Malta: Day Four

Back to the real world

At 4:40 a.m., Josephine comes to pick me up for the drive to the airport.  She said she never sleeps; I’m beginning to believe her!
        As the flight is within the EU, there’s not even any passport control.  Just the x-ray machine for carry-on and passengers.  After that, this small airport shows how smart it is: to get to the gates, you have to walk not by the duty-free, but through it.  And you have plenty of time to buy something.  I give in and opt for a box of those delicious date cookies, the mqarets.  And these are made by Caffe Cordina, that amazing pastry shop (est. 1837) on Valetta’s bustling Republic Street.  They’re different from the ones I had from Nenu’s because they’re baked, not deep-fried.  I’m not sure which are more delicious.  It’s almost as if they were two totally different cookies.
       The flight back to Paris only takes 2½ hrs and the safety film gives me one final thing to enjoy about Malta: it’s a cartoon whose main character is a knight in armor.  He obviously doesn’t understand anything about flying because he’s very confused by the seatbelts and the oxygen masks.  The South American flights used cartoon characters also, to get your attention, but this one is funny.  The perfect last touch.

My final thoughts about the island of Malta:

- Aside from the excessive use of cellphones by people who should be selling you tickets instead (mostly young women), and aside from the bright henna rinse on a lot of ladies’ heads, I found nothing to complain about.  Malta is a great place to visit.  Especially if you’re interested in architecture and archaeology, as I am.  Parts of it are a work in progress right now though, but they’re knocking it into shape before 2018, when Valetta will be the European Capital of Culture for a year.  I hope that won’t change it much.
- The native language sounds extremely foreign - which it is.  But if you have a question or directions to ask for, they speak fluent English, as well as Italian it would appear.  German and French don’t seem to pose a lot of problems either.  So you know you’re not in Kansas any more, Toto, but you can still hold a conversation.  And that’s the best of both worlds.
- The food is delicious.  And copious.  At least at Mario’s recommended restaurants.  I didn’t have a single bad meal all the time I was there.  And that started as of the Air Malta flight in.  We were served an esnaque (as the South Americans call it), a snack - a tuna salad sandwich Malta-style:  tuna with chopped up turnips, carrots, cauliflower, onion, sweet peppers, fennel, wine vinegar, capers, olives, tomato paste and white beans.  Not a drop of mayonnaise was harmed in the making of this sandwich.  And it was served up on a tasty brown bread roll.  Plus it was fresh as could be:  made the previous day, in Malta, and meant to be eaten on the day of the flight.  Not a preservative in sight.  All this information gleaned from the packaging.  Very impressive.  (On the flight back, it was a much more bland sliced turkey and Gouda sandwich on a white bread roll.)

Mario

- But most of all, there are the people of Malta.  The people are a joy.  Always helpful.  Always chatty.  It started with Josephine, who gave me a lot of history and geography facts about her island during our several rides.  There was the lady in the Valetta lift who provided extra information on it and then continued the conversation all the way to the ferry.  Where she was replaced by a man who chatted with me all the way across the harbor, and then made sure I got on the right path to Senglea.  He had been to Valetta to buy his wife the necklace that matched the earrings she liked so much, because it was going to be Valentine’s Day.  Then there was Albert, at Fort San Angelo, who let me take those photos and ended up telling me about his years on the Great Lakes, finishing in a big hug and a kiss on both cheeks.  And finally, there was Mario, who feels like an old friend now.  I hope to stay in touch with him.
       And who knows?  Maybe I’ll go back to see those other prehistoric ruins I missed, and take the boat to Gozo.


For some extra information, here are a few internet resources.
- For the Hypogeum:  http://heritagemalta.org/museums-sites/hal-saflieni-hypogeum/
- For a general view:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izWmqkEiYJ0

Helpful addresses:
- Miler Cabs - taxi service, Josephine - (00356)21237088 cell 79201403 / adrios2@yahoo.com
- Guzé Bistro - 22 Old Bakery St. / Valletta VLT 1459 / (356) 21239686 / info@guzevalletta.com
- Nenu - 143 St. Domenic Street / Valletta VLT 1605 / 22581535 / info@nenuthebaker.com / www.nenuthebaker.com
- Grand Harbour Hotel - 47 Triq Il-Batterija Il-Belt / Valletta VLT 1221 / (356) 21246003 /  http://grand-harbour-hotel.valletta.hotels-mt.com/en/

Dingli Cliffs (west coast)