Two days in Valletta

I spent most of the weekend in and around Valletta.  The photo was taken some time ago on the dhajsa crossing from Birgu to Valletta.

On Saturday, I caught the bus up so that I could go to a travel agent to confirm my four day trip to Catania at the start of February for the feast of St Agatha.  I have mentioned in previous posts that I have become interested in this saint who died so horribly. The advertised trip seemed a good opportunity to find out more about her.  The brochure is in Malti and all the other people on the trip are Maltese, so I'm not entirely sure what we will be doing, but the guide assures me that there will be English spoken on the four excursions we will be going on.

After I found the agency in St Paul street, I decided to visit some of the art shows on in January.  Joseph Farrugia's show, Contemporary Icons, is at St James Cavalier.  He seems to be exploring images of paper planes and the clothes people wear - sometimes the folds of paper planes are embedded in a jacket hanging on a coat hanger.  Strange.

Isabelle Borg's show, Strange Cargo, is at the Museum of Fine Arts.  I particularly liked her portraits on the inside of suitcases.

On Sunday, I got the bus up again, this time to go to my first concert for 2009 at St Catherine of Italy.  The St James consort performed two concertos by J.S.Bach.  As usual, it was an excellent concert but this time it had been sponsored by the Zarb family to celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary so the front two rows of seats were reserved.  I felt quite deprived because I wasn't privileged to sit on the front row and feel connected to every string and key and valve in the ensemble!

I left hurriedly at the end of the concert because I was invited for Sunday lunch at my cousin's in Sliema and I planned to get the ferry across.  I cut across and down to the ferry landing to find that the ferry had been cancelled.  I hadn't noticed how strongly the wind had got up and it has been blowing ever since with plenty of rain.  Today, the sun has come out, but the prediction is for strong winds until Thursday.

In spite of having to hurry back up the steep, stepped streets to the bus terminus to catch the bus to Sliema which was crowded, I still arrived at my cousin's in plenty of time before the Maltese pasta was served but had to leave again soon after 2.00 pm to get back up to Valletta for 3.00.  I was booked to go to the matinee of Swan Lake on Ice being staged at the Mediterranean Conference centre down at the bottom end of Valletta some 15 mins walk from the bus terminal.  I found my seat in a box at the back corner of the theatre and settled into the rather cramped space that was in a great position to watch the full house come in and take their seats.  

When the show started, I enjoyed the flowing, gliding choreography of the ice-skaters.  Somehow, the moves and patterns of ballet work better on skates than on block shoes and the costumes were lovely!  But the drama and pathos of the show didn't really come across and I was disappointed with the dismembered black swan (the hunting crossbow seems to have been abandoned).  It also seemed to be a rather facile ending without anything that resembled a dying swan.  The pampered prince lives happily ever after with his own little swan after ripping the wing off an endangered black swan.

Yesterday I was out again - invited for morning coffee in Fgura with the parents of the local librarian who has introduced me to so many useful Melitensia references.  They have a spacious house with an orange tree and well in the courtyard and a mural of a tree on their dining room wall.  I enjoyed chatting about Malta and their impressions of Australia where they had all lived for several years.  I was also interested to hear that some Maltese houses have their plumbing linked into their wells to minimise dependence on Government water.  Many thanks to you all!

I got dropped off at Birgu afterwards to keep in touch with the 3 cities property situation for when I return in 2010 but the wind was too strong to get a dhajsa crossing to Valletta so I got a bus to Paola where I bought an Aroncini at the kiosk in the square and then the Marsaxlokk bus home.