Having been born and raised in the third most populated country on the planet, albeit a distant third behind India and China, I have a weird fascination with tiny countries. I’m not talking about Portugal here, I mean real tiny countries, like Luxembourg or a place I went recently, Malta. Do other people have this feeling as well? This feeling that the modern nation state might be too big, that if we all lived in little fiefdoms things might go better?
But then I remember that it only seems like that because Malta is beautiful and rich. I’m sure Philadelphia wouldn’t be any better than it is now if it was a city-state.
There are three islands that comprise Malta. The eponymous main island is where Flights to Malta
go, and it has all the crazy beaches and partying. There are world class clubs and people with some serious money parking their yachts and looking to unload their treasure. St. Julian’s is the craziest of the bunch.
The other two islands are much smaller. Camino is much, much smaller. It has four permanent residents. It’s only a few kilometers wide, but if you want to feel like you have are stranded (happily) on a beautiful Mediterranean island, then this is the place.
There is, unfortunately, a tourist surge that hits the gorgeous Blue Lagoon every day. But don’t let, or the fact that this was a former leper colony, stop you. You can explore the whole island in a day. And then you can go back to the crazy parties.
For a small country, Malta has (almost) everything.