Malta on the internet a lot. Basically, there were descriptions of the capital, about the incredible underwater world, of course, about Malta’s Knights and at last, about a local fish market. I was interested in shooting same uncommon pictures and I knew fresh fish were being sold by fishmongers only one day a week. Oh no, It’s a mistake. They sold fresh fish only several hours only one day in week. Poor foreign tourists, they never see a real fish market. After sellers almost finished their work and the most fresh and tasty delicacies have been sold, a crowd of idlers gathered. As for me, I had been told a fish market was situated in a small town called Marsaxllock and it opened at 7am. By sunrise I was in the central square of Marsaxllock. The time was 6.20am. I had to take a taxi, so early it was. I saw a handful of absolutely sleepy people, who were putting on tables different kinds of…frozen fish, strawberries and clothes. You would have smiled to see a typical tourist with a huge camera and a rucksack, who was wandering around at 6.30am again and again. But I saw the sunrise; I saw hundreds of fishing boats what were sleeping in a bay, I saw how fishermen’s boats, full of catches, arrived from open sea, and how roughly they were preparing catches for selling. In order to succeed in shooting fish, you need to awake up early. I had been confused; I had not known any names of fish. Little by little, counters had been filled by plenty of creations. I try to list: Mazzolia, Kavalli, Klamari (squid), Awart, Dott, Lampuki, Spnot, Trill, Pagel, Gambli (shrimp), etc. Some of them where fresh and opened their mouths with no sound, heads of another were cut and skins were excoriated. I saw a piece of weird big fish, I suppose the diameter was almost 15 inches, but unfortunately the head was missing. A nice thing about the fish market is the kind atmosphere. Everyone smiled and nobody objected to my taking photos and I was able to take some good photos.
Valetta. I really liked Valetta! It’s the marvelous town, because the clever Maltese got rid of any advertising on the streets. It seems they don’t use air-conditioners, but all their air-conditioners were hidden in order to save the original historical appearance of Valetta. There are a government buildings, a working residence of Malta’s knights, museums, gift shops, open-air café, old fashioned carriages, and crowds of tourists in Valetta. I loved to wander around Valetta with my camera, very slowly, looking for interesting sights. Generally speaking, Valetta is one big museum. It’s difficult to describe, it’s a compact, unassailable, medieval town. If cars and buses left the city suddenly, you wouldn’t be aware of what period you were in. We went on a festival of food and fireworks, so I have an idea of how they celebrate their special dates. I was surprised, they don’t drink alcohol, at all. But they ate huge rolls instead of hamburgers with fries. In addition, Fireworks are respected in Malta; even a local holiday in a small village is accompanied by a firework, certainly. To be
honest we weren’t satisfied by the performance, as I have been told later, it was a one step of competition between Mediterranean neighbors. Anyway, wine was being sold. Before we joined a festival, we’d enjoyed couple of bottles excellent red wine. Some people contend that wine helps us to speak and understand a foreign tongue. I agree as we arranged speak English that day and successfully, despite our ability, so we all were able to speak Russian. Also, I remember, I took Uri out sightseeing at night and we were alone on the highest tower, strong wind blew, and some big cargo ship was rushing confidently across the bay towards their destination. I have already told you about the fish market, that day I took a bus from Marsaxllock to Valetta, I had managed to go around the whole Valetta and at last, I decided go to the hotel on foot. I wouldn’t have made up my mind, but I had seen the biggest tower, which was situated exactly near my hotel. I had been walking for six hours before I put my shattered body into bed at 11pm.I bought the excursion to Mdina at EC school. I was really interested in visiting new and new places. Mdina is a classical tourist trap. Citizens left this town many years ago. It is located in the middle of Malta. We visited the show ‘Mdina experience’, the movie about history of Malta from ancient times to our days.
The most interesting thing about the show was a story how castles and other buildings were being built. The Maltese called that story ‘Heritage’. By the way, it’s very interesting. Natural stones were used for building. They just hadn’t any other materials. I went to an ethnographic museum and saw the reconstruction process. First of all, they dug out a layer. Next similar blocks were sawed and moved from a gallery by tracks. One fisherman, who I saw every morning on the shore said that now stones supplies have been depleted. So, I had been living in Malta for 4 weeks, but I hadn’t visited again ‘The town of silence’. It is still my dream, to visit Mdina at 8am and feel real pleasure…Golden Beach, Gozo & Camino. Malta has no beaches, well almost. I know only one respectable beach, of course, it is called ‘Golden’. I had seen it when we were riding on bicycles. It’s a remote land. The bus takes about 1.5 hours from Valetta to Golden Bay due to the very complex roads and the streets are extremely narrow. There are old, bright yellow color buses in Malta. Believe it or not, all the buses had a different shape (!), different windows, doors and head lamps. Especially old models didn’t have a button to inform the driver about you wanted to get off. Otherwise a driver doesn’t stop till somebody beeps. So, the old models had laces which spread in the bus above passenger’s heads. It looked old fashioned and funny. A ticket for Golden Bay cost 0.5ML (approx. 1Euro).
Diving. I’ve heard Malta is a beautiful place for people who are interested in good diving, because the water is crystal-clear and you can see wrecks of ships which sunk a long time ago. Also, as I remember, even a world underwater photo competition is held every year. When I was walking along the sea front at the first day, I found out dive center ‘Neptune’ and I dropped in, by chance. Inside I was accepted by the boss. As I had several dozen dives, I was interested in wrecks or something. The boss said ‘Yeah, of course, you’ll see a beautiful site’ and I was even shown a book with a route and description of the object. We selected the underwater suit for me, equipment, flippers and I was booked for the next day. Quite satisfied I left the center. Next morning our group gathered near the center and we loaded our gas tanks and boxes with equipment in the minibus. To be honest, the price was very expensive. For example, in Egypt two dives from a boat, with lunch costs 35-40USD, in Malta two dives from the shore (!) cost 27ML=80USD. This was an very expensive rate. But I couldn’t have missed a possibility to record Malta’s note in my dive logbook. And so, we put our suits and equipment on and tried to reach the water. It was difficult, breakers were strong and stones were slippery and sharp. Because of there were hand-rails and I managed to get to calm water. What did I see under water? Utter rubbish, basically. I saw grass, stones, and several tiny little fish. In addition, poor visibility, enough cold water and a torn suit let me down. But the great disappointment waited ahead. I was just cheated by the boss; I hadn’t seen a wreck the first dive and second either. I can’t stand these things and the boss tried to explain to me about bad weather and promised me a wreck next dives. At the same time I promised to pay later… I was so annoyed, the money hadn’t been paid. I think it’s a draw, 1:1. )))
Basically, tourists spend one or two days and have no time to absorb the beauty of the island, a silence of the ancient towns, a friendliness of the inhabitants, and an irritation of the bus drivers. Tourists should be required to live in Malta at least one week. Time is flying and by January 2008 Malta will lose their currency, ML as Malta is going to become to be a competent EC member. Newspapers write articles against funny yellow buses, what are polluting the environment. Fish supplies have been depleted and the Mediterranean Sea is empty (as I’ve seen!). Malta is changing as the whole world. If you decide to see Malta, you ought to fly in April or May. Because the weather isn’t intolerably hot, but you are able to swim in open sea. You would manage to see castles and towers without thinking about an air-conditioned tour bus.
In conclusion, Malta is good place for sightseeing and just having a rest.
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