Italy and Malta Trip (Day 10): Last Day

After breakfast at Haagen Dazs, we walked around to shop for souvenirs since it was our final day in Malta and also the end of our trip. How sad. 

We passed by the Great Siege Monument and saw the makeshift memorial that was dedicated to Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist who was murdered. It was a truly vile and disgusting act. She was killed using a car bomb and her son actually found her body parts. How horrific is that? And it was because she was trying to uncover the truth behind corruption and shady businesses.

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We grabbed our luggage, checked out of the hotel, and boarded the bus to the airport. The Maltese cross was on most souvenirs everywhere, even on wine bottles at the airport!

After having lunch at KFC, we boarded this cute plane! It has the words "European Capital of Culture 2018" on it, as well as the skyline of Valletta. I have never seen such a design on a plane before.

I don't think the livery would be used anymore after 2018, so I think we were very lucky to have seen it!

Some gloomy, unedited pictures of Malta from above. I want to go back...

A carpet of clouds.

We had to transit again at Switzerland so we had some food at Marche. Yum!

By the time we reached Singapore, it was already the next day. Ugh, time zones are confusing. And I took a year to finish blogging about this trip! Hahaha wow.

Italy and Malta Trip (Day 9): Malta

Aww! A calico cat on top of a car, right outside our hotel!

After breakfast, we headed down to the bus interchange again. We passed the Triton Fountain, and here is how it looked like when I was there. As mentioned previously, it was being restored.

Then we took a bus down to Birgu! There were so many boats at the waterfront. Along the way to Fort St. Angelo, we met a friendly Maltese man. There was no one else on the street and he asked us where we were from, so we told him. He said, "Oh! Singapore! I know! Sembawang!" Haha. It was such a random thing!

What a beautiful clock tower.

We found some cannons by the side of the path, walked through a tunnel and entered Fort St. Angelo!

There were many interesting exhibits in the museum. One was in the shape of a ship and there was a video playing on its sails. There was a panel which described the fort being haunted by "The Grey Lady" (which reminded me of Harry Potter) and a gruesome panel which described how the Ottomans nailed down bodies of Maltese men and floated them across the harbour from St. Elmo. The Maltese responded by firing Ottoman heads back. (Ew)

The Grand Habour is so pretty.

This was my outfit that day. I was wearing my winter coat and boots as usual, but my dress and cat stockings were from Japan. I guess my outfit was peculiar, because many people were openly staring at me as I walked down the streets! It was hilarious. I was telling my boyfriend that it shouldn't be a strange thing to wear cat stockings in a country with cats on their postcards! And they should also be selling cat stockings in Malta. Why not, right?

We had lunch at a restaurant called Il-Veduta in Mdina. The food was good and the view was amazing, but we sat inside because it was cold.

After that, we took a bus to Dingli Cliffs! We decided to return to explore Mdina later. Again, the day was short and the sun was already setting. Ugh! That's the bad thing about travelling in winter. I wish we had more daylight to see everything!

We took so many pictures of the spectacular view!

It was actually not a good idea to wear cat stockings because the wind was so strong.

This panoramic view is just stunning.

This is St. Mary Magdalene Chapel. It's so beautiful to see a church standing on the cliffs near the sea. There was a panel beside it which stated that the earliest documented evidence of its presence date back to the 15th century. This also means that no one knows when exactly this church was built!

It'll be absolutely romantic to bring your significant other over here. Just sit side by side on one of these wooden benches and enjoy the sunset.

I like how vast and empty Malta is! And I think this outfit and pose makes me look kawaii. Heh.

We were so busy taking pictures that we nearly missed the bus! The bus at Dingli Cliffs only came by once an hour, so if we missed it, we'd have to wait a whole hour in the cold. We ran for the bus and the locals laughed but who cares, the bus driver waited and we returned to Mdina!

The Mdina Gate that was built in 1724! It was also the gate that was used in the first few episodes of Game of Thrones.

We were searching for Littlefinger's brothel and the place where Ned Stark and Jamie Lannister once fought. Once we emerged from one of those winding alleys, I knew that we were in the right place. This is Mesquita Square and they filmed so many King's Landing scenes here!

Littlefinger's brothel! I think this is where Ned Stark almost strangled him before Catelyn appeared from above.

Anyway, it was a pity that we couldn't really explore Mdina because the sun had already set and many of the shops, museums and art galleries were all closed. I had wished to learn about the tales of 'the Silent City'. Oh well. Another reason to go back to Malta in future!

Okay, so by the time we took a bus and reached St Dominic’s Convent in Rabat, it was already dark. But this is the place where Cersei and Ned had a conversation about her bastard children and she said, "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die." I was pretty upset that I couldn't snap a nice picture of this place in the day. 

Since it was so dark, we quickly boarded the bus back to Valletta. We happened to board the same bus that brought us there, and the friendly driver recognised us!

Soon, we arrived at Valletta Waterfront. Even though it was dark, the restaurants weren't open yet! It wasn't dinnertime! So we entertained ourselves by entering a nearby bookstore, and we spotted some cats along our way back to the restaurant.

We had Chinese food at a restaurant called Nan Yuan. The owner of the restaurant was very nice and he asked if we could speak in Cantonese but we can't. (Sorry, we only know a little bit of Hokkien. Can't speak dialect fluently to save my life) When we asked if they had xiao bai cai, he told us that it wasn't served in the restaurant but they had it at home. Aww. The food was good though, and the restaurant was quite popular! There were other people just like us who were waiting for it to open.

The next post would be about the last day of my trip. I was very sad to leave. Stay tuned!

Italy and Malta Trip (Day 8): Malta

Finally, Malta in the day! 

We had breakfast at McDonald's because the hotel breakfast was expensive. (We are poor and on a budget)

We had to walk past the Triton Fountain, but sadly, it was being restored. Instead of admiring the fountain, we encountered several ginger cats at the construction site. Aww!

Shortly after, we reached the bus interchange! We queued up to board since the bus had to leave at a certain time and we were early. There was an older couple behind us in the line, and they were speaking in Hokkien! My boyfriend immediately assumed that they were from Singapore. 

Anyway, we took a bus to the Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra Archaeological Park. 

There were so many interesting exhibits there, such as this one! The temples were built in such an interesting way. On a certain day and at a certain time, the sun rays would align with the doorways or the entrances of the temples! The museum provided visitors with possible explanations as to way the temples were built this way. Perhaps it was to act as a calendar or to signal the start of a season. But nothing is set in stone. We may never find out why.

Another intriguing exhibit was one on human figures that were found in the temples. They were made out of stone or clay and their heads were missing. Are they supposed to represent males, females, ancestors, leaders, or gods? Who knows!

I like this little interactive exhibit, which shows you how the temples were probably built. Basically, they moved large rectangular chunks of stone by pushing them onto small round ones!

After watching a video about the temples, we started heading towards the actual archaeological site where the temples were found. Just outside the museum, we found a fellow cat lover arrive on his motorcycle and he was feeding some of these little kittens! So cute. I love seeing people feed cats since I do that too, and I follow Instagram accounts of people around the world who do so. Even though these people don't speak the same language as I do, we all share a common love for cats and animals in general, and I think that it's wonderful.

Soon, we strolled past this security booth and then headed down the path towards the temples. The view was simply astounding.

From time to time, we stopped at the display panels to read more about the temples. Read about quarrying, bird trapping, and local wildlife too!

If I do remember this correctly, this is the entrance which aligns with the rising sun at the equinoxes. 

There were some metal poles holding slabs of stone up, and some rocks had cement in them I think.

There were barely any visitors around!

This panoramic shot features Ħamrija Tower, Congreve memorial and the island of Filfla in the distance. 

Okay, bad lighting but whatever! I really love this place!

So many pretty yellow flowers!

Came back to find more cats!

Nom nom nom... better eat before the other cat snatches the food away from me!

Anyway, on the way back to the bus stop, we met the couple from earlier and it turns out that they aren't from Singapore! They are from Malaysia. So my boyfriend was wrong, haha. They were telling us about their holiday in London I think, and they alighted probably a few bus stops after us to see the Blue Grotto. Then, they climbed back up to visit the temples. Obviously, I was a little puzzled and upset because I did not know why my boyfriend did not include the Blue Grotto in our itinerary! Poor planning again but it's okay, I would willingly visit Malta again for everything that I've missed. The few days we had there were definitely not enough.

We returned to Valletta and stopped by some souvenir shops. As Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” I don't know much about Malta, but I wish that Singapore would treat cats better. At least cats are considered an attraction in Malta and they appear on postcards! In Singapore? People mistreat them, murder them, and cats are even banned in HDB flats. Although this ban is not being strictly enforced, it is quite ridiculous. If people don't take in cats as pets, they would roam outside and reproduce more. And even when they roam outside, people still call in and complain about them and ask for the cat or cats to be removed. Seriously? Why? Cats also need a place to live, right? We are the ones intruding. Must I sing the Pocahontas song (Colours of the Wind) to prove my point? Okay, I went off on a tangent but really, cats deserve better! There is also so much potential here. We could make St. John's Island a tourist attraction just like the cat islands in Japan and the cat village in Taiwan!

My boyfriend did his research prior to the trip and he had originally planned to bring to another Asian restaurant, but we couldn't find it! I suspect that it had closed down. So we randomly chose an Italian restaurant, had some bread while waiting for our meal (they took quite a while to prepare the food) and finally, tasted the delicious pasta that we ordered. I did not get sick of carbonara during this trip. It's still my favourite kind of pasta and this one was salty! I love salty stuff and I'm the kind of crazy person who would add more salt to my fries, so this was extremely yummy to me. I don't care what you health freaks think.

This is Fort St. Elmo! Took this picture from the street before we actually paid 10 euros to enter.

We could see lighthouses in the distance.

Pretending to be a knight.

I took a picture of these vases because they look like the ones in Hercules!

I cannot believe how beautiful Malta is!

Such picturesque views.

These logos remind me of Game of Thrones sigils!

There were some people at the museum too, but since the museum is so big, we were able to take pictures like the one above. Sometimes, when I go to crowded touristy places, I wish I knew how to photoshop people away. But you don't have to do that in Malta!

The exhibits cover the Great Siege of Malta (1565) and the French occupation of Malta (1798-1800) quite thoroughly. They show how Malta was able to triumph over the Ottomans despite having a lot less men, and later, Napoleon's men left and Malta became part of the British Empire.

Since I am a history major and I used to be a member of the St. John Ambulance Brigade when I was in secondary school, I found the exhibits extremely fascinating. I think that they should organise learning journeys to Malta for SJAB members. I mean, we wore the Maltese cross on our uniforms and berets all this while but we didn't really know its origin and what it stood for! In case you're wondering what logo I'm talking about, I'm referring to the white, eight-pointed cross in the picture above and it has been around since 1567.

I know there was this Knowledge of the Order St. John, or KSJ test that we all had to take in order to get the KSJ badge. I would never forget this because the seniors and officers kept telling us how important it was to obtain this badge so that you could earn other badges, and in secondary three I became the Head of Secretary and CPBS (Cadet Proficiency Badges Scheme) Department, so I had to apply for these badges for my juniors. But still! I don't think any of us processed the information that we had to learn seriously. We just took the test, passed, and forgot all about it. Visiting Malta would actually make everything more meaningful because, as cliche as it sounds, history comes to life.

Whatever St. John organisations we have today were inspired and descended from the original Knights of the Order of St. John. During WWI, over 120,000 wounded soldiers passed through Malta and some died there. There was this exhibit with triangular bandage and other first aid equipment in it, along with small notebook that says 'Member's Record' and an old SJAB certificate to show that this particular woman had attended a course on 'Air Raid Precautions'. I just looked at all these things and thought to myself, wow. This makes my CCA seem so useful and amazing in retrospect.

After that educational visit to the museum, we strolled towards the Siege Bell War Memorial.

The memorial was built to commemorate the Siege of Malta during WWII (1940-1943, not to be confused with the 1565 one) and all who died fighting.

After admiring the sunset, we went to the Lower and Upper Barrakka Gardens.

It was already quite dark since I visited Malta in December, so I didn't get to see how beautiful the gardens were in the day. Anyway, at the Lower Barrakka Gardens, we saw some plagues that commemorate the Prague Spring and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

There were fountains and monuments at the Upper Barrakka Gardens. I guess the thing that interested me the most was this display panel thing which was titled "The Movie Trail", and they mark out all the places where movies were filmed! How cool is that? I didn't know that Malta was known as the Mediterranean's Mini Hollywood! But it's no surprise either, since Malta is so beautiful.

Then we passed the Central Bank of Malta and the Malta Stock Exchange, two official-looking buildings that I took pictures of from the outside but it was kind of dark so I'm not going to post them. Besides, this entry is already long enough! Anyway, we had dinner and walked around a little more. Along the way, we encountered a random marching band!

And that finally concludes the first full day in Malta. It's such an interesting country. I can't believe people haven't heard of it.