Tuesday found us in the colorful fishing town of Marsaxlokk on the SE edge of the island.  These beautiful wooden boats, locally called  luzzos, are still used by fishermen.

Note they all have “eyes” in the front –  here in the white band.  A Phoenician tradition, these represent the eye of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld, and are said to protect against evil spirits of the deep.

Dave’s query as to the type of wood the boats are built of  was answered with “iroko”.   We’ve since found this is a hardwood tree from the west coast of tropical Africa, and, though it is not in the teak family, is sometimes referred to as African Teak.

The waterfront and street are  lined with cafes and street vendors.  We had a nice squid spaghetti, and a not so good burger.

It doesn’t get better than this.

Well, maybe it does.  Taking a break. – Laura

Got out for a hike Sunday.  Lots of commercial greenhouses and farms,  so we tried to identify some of the  fruits & vegetables that grow on the island.

Artichokes. Who knew.

We peeked but didn’t pick – strawberries.

Vineyards – of course.  The local wine takes up a lot of shelf space in the stores, and is on every restaurant wine list.  Also in stores are wines from Italian, South America (mostly Chile), and Australia.  Not too many American.

Cherry tomatoes.  Also saw a greenhouse where Roma tomato plants were supported/wired up,  and about  8+ feet tall.

Seen next to one of the produce trucks that regularly set up on given street corners.  They will slice out as big or small a wedge as you want.

Guessing zucchini, which we see a lot of in the market. Light green skin.

OK – enough of the boring plants!

We were being watched.

Dave – trying to blend in 🙂 Since I had the camera, and have shorter legs, I’d often round a corner to find him patiently waiting for me to catch up.  The plaque above his head is the name of the home.  Even in town, every house has a name, usually religious in nature. This one was an exception –  “Wild Thyme”.  Also, looks can be deceiving.  This may look like a pretty boring house from the outside, but we’ve seen enough real estate fliers to know that they can be very elegant and modern inside.

Squeezing by.  For whatever reason, motorcycles & scooters are not as popular here as they are in Spain.  Also, would not recommend Malta as a biking destination, as shoulders are non-existent.

She was so proud of her horse!

Even small towns have large, beautiful churches.

Not positive who “Me” is – my guess is a hedgehog.  Have  only seen one squashed and it was much too small for a porcupine.

At the end of a delightful scramble up the hill!  It was a relief to find this short cut and get off the road, in addition to saving  the steps.  Note the long shadows.  We ended up catching a bus  for the last few miles home, as dusk caught up with us.  All in all, a very nice day. – Laura

It’s a slow day in Bugibba (boo-gee-ba) when Laura’s doing a food posting.  Cool and blustery weather persists.  When it does break, we’re going to bolt toward the cliffs on the s.w. edge of the island for some awesome hikes.  Meanwhile…

Fast food, Malta style.  These hot cases contain take-away food that includes pizza, lasagna, and other pasta and savory pastry dishes.  Have only tried the pizza (OK) and the pea pastry.

You know you’re getting close to one of these shops when you meet people walking and eating from white bakery bags… 🙂 comparable to U.S. drivers eating burgers & fries while driving.

A dish unique to Malta (I think) is their pea pastry.  All are not created equal – purchased from different shops (35¢ each), the near one had some nice spice added to the peas, and was crispier.  Nothing from these shops is healthy (duh!)- very greasy, and all carbs!

 Vegetarians, look away.

A delightful surprise at the grocery are the smoked pork products .  Way reasonably priced (at 2.2 lbs to the kilo, around $3 a pound) and tasty, and perfect for breakfast.

I can’t give the monkey-face “ham” (bologna?) a review, but it could be a fun to go at with a mustard bottle.

Yes!! Some real syrup from Canada.

Lots of olive choices in the deli –  pepper flakes, garlic, or ‘seafood” – tuna and anchovies mixed in.

Well – that’s all for now.  Dave’s taking me out to a nice Italian restaurant.  A break in the weather would be good for my diet 🙂 – Laura

Car dealers and gas stations are tucked right in along with retail.

No need to pull INTO a gas station, just pull over to the curb.  They pump. – Laura

Our luck – we’re only a 5 minute walk to an 8-plex movie theater.  It has the most elegant lobby I’ve ever seen – maybe it was a stage theater originally.  They have current movies, and we caught “Night at the Museum”.  They list “Big Hero 6” as coming soon – in 3D.  They couldn’t tell us when “soon” was, but hope its within the week, as we’ve heard good reviews 🙂 $12 got us both in, large popcorn  – around $3.  – Laura

By the way (BTW)–The movie had a 5 minute intermission ;  that took us by surprise. -Dave

Totally not related to the photo:

“Wow, I’ve never seen you so excited about a computer app!” Dave says to Laura.  Yup – I’m excited.   With Google Translate, you can type in a sentence or phrase, and it is translated into the language of your choice.  Nice.  You can also download an app with the same functionality, plus 3 other ways to capture what you want translated:  snap a photo of written text , speak to it, or write on the screen with your fingertip.  These last 2 methods are transcribed first, which you can revise if needed before they are translated.  This isn’t needed in Malta, where though residents speak to each other in Maltese, English seems to be understood and spoken by all. It will be helpful when we trek back to Spain on Feb 8. – Laura

¿Dónde están las tiendas de ropa vintage?

Fejn huma l-ħwienet tal-ħwejjeġ vintage?

In spite of the weather report calling for thunderstorms in the afternoon, sunny morning skies were all it took to get us on a bus to Valletta – the capital city of Malta.  We got a little touring in before the skies opened up on schedule, with a little hail bonus.

These 2 were guarding “Buckingham Palace”.  Periodically they would do a little marching routine and exchange posts.  We came by later when it was raining hard, and they were in their little houses.

All of Valletta is on a peninsula.  This waterway, the Grand Harbor, is on the southeast side of the city.  Across the harbor, about five fingers of land poke out into the waterway.  This freighter was coming into port.  Note the yacht that likely couldn’t find a slip big enough! Ancient fortress walls are everywhere.

Following the freighter further into the harbor, a cruise ship was spotted.  Hope their shore excursions include indoor options.

It’s an old yet modern city.

This street scene was a deja vu –  we both remembered it from 2004.  The sidewalk is steps.

Who said “It’s later than you think”?  This cool watch collection was in the Art Museum.

The national art museum had mostly old religious (and gory) works, with a handful of modern pieces.  The ground floor of the 4 story building  included this courtyard open to the sky.   So these pieces are covered where they hang, but are open to the outside.

The mouth of the harbor, and our weather 🙂  When the downpour hit, we found a cafe for coffee and a sweet.  It did hail.  After the brunt of it passed, we hi-tailed it to the bus terminal.  Will be back another day for the remaining museums.

By design or not, the streets leading to Valletta channeled the runoff, and we truly were in a river for the first 15 minutes of our ride.  I felt like a salmon.  Water was to the top of some curbs, and cars stayed off the street. The following photo doesn’t do it justice.  By the lack of reaction from the other riders, it wasn’t unusual. – gawking tourist Laura

So.  Dogs ARE allowed to drive in Malta, but only in the countryside.  They’ve found that when allowed to drive in town/residential areas,   cats darting across the narrow streets prove too much for them, resulting in crashes, or abandoned vehicles when the dog takes chase on… paw.  It looks like this well-behaved fella is an apprentice, as he wasn’t behind the wheel.   Dogs are popular, and pampered, here, but I haven’t noticed any one breed more popular than another.  We’ve even seen several huskies! – Laura