Enough is enough, I thought, and spontaneously booked two tickets to get away. The borders in Europe started opening at the beginning of July and Ryanair had quite a few flights operating daily from Dublin airport, however, at the same the Irish government was advising people to avoid all non-essential travels and to cancel all vacations abroad (this hasn’t changed till today). Well, I decided to put my mental well-being first and chose Malta as it was a Covid-free island at that time. To be honest, on the way to the airport I felt as if I was about to commit a serious crime and ‘my partner in crime’ didn’t seem to approve of the whole trip from the very beginning. Once we got to the airport and saw that everything was working as usual but at significantly reduced volume, I relaxed and switched into the holiday mode.
We didn’t have time to do much research and we kind of didn’t have any expectations of Malta, but actually loved everything we saw and experienced. Everything was great, starting with the accommodation. We were staying in Valletta near the Old Harbour in a big apartment with a balcony overlooking a local street and with a private roof terrace. The whole place was spacious and super comfortable and the best part of it was that we were a 5-minute-walk away from a wonderful swimming spot and from the best cafè in the city. So you can already imagine what our mornings looked like. I mean pretty much the same as at home: wake up, swim, have a cup of good coffee:-).
We really enjoyed the area where we were staying and we happily spent some the time just wandering around, swimming in the harbour, eating good food, and drinking good coffee and wine. The vintage vibe of Valletta really appealed to us and I fell in love with all the old-school grocery stores and bakeries and pastry shops. Of course we travelled a bit around the island and made it to the places we wanted to see the most. What was on the top of my to-do list was a swim in St. Peter’s Pool and it was the first place we went to, and we liked it even more than we had expected. I guess no trip to Malta would count without visiting the Blue Lagoon so we took a boat to Comino Island and swam in this unbelievably blue water. On my search for more of exciting places to swim we made it to Popeye Village- the whole village is a tacky funfair but the landscape around and the place to swim there are definitely worth a visit.
There was nothing we didn’t like about Malta. The Airbnb was probably one of the best we’ve ever had, its location was simply perfect, the weather was warm and sunny, the places weren’t crowded at all, everywhere we went was reachable by efficient public transport. It would be lovely to return to Valletta one day, even just for the city vibes and great coffee.
MTD on the go 