Afternoon!
We're contemplating going to Malta (or Gozo) next year. I don't know much about the place, but I have heard that there is one particular resort where most of the Brits go to. Does anybody know which resort this is please, as I'll be wanting to avoid it!
Also, if anybody could point me in the direction of some good websites relating to Malta, I'd much appreciate it.
Many thank-yous.
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This website may help a bit, as it is UK based.
www.teletextholidaysdirect.co.uk/hotels.aspx
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We stayed at Bugibba a few years ago, mainly because it was cheap. There were Brits around, but not on your Spanish Costas scale. It had excellent bus connections for Valletta which we used for a couple of days (we were advised against using a hire car to visit). There was a good selection of eating places (including a Mongolian buffet) and enough car hire places to be competitive.
Very friendly locals, apart from the non-official car-park attendants. I told the more aggressive ones to eff off. I gather it's a form of pension enhancement.
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I recall someone once said 'Malta would be a lovely place if every priest were a tree'.
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Just remembered, SWMBO described parts of it looking like 'Beirut on a bad day'.
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I last stayed in Gozo - no Brits of the type you wouldn't want to be with....very laid back. Recommended read for a historic perspective "The Kapillan of Malta" deals with the Island's role in WW2. Written by Nicholas Monsarrat who lived on Gozo. He actually holidayed regularly in Treaddur Bay a few miles from where I type. Must have liked islands ! Gozo is prettier than Malta.
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+1 for "The Kapillan of Malta"
also a good read is "The Great Siege" by Ernle Bradford.
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>> I last stayed in Gozo - no Brits of the type you wouldn't want to
>> be with....very laid back. Recommended read for a historic perspective "The Kapillan of Malta" deals
>> with the Island's role in WW2. Written by Nicholas Monsarrat who lived on Gozo. He
>> actually holidayed regularly in Treaddur Bay a few miles from where I type. Must have
>> liked islands ! Gozo is prettier than Malta.
Yeah, I hear Malta was much improved after the Germans bombed it.
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>> Yeah, I hear Malta was much improved after the Germans bombed it.
>>
A bit harsh, Zero. Especially considering that the Second World War could have taken a vastly different turn if Malta had fallen.
Malta has always been an economically poor place whose people have had to live by being tough and intelligent. Fortunately they have these qualities in abundance.
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Twas a joke, even i cant be that cruel. However during the war not sure the Maltese had much choice, or say, in the matter.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 3 May 11 at 20:49
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Most Brits go to St Paul's Bay or the Sliema/St Julians area.
We stayed in Valetta a couple of years ago, with a 3 day stopover in Gozo.
Loved it! - very interesting places to visit. As well as Valetta there is Mosta and Mdina (The Silent City) which are well worth a visit. Valetta has one of the most interesting Round-the-Harbour-type Trips as well.
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www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=3981&v=f
Some more in here. We were in Malta in 2001 just after the 9/11 attacks. Very tense flights.....one by-product on the War on Terror was the highly impressive sight on HMS Ocean come into the Grand Harbour to replenish. Apart from the stirring sight that the ship generated there was quite a lot of emotion amongst the locals as I believe that it was the first time an RN ship had been allowed in for a number of years.
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If you pass King George V Merchant Seamen's Memorial Hospital, in Valetta, (if it's still there, give it a nod 'cos I was born there.
Only been back to Malta once, in 1956 just before Suez, when I was in 45 Commado RM. We were training for the, well planned in advance, Suez invasion ( I just missed it) and I thought the island was a hole.
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You should have enough info now...:-))))
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My paternal grand-father served in Malta between 1914 and 1919 - must have bribed someone.
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They say Malta is either a place you love or hate. I've been twice - Bugibba and St Pauls Bay, so that says something. I did go for he diving though.
Its quite an arid place being mostly rock. Loved Gozo which appeared more fertile.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Tue 3 May 11 at 23:05
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Brother has a time-share over there. He went at Easter and it was colder than UK, but otherwise he likes it!
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Neighbour back from a week on Majorca and that was colder the last week than here - probably.
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I had several chats with old 'native' Maltese and asked why they didn't surrender to the Axis during WW2, particularly as they've a severe Italian 'leaning'.
They couldn't explain, other than to say they felt British!
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It's often made me wonder as they paid the expensive butcher's bill for our occupation. It also struck me in North Cyprus as to the pride the older generation held for their links with the UK - especially an ex- RAF man I spoke to in Nicosia.
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Malta is definitely a Marmite island.
The first time we visited was for my ex's penfriends wedding...do you remember penfriends?
Lovely friendly people, and we got around to Gozo and Comino (I think) with the help of local knowledge. Valletta harbour and Medina were interesting, but our second visit was far less successful.
It is worth visiting for a week, if only to form an opinion of the place.
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>> You should have enough info now...:-))))
I think I've been rumbled :-)
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Ah, Malta.
My great grandfather was stationed there with the British Army many moons ago. He fell in love with a local girl and asked her father for her hand in marriage. The father told him that he would have to prove himself worthy, he would have to swim across the harbour from Valetta to Sliema, where they lived.
So, great grandfather learned to swim, sharpish, and completed the challenge. They were married and then stationed to India where my grandfather and his siblings were born, then back to Blighty. My great grandmother never saw Malta again, but survived long enough to know some of her great grandchildren.
We've been there in recent years to do family research, and discovered that our forebears were of Arab stock who had changed their family name to an Italian one - to appear more European, I imagine.
I'd second the recommendation to visit Mdina, and whilst you're there treat yourself to dinner at the de Mondion restaurant in the Xara hotel, the views from the terrace are unbeatable.
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How interesting Alanovic. My mother came from Malta and had an Italian surname. Her grandfather wrote what I believe was the first book on the Maltese language, which is Maghreb Arabic, much penetrated by other Mediterranean languages, written in Roman characters.
Perhaps we are related.
I've seen Malta - Grand Harbour Valletta anyway - from a ship but have never set foot there. Keep meaning to though.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 4 May 11 at 13:56
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As a student of language, Maltese is sadly one which has bypassed me completely. My great grandmother did teach me some as a child but it is sadly gone. I used to enjoy accompanying her to the Post Office and watching her scribble a wobbly "X" in place of a signature. Never learned to read or write, no need, man took care of all that.
Did your mother pass any Maltese on to you?
Perhaps in retirement I will have the time to learn some, I also intend to do so with Gaelic (father's family being rooted north of the border and guilty for my un-Mediterranean red hair).
I have visited Malta and was delighted to find the family home still standing in a street in Sliema. Great-great grandfather would likely have been able to watch the swimathon in the harbour from the upper floors. An ancient terraced house, quite intriguing from the outside. We did not have the guts to ask the current residents for a peek, however. Perhaps one day.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 6 May 11 at 01:24
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>> Did your mother pass any Maltese on to you?
No. My parents annoyed me when I was a child by conversing in French or Italian when they didn't want me to understand what they were saying. My mother did speak Maltese though. I heard it often as a child when her sister (my favourite aunt) was staying with us during the war. I didn't much like the sound of it, especially as their mother my grandmother, who wasn't Maltese but Franco-Scottish, was as deaf as a post, causing my mother and aunt always to bawl angrily at her in Maltese.
In fact people conversing in Maltese or Arabic often sound to an English ear as if they are having a savage quarrel, even when they aren't. Most unsettling.
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>> In fact people conversing in Maltese or Arabic often sound to an English ear as
>> if they are having a savage quarrel, even when they aren't. Most unsettling.
The same can be said of many Slavic tongues and peoples......
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Thank you for all your replies. Certainly a lot to ponder on.
Cheers!
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Malta - Perky Penguin
