Weekend Getaway - Malta

The month of January in Bayonne is dark and dreary. It rains everyday with very few pauses and practically no sunlight. Due to this, I was extremely grateful that Thomas decided to gift me with a trip to Malta for my birthday!

We left Bayonne on Wednesday and headed to Toulouse for a night before catching an early morning flight to Malta in the morning. I had never visited Toulouse before and even in January I would recommend it! We visited the botanical gardens and walked along the river in the sunshine before heading to our airbnb for the night.

An early start to Malta in the morning gave us the afternoon to explore the island on a rented scooter after eating lunch in the cat park near our hotel! (Photos included) We decided to rent the scooter from Thursday afternoon until Saturday at 13h when the shop closed until Monday. This gave us the opportunity to explore the island more thoroughly and independently. On Friday we went to a little Island off of the main island of Malta named Comino to explore the beautiful cliffs and blue waters. It got pretty warm in the sunshine and unfortunately I forgot to bring my sun glasses. I guess I forgot how bright sunshine can be!

Later in the afternoon we went to see the old movie set of Popeye the musical. It was pretty funky looking and out of place especially since the rest of the buildings in Malta tend to be made of concret and the entire village was made of wood. We ended our first full day in Malta by watching another beautiful sunset on the edge of a cliff!

On our last day in Malta we decided to visit the walled city of Mdina in the middle of Malta in the morning before we had to return our scooter. Mdina was very beautiful and I felt as if I had already returned to the mainland of Europe due the the architecture. (I have included a photo of an old church and another of a beautiful bougainvillea framing someone's front door.) After returning the scooter we took a ferry to the capital city of Malta, Valletta. The city was full of tourists and people unlike the less populated places we had scootered to earlier in our trip. We ended the day by visiting one of the three cities across Valletta.

I couldn't be happier that I got to get away for a long weekend and enjoy some sunshine. Malta was absolutely beautiful and I hope to be able to return soon! Now back to work..