Valletta

It's lovely living in Valletta. We're staying in a three storey
townhouse, or rather we have the lower 3 storeys of a 5 storey house!
Our bedroom (which is the largest room) has a typical Malese balcony
that sticks out into the street and is a lovely place to sit and have
breakfast/afternoon tea/evening wine.
It's in a residential part of town, not particularly frequented by
tourists and that only makes it better. Within a few seconds walk are
the local food stores, fruit & veg stalls, hole-in-the-wall bars and
the all-night bakery. There are also dozens of eateries of all
descriptions.
The impression often given is that Valletta is dead at night. True
it's not wall to wall bars and restaurants like some places, but
there's a regular smattering of places spread about around the city.
Tonight we ate (and drank) at The Kings Own Band Club (band clubs are
a great Maltese tradition) and were the only tourists in there. It was
superb. A good plate of honest down to earth food, and damn good house
wines for a real budget price. Not that price was an issue when we
went in, that was just a bonus. What we were after, and what we got in
spades, was local atmosphere and hospitality.
After that it was off to Floriana Granaries to see what was going on
there. A week long conference hosted by Oriflame cosmetics was holding
an outdoor evening of dining, fashion and music. We stayed and watched
(from as close as we could get) to the live performance by 80's German
pop duo Modern Living. It brought back some memories and was a quite
romantic, cheap ending to a lovely evening.

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