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Contents |
Day 1 |
Day 2 |
Day 3 |
Day 4 |
Day 5 |
Day 6 |
Day 7 |
Malta - Day TwoA Few Notes on Busses |
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The Bus TerminusThe Valletta bus terminus is the place where almost every bus route on the island starts and stops. Some 60 different bus routes call the Valletta bus terminus home and it is all organized around one giant set of concentric rings of roads that are a swirl of people, busses, noise, and little idea of where you are going. The signs that mark the bus routes served by any one spot in the whirlpool of noise and motion are printed on signs about the size of a piece of paper placed some eleven feet off the ground. And now we were going to try to find our way around it at night. Malta travel tip for you: Study your map of the Valletta bus terminus BEFORE you enter it so that you know where you are going. Only the grace of God, a lucky guess, and a probably incorrect summation of the organization of the bus stops allowed me to get us there without Chris asking me very pointedly why the hell I didn't check the map beforehand. I doubt she would have liked the answer. The BusUpon finding our bus, we got ourselves headed back toward Paceville. The nice thing about leaving Valletta is that every bus is outbound, so you don't need to worry about whether you are going in the right direction. So we were able to relax for the jostling, breakneck race along the coast that characterizes bus travel between Valletta and Paceville. And while I was enjoying the sights out the window and enjoying the fact that I could not at all see what the driver was doing, I had that sinking feeling that you get when an important travel tip occurs to you. Malta travel tip for you: When taking the bus anywhere in Malta, make sure you know where your bus stop is on your return. Because it is a long walk between most bus stops and you do not want to miss yours. The Bus Stop SearchI thought I might have known where the stop was, but I wasn't really all that clear on it. However, even if I had known exactly the spot where it was, I would not have been able to indicate to the driver that my stop was coming up, because I had no clear idea of any landmarks around the stop. Malta travel tip for you: After first getting on the bus toward your destination in Malta, remember several landmarks that you pass along the way. You want landmarks to let you know your stop is close, you want a landmark to let you know that your landmark is coming up, and you want a landmark to let you know it is time to start looking for landmarks. Malta travel tip re-emphasized for you: I can't stress this enough because one busy Maltese street looks like about every other busy Maltese street, so you may not recognize your stop at all until you are passing it. But you also need to know that the stop is coming up, because you do need to indicate to the driver that you want the next stop if you expect to be let off. Related Malta travel tip for you: Figure out how to alert the driver that your stop is coming up shortly after getting on board the bus. We rode on probably a dozen or so different busses in our time in Malta and not once did we see the same method for dinging the bell. We saw cords running along the ceiling, cords along the windows, buttons on the ceiling, buttons on the posts, buttons above the windows, and a myriad of other options. Just look for some buttons or cords somewhere and get your request in early. Fortunately, Chris and I were in an excellent location to know when to disembark. For one, I thought I remembered seeing a bus stop just up the road from our morning bus stop, so that we would pass the spot where we got on to the bus before we needed to disembark. Furthermore, I recalled that there was a large, open park next to our morning bus stop and, if you want a uniquely unmissable landmark, any open space in Malta is a great place to start. Particularly an urban park, of which there is short supply in this close-packed nation. The Miracle of the Bus StopWe were saved. And, because we were staying in the hotel-rich location of Paceville, I figured that a lot of the bus would get off at our stop. Both guesses on my part turned out to be surprisingly correct, as we passed the park shortly before eight people got off the bus. Okay, next problem: how do we get back to our hotel? Considering that that my original route to the bus stop was roundabout and overlong and the fact that it went around blind corners with no sidewalks was probable suicide at night. So I did what any good traveler would do in that situation; I walked in what seemed to be the right general direction and hoped that something good would happen. |