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Journal Travel

Eating & Exploring in Rabat

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Yesterday Charlotte and I visited Rabat. Rabat is the village just opposite the silent city of Mdina and a great place to play around with my clip-on fisheye lens on my humble iPhone 4S (still going strong)!

When we arrived by bus, it was a short walk across the road before entering the village. Straight away we saw a little sign directing us towards a cafe called Toffee & Co. We went there for some food, after a 45 minute bus ride we needed something! Toffee & Co. was a quaint family run place with outside and upstairs seating. We picked up a couple of menus and took a look at the wide selection of food. When we were ordering I noticed a family photo on the fridge which was nice.

Charlotte and I both ordered the Turkish Chicken Wrap. Man, that was a good wrap! Cous Cous, loads of chicken, coleslaw a bit of veg, all tightly rolled together in a roasted wrap. On the side were crisps and a dressed salad. I also had a latte, a cup of tea and some Toffee and Apple cake. It’s making my mouth water just thinking about it again. The best bit was that all of it, including Charlotte’s food, drinks and cakes came to something like €12 – less than a tenner in the UK and the portions were massive!

We sat outside, and enjoyed the tranquility of the place. If you’re ever in Rabat, make sure to visit Toffee & Co. It was so nice that we went back again before going home. The lady was really friendly and she even gave us our tea on the house. She was very kind. The feeling you get compared to a coffee shop in London, it feels less like a business focused on the profit margins and more like a business focused on family, good food and the community.

After we filled up, we went exploring. The streets are similar to Mdina in that they’re very tight with buildings and walls making you feel like you’re walking through a maze in Game of Thrones.

We ended up at a museum that let you freely walk through the underground catacombs and WWII shelters. Squeezing though the dimly lit tunnels we got lost. It was kind of spooky but also quite inspiring to see where people lived, died and fought for their lives and countries. The shelters were really interesting, one small room with a door number above the entrance hole. Some of the rooms were just a hole, but others had decorative tiles on the floor and a step for sleeping or sitting carved at the back or on the side.

After going up and down stairs (some that led into darkness, but was actually just because it was closed off) we managed to figure the way out. Coming out we went through St. Paul’s church. It started underground. We saw a little cave with St. Paul’s statue (there were shawls for women to use to cover up as it was a sacred place). We carried on up the stairs which we’re took us into a beautiful church. I love looking at old churches, they’re always grand with incredible attention to detail. We soaked up the atmosphere and left got a move on.

Outside we carried on walking and ended up in Miami. Not really, but the houses looked just like those from films set in Miami. Not sure where they were exactly because we got lost.

We carried on walking, saw a landmark and headed for that.

Back in a recognisable place, we head for some tea and cake (again) at Toffee & Co. Lovely.