4 months, since we landed on Malta…

Exactly 4 months ago we arrived to Malta to start living our dream life. I might say, it went so fast, yet it’s hard to imagine that it’s been 4 months already.
The arrival with Corona measures was not very pleasurable. By the time we booked our one way ticket to Malta, we had to do a mandatory PCR test required, otherwise we would never be able to leave the Netherlands.

Actually it happened a few days after we booked the tickets, so we weren’t very lucky, especially considering that 1 PCR test was more expensive (139 eur p.p., including our 2 y.o. son ) than 1 ticket(84 eur) to Malta. So you do the maths.
Well at least it was negative and our flight was not cancelled, so we were kind of lucky.

On our arrival we had to stay about an hour in a closed bus, due to the Covid measures, then waited for ages in a line at the airport. It was very chaotic and messy to be honest.
There were lots of check ups going on, but in the end it was just a pile of all those forms on the top of each other. I still wonder if anybody actually reads or will do anything with it.
We had to fill in multiple forms at Schiphol, then in the plane and also on our arrival. That process seemed endless and exhausting.

Luckily at Malta’s airport you can get a taxi in a few seconds, so once we were done with all the (un)necessary hassle, we were on our way to our new place, which we never saw before. In fact it was rented over a video call tour, shown to us by a real estate agent, who was actually waiting for us at the apartment. That was great, since the apartment was on the 5th floor and the block did not have a lift. That was quite a stretching after all the sitting and some heavy work out by carrying a sleeping baby all the way up plus the suitcases. It was very kind of the real estate agent to lend
lend us a hand with the suitcases. Besides no lift disadvantage, the apartment was quite liveable. It was a newly renovated “Designer Flat”, how they call it here, with a fake brick wall, some art objects, kitchen island, American fridge, 3 bedrooms and bathrooms kind of a place. In fact the renovations were finished right before the corona madness started. Seems like the owner was planning to have it for short term rental on AirBnB. Long story short, we stayed there for 2 months and had a lot of stairs to climb, so the first condition for our next place was to make sure that there is a lift, big terrace and less art objects around. We were really happy to leave that place.

In fact, in Malta most of rental places are coming with their own furniture. Even when people sell their houses, often they prefer to leave some stuff in the house. The rental prices are quite high, since the island is always packed with tourists and expats. However, due to Covid-19 realty prices are way more negotiable now than ever. There are hardly any tourists and many expats are leaving the island. Unfortunately, it is very common situation everywhere now and Malta is not an exception.
So the first 2 months of our stay in Malta, we were busy with finding another long term rental place. We were also busy buying a car, finding childcare and house hunting to find our dream home. The house hunting is a thing on it’s own, it will get it’s own post later.

Currently we live in a completely new build apartment complex, where we are renting the penthouse. It has a lift, only 2 bedrooms/bathrooms, but an amazing terrace with a view and lots of sunshine. We are the first tenants of this place, which is pretty cool. The owner of the place was kind enough to take away the beds, so we could make it a bit of our own place and a proper room for our son. This place feels way more homy and we enjoy the terrace so much.
An important tip, when in Malta make sure you rent something with a big balcony/terrace, especially if you are planning to stay for longer than 2-3 weeks. Terrace or an open space/garden is a must in Malta, considering all the sunny days here.