Malta under the sun

These days, most of my colleagues were jealous of me since I had a business trip to Malta, implying that I was going to be under the sun at 20ºC and not under the German winter. Although the trip was rather short, I think I managed to get a comprehensive impression of what Malta can offer.

Firstly, landing there was not easy. I had the idea that Malta is quite a small island so I was getting concerned when I saw our plane flying over Maltese land without much intention to land: I was afraid we were going to land in the ocean! Luckily, nothing like this happened. At the airport, I was surprise to find a Boeing 747, since it seems to be too small for this kind of planes (anyway, as I am not an engineer...).

My hotel stayed close to the sea and also the main gate of La Valetta, Malta's capital. So I just walked five minutes uphill (I was also surprised by the fact that Malta is much more hilly than expected) and I was in front of the gate. There I understand the main nature of the island: La Valetta is really a fortress surrouned by the sea and by impressive city walls. It would be really difficult to siege the place with success. As a consequence, the city is quite small for a capital (around 7000 inhabitants, could it be that?), since there is no more space to build additional dwellings. By the way, the name of the city comes from the general of the Knights of Malta who defended the island against the Turks, back in the sixteenth century.

Malta is quite a religious country and it can be observed in the amount of churches in La Valetta and the devotion of the population. Everywhere there are evidences of the important role of religion in the life of the Maltese. As an example of this, I found this nice indulgence in a corner in a small street in Malta. Unfortunately, I do not think I did what was requested in order to gain them... One should not forget that Malta was home to a number of religious orders in the Middle Age. The influence of these orders is still rather strong in the island.

Malta was under British control until it gained its independence in 1964. There are a lot of traces of the British presence in the island. I would like to mention, among others, the mailboxes, the phoneboxes and the fact that they drive on the other side of the road. The surnames, however, are mainly of Italian or Spanish nature (quite familiar to me, anyway) and seem not to have inherited much from the British.My main purpose of the visit was business related, what means that I did not have much time for tourism. It meant that I was busy all Monday morning and then I rushed to the airport, because my plane was leaving at 15:20. I did not know it yet, but it was the beginning of an extraordinary adventure, which took me to Stuttgart airport and which brought me back home at 1:30 in the morning...