Sofia's trip to Malta

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Malta to visit one of my best friends. To be honest, I was amazed by the charm of the islands that compose the country. I visited the island of Gozo, the second largest of the archipelago, but still quite small. So I visited the whole island with my friend. On the island of Malta, we visited Valletta, Mdina, Marsaxlokk, Sliema and St Julian's. This allowed us to get to know a lot about the Maltese culture and the way of life there. Although to really get to know it, it would be necessary to live there for a while, no doubt. Our general impression was that the local Maltese people are humble and hard-working but the island is increasingly leaning towards a strong development of tourism and all activity is geared towards exploring this factor. This can have terrible effects on the natural sites and the environment. Still, we enjoyed the experience very much. Malta is made up of beautiful streets composed of limestone buildings which make it very characteristic. The streets form slopes, which means that from any street in Valletta you can see the sea. We were also amazed by the natural landscapes, the beautiful blue colour of the water and the rich vegetation of the island. A very curious thing about the country is the enormous influence of different cultures. It has belonged to different countries throughout its history until it gained its independence, so it maintains and perfectly combines many of these influences. The last country it belonged to was the United Kingdom, so it maintains English as its official language and cars drive on the left, something that caught our attention. You can still find red telephone boxes in the streets. On the other hand, given its proximity to Italy, specifically Sicily, the gastronomic offer has a high influence of Italian and Sicilian cuisine, for our enjoyment. The last thing that caught our attention is the Maltese language. It sounded like a mixture of Arabic and Italian. In fact, the language comes from the Arab occupation so it's a great way to see the heritage of their culture. It was definitely a great experience and I recommend visiting the island if you get the chance.