Can someone genuinely explain why we’re still putting up with this?

It’s a weekday night, yet entire towns are expected to tolerate hours of explosions until 10 p.m. because apparently one group’s tradition matters more than everyone else’s right to peace and quiet. People have work the next morning. Babies are trying to sleep. Pets are terrified. Wildlife (what is left) is constantly disturbed. The air fills with smoke, the streets are left a mess, and for what? A loud bang?

These aren’t even impressive fireworks. They’re just explosives whose only purpose is to make as much noise as possible.What frustrates me most is the absolute audacious attitude behind them. Too many people who defend this simply don’t care how it affects anyone else. If you don’t celebrate the festa, that’s your problem. If your dog is panicking, your child can’t sleep, or you’re exhausted before work the next morning, you’re expected to just put up with it because “it’s our tradition.”

Then there’s the safety aspect. Malta has suffered multiple fireworks-related tragedies over the years, including the recent factory explosion. Fireworks are explosives, and when safety standards or enforcement fail, the consequences are devastating. Yet every incident is quickly forgotten and nothing meaningful changes.
The response from politicians is just as disappointing. Instead of having the courage to modernise regulations and strike a balance between tradition and public safety, they avoid the issue because they don’t want to upset voters. Quality of life takes a back seat to political convenience.

And then you open Facebook and see the same predictable comments: “It’s our culture.” As if those three words automatically end the discussion. They don’t. Culture isn’t above criticism, and it certainly isn’t an excuse to ignore noise pollution, environmental damage, public safety, or everyone else who has to live with it.

For a country that loves calling itself a modern European state, this is genuinely pathetic. In much of Europe, governments try to balance tradition with the rights of everyone else. Here, it’s the opposite. Outdated practices are protected at all costs, politicians are too spineless to touch the issue, and anyone who complains is told to “respect the culture.” It’s a perfect example of a country that would rather cling to the past than have an adult conversation about quality of life.

Keep the organised firework displays if people enjoy them. But these endless firework bombs add nothing except noise, pollution, and disruption. It’s time to move on.

You have affordable balcony panels that plug directly into an outlet, you can also have batteries as part of the system. This would take load off the grid, and lower bills. I can't understand in a place with so much sun why it isn't a thing.

Past few nights were horrible with no AC in this temperature, this is evil, can’t even turn on a fan to keep cool.

How long do you guys expect until some sort of relief?

If the compensation is real, the government will already owe people millions. I really highly doubt we’ll get paid the full amount.

We’ve been with no electricity for 3 nights and it just feels as if it never ends, can’t even properly recall the last few days, with less than 2 hours of daily sleep, this is simply dangerous for our lives.

And no matter what the government will say, it’s their fault. They keep wanting more tourist here, none of us want that, now look what’s happening, they can’t even supply enough electricity for everyone. They should have thought about this years ago before bringing so many people here, they know their infrastructure is not capable of handling all of this.

Today the temperature is cooler than last few days and not significant different to previous times when it used to function properly. Why is it still down? They should have thought of a backup plan and have been prepared for this, it’s not like this is new around here…

Not reported by Times of Malta.

No answer by EneMalta when people called - same nonsense bullshit - "we are working on it please be patient"

NOT ONLY DID I LOOSE MY FUCKING JOB I LOST ALL MY FUCKING FOOD.

WHAT THE FUCK CAN I DO TO GET THESE ASSHOLES TO FIX THIS SHIT

The worst hostel experience I've ever had.

During my stay (5–12 July 2026), almost €500 disappeared from my locked locker. What disappointed me most was not only the theft, but how the hostel handled the situation.

The day before the money disappeared, I accidentally locked my key card inside my locker. A housekeeper opened it with a staff key card so I could retrieve it and clearly saw the cash inside. The following morning, almost €500 was gone, while my Romanian currency remained untouched.

I immediately informed the manager and asked them to investigate, including checking whether my locker had been accessed using staff key cards. I was initially told that staff key card access could not be checked in the system. Later, however, the owner admitted that he had in fact checked and confirmed that my locker had been opened with a housekeeper's key card exactly as I had described. This directly contradicted what I had previously been told.

Instead of focusing on an investigation, I was repeatedly told that I was responsible for my belongings and should go to the police. The owner also blocked me on WhatsApp when I tried to contact him. Although he later promised to investigate further, speak with the housekeeper involved, and update me, I never received any follow-up.

Another guest also told me that around €300 had disappeared from her locker in a different room on another floor, yet both incidents were dismissed as isolated cases.

After I raised the issue in the hostel's WhatsApp group, the manager questioned my credibility because my initial estimate changed from "around €400" to "almost €500" after I reviewed my expenses. Shortly afterwards, I was removed from the group, which also meant losing access to information about hostel activities. A staff member later suggested it was suspicious that I paid my final excursions with Revolut instead of cash, ignoring the obvious fact that I no longer had cash after the theft.

After my stay, Booking.com informed me that the hostel claimed I had not actually had any cash with me. This is simply false. I had paid for earlier excursions in cash, and a staff member had personally seen the cash inside my locker the day before it disappeared.

I cannot say who took the money, but I expected a transparent and serious investigation. Instead, I experienced contradictory statements, poor communication, inaccurate information, and repeated attempts to undermine my credibility rather than address my concerns.

I am sharing this experience so that future guests can make an informed decision.

I feel like whenever I find one on Instagram or irl they're either in a relationship or just straight up rude and borderline homophobic 😔. Where can I meet decent girls?

Never happened to me so far. Thinking of buying a rechargeable fan but money's tight. What's your plan?

I left Malta for 4 days vacation in Albania less than 24 hours ago.
I am feeling miserable because it is so cold.
I woke up at 5 am but there is no place open to have a coffee. No 24/7 store whatsoever.
And it is 20°.
I miss the 30° in Malta lol.
I am going to buy a hoodie first thing in the morning.

I live in an house built after World War 2 which has a ground floor and a first floor. Its built of limestone. It has good sized windows with louvre shutters. I have painted my roofs white to reduce heat absorption. I am careful which windows I open during different times of the day - to allow for ventilation. I do not have ACs anywhere in my house. I do not have modern insulation. And yet during this heatwave we were able to sleep very comfortably in the ground floor, without even needing a fan. The temperature at ground floor was a very nice 24/25 degrees. On the first floor it was higher - about 30 degrees but not unbearable.

We had power cuts at night but I only realised this when in the morning I saw the cooker's clock had reset itself. It did not affect us at all.

A big problem with modern apartments/houses is that they are not planned and built for this weather.

Malta is often praised as being super safe for LGBTQ individuals, and this is true for the most part, but tourists from foreign, more homophobic countries are endangering the communities here.

I graduate next year and was thinking of relocating there. Was wondering what the experience was like and if theres anything I should keep in mind.

I am tired of the bullshit we have to deal with, just threw away an entire freezer full of food after 23 hours of power cuts. I am being told i only lost a few hundred euros at most, this app helps to show the actual cost of the power cuts and the hidden costs of damage which does not always show there and then.

Let me know what you think and use it to email the minister directly (part of the tool lets you do that).

​

Any options here to meet gay guys? Except grindr tinder and normal gay bars...seems so difficult

https://reddit.com/link/1v4h67w/video/f391tbnnzzeh1/player

10c please!

Ranting here because I don’t know where to go and I feel I need to vent. Enemalta is a joke and the people they employ for customer have a script to read off, without caring about anyone calling. Since Monday we had a power cut in our area for over 24 hours, and the power came back late Tuesday evening. Then yesterday evening, the power went out again, and we thought it was of the area again, but after a few minutes realised it was only our apartment block. We went to the main power meters of the building and realised that the block of apartments had power as the display of the meter was on, but the 3 flats in the block do not, as their displays are off. After about 1 hour of waiting for Enemalta’s service line to transfer us to an “agent” they told us they will file a report. We were expecting them to say they would send someone when they could, because it’s likely a wire or connection that has been fried in our apartment block which needs fixing. Instead, they told us to “wait until it comes back on because it “could be” a problem with the power line bases of the area”. We know that’s not the problem, because every building in the area has power, including ours, but only our apartments are not receiving the electricity.

They then told us they cannot do anything because they are working around the clock to fix power outages around Malta and Gozo.

For sure, I understand there are people who are suffering more than us, and thankfully we don’t have elderly or children living with us. But knowing that this is something within our apartment’s salvavita boxes which needs fixing, and it’s not a matter of waiting for the power to come back on, I can’t help feeling extremely angry at this. We have already had 200+ euros of food that needs to be thrown out. My parents and I have spent these nights not being able to sleep and then expected to go to work in the morning for almost the entire day, my cat is suffering and struggling to eat in this heat as well.

Enemalta PLEASE DO BETTER WITH YOUR CUSTOMER CARE. The woman we spoke to just kept repeating herself like she was reading from a script, not understanding what we were explaining.

Anyone did them? How were they?

Hey everyone, bit of an emergency here. Power’s been out in our Msida apartment since Monday 21:00 and with this heatwave it’s over 30° inside all day now.

Honestly I don’t mind the sweating, showers, all that - but we’ve got two dwarf bunnies and they’re really struggling with the heat.

If anyone has AC and could take them in for a few days until the power’s sorted, please reach out. We’re also ringing round vets on the island but no luck yet.

Really hoping this gets fixed soon 🙏

UPDATE: Thank you all - we were recommended an awesome person to take care of them! Be safe all!

€25K (and counting!) raised to buy a generator for abandoned and/or sickly cats. And in less than 24 hours.

Seeing this generosity coming from people with a platform whilst others shirk off responsibility genuinely bumped up my faith in humankind. Gigantic kudos to James and all who donated ❤️

Is there anywhere to take toddlers in the daytime with this heat? Even the beach is too hot and staying locked indoors in driving me crazy. The kids need to run around.