On Sunday, we took a bus to a little fishing village on the south side of the Island. Marsaxlokk (pronounced Marsa-schlock) has a large fish market on Sunday mornings and it’s a very popular tourist destination. The market was fun and the location was beautiful so it’s easy to see why it’s so popular! The fish vendors were actually a small part of the market. You could find everything under the sun as you walked along, including clothes, shoes, produce, kitchen supplies, music, jewelry – really, you name it, you could probably find it!

The market is right next to the water, along the promenade. It just keeps going and going and going…

We enjoyed watching the vendors working and selling their fish. The highlight was watching an octopus climb out of its tray. It almost fell off the table!

Beautiful Catholic church in the middle of a large plaza. We had the pleasure of hearing the bells ring during lunch.

My fantastic lunch! Jon and I picked out the fish we wanted from a display case and they cooked up the whole thing for us!

Lily, soaking up the sun. You can see the plaza where we we had lunch and the market and the water beyond.







February 11, 2014 at 1:31 pm
Wow what fun! Did the vendors speak any English? Was there fresh produce there you didn’t recognize? Have you seen fresh figs there? Do the people barter at the market (which is kind of fun if they do)?
February 12, 2014 at 5:58 am
Well, it’s not quite as exotic as the markets in Turkey, although it did remind us of the night markets in Chiang Mai, Thailand, just with all the people and vendors. Most of the vendors are Maltese so they speak English (heavily accented!). There were a few African immigrants selling African wood carvings and such and they didn’t speak much English. There isn’t much of a culture of bartering. Most things have prices on them so I guess we didn’t even try. In Valletta, people offer carriage rides and there they offer lower prices if you say no (for you, 30 euro! Okay, okay, 25 euro!). And as for produce, it’s pretty much all the same as you can buy in the states. Whole artichokes are everywhere (I’m going to try my hand at cooking them some day) but nothing too unusual for fruits or veggies. I haven’t seen fresh figs yet, but I’m looking forward to finding some!
February 11, 2014 at 3:53 pm
What a great market! I hope we get to go to one when we come. That fish looks delicious – all except for the EYEBALLS! What did you do with them? It looked like they were gone….did you eat them? ugh. This is a great way to chronicle everything that you are doing and seeing! Thanks for sharing it with us. Makes us all the much more excited to come. You’ll have to decide the best places to take us.
February 12, 2014 at 6:01 am
I did not eat the eyeballs even though the girls wanted me to! It was such good fish – I bet the eyeballs would have been tasty! Sorry to say, the market is only on Sundays. You’ll have to come another time to go to the market. 🙂 But there will be other great things to do, no worries!