Malta
Malta [1] is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea that lies south of the island of Sicily, Italy. The country is an archipelago, with only the three largest islands (Malta, Għawdex or Gozo, and Kemmuna or Comino) being inhabited.
Regions
By inhabited island:
Cities
- Valletta — the capital, named for Jean Parisot de la Valette, a French nobleman who was Grand Master of the Order of St. John and leader of the defenders during the Turkish siege of Malta in 1565.
- Buġibba
- Cottonera (Three Cities) — The name used when referring to Birgu (aka Vittoriosa), Senglea and Bormla (aka Cospicua), three towns conglomerated by 17th century fortifications called the Cottonera lines.
- Marsaxlokk
- Mdina — Malta's well-preserved quiet old capital
- Mgarr
- Rabat
- San Gwann
- Sliema — beach package tourist central just north of Valletta
Other destinations
- Hagar Qim and Mnajdra - Two very beautiful stone age temples set on the cliffside of south Malta.
- Mellieħa — Malta's biggest beach
- Xghara
- Blue Grotto - A series of seven caves and inlets on the southern side of Malta famous for deep blue waters and spectacular natural rock formations. The Blue Grotto may be accessed by small traditional boats, skippered by cheerful Maltese guides, which leave from a well-signposted pier just off the main road along the south coast.
- Clapham Junction - An area of southern central Malta where deep ruts in the bedrock appear to have been formed in the remote past by wagons or carts.
- Golden Bay - One of Malta's most beautiful sandy beaches, on the northwest coast of the island.
Culture and History
History
Although small, Malta has a long and rich history, with evidence for habitation going back to the Neolithic era (4th millennium B.C.). The country boasts some of the world's most ancient standing buildings (the Neolithic temples), and its strategic location and good harbors in the middle of the Mediterannean have attracted Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Crusaders, the French and finally the British, with the colonial period lasting until 1964.
The Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, also known as the Knights Hospitallers, took over sovereign control of Malta in 1530, and by 1533 the Order had built a hospital at Birgu (one of the three cities) to care for the sick. In 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, mounted a great siege of Malta with a fleet of 180 ships and a landing force of 30,000 men. In response the Order, with only 8,000 defenders, drove the Ottoman Turks away after a hard siege of several months. After this siege, the Order founded the city of Valletta on a peninsula, and fortified it with a massive stone wall, which even withstood heavy bombing during the Second World War. By 1575 the Order had built a large hospital known as the Grand Hospital or Sacred Infirmary in order to continue with its primary mission of caring for the sick.
In 1798, the French under Napoleon took the island on 12 June, without resistance, when the Grand Master of the Order capitulated after deciding that the island could not be defended against the opposing French naval force. French rule lasted a little over 2 years, until they surrendered to the British Royal Navy, under Admiral Nelson's command, in September 1800.
Great Britain formally acquired possession of Malta in 1814. The island staunchly supported the UK through both World Wars.
The island was awarded the George Cross for its heroic resistance during the Second World War. An image of the cross is displayed on the flag. The colors on the flag are red and white, colors related to the Order of St. John.
Malta remained in the Commonwealth of Nations when it became independent from Great Britain in 1964.
A decade later Malta became a republic. Since about the mid-1980s, the island has become a freight trans-shipment point, financial center and tourist destination.
Malta gained European Union membership in May 2004.
Climate
Mediterranean with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. few rain
Terrain
Mostly low, rocky, flat to dissected plains, with a coastline that has many coastal cliffs and numerous bays that provide good harbors.
Travel to Malta, visa requirements
No visa is required for entry by EU, Canadian, and American citizens. Visitors from outside the EU, including Americans, must fill out a landing card, available on board some arriving flights (sometimes) or in the entrance hall of the airport from the small box between the customs agents.
Flights to Malta, airtickets
Malta possesses its own national carrier, Air Malta, with regular connections to many European, North African and Middle Eastern centres. There is also connection to London Luton and Dublin via Ryanair.
The islands possess one international airport, Malta International, located at Luqa.
By boat
There are frequent fast ferries to the Sicilian port of Catania, Italy. The trip takes around 4 hours, can get bumpy (or cancelled) if it's windy, and is often more expensive than flying.
There is also a highspeed catamaran between Pozzallo and Valetta that takes approximately 90 minutes.
Get around
Buses to Malta
One of Malta's joys (at least in small doses) is the wonderfully antiquated public bus system, consisting of 1950s-era exports from England usually kitted up with more chintz than a Christmas tree plus icons of every saint in the Bible and then some. Fares are very cheap and even the longest ride across the island costs less than a pound; the only catch is that almost all buses radiate out from Valletta, so you may have to detour back to the capital to reach your next destination. Be sure to have change to avoid irritation or even being denied the ride (a ticket typically costs 20ct-25ct and people trying to pay with the equivalent of 100 USD will elicit an unpleasant response), and be sure not to get short-changed as this seems to be a habit of the drivers.
By taxi
Malta's taxis are a ravenous lot and fares are quite expensive. There are black taxis, which have to be called in advance, and white taxis, which can pick you up off the street. Both have meters that are uniformly ignored, figure on LM5 for short hops and not much more than LM10 for a trip across the island. Also note that plenty of black taxis break the rule when nobody's looking, and this is the cheapest way to hitch a cab ride. All taxis must have the third letter of their licence plate with letter Y otherwise these aren't authorised taxis and might not be very safe.
By car
You can rent a car on the island. However, unless you are used to driving on the left side of the road and can handle unpredictable driving, you would be better off with a taxi or bus. A good map is a must. Petrol, as almost everywhere, will seem expensive by US standards. It is always best to pre book your car rental online as this works out a lot cheaper than booking when you arrive. You can compare prices of local car rental companies for malta from companies such as www.carrentalbookers.com/country/malta. According to the mediterranean markets, malta has very low rates for car rental. Any driver and additional drivers must take with them there driving licenses in order to be covered for by the insurances provided by the local car rental supplier.
By ferry
There is the regular ferry service between Ċirkewwa on Malta and Mġarr on Gozo, it goes every 45 minutes in the summer and almost as often in the winter, The trip there is free, but to go back to Malta costs 2 Lira. There are also irregular services to Comino.
By helicopter
Scheduled helicopter service between Malta and Gozo has been terminated.
Talk
The official languages are Maltese and English. Italian is widely understood and spoken, especially by the younger generation. You can get around just fine with English alone, but even a few words of Maltese will be much appreciated.
The basis of Maltese is Semitic, while the superstructure is Romance (mostly Italian). It also has Anglo-Saxon (English) elements in it. Knowing a few phrases in Maltese may be useful. See the Maltese phrasebook for details.
Shopping, Malta souvenirs
The Maltese currency is the Maltese lira (LM, MTL), also referred to as the pound, which is divided into 100 cents. One of the strongest currencies in the world – as of January 2005, a single Maltese pound is over €2.3 – it takes a while to get used what seem like deceptively low prices.
Costs
Goods in Malta are of average value by north European standards but quite pricy compared to South Africa. Touristy restaurants and shops can be very expensive, and imported good and produce is also pricy. You can survive on a budget of less than €30 a day by staying in youth hostels and self-catering, but one should double this amount for comfort.
Good restaurants and cheap meals
Good, distinctly Maltese cuisine is hard to find but does exist. The food eaten draws its influences from Italy, northern Africa and Britain. Most restaurants in resort areas like Sliema cater largely to English tourists, offering pub grub like meat and three veg or bangers and mash, and you have to go a little out of the way to find 'real' Maltese food. One of the island's specialities is rabbit (fenek), and small savoury pastries known as pastizzi are also ubiquitous.
The Maltese celebratory meal is fenkata, a feast of rabbit, marinated overnight in wine and bay leaves. The first course is usually noodles in rabbit sauce, followed by the rabbit meat stewed or fried (with or without gravy). Look out for specialist fenkata restaurants, such as Ta L'Ingliz in Mgarr.
True Maltese food is quite humble in nature, and rather fish and vegetable based -- the kind of food that would have been available to a poor farmer, fisherman or mason. Thus one would find staples like soppa ta' l-armla (widow's soup) which is basically a coarse mash of whatever vegetables are in season, cooked in a thick tomato stock. Then there's arjoli which is a julienne of vegetables, spiced up and oiled, and to which are added butter beans, a puree made from broadbeans and herbs called bigilla, and whatever other delicacies are available, like Maltese sausage (a confection of spicy minced meat wrapped in stomach lining) or ġbejniet (simple cheeselets made from goats' milk and rennet, served either fresh, dried or peppered). Maltese sausage is incredibly versatile and delicious. It can be eaten raw (the pork is salted despite appearances), dried or roasted. A good plan is to try it as part of a maltese platter, increasingly available in tourist restaurants. Sun dried tomatoes and bigilla with water biscuits are also excellent. Towards the end of summer one can have her or his fill of fried lampuki (dolphin fish) in tomato and caper sauce (see here for the peculiar method of catching this fish: http://www.june29th.com/lampuki.htm). One must also try to have a bite of ħobż biż-żejt, which is leavened Maltese bread, cut into thick chunks, or else baked unleavened (ftira, from the Arabic root for flat), and served drenched in oil. The bread is then spread with a thick layer of strong tomato paste, and topped (or filled) with olives tuna, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and the optional arjoli (which in its simpler form is called ġardiniera).
Malta nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs.
The national drink is Kinnie, a fizzy drink made from bitter oranges and slightly reminiscent of Martini.
The local beer is called Cisk (pronounced "Chisk") and, for a premium lager (5% by volume), it is very reasonably priced by UK standards. It has a uniquely sweeter taste than most European lagers and is well worth trying. Other local beers, produced by the same company which brews Cisk, are Blue Label Ale, Hopleaf, 1565, Lacto ("milk stout") and Shandy (a light soft-drink type beer). Since late 2006 a new beer produced by a different company was released onto the markey with the name "Caqnu". A lot of beers are also imported from other countires or brewed under license in Malta, such as Carlsberg, SKOL, Bavaria, Guinness, Murphy's stout and ale, Kilkenny, John Smith's, Budweiser, Becks, Heineken, Lowenbrau, Efes, and many more.
Malta has two indigenous grape varieties, Girgentina and Gellewza, although most Maltese wine is made from various imported vines. Maltese wines are generally of a good quality, Marsovin and Delicata being prominent examples, and inexpensive, as little as 60-95ct per bottle. There are also many amateurs who make wine in their free time and sometimes this can be found in local shops and restaurants, especially in the Mgarr and Siggiewi area.
The main Maltese night life district is Paceville (pronounced "patch-a-vil"), just west of St. Julian's. Young Maltese come from all over the island to let there hair down, hence it gets very busy here, especially on weekends (also somewhat on wednesdays, for midweek drinking sessions). Almost all the bars and clubs have free entry so you can wander from venue to venue until you find something that suits you. The bustling atmosphere, cheap drinks and lack of cover charges makes Paceville well worth a visit.
Interestingly it does not rain much on Malta and almost all of the drinking water is obtained from the sea via large desalination plants on the west of the island or from the underground aquifer. Since water is scarce you will find that swimming pools are usually filled with salt water.
Learn
Malta has promoted itself successfully as an entirely bi-lingual nation for Maltese and English. It counts for many educational institutes in the rest of the world as a country where English is the first language and they therefore will often even subsidise students to go there to learn it. Admittedly their command of the language is on average better than in other south European countries, but if one wants to learn English with the advantage of being in a truly English speaking society then Malta is not an ideal choice. The Maltese may often posture with speaking some English in a way which other Mediterraneans would find hard to understand, but that is not the same as being in e.g. Britain or Australia would be for immersing yourself in the language.
Work
For foreigners work is unfortunately often very hard to find, the Maltese are rather insular (no pun intended) and figures show that even in the tourist sector they are very reluctant to hire people not from the island. There is a sense that since joining the EU there is more willingness to hire professionals from abroad as the business sector diversifies.
Stay safe
Malta is, generally, quite a safe country with little in the way of violent crime or political disturbances. Petty theft does occur, so keep an eye on your belongings, especially at the beach.
Stay healthy
The main health risk in Malta is the fierce sun in the summer, which can scorch unsuspecting tourists. Apply sunblock liberally.
The second main health risk is driving habits, which combine the worst of Italian driving with narrow, twisty roads and fairly poor road maintenance.
For ambulance, fire or police dial 112. The main hospitals are St. Luke's Hospital in Malta, tel. 2124 1251 and Gozo General Hospital in Gozo, tel. 2156 1600. For a complete list of government hospital services visit http://www.health.gov.mt/health_services/hospitals/hosp.htm.
Respect
- Malta is a strictly Catholic country and carousing by tourists, while tolerated to some extent, is not looked on very favorably, especially outside of St. Julian's and Paceville.
- Dress respectfully when visiting churches. As a guide, remove any hats and sunglasses and make sure your knees and shoulders are covered. Some churches, especially those on popular package tours, provide shawls and/or skirts for any inappropriately-dressed visitors.
- You may be refused entry to a church if there is a service going on that has already started, make sure you arrive promptly if you wish to see them.
- A small donation of 50c - LM1 is recommended when visiting churches.
- Keep your top on at the beach.
Contact
The country has two mobile phone networks available, Vodafone and Go Mobile. Many of the payphones and mailboxes are still from the British colonial period and are thus instantly recogniseable by their clunky red appearance. Some are being replaced by internet phones, so even though you see a red British phone box, do look inside and check. Internet cafés and wi-fi zones are quite abundant, often hotels will also have them.
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