Malta trip #15 – Malta by Foot

 

 

I knew from my research beforehand that Malta has a couple of food items that it’s known for. On our last day, we wanted to cover that as well. In the morning we had breakfast at a place called “Manuela’s”. It was listed on Google Maps as the best place in Malta for Pastizzi. 

 

That hard to pronounce word is the name of a savoury pastry that Malta is known for. By the way, you say pass-tee-zee. It was quite good.

After we came back from the Saluting Battery, we were hungry again. This time we just walked around until we found a bakery shop. I wanted to have a Qassattat this time and I also wanted to try Malta’s famous Kinnie. Kinnie is a bitter soda. I think Roberta also opted for a Qassattat but I wouldn’t swear to it. This was one of the very few places in Malta where we had to pay by cash. This was also the only place in 5 days when we had a racist experience.

It was not a big deal and I didn’t even want to mention it but then I thought what’s the point of writing about my experiences if I am not open and honest about all of them. What happened was that Roberta was short some cash and asked me for a €0.50 change. Now if you are bean-counter type you would ask how did I have change when I had just donated my leftover change at the Saluting Battery? Well, I had just paid for my food at the same shop and he had given me change back.

 

Out of this, I gave Roberta some coins which I was sure amounted to 50 euro cents. But either from my hand to hers, or hers to the shopkeeper’s, we gave him too much. He returned the extra but at the same time made a comment to his friend in a Shakespearean aside “These English cannot count.”

Now, the funny thing here is that I am a naturalised citizen. I was born in India and even though I have a British passport now and live in England, I can’t claim to be English. But his tone was such that it pissed me off. He could have said the same thing in a way and that included us and we could all have laughed at it. But he chose to say it to his friend, loud enough that we could hear him and with that contempt in his voice that was more offensive than the words.

I would have liked to retort but the first comment that came in my head was so bad that it would have started an international incident. I refrained. Roberta didn’t hear his comment, lucky her.

His crime was compounded by the fact that his Qassattat was abysmal. The one that Sam had bought us after the Segway tour was very lightly and fluffy, filled with ricotta cheese but in a way that it was blended in the flour. Here it was very dry and lumpy with the ricotta visible in a big lump in one side. I think I did not finish it.

 

 

Kinnie was a similar story though not through any fault of our racist shopkeeper. It was just a bitter soda and I didn’t like it. Its initial taste was like an Indian soft drink Thums Up which I used to love, but the aftertaste was quite bitter. I did not even finish half of that bottle.

 

Then we walked around aimlessly which is the great joy of walking in a foreign city. While we were walking through the market, we stepped into a tourist trap (souvenir shop) and to my surprise and delight, they had the same soldier figurines that I had seen the day before, except they had them much cheaper. On Sunday, I had found them for €9.99 while the exact same figures here were going for €4.50. They are called tourist traps for a reason.

 

Obviously, I bought my favourite figure right away and also bought a fridge magnet, another soldier figure. This made me very happy. I have told you how little it takes to make me happy. See photos.

 

We had nothing specific to do so we just walked around until it was time to call the taxi. As I have mentioned before Roberta and I both like to get to the airport early to avoid stress. We took a taxi and got to the airport about 1500 for our flight which was at 1655.

 

Because this was our last stop before jumping the puddle to UK, I took advantage by ordering my last Latte Macchiato in Malta at the airport Costa. It sucked.

If you see security screening staff at an airport smiling and being all cheerful, just migrate to that country. I had noticed this when arriving in Malta also and again I saw the same thing. The staff was cheerful and chatty. I have not seen that often. Or may be ever. What’s in the Malta air?

 

Speaking of Malta air, we were flying back from Malta Air on the return journey. The flight was uneventful which is how you want your flights to be, except that wearing a face mask for three hours straight sucks. Neither of us ate anything in the flight so our masks stayed on the whole time. And a good thing it was, too. Watch this space.

Malta Trip #8 – Making the Best of it

 

The reason that that taxi ride was important was the driver. It was a lady called Phylomena who picked us up. Yes, yes, I know it’s usually spelt with an “i” but there was nothing usual or ordinary about this lady. For one thing, while other taxi drivers were willing or talk or not talk, she wanted to chat. Nothing wrong with that. She asked what we were doing in these parts and as soon as she heard about our aborted mission to visit Wied-il-Mielah, she said there is another route that leads to the window and gets you closer to the window but drivers don’t like that so they don’t go that way. We found out later why they don’t like that. She told us that she usually takes her clients that way so they can get some good views on the way as well.

 

We liked the sound of that. She told us she likes her clients to take home good memories and not just go from passenger to passenger like other drivers. Well, that did sound about right but our day next day was already planned quite tightly. Still, we took her number when she dropped us at the Citadel in Victoria and told her we would call her if we wanted to use her services.

 

It was about 1630 when we entered the Citadel just before closing time. Roberta said it’s her practice when visiting a city to find the highest spot and take a photo from there. We tried to find
the highest spot in the Citadel and found a few. We kept going up and down steps. For me the view was not of much interest because the light was already fading and it wasn’t good for photography. And to be brutally honest, the view of Urban Gozo dwellings didn’t do much for me.

 

After spending about an our in the Citadel we came out and started thinking about food. I also wanted to buy a couple of tshirts. I had deliberately packed fewer tshirts than I needed in Malta so that I would be forced to buy some there. This is something I want to make a practice. I bought a couple of tshirts in Paris and whenever I wear them there are good memories of Paris associated with which makes me feel good. I should have bought some in Copenhagen as well but we were there a short time and I forgot.

 

I think Victoria has only one long main road (not long by Delhi standards) and most of the shops and businesses are there. We agreed that we will decide what to do next based on what we came to first – fashion shop or restaurant. We didn’t find either. We found several shops and even a couple of malls but nothing for menswear.

Using Google Maps we looked for a restaurant then. As I have mentioned, Roberta and I generally agree on Italian. We found one called Hav Senso. Roberta’s problem is that she is picky in food. My problem is that I am vegetarian and picky. Not only do I not eat meat, I don’t eat mushrooms. I don’t know many Indians who do. There’s a reason for that. But it makes life difficult for me when eating out. In most places if there three vegetarian options in the menu, two of them would have mushrooms. This is different in Italian cuisine. There are many things that I can eat like pizza, pasta, bruschetta, ravioli, garlic bread etc.

 

 

In Hav Senso, I ordered Gnocchi de Patate which was ok, but maybe a little too salty for my taste. Still, it was good enough. After dinner, we took a taxi back to the apartment. A taxi could drop us all way through the gate and near the car park which was preferable after a long day of walking.

 

That night when I went to bed after putting my gadgets on charge and doing my writing thing, I was thinking that while Malta was pretty and all it had not blown my mind like the Scottish Highlands had blown my mind the first time I saw them. The second thing was that I had not had a nice, delicious meal in Malta yet. I didn’t know that both of these were going to change the next day.