I’m not entirely sure why, but my first instinct on arrival was I need to get some Maltesers so I can eat Maltesers in Malta. Unfortunately my parents were not so eager to realise my dream, and were more focused on getting to our lodgings.

In the taxi ride I noticed a few things. First, stop signs don’t exit in Malta. In fact, the big red things on poles (I mean who they, what they, how they really?) are just a form of decoration. Second, almost every building is beige, in some form or another. My guess is they have had to develop new words for beige, because otherwise people would get confused when they say, “Which house is yours?” and they get the reply, “The beige one.” Third, they have some very exotic and different animals in Malta. My dad saw one of them beside the road and asked what it was. The taxi driver replied, “It’s a duck.” To be fair, it was a very large duck. Fourth and final for my preliminary observations, Malta is an island, so there is a lot of water.

The people who owned the apartment we were staying in were extremely lovely and warmly welcomed us, giving us plenty of useful information and a tour of the beautiful apartment. For the first time since leaving Australia, I had my own room as well as my own bathroom and the view of the marina (not my mother, the water one) outside the window was breathtaking. I was quite hungry since all I’d had since breakfast was some caramel popcorn on the plane and some Bacardi & Coke (I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t mean to drink hard liquor before five pm I swear), so I sent my parents out to do some grocery shopping and asked them to bring back some lunch.

It was 2 hours later that they arrived back, and I should have guessed, but they arrived back with everything but lunch… I didn’t understand how they could possibly be gone for so long and forget the only thing I asked for. All was forgiven though when they gave me some Maltesers, so at least they hadn’t forgotten everything.

For our first night in Malta Dad and I walked the streets around near where we were staying, and Dad naively put me in charge of navigation. I said I was going to get us lost because it would be fun and he agreed. Sure enough I was true to my word, and he complained the whole way back.

The next day we walked to Valletta, the main city of Malta, which was a mistake and we decided that the bus would be much better in future. It was a long and not particularly pleasant walk, mainly views of gutters and walls. Despite that, first impressions of Valletta were tolerable I suppose (excuse my little Pride and Prejudice reference). There was a beautiful fountain (possibly the largest I have ever seen) at the entrance to the city, in front of a bridge that stretched over some ruins that were at least 100m down. Much like many of the streets in Europe, it was very much old meets new, with cobblestone streets and old buildings filled with new chain stores, and some more unique, boutique shops.

A highlight for me was a garden close to the centre of the city, the Upper Barrakka Gardens, which in itself was gorgeous, as it had flowers and fountains and was very elegantly designed. But its beauty was ‘elevated’ as it was on the side of a cliff overlooking the coast, with views across Malta, to the lighthouses and other city landscapes in the distance. What made it even more magical was that we had arrived at sunset, and everything was framed in pink and orange hues.

The next day we had organised to do a personal development course with the woman who owned our apartment. I had originally said I wanted to do it because I was confused and thought it was an art course, as it was promoted as a “creativity program”, but Mum informed me I was mistaken, and she was quite eager to do it. With the mindset that whatever happened it would be ‘blog fodder’ (our new mantra), we went ahead.

The day turned out to be an exceedingly positive experience, which Mum really got a lot out of. Not only did our instructor guide expertly us through a discussion on life goals and fulfillment (unlike a similar program we did in school), but we also got a tour of Malta and went to another beautiful park. This one had ducks (lucky Dad wasn’t there or he would have embarrassed us again), swans and a literal pile of turtles and also some peacocks!!! I went a little crazy, since peacocks are my favourite animal, and I now have hundreds of photos that I refuse to delete.

Later we ate some pastizzis (pastry triangles with fillings, usually chicken or spinach and cheese), one of my favourite foods . I’d only ever had the frozen ones that you can buy in Australia and the fresh ones were a hundred times better. What’s more, they were only 30 euro cents each so I ate a lot of them. In the afternoon she showed us a cliff-side spot further up the coast, where we met a Maltese goat herder and his flock, and had some nice warm drinks in a nearby cafe.

The rest of the week we explored some of the locations nearby. This included a trip to the local fish market, which thankfully had more to offer than just fish, a ferry trip to the Three Cities and a walled city called Mdina, which was one of the film locations for Game of Thrones. Dad asked at the tourist office which sites were used, outing me as a fan, and the man expertly circled locations, obviously having done this many times before. We were also lured into a museum that had mannequins dressed up to illustrate Malta’s tumultuous war history, which was interesting from a few perspectives. We learned a little bit about the knights of Malta (although I’m not really sure how much I absorbed) and the sound effects were unintentionally rather comical (think death sounds made during a game of wink murder, with the occasional random cat sound thrown in).

Although all these locations were great fun to visit, the buses were… an experience. The bus drivers must have to take a shot of whiskey every morning to get up enough courage to drive everyday, because honestly I don’t think I could do it. The single lane streets are NARROW, and were clearly designed before the invention of even horse and carriages, let alone buses and trucks. There are also buildings and walls situated right on the footpath, so its not even just a matter of staying on the road when you go around a corner, but missing that great whopping building by the few millimetres that are spare. All the buses are scarred from their many harrowing journeys; somewhat resembling that bus from Speed. Furthermore the buses are often quite full, so the driver won’t stop for you, or they might running late, so they won’t stop for you, or honestly they might just be in a weird mood, so they won’t stop for you.

Despite the bus struggles, it really was an idyllic week spent in Malta. Our final night we went our for dinner, and I had the largest bowl of pasta I have ever eaten (probably not, I have eaten a lot of pasta in my time). The spaghetti carbonara was an excellent end to a week of fine food, fantastic views and fabulous new friends.