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.


  

Day 1: Welcome to Iceland - Velkomin til Íslands!

Iceland, the land of ice and fire... and trolls, elves, dragons, Gandalf etc.

Iceland was not our first choice for this year's summer vacation. We wanted to go to East Asia and eventually to visit my family in the Philippines. But we need to change our travel plans as I have been considering a more extended stay in my home country next year. So then my friend and I decided to just visit a neighbouring country in Europe.

It took us almost half a year to plan for this travel. One primary consideration is, of course, the length of stay and budget. The next thing to do is doing a research and drawing up the itinerary aided by our most reliable source of information, the Lonely Planet. By doing so, you'll be able to maximise your time. We booked our flight six months in advance.

When you love to see and take photos of scenic landscapes, cliffs, amazing waterfalls, geyser, craters, steaming earth, hot rivers, and mud pots, then you only have to go to Iceland. That was at least good enough reason for me to exchange a couple of weeks of hot summer in Berlin to a couple of weeks of cold weather in Iceland.

We flew into Reykjavík from Berlin TXL with airberlin. The flight took a bit more than three hours to the international airport Keflavík (KEF). Then we had to take the Flybus to the city centre of Reykjavík which is 50 kilometres away from the airport. We had our tickets for the Flybus pre-booked online, but even then when we arrived at past midnight, the ticketing office was still open so you can purchase tickets there upon arrival too. Busses were waiting since they scheduled them with the time of the plane arrivals. It was still daylight when we arrived in Iceland. It is summer after all, but the temperature was just an average of 10°C (during our entire stay) compared to the 20-30°C summer in Berlin.

From the bus, we got our first impression of Iceland and its scenic lava landscape. But I immediately dozed off on the bus as we were both tired. After about a 50-minutes drive, the bus driver brought us directly in front of our hotel, the Guesthouse 101.

For the Icelandic condition, it was relatively the cheapest option. It was centrally located, and the reception was open all night. It was nothing special but very functional. Our room has one double-bunked bed and two regular beds. Probably the rooms were intended for groups or families. The room has a sink, but the shower and toilet were shared.

We arrived at 2:00 a.m. at the hotel. I was famished and already packed a meal of Adobo and rice which I cooked in Berlin. I packed it really tight and made sure that there would be no soup or juices that might run out of my container. I ate a bit of it, brushed my teeth and immediately went to bed to get a few hours sleep before taking the bus at 8:00 a.m.

We got up the next morning at 6:30 a.m. and immediately fixed ourselves and collected our belongings to get ready and eventually walked to the bus station. The bus to our first destination leaves at 8:00, and it seems like it was the only bus going to Stykkisholmur in the morning, a town in the western part of Iceland. We even had thought of skipping the hotel and spend the remaining hours waiting at the station. Fortunately, we did not. We would have remained in the cold and won't be able to catch some real sleep. The few hours sleep made us fit and gave us enough leverage to get through the long day.