Day to day impressions of Malta

I came to Malta because of a wonderful woman, Therese, who had moved to Caifornia at a time of diaspora for  many Maltans in the 1960s when the British left and people were unsure of jobs.  I loved her warmth, her lilting singing accent (people don't say Malta they say Maaaalllta, people don't say "hold" they say "hollllld-e"h, her beauty (Maltese have distinguished faces, olive skin, a beautiful wave in the hair...).  She praised Malta especially after she returned home after her husband died and then she did go home and she passed on,  but she left me with a message about Malta that haunted me. 

Although we saw many different aspects of Malta, --  its fascinating history, its geographic beauty, its overbuilt density in many places, its touristification in some ways in how its oldest most beautiful centers are totally cleaned up and almost ghost towns as far as local people living there at night -- and let's not forget the amazing food and fireworks -- the thing I enjoyed most for sure was meeting and talking with Maltese and Gozitan people and looking at their children.  There are a lot of faces here since it's clear that the racial mix does contain Phoenician, Greek, Sicilian, North African Arabic (like Tunisian), Norman (from all those aristocratic and, ahem, celibate Knights and priests), Ottoman.... But nearly everyone has a proud Arabic/roman profile and pronounced brows. So beautiful. Not cute but beautiful.  And the wavy hair that gets tamed in lots of women and shaved in lots of men is beautiful. Golden tight waves and highlights in nearly every Maltese girl I saw.  Gozitan people look way darker more Sicilian... in general.

I think in most cases unless you go hang out in no hurry at a festa or at close of day on a quiet beach, you might not meet and talk to as many locals as we got to, because much of Malta is tourist service but they are in no way eager to chat just anybody up. There is a little bit of reserve and lots of dignity which is great.  People are very very fond of and proud of their islands and a lot of them announce that these are the safest best islands on earth (even though, Malta being so crowded, there are a few opportunities for evildoers).   People talk about a particular creepy family tragedy that happened in the 1960s as if it were yesterday, there are apparently so few gruesome crimes here. That's nice!  

Yesterday evening our last in Malta I'd been thinking about how reserved Gozitans seemed to be.. Then of course as we were swimming with our stuff on a ledge and I was complaining of the cold a nice dark haired woman in her sixties became our friend, joining our earlier friendships with Daniel the Roman, Ron Zammit as in Dammit, and Charlie from Luqa.  Herminia who got renamed Amy by her Canadian husband's mother lived from 1965 to 2009 in Toronto and is so happy to be back in Gozo again.  As we sat on the warm wet rock in the fading sunset we talked about their adventures swimming in and under the cliffs... Their love of Malta... The craziness of world politics... What are we going to do about the refugees to make it all work well.. Isn't the U.S. crazy not to have had national healthcare way before this... Etc etc ... Within half an hour we felt like good friends and parted with a kiss and embrace.

I think this happens to us more when we are hanging out in places away from the high density tourist swimming places and tourist spots.  We had a good connect with Daniel of Roman's Den because we were choosing, deliberately, to eat in Rabat rather than within the city gates of Mdina.... Accidentally met Ron because we were in rarely touristed Zurrieq.... Had a great connect with twinkly-eyed Charlie because he couldn't figure out why we'd be at the festa in Sanglea. When people are curious about why you got "right here" that's when they will open up.  In a high density tourist center they KNOW all too well why you are here. 

Malta isn't tourist Heaven by any means, the temperature is hot, the cruise ship volume is awful.  the somewhat limited number of places tourists should "be" packs people together and its very populated and development has been super encouraged so there are way too many ugly half finished semi-high rise buildings around.  But we sure had a good time.

And some advice:   Don't drive... as long as you have a little patience it's easy and so cheap to get around on the buses,  and walk,  it's fantastic actually ... 2 euros gets you unlimited bus transfers In a two hour period and buses are so great for people watching. And driving is SO awful.  

Despite occasional waits for buses, there is always something to check out while waiting and the timing of buses and bus/ferry connections is really smart. If it weren't for the too-many-cars problem that keeps Maltese traffic time to an average of 25 mph it'd be great.  

During our rainstorm. On the bus up from the ferry to the central town, Victoria, two sandal clad Australians one dark haired were clearly lost, and it seemed like they were trying to find out how to get to a farmhouse they'd rented, and had missed their stop. So a nice older local woman started helping them, and what do you know?  The young woman was coming to meet a long lost auntie she'd never met...  But the older local woman knew her parents, all about them!  Suddenly the young woman starts talking shyly and then more boldly as it turns out the woman is the perfect contact and has all the details in where she needs to go to connect.  Was so great to be listening in on the two catching up with three decades of family gossip or so at least it seemed. 

Another piece of advice:  don't over order!  Maltese love to eat so portions are good... And also perhaps since the  Arabic and Mediterranean tradition is to welcome people with food, restaurant meals have lots of freebies.... Complimentary appetizers... Complimentary after dinner limoncello 

More later... Boarding plane Istanbul...