Despite our full stomachs from last night we were up early and heading upstairs for the rooftop breakfast. Something about the hot eggs, coffee and fresh orange juice – there’s always room for those. I chose a honey yogurt, with an ingenious design where you could tip a connected honey container into the yogurt container – and just let it drip in. Once again the views were great at breakfast, and the rising sun’s rays were shining across the table making breakfast a bit more poignant.
Today’s mission was to get out of Valletta a little and see some other parts of Malta. First, we used Google to find a walking course to the ferry terminal on the northwest side of Valletta that had eluded us the previous day. As we approached on the road we were passed by a delivery truck that made some familiar sounds – it was a truck imported from Japan with a Japanese voice warning about turns and kanji saying that it specialized in shrimp. Kuniko said the phone number on the side was an Osaka area code – how did it end up on Malta?
We stood under a tented area and waited for the next ferry – there were just a few people in front of us. As we waited more people started to show up, but since the sun was shining and the tented area was small people kind of spread out helter skelter instead of lining up officially. When the ferry started to come in we could see that it was a pretty big one.
A couple that had arrived after us gestured that we could board first, but I said that it looked like we’re all going to be OK so please go ahead. By weird coincidence when we were getting off the ferry on the other side we ended up near the couple again, and the woman gestured to us that we could go first – she said “we’ll all get there in the end” – kind of repeating back what I said in a more profound way.
As we approached the Sliema area of Malta by ferry we had great views. The water was deep and blue and fish were darting here and there. The area of Sliema was more modern than the historical area where we came from, and facing it was Manuel Island, with a fortress commanding a view of the bay. Despite the breeze it was getting hot – serious sunburn risk! We went through a lot of sunscreen on this trip.
After getting off the ferry we did a little shopping in the area at some of our old favorite European stores: Spar and Flying Tiger. We walked along the streets in the shade until we reached Tigne Point, went to an air conditioned shopping mall for the clean restrooms, and then walked around the point snapping photos of Valletta from this side. Already there were swimmers in the ocean – they had steps in stone going down to the water and it looked like a good day for a dip.
After getting our fill of the area we caught a 20 minute ride using the Bolt application to the southeast area of the island, a fishing village called Marsaxlokk. The village has a picturesque harbor with lots of fishing boats painted with blue and rainbow colors. Out here the sun was beating down, so as we walked around enjoying the scenery it was essential to look for shade.
The restaurant that I had hoped to visit for lunch was closed that day for some reason – you can’t trust Google for restaurant opening times – but there were plenty of other places to choose from. Besides restaurants there were some open air shops selling liqueurs, breads and other little knickknacks.
Eventually we chose a restaurant with outdoor shaded dining, right next to the water. While we waited there was a family working on their boat – they all were wearing tight and minimal swimsuits, and looking forward to a day out on the water.
Lunch was a shrimp cocktail (with raw shrimp, yum!), fried fish (not really tempura but quite good), and arancini with squid ink. I had a local craft beer, and Kuniko had a coconut/mango mojito that turned out to be a little too sweet. While we ate and drank there was a constant battle to bat away the flies and wasps that showed up. This was a recurring theme throughout our visit – but it kept Kuniko busy and at least there weren’t mosquitos like we have back in Japan.
After paying the bill the manager offered us free coffee or drinks on the house if we wanted to stay a while – we didn’t take him up on the offer but it was a very nice gesture. All the staff of the restaurants were fluent in not only English, but also the local Maltese language and it seemed like they spoke Italian as well. It was impressive to watch the staff switch languages effortless between customers and somehow knowing the right language to use at the right time.
On our car ride back to our hotel area we could again check out the landscape. We passed a pretty dramatic cemetery with large gravestones, and most of the buildings were built with the same materials and so had a similar color pattern – a sandy beige that blended in with the terrain. There were vineyards here and there to provide the wine that we had tasted, but other than that not a lot of green.
Back at the hotel we found that our room had been cleaned, so we celebrated with a little wine from the hotel fridge, writing in this journal, and I ended up taking a nap. I was surprised when Kuniko woke me up – she had been awake the whole time and I had slept for several hours. Now we had about 20 minutes to get to our dinner reservations down the street. I certainly slept a lot during this trip – but I guess that is all part of being on vacation.
Our restaurant tonight was called Nenu the Artisan Baker – a sort of touristy traditional place that had come recommended online. After wiping the sleep from my eyes it was just a short walk from our hotel, and we stepped inside and walked down some transparent(!) steps over a diorama of early island life to arrive at the restaurant. We were the first customers, and I wasn’t sure if we were allowed to enter or not.
Despite the touristy feel it seemed like a good place. The staff were mainly south Asian (we saw a lot of immigrants working service jobs on this trip). We figured out the menu and the wine selections – we even had a photo of the in-flight magazine ad that promised a free glass of wine.
Dinner was quite good! We ate fried fish over pickled vegetables, rabbit ravioli that had excellent flavor and made me want to use rabbit meat in future dumpling making sessions. The gravy for the dumplings was really tasty as well – rich and savory. The main course was roasted rabbit – we picked up the pieces and ate them by hand like a roasted chicken. There was a lot of meat here – maybe one and a half rabbits, and it was tough to finish it all while nibbling around all the bones.
The restaurant felt a little like an Italian restaurant based on the decoration and music, but from what I heard there is still a lot of Italian influence on the island. We weren’t that far from Sicily actually – it made sense from a geographical point of view.
As we ate Kuniko kept up the battle against flying insects, and gradually the restaurant started to fill up with customers. Each time a new couple arrived the woman (and only the woman) would go first to the restroom – hmm… Our waiter seemed to be new, so he was getting advice from the manager, also south Asian.
It was a lot of food so we skipped dessert, and headed out to walk off the meal and watch the sunset back near the ferry dock. Walking around town after evening was nice – the sun was down so the streets were cooler, and filled with people enjoying the city and its nightlife. Near the center of the city there was a theater with an instrumental group practicing (the theater itself was empty of spectators) but the music spread through the town and had a sort of dramatic theme to it. There was plenty of live music coming from various restaurants, and nobody was wearing masks or thinking about COVID, which was nice to see.
It was a good time for photos, too. My new(er) iPhone took some pretty good pics with low light, and throughout the trip I was wondering whether to use my phone or my camera, probably frustrating Kuniko who had to wait for me to decide before moving on.
Finally we headed back to the hotel with cannon fire in the background. I guess that you can get used to just about anything – now we don’t really worry with heavy gunfire going on around us. Despite all the sleep I had earlier it was no problem to drift off once again.
