Day 5: Rest + Travel from Malta to Palermo

Note: apologies for the delay in this post, I flew in very late last night.

After a week of barely sleeping and days filled constantly with activities, travel, or eating, I have been feeling a little taxed. I had some sense that this might be the case before the trip began, so I had thought to plan a half-day extra in Malta, which I figured would be conducive to lounging on the beautiful beaches. That was indeed the case.

This morning, I initially set out to do a certain activity (again, foreshadowing) but decided against it last-minute after I realized it could be quite dangerous since I was flying on the same day. After that, I walked around St. James Bay and tried a Kinnie for the first time — there’s something to be said for how betrayed you feel when a shop owner tells you it’s essentially like Fanta (like sure, except for the fact that it’s unbelievably bitter, ma’am).

Then, I decided to explore Valletta and I’m glad I did. I went to the Lower and Upper Barrakka Gardens, which was so calming and beautiful, and delivered the most breathtaking view of the sea and city together:

After that, I walked around and found myself in St. George’s Square and kept walking but instead of going into St. John’s Cathedral, I decided that I didn’t want to be in a super touristy area, so I walked back where I started near the Gardens and ended up finding so many beautiful streets in Valletta — I got brunch at one cute outdoor seating area that I came across, where I had this amazing Maltese bread with avocado (my avocado allergy has not been acting up lately so I’ve had some and now I get why people like it!), sun-dried tomatoes, yogurt, seeds, and walnuts. The amount of olive oil on it was so intense but honestly I really loved that, because it was just unbelievably good olive oil. Also, I took so, so many pictures of the streets in general (also, the bread is pictured as well). Walking around here was just so calming and fun, and I’m excited to have a similar amount of time in a couple days for my next stop:

After that, I came back to my hostel, checked out, and charged my phone for a while. Then, I decided that doing one adventurous athletic activity was still something I had to do, so I checked off a long-held bucket list item: jet skiing. I loved how it felt in the water, how amazingly in control I felt with the handles in my hands flying across the surface of water, and — when I hit the highest possible speeds on it — I am not ashamed to admit that I shouted and “woohoo’d” with joy exactly like Harry Potter in that one scene where he flies around on Buckbeak:

After that, I grabbed some dinner and chilled for a couple hours in the hostel common area, then headed out to the airport. Reflecting on my first-ever hostel stay, I had been able to have a couple conversations with people in the hostel but because I was out early and back late, I didn’t hang out too much in the common areas so I couldn’t necessarily have the time to make friends — but I still felt so happy being in the dorm environment. I realized how much I love being in spaces where there is that community feeling, how little we often have that as adults. It definitely makes me excited to stay in hostels more in the future. On my next stop, the hostel I originally booked seemed to have poor reviews and I couldn’t find anything great, so I’m just staying in a hotel. But, if any reader of this blog ever chooses to visit Malta — I would encourage you to, because I think it’s now absolutely my favorite place I’ve ever traveled — you would love the Marco Polo Hostel (so clean, safe, cute, and easy to navigate). I felt quite sad leaving and took a picture of it as I say goodbye:

Arriving in Palermo at 11:30pm had its own complications — while initially it seemed smooth, with no passport control or customs, I called an Uber and saw a wait time of 27 minutes. My initial sense, from past experience, is that this would likely mean it wouldn’t actually arrive. I was also hesitant to take a taxi after my experience in Istanbul. I thought to take the train instead and went down to the station but none of the stops seemed close to my hotel, and then I realized that the ticket machine was not working anyway. Racing against the clock of my phone being at 6%, there was not a single wall outlet I could find. I thought to myself, this is it — this is where I get stranded like Odysseus. I truly had no idea what I would or could do. I then came back to the arrivals area of the airport and thankfully my Uber updated to 7 minutes away. I couldn’t find the car when it arrived but the driver messaged me telling me to walk to where he was (love that Uber has the translation feature, absolutely saved my life there) and I had him stand outside to wave me down. It worked perfectly — he picked me up, dropped me off at my hotel at 1am, and I went straight to bed. Definitely more reflections on that when I feel less exhausted, so that’s it for now. Cheers!