Christmas and New Year's in Malta

Moored boats in Bormla, Malta.

A Christmas Eve procession in Paola, Malta.

A long walkway between homes finally came to an end here in Rabat, Malta.

Elaine at a portside boat house, Marsalforn, Gozo.

Me standing next to salt pans in Marsalforn, Gozo.

A quiet street in Valleta, the walled capital of Malta.

Between Christmas and early January, I visited the Mediterranean nation of Malta with my friend Elaine. We travelled through the larger islands of Malta and Gozo, but we bypassed Comino, the small one. From an informal survey I conducted, it seems that most people I know are familiar with Malta, or at least the word Malta, from the film The Maltese Falcon. The film's okay but its landscapes and set pieces can't hold a candle to Malta itself, which is in color. Imagine using telephones, opening and closing doors, and accusing business associates of wrongdoing in color, instead of black and white.

It gets better: Malta has a pretty extraordinary cultural and political history, with some human-made structures dated at 7,000 years old. Numerous civilizations each left their mark with temples or crypts or cathedrals or military bases or industrialization or something of the kind. Arabs conquered the islands in the eighth century and left behind the basis for what is now the language of Malti/Maltese. Over time on top of its semitic root is a lot of Italian influence among some other European languages that have come into play. People speak Malti with an Italian cadence to my ears, and that's not surprising, as Malta is near Sardinia. Lots of Maltese people speak English as well, since the most recent occupiers of Malta were the English, who threw in the colonial towel there in 1964. An interesting aspect of recent Maltese international relations is its "refoulement" of Eritrean asylum seekers back to Eritrea. This has led to human rights criticism from by Amnesty International, among other organizations.

Well, we discovered that visiting Malta in the off season when the resorts and many shops are closed, is a wonderful and relatively cheap way to see Malta. The busses run well and are very affordable with service to most parts of Malta and Gozo. I suggest staying at the eccentric and well-maintained Asti Guesthouse in Valleta, which is about as close as you can get to a hostel. Malta is in the EU but for now they still use the Maltese Lira. There are some nice links on Malta here.

A bus terminal outside the city walls, Valetta, Malta.