Summer 2019 - Episode 13 - MALTA day 1 and 2

Starting with yesterday, flying into Malta was actually rather wonderful. I had a piece of luck really. I was in seat B, and the chap who was next to me wanted to go and sit in the spare seat next to his mate behind me. Suited me fine. It did mean that I had the best seat in the house as we flew over Gozo, Comino and the north of Malta. One building does actually stand out as your flying over the island, amazingly. It’s a huge church, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about it later on.  

Now, whenever I take one of these trips to a new place, I do try to sort myself out with a public transport route from the airport to where I’m staying, and I try even harder when I arrive in daylight. Bearing in mind I had to cross more than half of the island I was quite pleased with myself for doing so. Google gave me a route, and the information that I could get an unlimited bus rides ticket for all the time I’m here for 21 Euros. Well, I’m sorry, but I doubt very much I’d have got a one way taxi to where I’m staying for as little as that. 

No, the fun and games only started when I got to the right street. You see, there was no helpful sign outside with the name we were given by the booking agent, and no number of the building. I’d met an Australian Maltese man on the plane, and, after forbearingly not mentioning the cricket, he told me that everyone speaks English on Malta, and are extremely helpful. Well, when I got to the right road, that proved to be true. Everyone I spoke to – and there were quite a few – wanted to help. But not one of us could find the place. Eventually I rang Jenn, and I’m not sure what she did, but a lady emerged from a building and started waving to me, and we were in. 

This isn’t hotel. It says it’s a guest house, but I have a feeling it’s just a room in a family flat. Now, you know me, I’m not that fussy about where I stay. I have some very basic requirements, and that’s it. Still, my hopes of the place weren’t raised when the lady told me

“It’s on the 4^th floor. There is a lift . . . but it’s broken.”

Yes, you are right, I was already mentally composing the Trip Advisor review at this point. There are 18 steps between each floor. When she took me up, I was so relieved just to have found the place that I think the adrenaline carried me all the way up. Then she showed me the bathroom – and that actually has a bath as well as shower – so that is a plus – and my room. Right, well, look, I don’t mind small, and as long as I’ve got a bed, table, chair and cupboard, then I’m happy, and all these things are here. I was much less happy to see that the room is not air conditioned. The only concessions to the heat are an open window and a fan. I also found out in the middle of the night that the light doesn’t work. I kind of knew what the answer was going to be when I asked what the wifi password was. The poor girl wrinkled up her nose as if I’d used an unfamiliar and somehow distasteful term.

“We don’t have it. “ She was right too. They don’t. 

Okay, so I’m coming towards the end of slagging off the room. Just one more thing though – when I went out a little later, I just couldn’t lock the door. You have to half lift it off of its hinges to get the bolt into the lock, and the same to unlock it.  

Well, using the map I printed out before I left home I easily found my way to the bay, and the moment when I turned the corner into Il Halel and saw the sea at the end of the road was when things really started looking up – and I made the sketch which goes with this episode. St. Paul’s Bay, which is what this area of Malta is called is where St. Paul was shipwrecked back in the day.I mean, it’s very touristy – believe me you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to crap – but hey, I have a thing about islands, especially Mediterranean islands which are bathed in sunshine, which probably goes back to my days backpacking from Athens to Crete and Rhodes when I was in my late teens. (And that thing, gentle reader is called sunburn.) No, sorry, couldn’t resist that. But my legs are no longer bone white, and have a subtle pink flush after yesterday.  

I woke at 2 and then again at 5 this morning, local time. Which is okay. I’d seen the McDonalds at the end of Il Halel yesterday, and that it would be open by 7. To be honest it was more like 8 before I found the oomph to move, but I’m glad I did, because a Maltese McDonalds breakfast is pretty much indistinguishable from a British one, and it meant that I could work out my route to Valletta. On the way to the bus stop though, I did something very rash, which I’m not normally prone to doing. I bought . . . a hat. I don’t care, every day my bald patch comes to look a little more like a monk’s tonsure, and I’ve managed to avoid getting sunburnt on the top of my head for the last 55 years, so I want to keep it that way.  

I was in Valletta by about 10 this morning, which meant that I was able to cross off another page in my I Spy Book of European Capital Cities. Okay, I could joke about this (show me the evidence says the reader) – but I won’t. Valletta has a lot of what I like. Narrow streets, although not winding at all, since the city is set out on a grid system. Sandy coloured buildings which almost seem to be built out of solid sunshine. Great churches and architecture. An archaeological museum. I’m really glad I went in this one, because although the cost was 5 Euros, it told me quite a bit about the island that I didn’t already know. The first inhabitants of the islands were building the most incredible stone tombs 7000 years ago, long before anyone else. Then they stopped, and nobody knows for certain what happened to them. Then the bronze age settlers must have originally come from elsewhere because they were using metal tools, while Malta has no metal ore of its own. Thoroughly enjoyed the museum and spent a couple of hours there.  

After mooching around for a bit, I decided that walking around in the hottest part of the day was not a

good idea. When I got off the bus at just after 10 am it was already 38 degrees, and getting hotter. So I took a tour on the electric city tour bus – which you can hopefully see in the other sketch. You see the problem with Valetta is once you get off the bus and enter through the city gates, you are on Republic Street. If you go off this street, then inevitable you are going to be going downhill. Now, I have no problem with going downhill. If you want to move from a high place to a lower place, then going downhill seems an eminently sensible way of doing it. No, the problem is I’m not so fond of going back uphill again. Not when I’ve got 72 stairs waiting for me when I get back to the flat. So the bus tour seemed a decent way of doing it. During the tour, I learned why it is that everyone on Malta speaks English. They have to. Seriously, English is one of the two official languages – Malti being the other, which is related to Arabic although written using the latin alphabet. Lessons in school are taught in English in all subjects.  

Right, remember me telling you about the huge church I saw as I flew into the island? Well, it’s known as the rotunda, and it’s in Mosta, which is roughly halfway between Valletta and St. Paul’s Bay. I passed it on my way to Valletta this morning and so when the bus passed it on the way back I got off at the nearest stop. And I’m very glad that I did. The Rotunda is a remarkable looking building. Hemmed in as so many great churches are by buildings, making it difficult to make a sketch, it cost 2 Euros for a tour, but this did include a short film about the church. Basically, it’s the 3^rd one to stand on the site. A 19^th century priest decided that as the town was growing he wanted a church which would be able to cater for its growing population. “Hmm,” he mused, as I believe priests are wont to do from time to time, “What was the name of that nice old church in Rome that I worshipped in once? I know, the Pantheon.” So the church is modelled on the Pantheon in Rome. It supposedly has the 4^th biggest dome in Europe. Took a while to build mind – the priest himself never got to say mass in it since he died before it was completed.  

Well, there we are, then, that’s my first two days in Malta. Tomorrow I’m thinking about a boat ride to Gozo, but we’ll see how things turn out. Hopefully see you tomorrow evening.