In case you happen to be in Malta during the weekend, there is certainly a half-a-day trip you might consider. In the east of Malta, not too far from the airport, the village of Marsaxlokk lies. It is famous for its Sunday fish market taking place every Sunday, and this is when all tourists and many locals pay a visit to Marsaxlokk.
How to get
Because of this, getting to Marsaxlokk on Sunday may be pain, especially in case you try to reach it by public transport. As we mentioned, public transport is not great in Malta, but it showed itself in the worst possible way on our trip to Marsaxlokk. We were staying in St. Paul’s Bay, on the other side of the island, which meant that we had to take the first bus to reach the island center, and then the second one – to get to Marsaxlokk. The first bus came really late compared to the schedule. Getting the second bus nr 210 to reach the village was even more pain. It simply did not stop on the bus stops since it was full. Given that there is a 30-minute gap between the buses and you do not know whether the next one will stop, we were losing a lot of time. After all, we changed three buses and had to walk for 30 more minutes to reach the nearest village. The walk was nice though.
The fish market
The fish market turned out to be somehow different from what we expected.
It was mostly very cheap clothes market (to say the truth, of really terrible quality) and only about 5% of a fish market.
The prices for fish were quite high also, especially if compared to your expectations from the place like this. Nevertheless, you can watch the fishermen indeed bringing in fresh fish.
Marsaxlokk
Pay attention to the traditional Maltese boats, Luzzu, which have eyes on them. The eyes seem to be related to the old Phoenician tradition and to be the eyes of Osiris who had protected the Phoenicians from evil. Up to now, these eyes protect the fishermen from all kinds of malevolent influence of the sea from the storm to poor catch.
You can watch many more boats if you continue till the end of the market and reach the pier. A few people go that far (although this is less than a kilometer from the market beginning), so you may also enjoy the view in peace.
The market offers some traditional food. All kinds of restaurants surround it, mostly offering coffee, pastries, English breakfast, Italian food, and seafood. They are middle-priced.
Although it takes about two hours to get to Marsaxlokk from the other side of the island by public transport and about an hour to get to Valletta (the capital), you really have to make an effort to spend more than two hours here. Despite being a market village, Marsaxlokk does not really offer a lot to buy, unless you are interested in cheap covers for your Iphone.
It is, however, worth a visit on a bright Sunday afternoon (try to come earlier, since the market closes early before evening) for the sake of colorful pictures. Also, you may combine Marsaxlokk visit with some other Maltese destination.
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