Malta Day 1: Merħba lejn Malta

The choice of travel destination for this time was a bit of a challenge. There are so many places to choose from, but one significant consideration in planning was, of course, the length of stay. My travel companion and I have only two weeks off. So the small island republic of Malta was the best choice since we have been considering a visit to Malta for quite some time, as it promises a lot of cultural attractions, heritage sites, warm temperature and the ocean all around. Now we could finally visit! We started our trip to Malta with an affordable and pleasant flight with Air Malta to Malta International Airport. Ahead of us is more than two weeks of traveling through one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world. Malta is an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, located between Italy (Sicily) and Northern Africa (Tunisia and Libya). It is a member of the European Union. 

We booked the different hotels in advance with booking.com and would start our trip in Marsaxlokk a traditional fishing village on Malta's east coast. We had planned to take a bus from the Malta International Airport to Marsaxlokk, but our hotel had asked us if we wanted a pickup and we happily agreed. When we arrived in the early afternoon, the driver was already waiting for us in front of the airport. But before we started the journey, we bought a convenient 7-day-bus pass at the airport for unlimited bus travel in Malta.

Our accommodation for three nights in Marsaxlokk, the Duncan Holiday Accommodation, is a family run guesthouse with a beautiful location, just a few meters from the waterfront. Our room was decent with a small balcony, refrigerator, microwave and a little flatscreen TV. A special extra were travel socket adapters for foreigners, who forgot to bring theirs. We were happy to see, that a convenience store is just next to the guesthouse, so we could stock up. It was around 25+°C in Malta (pretty much for the whole vacation), the sun shining, so we really needed cold drinks.

There was no real plan for our first (rest of the) day, so we just walked along the waterfront, to take a look at the luzzus, the traditional fishing boats. Just next to the guesthouse, there's also the beautiful Marsaxlokk Parish Church, even a nifty statue of a fisherman and an abundance of restaurants with a variety of mostly seafood delicacies. I opted for a meal of three delicious different fishes, while my friend chose pizza. Coming from an island myself, Araceli on Dumaran Island in the Philippines, I always love the sea. And I love fresh fish!

Later we relaxed a bit in the hotel and returned to the lively waterfront in the evening, as I wanted to take a few night shots of the town and the sea.

Our first impression of Malta was good, and we were excited about our first real sightseeing day on the next day, including a cave tour and our first ancient temple.


  

Japan Day 9: Hiroshima

We took an early Shinkansen in the morning from Kagoshima Chuo Station to Hiroshima Station, which took about 2,5 hours and came with no additional cost, thanks to our Japan Rail Pass. We had looked at the timetables online, and as always, we didn´t reserve a seat and went to the non-reserved wagons and had no problem finding seats. The Shinkansen is not only fast, but also very spacious and comfortable. In Japan, the conductors in trains are exceptionally polite and even take a bow, when they enter and leave the wagon.

We primarily had planned to concentrate on the Kyushu Region due to our limited time on our Japan trip and then go to Kyoto and depart Japan from the Osaka Airport. Hiroshima was, therefore, a stop between those two and we had reserved a hotel for just one night, as we wanted to continue the next day to Miyajima Island for also one night and go from there to Kyoto.

From Hiroshima Station, we walked with our luggage to our nearby hotel, the APA Hotel Hiroshima Ekimae. We couldn´t check in yet, but they took our luggage, and so we walked back to the train station, where also the tram departs. We bought a day ticket for the tram at a machine in front of the tram stop and then squeezed inside, as it was quite full. Of course, we wanted to see Hiroshima´s main point of interest, the Peace Memorial Park with the Atomic Bomb Dome, which is a World Heritage Site. But first, we exited the tram after six stations at the Tatemachi Stop and walked to the south towards the Hondori Shopping Street, which basically leads to the Peace Memorial Park, when you follow it to the west. The Hondori Shopping Street was busy, and the whole city feels busy, crowded and a bit hectic. But that may be in direct comparison to the Kyushu region, where we just came from. While we almost never saw European or American travellers in the Kyushu Region, in the Hiroshima region and later also in Kyoto, there seemed to be many. We just went inside some shops and did some window-shopping.

We entered the Peace Memorial Park over a bridge, walked around inside the Park and took a look at the Peace Memorial Museum, the Flame of Peace, the Children's Peace Monument and later the Atomic Bomb Dome. We passed by some kind of boyband performing along the river, to the delight of some smitten teenage girls.

 

 

From the Atomic Bomb Dome, we walked to Hiroshima Castle, visited a small museum at the entrance and also watched a bit of a small historical live-show there, though we didn't understand a thing. We bought some ice cream inside the castle park, and my friend learned, that green soft ice cream isn't necessarily green tea ice, but can also be wasabi. After he got rid of the horrible tasting ice cream ( I tried too...), we continued to the castle but were not in the mood to go up. The castle didn´t look bad, but we somehow liked the ones in Kumamoto and Shimabara much more.

We took the eastern exit of the Castle Park and walked straight to the Shukkeien Garden, a lovely garden inside the city with all the skyscrapers. We didn't have too much time because we were there just before closing. We've managed to walk around the lake though, and I got some excellent photo opportunities. 

From the Shukkeien Garden, it was just a short walk to the east and over a bridge to get back to the hotel. At the APA Hotel Hiroshima Ekimae we checked in, and the room was o.k. It had everything you need, was clean and relatively cheap. But we were already so used to an Onsen, that we really missed one there and were already looking forward to the next hotel on our journey. 

We then walked to the train station, entered a shopping centre there and soon found a supermarket to buy our dinner. Initially, we had thought about taking a side trip from Hiroshima to Kurashiki or Onomichi, but we simply didn't have the time. We soon went to bed and were already excited about the next destination: Miyajima Island.