I'm settled into my flat in Triq Sant Antnin, Marsaxlokk with my own saint on the corner of the street. Marsaxlokk is a fishing village on the Southeast quarter of Malta. Marsa means harbour in Malti (the semitic-based language of Malta) and xlokk is one of the prevailing winds from the southeast that buffet the rocky cliffs of the islands at particular times of the year. This part of Malta has been largely spared the tourist over-development that has happened in the North probably because there are several industrial sites located on prominent headlands down here. But the harbour is crowded with local fishing boats, frigatinas and luzzus, and there is a great produce market here on Sunday mornings when locals and tourists alike flock to the front to buy fish and fresh vegetables.
Carol and I arrived here a week ago on Sunday, sailing into Grand Harbour, Valletta, on the ferry from Pozzallo in Sicily. I will write about our trip down through Italy in another post. The taxi driver from the port had difficulty finding the flat on the one-way system in use in the back streets of Marsaxlokk, and navigating through the crowds at the market was tricky! But we ended up on the doorstep and settled down to wait for the landlord to turn up with the key. I really appreciated having Carol with me for those first three days to help me work out the details of everyday living that enabled me to feel at home in my second floor flat.
We also found some time in those three days to do some tourist things including taking the local bus to Valletta and finding pastizzi in a small street shop down the end of the main street and visiting the church of St Paul shipwrecked. While Carol used an internet cafe to send an email about the next part of her journey, I walked across the street and found myself joining an organisation called Malta Heritage. My membership entitles me to reduced access to Malta's numerous neolithic temples and ancient sites so I'll be able to explore at leisure in the months ahead.
On Tuesday, we took the open top tourist bus that now operates in Malta. We chose the Northern route, picking up the tour in Valletta. The tour allowed us to get on and off at the stops we were particularly interested in and we dropped off for an hour at San Anton gardens and then for a few hours at Mdina. At San Anton I remembered going there as a fist year High school student to try our hand at life drawing and found the statue that I actually sketched!
Mdina I love! It is called the silent city because cars are not allowed inside the ancient gates. We strolled around the flag stoned streets of the walled city and had lunch in a rooftop cafe looking out on the dry stone walls of the surrounding farmland to the coast from Mellieha bay in the North to Valletta in the South. After Mdina, the bus took us down through winding back roads and through the valley between Ghan Tuffieha bay and St Paul's bay - a very new experience for me on the top of a double decker bus!
The coast road through Paceville and then Sliema I found distressing because there has been so much development. We lived in that area in my childhood and many of the sites that hold memories for me have been built over or changed dramatically so it was difficult to pick out the spots around St George's bay where I learnt to swim and dive off the rocks.
I am writing this post from the boardroom of the Marsaxlokk local council offices where there is free wi-fi. I have organised to have internet access put into my flat but it will take a few days so I have been bringing my laptop down here. I have sketched out a plan of all the parts of my journey so far that I still need to write about and I will start to do that as soon as I get connected at home. In the meantime, I have exploring to do using the second hand bike that I bought in the neighbouring town of Birzebbuga.
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