Now, to complete my Malta saga, I hope. On Monday we took the public bus system to Valetta, 
the capital city, just to have the true experience. Many of Malta's buses are old fashion and seriously cool looking, bright orange and red, so we paid our 47 cents... yes 47... and arrived in Valetta to see hundreds of people (mainly children) dressed up for Carnival. Our first stop was St. John's Co-Cathedral, a massive baroque cathedral with amazing marble floors. We learned about the 8 pointed Maltese cross and saw two beautiful Caravaggios. After a quick lunch of sandwiches we hung out in a park that over looked the 
grand harbor and The Three Cities, which are three cities that are on peninsulas just across the harbor from Valetta. We went to St. Paul's Shipwreck Church next, another baroque, extravagant church dedicated to, obviously, when St. Paul was shipwrecked on Malta... coolest. island. ever. As the sun was setting we took a ferry back to Sliema to enjoy the view and were off to Krista's house where her family fed us an amazing meal of what I can only describe as pasta pie. Heaven.
Tuesday was insanely windy and we were nearly blown off the island when we visited the Dingli Cliffs, the highest point in Malta (I believe...) We ventured on to St. Agatha's crypt and into some catacombs, where the tour guide told us just before we entered that we could only be in the caves for 20 minutes due to high levels of carbon monoxide, so imagine our nervousness when he stated that we were behind schedule once we had gotten deep into the cave!! Next... we went to Mdina, the old capital of Malta and another fortified city. We went to a place called 
Crystal Palace that had the best patizzi in Malta. I tried to take a picture, but I didn't want to take a picture of locals living their everyday lives, very awkward. We walked through Howard Gardens, yes I am Maltese, and all through the city, another church and another museum. The city was full of bright buildings, even on such a cloudy day. It's still Tuesday and we went to yet another city, Mosta. Here, there is a church with the third largest dome in Europe. The church is impressive on its own but, as we're in Malta and nothing is ordinary, it had very cool history. During WWII, Malta was bombed by the Germans and one particular bomb pierced the dome of the church and fell to the floor without exploding. The only evidence of the bombing of the church was a hole in the ceiling, which was expertly patched up. No other damage!
Next were some temples. Oh actually, not just some temples, the 
second oldest standing structures in the world. No big deal. The first are on Gozo, like I said, but we missed them. The temples are located on a hill the slopes rapidly down to the water and the day we visited them it was insanely gorgeous. After haggling with the ticket agent and insisting we were all students, we decended a long path to the Ħaġar Qim temples that were built in 3600 BC. The stones that made up the temples were huge! However they got moved 5000 years ago, I'll never understand. We wandered the temple and wandered the hills exploring little stone huts that hunters use to hunt birds. Next were the Mnajdra temples just up the hill, just some more old temples.
It's still Wednesday and we're still seeing more stuff. Close to the temples was Il-Maqluba, in Maltese "upside down" or "reversed"... but let's call it the Lost World, yes like Jurassic Park. This is a huge, well, hole in the island where an earthquake collapsed a huge cave. The myth is that there used to be a town 
where the hole is that was full of sinners, so God scooped up the land and threw it out to sea and created the island of Filfla, the island that was then used by the British as shooting practice, sweet. The site looked like something out of Jurassic Park, extremely creepy. As the sun was setting, we went to Blue Grotto, cliffs to filled with stray, but very clean, cats. So many cats. For dinner that night, we ate at Stefan's whose amazing family made us an amazing dinner of rabbit. Oh, yes. Rabbit. Heaven once again.
the capital city, just to have the true experience. Many of Malta's buses are old fashion and seriously cool looking, bright orange and red, so we paid our 47 cents... yes 47... and arrived in Valetta to see hundreds of people (mainly children) dressed up for Carnival. Our first stop was St. John's Co-Cathedral, a massive baroque cathedral with amazing marble floors. We learned about the 8 pointed Maltese cross and saw two beautiful Caravaggios. After a quick lunch of sandwiches we hung out in a park that over looked the 
grand harbor and The Three Cities, which are three cities that are on peninsulas just across the harbor from Valetta. We went to St. Paul's Shipwreck Church next, another baroque, extravagant church dedicated to, obviously, when St. Paul was shipwrecked on Malta... coolest. island. ever. As the sun was setting we took a ferry back to Sliema to enjoy the view and were off to Krista's house where her family fed us an amazing meal of what I can only describe as pasta pie. Heaven.Tuesday was insanely windy and we were nearly blown off the island when we visited the Dingli Cliffs, the highest point in Malta (I believe...) We ventured on to St. Agatha's crypt and into some catacombs, where the tour guide told us just before we entered that we could only be in the caves for 20 minutes due to high levels of carbon monoxide, so imagine our nervousness when he stated that we were behind schedule once we had gotten deep into the cave!! Next... we went to Mdina, the old capital of Malta and another fortified city. We went to a place called 
Crystal Palace that had the best patizzi in Malta. I tried to take a picture, but I didn't want to take a picture of locals living their everyday lives, very awkward. We walked through Howard Gardens, yes I am Maltese, and all through the city, another church and another museum. The city was full of bright buildings, even on such a cloudy day. It's still Tuesday and we went to yet another city, Mosta. Here, there is a church with the third largest dome in Europe. The church is impressive on its own but, as we're in Malta and nothing is ordinary, it had very cool history. During WWII, Malta was bombed by the Germans and one particular bomb pierced the dome of the church and fell to the floor without exploding. The only evidence of the bombing of the church was a hole in the ceiling, which was expertly patched up. No other damage!Wednesday, while the Maltese finally went to their lectures, us 
visitors went to the Ghar Dalam caves. These caves contained hundreds of fossils of animals and plants. Apparently, at one point there was a land bridge from Sicily to Malta which allowed for animals likes elephants, hippos and deer to cross over to Malta... which are now extinct, no hippos that I saw. We also learned that during the Ice
Age, Malta experienced a Rain Age which carved the land into what it is today. From the cave we went to a beautiful fishing village for lunch. Traditional Maltese fishing boats, Luzzus, are bright blue, yellow, red and green and they were everywhere! We sat down to a lunch of fresh fish and Maltese wine. The owner of the restaurant was a jolly Malteser who bragged of all the celebrities that have visited his restaurant. Because Malta is the coolest place ever, tons of movies are filmed there, Troy and Gladiator for example. Stefan's sister even met Brad Pitt (luckyyy).
visitors went to the Ghar Dalam caves. These caves contained hundreds of fossils of animals and plants. Apparently, at one point there was a land bridge from Sicily to Malta which allowed for animals likes elephants, hippos and deer to cross over to Malta... which are now extinct, no hippos that I saw. We also learned that during the Ice
Age, Malta experienced a Rain Age which carved the land into what it is today. From the cave we went to a beautiful fishing village for lunch. Traditional Maltese fishing boats, Luzzus, are bright blue, yellow, red and green and they were everywhere! We sat down to a lunch of fresh fish and Maltese wine. The owner of the restaurant was a jolly Malteser who bragged of all the celebrities that have visited his restaurant. Because Malta is the coolest place ever, tons of movies are filmed there, Troy and Gladiator for example. Stefan's sister even met Brad Pitt (luckyyy).
Next were some temples. Oh actually, not just some temples, the 
second oldest standing structures in the world. No big deal. The first are on Gozo, like I said, but we missed them. The temples are located on a hill the slopes rapidly down to the water and the day we visited them it was insanely gorgeous. After haggling with the ticket agent and insisting we were all students, we decended a long path to the Ħaġar Qim temples that were built in 3600 BC. The stones that made up the temples were huge! However they got moved 5000 years ago, I'll never understand. We wandered the temple and wandered the hills exploring little stone huts that hunters use to hunt birds. Next were the Mnajdra temples just up the hill, just some more old temples.
It's still Wednesday and we're still seeing more stuff. Close to the temples was Il-Maqluba, in Maltese "upside down" or "reversed"... but let's call it the Lost World, yes like Jurassic Park. This is a huge, well, hole in the island where an earthquake collapsed a huge cave. The myth is that there used to be a town 
where the hole is that was full of sinners, so God scooped up the land and threw it out to sea and created the island of Filfla, the island that was then used by the British as shooting practice, sweet. The site looked like something out of Jurassic Park, extremely creepy. As the sun was setting, we went to Blue Grotto, cliffs to filled with stray, but very clean, cats. So many cats. For dinner that night, we ate at Stefan's whose amazing family made us an amazing dinner of rabbit. Oh, yes. Rabbit. Heaven once again.This post is getting far to lengthy. Next post will include the rest of Malta... then I'll move on to the next week. So much to write about!
So...many...cats. Remember when Scott attracted that stray, random wolf-dog in the cemetary in the Luberon? If I could attach a picture, I would....Because I have it.
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