Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Water

Look at how clear!

posted by RC @ 11:39 AM 0 comments

Fungus rock

I've got so many pics to post still - not just of Malta but of previous times. They're more fun than just a bunch of words, eh?


So this is Fungus Rock - located in Gozo in the same place as the Blue Window posted earlier. In the distant past, it was believed the fungus from the rock was a cure-all for ailments.

posted by RC @ 7:33 AM 0 comments

Monday, January 29, 2007

Ancient Temples

Gjantija Temples - AKA "pile o' rocks" courtesy of HD. As I said before, Malta has the oldest known manmade structures on earth and here's an example of one of them. This is the site of the Ggantija Temples -approximately 5,000 years old - on the island of Gozo. The sun was setting when we got there so the pictures have come out dark.


In Malta we went to visit the Tarxien Temples also built approximately 5,000 years ago. We got a tour from a nice man who worked there as there wasn't anyone else that day at the site. There are four temples on site and it's believed they were dedicated to worshipping the feminine and people would come to pray and offer sacrifices in the hopes of receiving fruitful blessings.

Statue of the goddess

Tarxien Temples

posted by RC @ 10:10 AM 0 comments

Friday, January 26, 2007

A few more pics of Malta

One view of Valletta taken from the Lower Baraca gardens. Do you see the stone structure right in the middle - with what looks like lots of windows/archways? That's the location of the Upper Baraca gardens which we walked over to next.



St. John's Co-Cathedral, build by the Knights of Malta over 400 years ago. Inside are the tombs of many knights and Grand Masters of the church. It is here that Caravaggio became a knight himself and painted the masterpiece "The Beheading of John the Baptist", which we got to see in all it's splendour but weren't allowed to take any pictures. Due to Caravaggio's somewhat turbulent nature shortly after he was knighted, he got into a fight with some other folks and was stripped of his titles. Then he took off back to Italy.


These are various pictures taken from inside the cathedral. That dark one is the floor. It's made up of tombstones of the many knights, so basically you're walking over the dead. The tombstones, like everything else in the cathedral, are elaborate and intricate. There's so much going on inside it was hard to focus sometimes.



The top left is a close-up of the ceiling. There isn't one piece of ceiling left uncovered and all paintings are like these ones depicting various scenes from the bible. Sometimes the scenes are from different times in a particular Grand Master's life, like a major battle or event.

Another view of Valletta.

Me on the ferry to Gozo with my chubby face and I need a haircut!



posted by RC @ 10:50 AM 2 comments

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Calypso's cave

In Homer's The Odyssey, Ulysses spends 7 years in captivity on Calypso's island. Our tour guide/taxi driver in Gozo showed us the fabled island, which is really more of a cove. Strangely coincidental, I brought the novel Contempt by Alberto Moravia with me to read on the trip and in the plot the main character is a screenplay writer who happens to be working on a script for a screen adaptation of The Odyssey. Weird!

posted by RC @ 9:36 AM 0 comments

Monday, January 22, 2007

Gozo

The Blue Window, also known as the Azure Window, on the island of Gozo was perhaps the most amazing site I saw on our recent trip to Malta. It's this massive, natural stone structure that rises out of the water. As you can see from the pictures the "window" is that space between where you can see another distant rock in the background. Our tour guide/taxi driver told us that the Blue Window is expected to collapse in the next few years due to erosion and simply, the power of the waves constantly crashing over the rocks. If you look at the left on the inside, you can see a huge crack that only recently happened. In summer, when the weather is nice, brave folks will climb up atop the window and dive into the crashing waves below. It's a beautiful site.

posted by RC @ 12:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 19, 2007

Malta some highlights

Our first stop in a new place is always the airport. This is Malta International Airport at approximately 10pm.

Our hotel was located in Paceville which is near St. Julian's on the east coast of Malta. Paceville is the nightlife centre of Malta so it was a good location because it was always pretty lively at night. The Baystreet Hotel is inside a mall - the Baystreet Complex - that was open 24 hours a day.

The first night we just went to find some food and went to bed shortly after.

Friday morning we got up, had breakfast and went to catch the bus to Valletta - the capital city of Malta.

Some of the buses look like this, some don't. Some are old and some aren't. But they were pretty reliable and easy to use. Many of the streets in Malta are so narrow it was thrilling to see how these large vehicles managed to maneouvre they're way through.



Valletta

This is Republic Street in Valletta - the main drag that cuts right though the city. Valletta isn't very large, we walked most of the city in a day. It's on the east coast of Malta so we followed the coast - the coastline geography is of made up of bays and harbours. It was a beautiful, warm day (18 degrees C) with a nice breeze. Men with horses tried to get us to pay 8 Malta Lira (also called the pound) to take a tour but we declined in favour of our feet. The terrain changes drastically - really steep steps leading far down and then huge hills going back up. Leg muscles were well worked out that day.

Here's the Siege Bell Monument erected in 1992 honoring the Maltese who lost their lives during the siege of Malta during WWII from 1940-1943.





Close-up of the siege bell and a view from the monument.

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posted by RC @ 6:18 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Back again...

Back in London early this morning after a very successful and enjoyable trip to Malta. We spent 3 nights and 4 days there doing alot of sightseeing, touring, hanging with the locals, taking a ton of pictures and walking around. Malta is a must-see - I think it'd be great for both fun "single"-style holidays, as well as family vacations. I would definitely go back.

We did most of the island of Malta and all of the island of Gozo. There were still sites to see but we ran out of money and time - you need a break in between all the places to go to just chill out so some of the sites had to be left out.

Our primary mode of transportation was the public bus system which was reliable and cheap, even if the buses were ancient and reminded me of buses back in elementary school. Very bumpety-bump-bump.

We saw the oldest manmade structures in the world (over 5000 years old), WWII monuments, went to a few fishing villages and markets, saw Calypso's cave - where Ulysses in the Odyssey was held for 7 years, passed the Blue Lagoon, stood on the rocks where the waves crashed through the Blue/Azure Window, sampled some local brew, and hung out in Paceville (Patch-e-ville) with the rest of the Maltese folks out for a night of fun.

I'll post pics ASAP!

posted by RC @ 9:35 AM 0 comments

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Gone again...

Okay, time to go - Malta & Gozo beckons. I hear it's a sunny 18 degrees - lovely - since here it's been cold & mild at the same time, drizzly, grey, and freaking windy. Leaving in less than 10 minutes to meet HD at Victoria to catch the coach to Luton to catch the flight to Malta. The transportation alone is a trip in itself! Have a great weekend - pictures will be posted next week!

posted by RC @ 6:44 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Three days overdue, but who cares!

The holidays are over now and it was a great break. It felt longer than only a mere week but not in a "I'm bored" kind of way. HD and I chilled for Christmas with movies and her sister came to visit on the 27th and left yesterday morning. We rang in 2007 at Digress, a bar/club in Soho (near Piccadilly Circus) and it was a fun and very late night/early morning for us.

On Thursday I got a call from another recruitment agency with a job starting on Jan 2, so I took it because it sounded interesting and although I enjoy time off, London isn't cheap. Anyway, it's at a large law firm near Blackfriars in east central London. Yesterday was my first day and it went well - the new boss is a pleasant as are the other people I met. My position is only for about 6 weeks with the business development area of the marketing team. It's great to be able to explore another area of London also - the office is a stone's throw away from St. Paul's Cathedral and the Thames. And coffee shops all over the place!

Anyway, that's about it for now - Malta next week!

posted by RC @ 11:21 AM 0 comments