This article is a piece for my travel journalism module from Uni. Westminster.
But I also wish to dedicate it to all of my Maltese friends, for the beautiful time I have spent there, as well for the kindly people I have shared my laughters with.
Have you ever asked yourself how are you going to spend your upcoming summer holiday? Just staying with old friends, hanging out to the park near your home, and unchangeably drinking your local beer? That is surely not interesting enough!
Why not go to a place that you can enjoy the typical Mediterranean summer Feast, taste the exotic Fenek, Timpana, and drink the cisk, learning a foreign language in one of the Language centers, experience the August Golden Bay Barbeque, and live as locals in the farmhouse?
If sounds interesting to you, then a good news for you!
Malta, such a small place surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea will be the ideal place for you to spend your summer holiday! It is just an archipelago of islands located at southern Europe, more specifically 90 km south of Sicily (Italy), and 290 km from the northern coast of Africa, the nearest African country is Tunisia. The Maltese islands are the most southerly European country.
Along walking on the seaside of golden Bay, probably you will be surprised with the relaxed atmosphere, and the friendly interaction between human beings and nature. Just overlook ahead, you will find that it is so difficult to identify where is the cloud and where is the water, they are mixed with each other, overlapping and merging. Lying down on the beach, the tide sound mixed with wind seems welcome tourists like you from all over the world.
Wait, if you think coming to Golden Bay just for swimming and enjoying the Mediterranean weather, that is surely not enough! Be preparing yourself to have an enjoyable and tasty barbeque.
Every August, Golden Bay is organising summer barbeque party that more than a thousand people can attend, only around 7 sterling you can have plenty of Maltese sausages, baked tomatoes, potatoes etc and the lovely fruit desert!
The local bands, such as Rising Sunset, Maltese Pride will perform throughout the whole party, you will be surprising by their stunning performance and the pure excitement that truly reflected the energetic mood of the audiences.
After enjoying the sandy beach, better reward yourself a cup of Cisk Lager or Hop Leaf in Paceville – the famous Maltese night clubs town.
Paceville is a suburb area of St Julian’s, which located on North-East Peninsular of Maltese island. It is a place full of vibrant, energetic and lively music.
August’s Paceville is more interesting and entertaining. You will see a lot of European youngsters celebrating their summer holiday there, the hospitable DJ is delightfully announcing: Welcome all of you, my dear friends. Oh, we have Polish friends here, Romanian friends, Hungarian friends, Austrains, Germany, French…Guided by the enthusiastic DJ, people are dancing rhythmically and joyfully along with jazz, rock etc pop music, the excitement is obvious and continuously throughout the whole night!
Different nightclubs have various styles, if you want to dance with a group and guided by the DJ, Furgo is the best choice; if you want to dance individually and enjoy more personalized style, Empire, Bamboo, Harvana can all satisfy your interest.
The Alley bar is the oldest bar among all of the other bars in Paceville, Maltese all love it, it is even more popular during summers, because the special theme nights are organized, such as beer night, live band are performed during the summer in the bar as well.
Got yourself a bit drunk with the cool sea breeze touching your face, it is unbelievable enjoyment and feeling which could lead you plan tomorrow’s Paceivelle fun hunting.
Beer, rock music, sandy beach, barbeque, Mediterranean weather, are there anything else you can enjoy? Of course, as a tourist visits Malta, obviously you are going to visit the capital city Valletta, the old city Mdina, the Mosta Dome situated in the middle heart of Malta, and Slima, the most posh area in Malta.
However, if you do want to experience something different, no wonder Marsaxslokk is a place that full of traditional Maltese feature, and every tourist is curious about it. Why not visit Marshxslokk in an afternoon and experience the exotic Mediterranean romance?
August’s Marsaxslokk will bring you lots of surprise, in this traditional fishing village, which located in the south-eastern part of Malta, you will see lots of traditional Maltese eyed boats, which mainly pictured in the various calendars and souvenirs.
Marsaxslokk markets in summer are much busier than the rest of the year, just because hawkers have more different kinds of fish to sell, such as Swordfish, Tuna, and the most popular Lampuki are caught in abundance between late autumn and throughout the whole summer. If you are keen on tasting delicious fish, plenty of fish restaurants have opened to meet the sever-increasing demand.
Drive Inn Restaurant is just around the corner along the main street of Marsaxslokk, it is a family restaurant runned by a pure Maltese Michael and his wife. Michael is also the cook, and specialising in fish dishes.
He is so friendly and enthusiastic trying to accommodate your individual requirement, for instance, when you are trying the fresh crab, which will be caught at the same day, you could ask for a extra table set all of the side dishes, and a special crab outlary.
Accompanying the deslicous food with the locally produced red, white, or rose wine, such as Marsovin or Lachryma Vitis, you will never forget the wonderful moment, and almostly probably already prepare yourself go back to the restaurant next day again!
Malta is such a multi-cultural place and mixed with different languages, Maltese are so pround of “showing off” their lative English and fluent Italian, if you are ever fed up with all of these eating out and fun-making, and expecting to experience some spiritual enhancement, why not go for a couple of languages lessons in the cool breeze morning!
Plenty of high quality and well-organised language schools, such as EC, ESE, Bilingual School, GEOS, or Chamber College of Commerce etc all provide you various levels of language teachings, from beginner to advanced level, from a group of students class to individual tutorials.
Normally the language class will start from 9:00 a.m. and finishes at 12:30p.m., the minimum course duration will be 5 week days, up to couple of months or a year as you want. All of the schools are offering English language teaching, most of them are providing Spanish and French as well.
Since Malta is an archipelago of islands, tourists are also curious about her sister island Gozo and Comino. The interesting thing to be aware is during the coolest summer every year, most probably you will find more tourists like you rather than the local Maltese in the main island Malta, so where are the local Maltese then? Surprised right?
Let me first make it clear that they are not the people who are living in the cave or inside the tree trunk, in fact most of the Maltese moved their whole family to live in Gozo during the summer holiday, this is the reason you find more tourists than Maltese in the island of Malta.
Bring yourself to Gozo, not for visiting the Parish Church of the Immaculate Conception, also not for appreciating the Azure Window in this tiny island, forget all of the tourists attraction places, just for gaining first hand experience of being a local Maltese! Interesting enough, isn't it?
You could easily find a farmhouse to rent in Gozo, they are all well decorated, and the materials of house construction are the traditional Maltese stone, the house owners provide all family facilities, the rent days start from 1 day up to couple of weeks or whatever you want.
The exciting thing is every farmhouse has its own mini swimming pool, so you could easily stay in your house, but experience the friendly interaction with Mediterranean weather and clean water.
Gozo feast is a spectacular event that tourists cannot miss it. It happens frequently during summer holiday since each village has its own Saint, every local Gozotan is celebrating the Saint that belongs to his/her village. It seems becoming kind of competition, and the villages are trying to compete with each other. You can easily find out the crazy young Gozotans are screaming, and blowing the whistle in the street along the marching parade. Fireworks, traditional dancing, local bands are all mixing with each other, probably it is the best way for Gozotans to express their exciting and delightful mood!
Getting there
Prestige Holidays offers the whole package of visiting Malta and her sister island Gozo, on the whole cost £1,750, including flight by British Airway, hotels, breakfast, farmhouses, excursions, and all the admission. Not include: travel insurance, single room supplement £250. http://www.prestigeholidays.co.uk/malta
Where to Stay
Corinthia Palace, Hilton Malta, Hotel Phoenicia are all ready to welcome your visit, you can choose anyone you like, we will tailor-made to satisfy your need. http://www.prestigeholidays.co.uk/malta
Where to Eat
We will eat breakfast at the hotel you have booked already (all of the choices are provided in our website above), not including lunch and dinner.
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