. Aside from the Blue Lagoon, there’s really no reason to come there. Or so I thought.
I went to Comino by ferry (a return ticket from Gozo will set you back €10). Initially, I thought I’d see a lot of clear blue water when I arrived there, which I actually did. Only thing was, it was filled to the brim with swimming tourists.
Now, as I had swum the day before in Gozo, I didn’t want to swim here. Also, I didn’t really feel comfortable leaving all my stuff out on the rocks while I’m in the water by myself.
Anyway. Upon arriving at the island, I started thinking it was a huge mistake to come here, as I wasn’t going to swim anyway. I got off the boat and started walking in one direction. And I kept walking.
That’s how I found some little-known spots at the backside of Comino, like this one. Although the water wasn’t as ridiculously clear as in the Blue Lagoon itself, I still thought this was worth the 10-minute walk.
That was really all that there was to do there. I spent half an hour wandering around, looking for spots to take pictures and make little video clips for my travel video, but after that, I really had seen it all.
On my way back to the ferry, I chatted with a girl from London who was waiting for someone there. I also bought a Popsicle from an ice cream stand because I was about to start melting down.
After that, I took the ferry back to Gozo, then another ferry back to Malta, and then a couple of buses, until I ended up back in Bormla around 4 pm. For the rest of the day, I didn’t really do anything exciting. I went to the grocery store, Skyped my parents, and had ramen noodles for dinner.
The next day on my trip was to be spent in the city of Mosta, a town some 15 km (9.3 miles) from Daniel’s apartment. I grossly overestimated the amount of activities and things to do in this town, though.
I was going to visit the Mosta Rotunda and the Ta’Bistra Catacombs. Mosta Rotunda is a church with a big, round-arched ceiling, inspired by the Pantheon.
My plan was to visit the church in the morning, then have lunch, then visit the catacombs and then stroll around Mosta until I felt the need to go home. Well, it’s safe to say that that plan failed.
I arrived in Mosta around 11 am. The bus stopped right next to the big church, so I went to the entrance to take a look. There, I found out that the Rotunda wouldn’t be open until 4 pm. Yeah, that happened.
So, I had to switch things up and go for one of two things: I could either visit the catacombs early and have a late lunch, or have lunch first and then go to the catacombs. I went for the first option.
I don’t even want to waste any words on the catacombs. Ladies and gentlemen, if you’re visiting Mosta, don’t go to Ta’Bistra Catacombs. IT’S NOT WORTH IT.
When I was inside the catacombs, the only reason I watched all the videos and read all the information plates is because I had to wait until 4 to get into the church. That should give you some sort of indication of how much fun I had.
I did manage to spend little over an hour at this place, though. So now, it’s approximately 1 pm and I have three hours to walk back to the Rotunda and have lunch. I took my sweet time to pick out a restaurant and to have my lunch (sorry, restaurant owner, I had no idea you were about to close!)
While I was sitting on a bench right next to the church, a street cat helped me fill my time. But then, he ran away and I was left alone. Somehow, I made it to 4 pm and entered Rotunda.
There was no entrance fee, so I was able to get into the church along with some other tourists who – by the looks on their faces – also had to wait all afternoon.
The most impressive (and also, only impressive) part of the church was the 37.2 metre dome ceiling. Other than that, it was basically like any other church.
So, all in all, day five was actually a disappointment more than anything. (Hence the or maybe not in the title of this blog post)
I went back home after the church, had dinner, chilled in the rooftop hammock and went to bed.
Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, you’re also correct if you noticed that there’s no scuba diving footage in my travel video. That’s because this was my first time diving, and I wanted to pay attention to what my instructor was saying and what I was supposed to be doing. In other words, I was too busy trying not to die.
Anyway. About two weeks before I went to Malta, I booked a “Discover Scuba Diving” course with Diveshack. Quick disclaimer: they were amazing. Professional, helpful staff and clean, up-to-date equipment. No, they didn’t pay me to say this.
As I don’t have any pictures to show you, I’ll just have to explain the experience of diving to you.
When they said “Taking your first breath underwater is something you’ll never forget”, I thought they were just saying it to convince people to spend money in their shop and dive with them. I now know that they weren’t.
It really is an extraordinary feeling. Swimming along the bottom of the ocean, not having to worry about a thing, as long as you’ve got some oxygen left in your tank.
I even met some new people who were diving with the same instructor I was diving with (Shazz). An American couple living in Malta. They were both funny, light-hearted people and it was a pleasure to meet them and dive with them.
After my dive, I went to a burger bar and got myself something to eat. I hadn’t eaten anything since 9 am, and my dive finished around 5 pm, so you can imagine I was pretty hungry.
My day ended with a bus ride back home, more ramen noodles and the only time I went to sleep at a decent time.
For my last full day in Malta, I consciously hadn’t planned anything. I wanted to have some wiggle space, in case anything else came up. So, I slept in and didn’t wake up until 11 am.
Nothing interesting really happened until 7 pm, so let’s just skip to that.
At 7, I was chilling in the hammock up on the roof again, when Daniel came up and told me there was going to be a barbecue there at 8. Now, I had heard him talk about the barbecues he had hosted in the past, and they always seemed like so much fun.
I would later find out that it was, indeed, insanely fun. Daniel had invited an Irish-Canadian couple I had met a couple of days before, as well as a Mexican girl and a Dutch guy. This international group of people turned out to be able to talk with one another as if they had been friends for years, although half of them hadn’t even met each other until that very night.
The barbecue really was the perfect end to an (almost) perfect trip. Everyone left around 2 am, after which I stayed on the roof a little while longer to enjoy the silence and gaze at the stars. Eventually, I went to bed about half an hour later.
Again, I hadn’t planned anything for the day of my flight back, for obvious reasons. That, combined with the fact that I only went to sleep at 2:30 am, led to me sleeping in again. I woke up around noon. After having breakfast and taking a quick shower, I packed my bags again and I got going. I tried to wait for Daniel to get back so I could say goodbye, but the clock was ticking.
While I was on the bus on the way to the airport, I sent Daniel a message thanking him for being the great host he was and telling him how much I enjoyed my stay.
After that, I went through airport security without any problems, took my flight back to Belgium and I got home without a scratch.
All in all, I feel like I learned a lot from my trip to Dublin, and I was able to incorporate what I learned into my next solo adventure.
I made fewer mistakes in Malta, I enjoyed being by myself more, and I met a lot more people.
If I ever go to Malta again, it won’t be for another week. I feel like five days is plenty to visit everything I visited, and maybe even more.
Although not everything went according to plan, I still stand by my belief that traveling by yourself can change your life. I’m very happy that I decided to go to Malta, and I would recommend the island to anyone who is looking to take a couple of days off in the Mediterranean.
This is the section where I give potential future Malta explorers some tips as to how to make their trip even more perfect than mine was.
I put a lot of effort into this post. If you enjoyed reading it, I’d appreciate it very much if you could share it with some of your friends who might be interested in my blog.
As always, thank you very much for reading!
-S
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