Hey lovely Steemians! It feels like I haven't posted in forever and it kinda has been! I've missed the community and cooking up vegan treats to post but I can't complain as I've been very fortunate and have taken a few little trips in my absence which I can't wait to share with you!
Not only have I been to some beautiful places, and fully recharged myself in the best possible way- soaking up the sun and sea, but I've also been SO so happy to find how EASY and stress free it has been travelling as a vegan! The world truly is sitting up and taking notice of us and it just makes me so happy π
The first trip I went on was to a destination I've never visited before, and to be honest, knew very little about- Malta! I'm ashamed to say before planning this trip I was a little unsure as to where Malta was geographically and had pretty much no idea about it's culture.
SO for others as clueless as me- a little background info π€
MALTA!
Malta is an island in the central Mediterranean sea, situated between Sicily and the North African coast. It's a nation known for historic sites related to a succession of rulers including the Romans, Moors, Knights of Saint John, French and British. As a former British colony, English is one of the two national languages, the other being Maltese, an interesting language comprised of Siculo-Arabic, Italian, French and English.
As a former English colony, especially one which is English speaking, it of course attracts a lot of British ex pats in search of sunnier climes, and a LOT of tourists from the UK. So much so that on our taxi journey from the airport to the hotel, our driver playfully warned us that the area we were staying in was the Maltese version of Benidorm. This made us laugh, as in the UK, Benidorm is well known as a destination in the Costa Brava which has been completely taken over by retiree Brits and holiday makers- there's even a sitcom called Benidorm about the phenomenon!
He wasn't wrong! We soon found that the area of St Paul's Bay on the North side of the island was very much catering for a British demographic of a certain age! There were lots of English pubs, including this rather amusing (!) Diana themed pub, along with plenty of places serving full English breakfasts and other typically British fare.
Usually I try to avoid very touristy, resort type places- preferring a slightly more authentic experience where you can immerse yourself in the culture of where you're visiting- but this wasn't a normal holiday- it was a hen weekend, or, to non- Brits- a bachelorette party! We weren't planning on spending much time in the resort and were mainly using it as a base so we could go off partying π
I've never been on a hen weekend before and was really excited. There were 9 of us going, some of whom I had not met before. The whole trip was planned by one of the other attendees and it was strange to go on a trip where someone else had done ALL of the organising as I am usually the one planning most of the trips I go on. It was kind of cool though to go in not really knowing what was in store for us, and from what I'd seen Malta was an incredibly beautiful place with amazing weather and perfectly clear water for me to indulge my mermaid tendencies- so whatever we did I didn't think we could go wrong!
We arrived late so on the first night we stayed local and went for dinner and drinks as the next day we were leaving early to go adventuring! We jumped in a cab in the morning and set off for the harbour. One thing we soon found out was that drivers in Malta don't really seem to have to adhere to speed restrictions,our driving informed us proudly that he used to drive racing cars along the motorway when he was younger and it was clear he was still a boy racer at heart! After a bumpy and at times perilous journey, we reached the harbour, and seeing the perfectly clear waters we were excited to set sail!
We had a private boat booked to take us around the small surrounding islands, something I would never usually be able to afford, but as there were 9 of us it only set us back about Β£25 each. For that price we had a boat with it's own skipper for the whole day, and we could bring our own food, stereo and drinks on board to get the party started!
Well, what can I say? This was one of the most fun experiences ever- what can be better than sunshine, good tunes, good friends and the ocean beneath you? π
Just look at that water!
After sailing around a little, we came to our first stop- Comino. We docked here and set off to find lunch, and discovered that other than a hotel, the originally name 'Comino' hotel π, we found that there weren't too many other buildings on the small island.
What we found instead was Comino's biggest attraction- the famous Blue Lagoon, a small bay with azure-coloured water thatβs located on the West coast of the island.
I wasn't expecting to find such a beautiful bay when we stopped at Comino.
But as with most Instagram worthy beaches, it was swarming with people so we decided to grab some food and head back to the quieter side of the island to swim.
There were lots of food trucks positioned along the cliffside overlooking the bay, selling fast food, cocktails served in hollowed out pineapples and ice cream. I didn't feel TOO confident that I would find something vegan to eat here. But hurrah, the veggie burger was vegan! π
And though it doesn't look special, it was actually incredibly delicious, I actually found myself wishing I'd bought another to save for later.
We sat and ate by the water of a little bay, and had a quick swim before boarding the boat again for more sea adventure.
Next our skipper took us to some coves where there were really interesting rock formations.
Some of the rocks had worn away to leave arches, which boats could row under. There were also caves there that a few of us wanted to go explore, so we donned our snorkels and took the plunge into the cool, clear water.
I can't get over how blue the water was here, it was so inviting and the perfect temperature for swimming and exploring.
We swam out towards the cave, some of the stronger swimmers out in front. As we entered the dark cave, I suddenly felt a sharp stabbing sensation in my right arm which made me flinch. I looked around confused but couldn't see anything. Later I felt a slightly duller pain in my left arm and warned my friend that something was in the water. Then I turned around and saw something small and bulbous floating just ahead of me... you see, what our dear Skipper had failed to mention to us is that jelly fish are quite prevalent in this area, nice one Marko!!
I called out to the friends ahead of us, and they called back that they had all been stung too! We promptly started to swim back to the boat, keeping a close eye out for more lurking predators. We got back to the boat, silently anxious that the trip was going to take a weird turn as we'd all have to pee on each other to relieve the stings!
We were mightily relieved to be informed that contrary to common misconception, that old wives tale simply isn't true. So with a sigh of a relief and another glass of wine, we took our injuries on the chin and kept the party going!
The last stop on this awesome boat tour took us to Gozo, where there were more adventures in store... more on that next time....
I hope you liked this post, if you did please upvote, comment, resteem and follow me on @lolzwithlisa for more travel posts and vegan recipes.
OMG, Malta is just stunning. Love the blue waters. I bet it's amazing to snorkel or scuba dive.
It's soo pretty. Definitely want to go back sometime and explore more π
Malta looks beautiful! I've heard about it before and wanted to go and now I want to go even more! If it was easy to find vegan food, as a vegetarian, it should be even easier for me to find yummy treats!
It is really a beautiful place, definitely worth a visit! As a veggie you'd be absolutely fine there, I was surprised- I thought it would be very meat orientated but I didn't find it hard to eat out at all π
Hey - yes a very entertaining blog with a sting in the tail.....look forward to the Gozo part of the blog - I visited 10 years ago and got to see the Azure window which I think sadly collapsed a couple of years ago.
Such a shame, I wouldβve loved to have seen it! Thanks so much for reading π
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