Summer 2019 - Episode 14 - Malta Day 3 - Gozo

Good evening and welcome again to An English Fool Abroad with his sketch book, in a Malta stylee. When last we met I mentioned the possibility of a boat trip to Gozo. When I had my morning cappuccino in McD’s today – which surprisingly enough lasted until I’d done everything I’d wanted to do on their free wifi, checking in for the flight home etc. – I looked up the cost of the ferries, and a round trip is a ridiculously cheap 4 Euros 65. That’s cheaper than yesterday’s breakfast. So thence to Cirkewwa, which is on the northern tip of Malta, and where the ferry terminal is. 

I amused myself by playing a game I made up, based on Douglas Adams’ and John Lloyd’s wonderful little book, “The Meaning of Liff”. The challenge was to try to make up a meaning for the names of each stop along the way. Pitiross, Bragg and Snajjin were all gifts, but none of them quite so much as Duracak. (Lasts up to 6 times as long as ordinary cack). Little things and all that. Kept me chuckling to myself on and off all the way to Cirkewwa (which itself, I decided, means ‘redolent of the smell of a Scottish coastal church in which a disgruntled parishioner has nailed a week old Arbroath smokie to the underside of one of the pews.’) 

I had a little while before I could board the ferry, during which I made the first of tonight’s sketches. I don’t honestly know how far you can get away from the sea on Malta – I know the furthest point from the sea in the UK is only just over 70 miles away from the nearest coast. In Malta I’d be surprised if it’s much more than about 7. Which is all to the good, as it means the views are very often fantastic. Once on the ferry, we had a little time before departure, so I started sketching the ferry which had just came in. Which is when a group of other passengers decided to start playing the ever popular game, ‘let’s stand in front of the pillock with the sketchbook, and block his view.’ It’s a multiplayer game, and apparently is also suitable for the whole family.  

The ferry to Gozo – why do we call it Gozo, by the way? The local name for it is Ghawdex, which is

far better to my way of thinking. Gozo sounds like a rejected name for a muppet, while Ghawdex sounds like a proprietary brand of painkiller. However, I digress. The ferry to Gozo docks at the port of Mgarr. And if that name wasn’t bestowed upon it by a pirate, then I’m very disappointed. The entry to the harbour is very beautiful, with the sailing boats on the twinkling sea, and the huge church on the hillside. However, my intended destination was some way inland, namely Victoria, the island’s capital.

 Gozo is a beautiful island, a little more unspoilt than Malta in my opinion, and I enjoyed most of the journey to Victoria. We passed a church in

Xewkija (a jar which has been sitting on the shelf so long that its contents have become unidentifiable, and nobody can remember what’s in it, and can’t be arsed to open it to find out.) Now, remember how yesterday I visited a church with the 4^th largest dome in Europe? No? Well, please yourselves. Well, according to my guidebook, this particular church has the 3^rd largest. I earmarked it for a visit on my way back to the ferry later.  

Victoria was quite pretty, although I have to say that if I was forced to choose, then I would choose Valletta. 

I had a mooch around the citadel. Now, when I left Bugibba at the start of the day, it was overclouded, and the temperature was down to a downright chilly 27 degrees. Walking through the citadel above Victoria, the skies were clear and the sun was blazing. I was the hottest I have been on this summer’s sketchpeditions, and possibly the hottest I’ve ever been since that day in Greece in 1982, which is another story for another time, and not for the squeamish. So I made my way back to the bus station, and caught a bus to Mgarr. Unfortunately, not the same number bus as I’d caught earlier, and so I’m afraid Europe’s third largest church dome will have to wait for another trip another time.  

Back on Malta itself, and on the ride back to Bugibba I did something which I’ve never done before on a bus, and only once done on a train. You’re making up your own stories now. No, I fell asleep. Even though the bus was air conditioned, we were crawling along through traffic for a good half an hour, and it was stupid hot, and I just went. When I opened my eyes about 15 minutes later we’d moved perhaps 200 yards since I’d fallen asleep.  

I did think about rounding the day off with a visit to Mdina, the old capital, but it seems as if that needs a bit of time, and to be honest, I just wasn’t prepared to wait half an hour for another bus. So that’s pencilled in for tomorrow.  

Which I suppose is as good a way of saying that’s it for tonight. Join me tomorrow for my last day on Malta.