My only criteria for my Spanish spring break destination was beach. It didn't matter where the beach was as long as it included sea and sand. The other criteria was that Ryan Air had to fly to and from Sevilla, since let's face it, Ryan Air has cheap rates. Malta, a tiny island nation in the middle of the mediterranean was all of the above.
After staying Barcelona for 3 days, my friend Rianne and I took a 6 am flight to the island. Greeted with sunny skies and a nice breeze, we both knew it was going to be a good week. Malta is technically made up of 3 islands: Malta (the main one), Gozo, and Comino (famous for its lagoons, but nobody lives there). We spent the first half of the week on Malta, and then took the ferry over to Gozo to spend the second half.
We checked into our hostel, which was actually quite nice. Since we had been traveling since 3 am, we took a quick break before exploring. We took a bus to the capital, Valetta, which was right around the bay from where we were staying in Sliema. (Side note: Malta has a fantastic bus system that stops at all the major cities on the island. A 2 euro bus ticket is good for all bus rides throughout the day.)
We walked around the small capital, and eventually went into the State Palace where the royalty lived and conducted their royal business (whatever that might have been). The armory was converted into a museum of the Knights of Malta, complete with actual armor and swords. At some point of wandering around the capital, I fell off a step right onto my ankle. By the sounds of the gasps of the onlookers and the amount of pain that I was in, I knew it wasn't good. I got up, immediately fled the scene, and rested a little before we continued on.
Since we were exhausted and I was now injured, Rianne and I decided a trip to the beach was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. The water was too cold to swim in, but the temperature was perfect for laying out. After we both got a little red, we decided to explore a little more of Sliema. We walked around the bay, but my ankle was in severe pain that putting pressure on it was not a good idea. I stopped at a pharmacy to buy an ankle wrap, but it only helped minimally.
We went to dinner (the only restaurant we ever at at while we were on the main island), and when we got back to the hotel, I decided that there was no way I could continue walking around Malta with my ankle in the shape that it was in.
So we went to the emergency room, which just so happened to be a 5 minute walk from the hostel. I didn't feel the need to see a doctor since I knew it wasn't fractured or broken. I fractured my ankle before, and this injury was no where near the pain of my fractured ankle. So with total confidence I went up to the desk and asked to have a pair of crutches. I believe this is exactly what I said, "Can I just have a pair of crutches? I mean, I'll buy them." The receptionist looked at me, a little confused, and told me to go back to the emergency room doctors to ask there. So I repeated my question to the lady behind the desk. She told me that it wasn't common practice to give somebody a pair of crutches if they haven't seen a doctor, but she said she would ask. Five minutes later, she came back with a pair of crutches! I was wheeled around the waiting room by a nurse who said that I should really still get an x-ray, so after a little convincing, I agreed. Of course the x-ray turned out to be fine, but at least it validated my need for crutches.
The crutches they gave me were the weird European ones with the forearm brace. I was more was more stable hobbling around without them at first, but eventually I got used to them. I asked for the kind that came with the armpit brace, but they laughed at me when I said that since apparently those are the "American crutches" and weren't used in Europe. They made me feel like I was asking for an automatic car, but all they had to offer was a stick shift. So I was stuck with the European stick shift version of crutches for the week.
Rianne and I came to the conclusion that even if we made fools out of ourselves by waltzing into the hospital and asking to buy a pair of crutches, we at least proved the entertainment for the night. We were the star of the show: two American girls at the Maltese emergency room causing a ruckus by apologizing for my unshaved legs and asking to buy a pair of crutches without seeing the doctor. I guess spending the night at the emergency room can actually be fun!
The next day we planned to visit the crypts in a town on the southern part of this island. No pair of European crutches were going to stop me! I even got special attention: people offered me their seat on the bus, they cleared the path in the crypt and on the street, it was great! The best "special treatment" was when we went to visit the Tarxien temple (a temple form 3200 BC). I was crutching up to the ticket counter, when an employee stopped me and told me that I should use a wheelchair to go around the temple. Before I even had time to say yes or no, he brought out the wheelchair and pretty much forced me into it. He said the path was too rough for crutches because it was rocky and uneven, but we soon found out that a wheelchair was not the best solution. Rianne played along and wheeled me around the temple. At times the road was so rough I literally almost fell out of the chair, and at one point there was no ramp up to the sidewalk, so I had to get up and walk up the stairs. When we saw the employee who offered me the wheelchair outside watching (and laughing at) Rianne and I, we realized that we were once again the day's entertainment. Anything for a laugh I guess!
Malta is known for it's beautiful caves and blue water, but also for its ancient ruins which are the oldest on Earth to date. Therefore, the vacation was a mix between ancient ruins and beach. We spent the last day on the main island on the southern coast. We visited the BLue Grotto, which is a series of caves, filled with the bluest of blue water. Coral grew at the bottom of the caves which formed a beautiful purple layer of rock right where the water hit. We took a boat ride around the coast and through the caves...what a way to start the day! Then we made our way to see the best preserved Temples in Hagr Qim and ended the day with a ferry ride to Gozo, where we would spend the rest of the week.
We had planned for Friday to be the main beach day. The tiny island of Comino boasted the best beach/swimming area: the Blue Lagoon. Early Friday morning we made our way down to the harbor and bargained for a boat tour of the Comino caves and the Blue lagoon. The water was a bright aquamarine color, the sand is a crisp white, and the water is so clear you can see the floor. Even though the water was freezing, Rianne and I braved the temperatures and went for a dip. Rianne went for several! Later that night, we took a bus to the Azure Window, an imposing rock structure on the side of the west coast of Gozo that somehow had a rectangular cut out in the rock so it looked like a window.
We ate dinner in Victoria, the main city in Gozo, and since it was Good Friday, there was religious procession through the center of town. I was excited since I missed all the big processions in Sevilla (the religious procession capital), so the Maltese one would have to do. I went over to stand by the crowd to get a better view, and when I turned around to go back to my pizza awaiting me at the restaurant, I scraped my leg against a stop sign. The pole apparently had two metal screws sticking out at my thigh level. So all of a sudden, I feel my jeans rip completely (to the point that the fabric is flapping) and see two bleeding cuts on my thigh. Great. Now I have a sprained ankle, ripped jeans, and two bloody-potentially-tetanus-ridden cuts. What a week of injuries I had!
The next and last day in Malta, we had until late afternoon to explore before our flight. We had heard so much about Ramla Bay, a beach with deep red sand and the same beautiful blue water. When the bus dropped us off, there was no beach in sight. All we could see was mountains, grass, and goats. After a 5 minute walk, the beach was visible, and we enjoyed our last beach experience of the week. It was the perfect way to end our first week of Spring Break!
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