saħħa, malta

My last Malta post. How sad. I got back into Perugia late last night. Next stop, Athens! Above: the Maltese cross.

more maltese buses

Malta's main bus terminal never failed to confuse me. Even when I had an idea where the bus I was trying to catch was, I still ended up walking around in circles before finding it. The "terminal," located just outside of Valletta's main gate, is basically a giant, round parking lot with three concentric circles of (moving) buses radiating from a giant fountain (of Triton) in the center. Presumably the bus numbers work their way around the circle in numerical order, but in walking it multiple times I have failed to find much logic to it. This doesn't mean that the wanderings aren't enjoyable, however, especially when one has an imqaret in hand, a Maltese fried pastry with a warm, date-filled center.

This bus was the last one I rode on Malta. From the outside it looked like the average elderly bus, but the driver must have just recently pimped his ride, complete with leopard-print upholstery and orange skylights, which made the whole interior glow (an effect that is unfortunately lost in this low-quality video). Add to all this the middle-aged driver's spiked hair (which I also did not get in this video), and the new James Bond theme song blasting on the radio, and my last bus ride proved highly entertaining.

malta limestone

In its many forms: Hagar Qim, one of the prehistoric temple ruins; Birgu, the Order of the Knights of St. John's capital city before they built Valletta; one of the thousands of stone walls criss-crossing Malta's countryside. Did I mention that there's lots of limestone?

maltese fishing boats

Traditional Maltese boats are even more colorful than the buses. As far as I can tell, there are at least three different types of boats: luzzu, dghajsa, and kaajjik... but I'm not sure which one of those this boat is. In any case, they're used for fishing and ferrying. This boat was in Marsaxlokk, Malta's largest fishing village.

maltese buses

Buses on Malta are white and orange and of varying ages. Apparently most, if not all, buses are privately owned, usually by the person behind the wheel. In effect, some buses have names: "Paradise Garage," "Lady Jane," "Love of My Life." 

On a related note, a bus ride costs €0.47. That's 47 euro cents. Unless you're going farther, in which case it costs you €0.54. Most prices in Malta seem to be in these odd numbers, probably due to the fact that Malta just switched to the Euro in January, but that's just my guess.

fort st. elmo

Fort St. Elmo (and whatever building is across the street from it) in Valletta, Malta

merħba minn malta (hello from malta)

This weekend finds me in Malta. I didn't quite plan on coming to Malta, but found myself with a few days up for grabs, looked up flights on a whim, and the next day arrived in Sliema. Today I wandered around Malta's capital city, Valletta, and the much older, quieter city of Mdina. I'm not really exaggerating when I say that everything is made of limestone: buildings, city streets, field fences, everything. Globigernia limestone, to be exact.