Not knowing much about Malta, and not making much of an effort to research beforehand, we originally were not planning on hiring a car, but changed our mind a day or two before leaving which turned out to be a great idea! Malta is tiny, but without a car, it would be really big! And in between towns there are very few footpaths, which would have been a nightmare with Emre!
We roughly split up our days between the islands, day one on Malta, day two Comino, and day three Gozo. It was fun to take boats between the islands - to Comino on a tiny fast boat, and to Gozo on a large Ferry with the car tagging along. Basically, all three islands are incredibly rocky, with not a lot of sand and since the country is pretty small, outside the "bigger cities" most of the land is dominated by farmers fields, which look quite pretty. There are a lot of cliffs, and the water is incredibly blue.
Day 1 - Malta.
We started off our day maneuvering around the tiny roads. Majority of the roads seem like a one way with stone walls on each side. Alastair was also driving a manual English car, which made it all the more tricky. But he was a pro, I was impressed! We drove to the cliffs, just to scout out where we wanted to go. We decided to save the cliffs for sunset and hoping for better weather. We had to take advantage of the sunshine because it would rain on and off.
We then made our way to the waterfront, where most of the people were at. Free parking, lots of window shopping, and random sculptures sprinkling the touristy area. We walked all the way down to the water and admired the views of the boats. Emre loved looking at the big boats coming in, waving to each one.
After spending some time at the waterfront, we drove to St. Peter's Pool. This might have been my favorite part of the island of Malta. We drove down some tiny roads and had to park because our car wouldn't have made it all the way. We parked and walked past wildflowers and succulents; they're everywhere, it was gorgeous! This place is a great spot to go cliff jumping. I hate doing that kind of stuff, I officially retired in Boracay, but I would seriously reconsider. The water looked so inviting! Of course, it's not warm enough. We walked around the cliffside and admiring all the tide pools. There wasn't anything in it, just lots of puddles for Emre to step into. He brought a rubber duck, the only toy he decided to bring on this trip, and put this little guy into each puddle. He accidentally stepped into a puddle and while trying to get out of it, stepped into another one. Oh well! His shoes took a while to dry and he was barefoot the rest of the day.
We grabbed some food at the grocery store and made our way to the cliffs to enjoy the sunset. It was cold and super windy, so we hungout in the car to watch the sun setting. After enjoying the sunset, we went to a local pizzeria and ordered pizza to enjoy at our airbnb. It was pretty delicious!
Day 2 - Comino
We spent the day at another island called Comino. A guy chatting Alastair's ear off on the boat told Alastair that scenes from the Count of Monte Cristo was shot there. Chateau D'If, the prison is there. The more you know! We spent the day hiking around the island, just admirind the views. They have little vendors, so we ordered some lunch and ate it at a tiny beach. The water was so cold but people would still go in. Quite the entertainment while eating lunch! I just kept on thinking, Summer would be perfect!
Day 3 - Gozo
The last day was spent at Gozo. This had a larger ferry, so we took our car along with us. This day had the nicest weather, so we decided to bring our swimming stuff with us. While waiting for the ferry, Emre poked his head out the window and chatted with a couple next to us. He loves talking to adults, he's so funny! We spent majority of the day at the beach. We first stopped at an area with lots of cliffs. Alastair and Emre found a black snake, glad I wasn't around! We found a patch of beautiful red poppies, and then we drove off to a beach we googled. It had a super steep path leading down to it. People going up kept on saying, "don't do it. It's torture!" We spent hours there, splashing in the cold water. It was pretty cold but so worth it! It had this pretty reddish brown sand and there weren't a lot of people, which was nice! Alastair decided to go for a run while emre and I relaxed on the beach. Right when we decided to leave, Emre started to scream and cry. He kept on lifting one foot up, he stepped on a prickly thing of some sort and got it stuck in his skin. A beachgoer had a pocket knife with a tweezer and we got the needle out. I think it was from a sea urchin. We grabbed some food before boarding the boat. Once we arrived back to the island of Malta, we decided to go back to the waterfront one last time, before heading to the airport. We made an error and waiting til the end to fill our car up with gas. Apparently, gas stations don't accept cards. We were scrambling to find an atm and were nervous that we would miss our flight. We finally found an atm and quickly grabbed gas and made it in time for our flight. It was definitely a stressful ending to our trip!
