Dossing Times

The Dossing Times is a blog about movies, politics and other random stuff. The blog's motto is 'Instead of being useful'. From A Trip to Malta:

..I had one of these saccharine sounding moments in Malta, when on my last day having felt I should pack in as much as possible to my time there I found myself just letting go of any pressure to be my usual sight seeing motivated machine and enjoy my surrounds. I had even allocated a set amount of time for sunbathing and swimming and wanted to be heading down town for a meal to a restaurant recommended to me and I caught myself walking through an open air bar still dripping from my swim and found myself magnetically drawn towards a stool perched at a table overlooking an area called St. Paul’s Bay nestled nicely within the jagged outline of the north coast of Malta..

..The result though is resoundly positive, the only draw back being the heavily Anglicised tourist culture which left parts of some areas in a faceless tacky tourist daze. A Princess Diana bar was the crowing piece of unfortunate pandering to British tourists. There is still much to see and do, a beach holiday can be supplemented by rambles around gorgeously sedate inner city streets and harbour cruises, looking at the mono tone stone buildings – the colour coming from the rich history of the events inside – our guide himself born under ground as the island, a key strategic point during WWII was being blitzed at the time. For all you table quiz fans, Gozo and Comino are its smaller islands to the north of the island and they are equally places I would like to get to on being presented with a second opportunity to visit Malta.

Ben Simon

Ben's Journal is a random collection of comments and thoughts. In this post he discusses a trip to Malta:

When we woke up this morning, we had a surprising site - our porthole,
which all yesterday was filled with endless blue, was now filled with the skyline of a clearly Mediterranean country. We were officially in Malta. We had a quick breakfast, and fled the boat. Rather than using one of the cruise offered trips, we decided we'd wing it. There's only one small detail - we had no idea what to see in Malta. So, last Saturday night, while in Barcelona, we used the free WiFi to do our research. Along the way, we recorded various waypoints to use for reference.

Our plan was to first find the main bus station, and then find the Ghar Dalam cave. After that, we'd head back to the port city of Valletta, do some shopping, and leisurely get back on the boat...Finding the cave turned out to be a bit trickier. We had only a vague idea where it was and the bus driver was of limited help. Finally, we figured out we were in the right town, and got off the bus. After asking around, we did indeed find our way to the cave - we had missed the stop on the bus, and earned ourselves a 15 minute walk to site. The sun was out, the streets of Malta
beautiful, and the harbor gorgeous - so we hardly suffered.

The cave of Ghar Dalam was interesting as expected. They hard part of the cave closed off, but you still got a feel for what they found there. The museum that accompanies the site was almost as interesting as the cave itself. Somewhere I read that the museum is laid out in a classic Victorian style - much more interested in
impressing you with the shear size of the collection, rather than, say, educating you. It's amazing how many hippo teeth they found - I was surely impressed..

My overall impression with Malta is a positive one. One surprising aspect was that the ancient ruins aren't off in some distant country side, but located right in town. I asked the guide at the Ghar Dalam cave about two structures in the back of the museum and he explained that one was a WW II pillbox and the other a watch tower from the middle ages. Or at least that's what he thought. Could you imaging having a structure from hundreds of years ago, far older than the US, and not knowing any details about it? Yet, for the Maltese, buildings from the middle ages apparently aren't that exotic. I could definitely see going back to Malta and taking in more of the country...

Hearse cartel sparks strike

Move to break hearse cartel sparks transport strike in Malta, from AFP:

A move by the Maltese government to unlock a death grip on hearses by just 11 undertakers met with an indefinite, nationwide transport strike on Monday. Buses, minibuses and taxis blocked major arteries across the Mediterranean island state, notably around the capital Valletta and the tourist area of Sliema, to protest against the decision to offer more licenses to hearse operators.

Scuffles broke out between striking transport workers and police when the workers marched on the prime minister's office in Valletta, the Auberge de Castille. A few people were arrested but no injuries were reported. "This is not a question of hearses' monopoly (only)," said Transport Federation president Victor Spiteri. "This is the first step at abolishing monopoly in all sectors of public transport." He added: "The government is blocking our livelihoods."..

Malta in the eyes of a Greek

Hellenic Travels to the Past, edited by George Manetakis, is a collection of tales f'rom one Antipodean’s experiences to magical locations from across the Eurasian continent'. This post describes a visit to Malta on the way from Sydney to London:

Flying in to Malta I was excited. I had always wanted to be met at an airport by someone holding a placard (sign) with my name on it. The Maltese Tourism Authority (MTA) had kindly arranged for a driver to meet me at the airport with a sign displaying my name. However, unseasonable rain and a car accident ensured that the driver was unable to show.

As a person who clings to omens like a Roman to his Toga, I wondered what this would mean for my Malta trip. Rain, no signs or placards and a delayed flight into Malta – would I struggle to find signs of Malta’s Byzantine (Medieval Greek) past. I had given myself 2 days to find evidence of Malta’s Byzantine history. And the signs weren’t looking good!

Malta is undoubtedly a jewel in the Mediterranean. Reminiscent of a Medieval Greek island (i.e. Rhodes) combined with modern comforts, this emerging EU member is a traveller’s delight. It is also a unique melting pot of influences from some of histories greatest civilizations – the Phoenicians, Carthaginian, Romans, Arabs, Normans, the Knights of St John, Spanish, British and of course the Byzantines. Interestingly, the Knights of St John also ruled the Greek island of Rhodes for a significant number of years.

Before I get to the Medieval Greek empire of Byzantium and its presence in Malta I should alert the reader to a remarkable aspect of Malta. It is home to a number of megalithic temples. These temples are older than the Pyramids, dating back to 4000 BC. This makes Malta home to the oldest freestanding buildings in Europe. I also heard a rumour from the locals that Malta could have been the home to the supposed ‘mythical’ kingdom of Atlantis – which in my opinion was in Santorini, but that’s a story for another day.

When you consider the ancient Greeks established numerous towns and villages in Sicily it is surprising that Malta, the immediate neighbour, was largely ignored. In fact there are no signs of the ancient Greeks making attempts at colonisation. Instead the Greeks of Sicily passed on the secrets of making olives, oil, cloth and honey which in Greek means ‘meli’ and may actually be the origin of Malta’s name (Melita). It was not until several centuries later that the Byzantines under the Thracian general Belisarius established a permanent presence in Malta. It is generally agreed by historians that Belisarius’ forces occupied Malta in 535AD about the same time northern Africa was reclaimed for the Empire. However, there are dispatches from Greek historian Precopius that could place the Byzantine fleet in Malta in 533AD..

..The fall of Malta had a profound impact on Byzantium’s Mediterranean territories – by 902 AD all of Sicily was occupied by Arabs, as well as Sardinia and Corsica around the same time and by the late twelfth century Byzantine Italy was occupied by either Arabs or other foreign conquerors.

Considering the proximity of Malta to the Greek speaking Sicily, one wonders why the Greek language was not the main tongue of the locals. The Byzantines maintained rather small garrisons and whilst many of the clergy were Greek speakers there was never really a substantial Greek presence on the island. Although when the island fell in 870 AD, many of the locals fled to Greek speaking territories of the Byzantine Empire...

Easy rider on the Med

Matthew Teller takes the 'Short Way Down' by scooter on the Maltese islands for the perfect adventure:

I sat waiting, focused ahead. The cross-traffic started thinning out. I gave a twist with my right hand, just a touch, till I felt the bite. The lights changed to green. I gave it a bit more. The automatic clutch caught, and I was rolling. More with the wrist, and I was going fast enough to lift my feet and tuck them on board. Sheer bliss! Like the best bits of flying and skiing rolled into one.

Let's not kid ourselves. I was aboard nothing more meaty than a 125cc Kymco Agility, but I had never had this much fun on two wheels. In real life, I'm an adrenalin-averse pedestrian. As the Maltese countryside breezed past, it occurred to me that if riding a Taiwanese scooter could induce this much euphoria, a real motorbike might be well over my limit.

You've heard of the Long Way Down – Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's epic 15,000-mile motorbike journey from John O'Groats to Cape Town. Well, this was me living out the Short Way Down, my idea for a somewhat-less-than-epic ride across Malta in search of excitement and adventure.

From Gharb, on the northwest coast of Malta's second island, Gozo, to Delimara, on the south-eastern tip of Malta itself, is perhaps 45km. You could walk it in a day. On a bike – two hours, tops. I suggested to my mate Tim that we should make a long weekend of it. He looked askance..

..That's the main thing – the freedom. A car really boxes you in; on a scooter we could smell the smells, taste the air and enjoy a panoramic field of vision. We could go where we wanted, stop where we wanted – and, this being Malta, if we liked the look of a road sign we could detour with impunity, since even the loneliest dead-end would take us, at worst, 5km out of our way.

Gozo was the real discovery. It had quite a different feel from the Maltese mainland – wilder, prettier, less predictable. Much of the rocky, cove-dotted coast was still free from development. The Gozitans were, it seemed, a bolshy lot – church-going folk who didn't much like the hotshot Maltese next door. They'd already quashed the idea of building a bridge, and were intent, so I'd heard, on getting their own international airport to steal traffic from their neighbours. I liked the sound of them...

Learning to love Malta

After spending the year teaching international relations at the university on a Fulbright, Mary looks back at her Malta experience:

I leave for the US tomorrow. My Fulbright “year” is over. I have so enjoyed this time in Malta that I am sad to go, but glad I’ll be with my husband again. I'll keep this blog going for a while--add some pictures and further thoughts, show you some electronic pictures of my home up on Lake Superior, etc.

I am happy to say that I will be back in Malta and at the university for a few weeks next year and will be helping the university grow its international master’s degree programs with US schools. I think a few of the ideas for Michigan Tech-University of Malta collaborations may take hold. And, as I understand it, some Michigan Tech students will be coming to the University of Malta for “study abroad.” As we get more folks from my US university over to this country, we’ll form a “Friends of Malta” group to talk about the experience and think about new ways to relate to this country.

Long term, I pray Malta really works hard to control the loss of its natural and historical heritage. I’ve been told by Maltese that many Maltese think what would be good for tourism would not be good for them. But, I think, sometimes what would make life good for the Maltese would also be good for tourism. A concrete island will not equal economic development—don’t believe that for a minute when the politicians and corporate leaders use it as an excuse to break the rules.

Maltese tell me with longing how it used to be greener or there used to be pretty little villages that they miss. They’ve told me summers used to be not quite so hot. If you lose green, it gets warmer—not even considering what’s happening with the climate. Try it, drive with your windows open some evening and note how pleasant the air is as you go by open fields. Keep at the government for your own sake. If your lives are richer, the tourists will be happier too...

Destination Malta

Writing in Shift Mag, Judith Zijlstra and Tjerk Destombes from the University of Utrecht, say that Malta bears the brunt of the European refugee problem. They were in Malta earlier this year in the frame of the Destination Europe project:

“600 Africans perished at sea”, “Spanish coastguard intercepts boat with refugees again”... In the past few years, news reports about Africans travelling in perilous boats, looking for a better life in Europe have filled many headlines in the European media. For these refugees, Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and Lampedusa in Italy were the most popular destinations. However, much less known are the thousands of African refugees that Malta has been receiving since 2000.

Boat refugees often don’t choose to arrive in Malta, a member of the European Union since 2004. Most are on their way to Italy but get into difficulty at sea. As Malta is responsible for rescuing people in need, in an enormous section of the Mediterranean Sea (250,000m2, which is 791 times her own surface area), it often happens that refugees unwillingly have to apply for asylum in Malta..

..Marsa’s open refugee centre, located in Malta’s harbour area, used to be a school. It is able to accommodate 400 refugees. At present, 1,600 people live there - 1,599 men and one woman. Most of the refugees are from Somalia, but there are also considerable numbers of refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan; regions where there has been a lot of unrest in the past, or where the situation is still unbearable. The people living in the Marsa centre can be considered real survivors: for every refugee that has made it to Malta, four have died at sea...