cultural extravaganza

For being the size of a thimble, roughly, Malta is PACKED with culture. It embarrassed me slightly today as I trekked through prehistoric caves, jetted through rainbow colored grottos, and wove my way through a temple that predates any consciously designed structure on the PLANET, at what we have at home….quite frankly, Minnesota, in comparison, sucks. Before you throw tomatoes, hear me out. I love the STP as much as the next guy, but think about what we did on field trips in grade school. The apple orchard? Under-water world?... ACK. Lame. It’s comical when you think about it, actually.

I digress. Anyway, I was an uber-tourist today. Can you imagine those giant double decker busses, you know the kind: kitchy writing all over the side advertising “the sites you’ll see!” open-air top, packed with pasty foreigners flailing their cameras every which way so they can catalog all the culture they experienced in the form of a slide show they’ll torture their immediate family members with in 2 weeks time. Can you picture it? Yep. That was me today. Flailing camera and all. SarahBeth and I decided it’d be an efficient way to take in the south east, and south side of the island since we spend most of our time elbow to elbow with euro-tourists in St. Julian’s, where we live.

We trekked up to the Westin Dragonara resort-which made my apartment complex look like a shanty- to catch the first bus in the morning. We stayed on the bus until reaching Marxaxlokk, where we got off to explore and have lunch. The busses run every hour, so you can hop off and take in the site for an hour or two, and then hop on another bus at your whim. Marxaxlokk is a quiet fishing village on the east side of the island, and somewhere that for some reason I knew I wanted to go to before arriving in Malta. I figured out why upon arrival today.

It’s sleepy harbor loaded with colorful boats, friendly café owners, and a peppering of other bus-goers and tourists. I had a burger and fries (dad, I can hear you shaking your head across the world. YES, I know, only I would go to a FISHING village and not order fish. I accept your shame, my burger was delish, we’re moving on), and SarahBeth had fish & chips. (that's me at Marxaxlokk)

After that we boarded the bus again for a short ride to the stop immediately following, which was Ghar Dalam. SarahBeth and I were the only two from the bus to get off, which left us questioning our decision only slightly. It appeared to be a highway souvenir shop in the middle of no where, we walked through the gallery and out the back door. Down an abundance of stairs overlooking the countryside canyons, and to a nondescript set of gates. I got to the mouth of the gates and my jaw dropped. Here was an underground prehistoric cave, rife with stalactites and stalagmites. The lights along the path illuminating the cave, although man made, gave the entire place a whimsical feel. I’ll post pictures, but they won’t do it justice. (Here's Ghar Dalam)

A quick hop on the bus and we were on to the stop immediately after the cave, which was the blue grotto. A ridiculously tiny seaside village, whose 4 or 5 cafes all had some form of “blue”, “cave” or “grotto” in the title, lined the cliff. It quickly became apparent this area is known for one thing, and we soon learned why. After nearly breaking our ankles on the slick limestone hill, we reached the ticket office, and climbed into a traditional Maltese fishing boat, complete with a motor, threw on some sexy life vests, and we were off around the cliffs. Here the tour guide took us on a 20 minute tour I would repeat from sunup to sundown if given the opportunity. The water is a color blue that doesn’t even exist in a Crayola box, and when the light hits it a certain way, it takes on a neon glow. Where the waterline meets the cliff walls, a purple iridescent amethyst looking coating lines the walls. While this was breathtaking, it’s clear why the cave known as “the blue grotto” is the tourist hot spot it is.. I took a video, so if blogger permits, I’ll post it. The speedboat sailed ahead into the mouth of a cliff and the water lit up the walls, which were amethyst, cerulean, and jade in color..and sparkled like a diamond. It was indescribable natural beauty. We jetted back to land, poked our heads in a gift shop where I did the last bit of souvenir scouting for friends I needed, and were back on the bus. (here's me with my super sweet life vest, and the cave itself)

The last stop was the Hagar Qim and Mnajdra temples. I’m questioning whether our tour guide in Gozo lied to us, or if I was zoned out when he was spouting out dates, but we were told the temples we visited TODAY were in fact, the oldest free standing structures on earth. Regardless, they were megalithic, and awesome if you consider the fact that they had no ropes, no cranes, no ANYTHING to hoist these rocks into place besides manpower and logs to roll them on top of each other. After the temples, we boarded the bus and headed back to Sliema, and to another bus back to St. Julian’s.

I type this again from my kitchen, having just eaten ‘chicken noodles to go’ which is European for ‘Ramen noodles’.. I’m sure some of you are disgusted I’m on the Med and eating Ramen, but a) it was curry flavored, had a chili pouch, another powder, and some Burma somethingorother sauce, so I dub it “fancy Ramen” and b) I’m saving my money to do sweet things like a Maltese hip hop show tonight (yep, you read that right. And are understandably jealous) and fly to Stockholm for a long weekend. So no comments from the peanut gallery. Matt will be here soon to spoil me and fatten me up. (hehe just keeeeeeding Matthew!)
That’s all for now from the Med,

-KB