Last days in Malta

20 November
Woke up to the sound of a band playing, coming from the harbour, a large cruise ship had docked, not many church bells. After brekky, to the Tourist Information Office to ask about the Sunday market, and were given some basic directions, so we headed down the sweep of Triq Girolamo Cassar to St Anne St, most of the shops on either side were closed, empty or very tired looking; a couple of bars were open and people were already drinking, seemed a bit seedy here. We kept walking, found the main city gate, and round the corner to our left we spotted some stalls and hoped that was the market … yes it was … the first stalls we came across were ones selling live birds, in small cages, of many different varieties, don't know what they were called, but mostly quite small, not many coloured, some very pretty little feathered things, as well as finches, cockatiels, budgies, and a parrot, which we think might be Australian. Was told not to take pix, and I wondered how legal this trade was. From then on it was a real flea market, of all sorts of stuff from plumbing, leathergoods, clothing, bric-a-brac, "collectables", food, Maltese lace, Christmas tableware, knock-off DVDs/CDs, etc … had a wander but we didn't think much of it.
   Decided to head back, and along the way saw one of the old-fashioned buses, probably dating from the 50s or so, the one I saw was orange, in beautiful condition, gorgeous looking beast! To the Upper Barrakka Gardens kiosk for hot drinks and a cake, in the sun, wonderful. Down to the town, to find the Museum of Archaeology, round the corner from St John's, on Republic Street. Paid our entry, and wandered over to see the exhibition of Neolithic objects, with information panels - here were the originals of objects and stonework found at the temples we visited yesterday, as well as the Hypogeum, which we're visiting this afternoon. Stunned to know that some of the artifacts are from 5000BC, or even earlier!
   There was info overload, and if we had more time, and some rest breaks to process everything, a lot more would have sunk in. Suffice to say, was impressed. Upstairs was an exhibition called "Metal Magic, Spanish Treasures from the Khalili Collection". Wow, wow, wowwwwww!!! Never seen anything like it before, the most amazing metal works of art I think I've ever seen – heritagemalta.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/metal-magic. I don't recall ever seeing pieces of Spanish Damascene Metal before - googled 'damascene': pieces of real gold and silver are inlaid into the surface of the metal that receives them, and then the base metal field that received the inlaid gold and silver is blackened. The pieces we saw were exquisite: jewellery cases, mirrors, vases, as well as various weapons like daggers, swords and pistols which had damascene decoration. One major piece was a massive box, commissioned by an English collector, 201 x 121 x 86 cm, it was an incredible piece of work, every inch of it was decorated, the detail of it was awe-inspiring, and I wish i could've taken a photo of it as no words would be able to describe it, even the inside of this chest was inlaid or painted, couldn't tell which. I cannot believe how beautiful it was, and I can't imagine how much it would be worth on the art market if it was ever to be sold.
   Wish we had more time but we needed to hightail it to do some washing [no washing service available today], then for lunch and to get an earlyish bus to the Hypogeum. Returned to the kiosk at Upper Barrakka Gardens, for baguette and cold drink each. Then to the bus terminus to work out which bus to take, buy tix, and off we went. Got a little waylaid finding the Hypogeum, which is actually underneath early 20th century housing - it was kept a secret from the government for a few years on discovery by land developers. The government bought some houses and demolished them in order to preserve the site, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were early, and tried to find somewhere selling icecreams or even hot drinks, but, being Sunday, everything was pretty much closed, so we trudged back to the Hypogeum, and waited about half an hour before entering the exhibition building.
   The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is an incredible underground necropolis, discovered during building work in 1902. It consists of halls, chambers and passages hewn out of the living rock and covering some 500 sq metres; it is thought to date from around 3600 to 3000 BC, and an estimated 7000 bodies may have been interred here. Entrance is limited to 80 persons a day. No pix allowed, bags stored in a cupboard, our group of 8 people were given an audio tour, which was great. It was incredible to tour this site, which is being very thoughtfully preserved and conserved, being monitored closely for water and carbon dioxide, which causes degradation of the limestone. To think that these chambers were carved by basic stone, horn and antler tools, with limited lighting, amazed us. It was explained that it may taken a 1000 years to carve out these chambers. Of note here, underneath the surface, were rooms and entrances that mirrored how buildings were constructed up above, which gives archaeologists a great insight on building techniques of structures that are now collapsed. Today was from one extreme to the other in terms of human endeavour and creativity, from human hand and clay and simple tools to damascene … mindblowing!
   Caught the bus back to the terminus, found a cafe nearby for an almond tart and hot drinks. Was asked by a group table of Russian, Chinese and Spanish youngsters to take their pic, which was fun.It was c8pm, realised we were hungry, climbed the stairs to the rooftop restaurant, which had a handful of tables with people eating and talking. We sat a couple of tables away from an Englishman and an American lady, who were chatting away, especially the gentleman … we were intrigued: how did they meet, was it a date, what was going on there? Ha ha … all part of the fun of being travellers and gently eavesdropping and coming up with theories … Dinner was yum, and afterwards, back to our room.
   During walks, recognise many of the names on shopfronts; Agius, Fenech, Camilleri, Grech, Vassallo, Galea, Micallef, Azzupardi, Zammit, Vella, Spiteri, Schembri, Saliba, Pace, Mercieca, Gauci, Farrugia …


21 November
Told the very friendly fella down in the hotel lobby we're off to Mdina today and he said that it was his favourite city, which bodes well for us. He told us the bus number to take and wished us a good day. To the bus terminus, checked the routes, bought tix, and waited for the bus. Unfortunately, the Maltese are as bad as Italians when it comes to understanding, or following, the concept of queueing, they just push in and rush the entrance to the bus as it arrives, even when people are trying to get off. Had to stand for about half the trip, which wasn't all that far anyway. Finally got to Mdina after c20 minutes or so, loved the view from the plain to the fortified city.
   Once we got off at the stop, had to cross the road and walk maybe 50m to the city gate, noticing the ditch, which was a moat, was quite deep, again the creamy/honey colour of the limestone looked quite beautiful, even though the fortifications were quite foreboding. Admired the impressive main gate and once in were transported to another time, another place, and it reminded us of San Gimignano. A wider central road with smaller, narrower, curving lanes branching off it, with impressive buildings on the main street, and in the lanes mainly residences, with their simple doorways and maybe a window, every now and then a religious Madonna and child set into the wall, on main corners were simple black wrought iron lanterns.
   A simple, elegant, small, quiet world away from any hustle and bustle, where you could lose yourself in your own thoughts and imaginings, a very romantic place too. Found some shops selling beautiful arts and crafts, especially one with Mdina glassware, which is gorgeous … could have bought many pieces there. Walked our way to the edge of the city, which is tiny, maybe 200m if that, to a small square, and a vantage point overlooking the plain below, with farms and views to distant towns … we could see Valletta from here. We let what we saw soak in, and a lady in a uniform and clipboard approached us, a tourist survey for European visitors, and Australia was not on her list, grrr. Had a good long chat with this lady, she looked to be in her late 30s, early 40s, and is the youngest of 17 - yes, seventeen! - children, she never knew her eldest brother, who lives in Sydney, who left home at 18. She had the impression that there were poisonous snakes and spiders everywhere, as well as sharks, which was funny to hear. Other than that she didn't seem to know all that much about Australia, never been there.
   Life is harder in Malta, housing prices, electricity, etc, all up, difficult to get your own place, especially if you're starting out in life … same as everywhere in the world. Heard that a 2 bedroom flat, no garage, sitting room, kitchen, bathroom, linen cupboard, not all that big, would set you back perhaps 77000 Eu upwards … seems cheap to me … electricity here appears to be produced by fuel generators, and we heard from someone else water is created by reverse osmosis. There is a "green belt" here for farmers, as land is precious, and you can't sell it for development. People are moving away from the older parts of Malta, like Valletta, because of the prohibitive cost of maintaining the residences, so people buy up the new places, as in Sliema, Bugibba and Qawra, which are booming. Other things she told us were that Arabian money is big here in Malta, lots of investment; also the new bus company, Arriva, which is foreign-owned, is causing everyone headaches as the route numbers have changed, it's more expensive, etc; that the African refugee problem in Lampedusa in Italy is massive, and that refugees are being sent here from there … once they are found to be genuine, many of them try to get visas to work in Germany. Our paltry 5000 asylum seekers that come by boat in a year are a drop in the ocean in comparison – saw an article on the web where 4000 arrived from Tunisia in a WEEK! The politicians, shock jocks and one-eyed media in Australia really need to get a grip on reality! It was a good insight given to us on a few issues concerning the average Maltese person … each day we have a short conversation with someone where we learn something. It's always good to hear Aussies are held in high regard here, as there are many Maltese in Australia … our newest friend told us that if they were all to return, Malta couldn't fit them in.
   After our farewells, we continued wandering the back lanes, enjoying the slow pace and silence, coming across small groups of students with their sketch pads. We were invited to check out "The Knights of St John" and "The Mdina Experience", the latter a video showing a short history of Mdina including the various conquests by the Romans, Phonecians and the British over many hundreds of years – the Turkish and French ultimately were repelled, even though the Turks caused massive havoc and seized the entire population of Gozo and took them away as slaves – and once again amazed by the very thought of some 7000 years of human history on these small islands. The things you learn as a traveller …
   Found a nice cafe for lunch, then headed back to the bustop, returning to Valletta as the sun began to fall, which is towards 5pm. Walking down the hill from the City Gate Project found a cafe for a rest and hot drink before returning to our hotel. Our time in Malta is drawing to a close, tonight is our last night, need to pack and get ready for an early start and a long day of travelling tomorrow. We fly to Rome, which is 1.5 hrs, then a 6 hour layover, then it's c3.5 hrs to Casablanca, where we have a night to ourselves, then join our 2 week Intrepid tour group the following evening.
  Our time in Malta was slow-paced, enjoyable, relaxing, easy to get around despite the crazy Hop-On Hop-Off "system" on our first full day, food and drinks were relatively cheap - white tea 1,20 Eu, coffee 1,60 Eu, toasted sandwich <5 Eu, main pasta course <10 Eu, etc. Weather was pleasant for this time of year - Autumn - and pretty much everyone we dealt with were pleasant and it was a joy to meet some Maltese people and to have a chat or cheerfully given directions. Well worth the visit, we could have seen more, but … Mdina is definitely a must see if any of you are considering a visit to Malta, and plenty to see for the history buffs.