Okay…Malta! Val and I flew into Malta and finally arrived at our hotel at around 11 p.m. that night. It was late and we hadn’t eaten yet, so we immediately went to found food. The nearest place we could find was an American Sports Bar and Grill. We ate, drank, and had a jolly old time, and that should be the end of the story. However, at this restaurant, we noticed the beginning of something that consistently happened throughout the trip: people were looking at us funny. We were obviously not Maltese- neither of us have the beautiful olive skin and although our hair is brown, it’s not nearly the color that the Maltese women have. But we at least look European, and although Americans don’t visit Malta all that often, there were loads of Europeans there. We never quite figured out why they all looked at us a little funny (and yes, we checked out all the usual suspects: something in the teeth, smelling bad, dressing funny, etc. and none of those were the culprits), but the extreme double take the man serving us at the restaurant did that night was reminiscent of those only seen in the movies.
Before Val and I left, we met up with a friend of my friend from KU who is Maltese. She filled us in on things to do and places to make sure we see, which was so wonderful. Saturday we pretty much followed her advice to a tee. We started in Valletta, the Maltese capital. There we visited the church of the Knights of St. John the Baptist, toured Casa Rocca Piccola (the house of a noble Maltese family that is about 400 years old), walked through the grandmaster’s palace, and saw the Malta Experience. The Malta Experience was an hour long documentary about the history of Malta. Since neither Val or I really knew anything about the country before we visited (except that it was the only place in Europe you’re able to visit and still sit on the beach in November), this was a great thing. To sum it up, up Malta has been occupied by everyone from the Romans, the Turks, the Arabs, the French, and the English. The really cool thing is that nearly all of these occupations are reflected in the Maltese language, housing, and the rest of the culture. They only gained their independence from Britain in 1964 (I think). This was beneficial for us because while they have a language, most everyone is at least bi-lingual and speaks English. :)
After Valletta (but later that same day), we made our way to Mdina. Mdina used to the capital of Malta, but I’m not quite sure when that changed. Mdina is also the highest point on the island of Malta (the country of Malta actually consists of four islands), so it provided some pretty great views. In Mdina, and it’s neighboring city Rabat, we visited some catacombs, went through an exhibit about the Mdina Dungeons, and enjoyed a slice of delicious cake at a tea garden. Malta is a country that is at least 90% Catholic, and contains 365 Catholic churches, so there really is no excuse for me missing mass. So, I again asked one of my non-catholic friends to sit through a mass that ended up being in a language they didn’t understand (Andrew in Belgium and Val here). We were exhausted from that incredibly busy day, and had another one planned for Sunday, so after we got back to our hotel (and finding pizza to fulfill a craving we had both had for about 48 hours), we crashed.
The plan for Sunday was to get up and go and visit another Maltese island: Gozo. However, when we got to the place we were told we could take the ferry there, we found out we actually missed the ferry. In the alternative (after being practically manhandled by competing companies that aggressively approached you for their business) we took a tour of all the harbors around Malta and got to see the country from the sea. Malta is tiny, so we could get to most any of the cities on the main island by bus and within an hour. Because of that, we made our way to the town of Marsascala that afternoon. There really wasn’t a whole lot to do in Marsacala, but we found a cool little spot where we could wander kind by the ocean and take pictures.
Since Gozo didn’t happy Sunday, we made it happen yesterday. After a bumpy start, we met our tour guide who took us up to the ferry and we made our way across a very bumpy sea. I don’t know the names of a lot of the places we visited, but suffice it to say that it was beautiful…I recommend you look at my pictures (after I upload them later on). There was, however, one place I want to point out….since the Maltese are so devoutly Catholic, they have statutes and references to the bible and Jesus and Mary everywhere (literally, everywhere). One of our stops today we just outside of a site with life-size marble figures of the stations of the cross. The path led up a hill and ends on top of a huge plateau. I only had time to get a shot of the first station but I can only imagine what it’s like at Easter time. Since the waves were so rough, it created for some awesome rock crashing pictures. The sea was an incredible color blue and the temperature was just about perfect. There was quite a heinous wind, and my hair in all the pictures reflects that, but for the most part, I’m not going to complain. That Gozo tour took all day, and since our flight left at 9:25, we had to quickly make our way to the airport.
Malta was a great place and I recommend it to anyone who wants to go. Be ready for public transportation out of the 1960s and to receive some funny looks, but all and all, it was great. It wasn’t NEARLY as warm as we hoped…in fact I wore a fleece, jacket and scarf most of the time, but it was certainly better than London this time of year.
Day Three Hundred and Sixty-Five: Resolution
14 years ago
