Gozo
From Around the World in Gozo, Malta on Jul 03 '07
This entry is about:
Wednesday, July 4 - Sunday, July 8: Malta and Gozo
We decided to stay on Gozo because it is less crowded and less touristy than Malta. When we called to book a room, the lady at the hotel offered to arrange a pick-up from the airport to the hotel. Luckily, we accepted. When we arrived at the airport in Malta and found our driver, we drove for almost an hour clear across the island of Malta to the port city of Cirkewwa. From there, we embarked on a ferry to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the island of Gozo. We arrived at Gozo’s port city of Mgarr and found our second driver, who also had our room keys. He took us on a 20-minute ride to our hotel. It was around 11 pm by the time we made it to our hotel. Had we been left to our own devices, we probably would have arrived at the hotel in the wee hours of the morning and without a room key as the reception closes after 5 pm.
The Maltese currency is the Maltese lira (Lm) and $1 USD only gets you 0.32Lm. Malta is part of the EU and has plans to adopt the Euro in early 2008. Since joining the EU, Malta has seen the arrival of thousands of illegal immigrants from African countries, many from Libya. Driving around Malta, John and I saw a refugee camp—a fenced area with a sea of army green tents erected with people milling about. It was located in a sparsely populated interior portion of Malta and we stumbled upon by chance. There has been a backlash against immigration in Malta, and there have been instances of arson against those who help or support immigrants’ rights.
Remains on the islands date back to 5200 BC and the islands have been home to the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Knights of St. John, the French, and the British, each of which has influenced the islands’ culture and identity. Malta gained its independence in 1964.
Despite all of the outside influences, these islands have remained conservative and the Catholic Church still exerts a strong influence. For examples, women are expected to stay home and look after the children. And, Catholicism must be taught in schools and Malta is the only country in Europe where divorce is not legal. Interestingly, in a happiness study of people in 90 different countries, Malta tied for number one along with Denmark and Switzerland.
I spent the first day in Gozo lounging by the pool of our hotel, while John relaxed in the room. He did join me for a while at the pool. We went for a nice dinner on Xlendi bay at the Stone Crab Restaurant. Their specialty is crab-filled ravioli and it was very tasty. We also had the fresh catch of the day, a fish called Red Scorpion. I went a little overboard with the laying out earlier in the day and the backs of my legs were a little toasty. That put an end to any more sunbathing for a while.
The next day we decided to rent a car as it was recommended in the travel book, the public transportation system did not seem very robust, and it was hot as hell. Again, the hotel helped with the arrangements and we were delivered a car with air-conditioning that afternoon. We spent the afternoon exploring Gozo. It is a very unique little island that is riddled with twisting and turning roads. Oftentimes it was hard to tell if we were on the right road or an endless driveway as many of the roads were no more than narrow dirt paths that turned and curved at its whim. Thankfully, there were decent signs directing travelers to various cities. In addition to the condition of the roads, cars are driven on the left side of the road. Given this, John did a great job driving (with my navigational skills) and I thoroughly enjoyed the twisting, turning roads that felt like we were discovering something new at every turn.
Still exploring Gozo, we happened upon a restaurant in the city of Ta’Cenc after passing a sign that said, “You are now entering private property. Hunting is prohibited.” (Apparently, bird hunting is a big pastime (and a problem) in Gozo). The restaurant was perched on a cliff overlooking the bay, had a thatched palm roof and no walls to obstruct the heavenly view. Further enhancing the ambiance was the setting sun and the live musicians playing softly in the background. We dined on shrimp, pasta and tuna as the sun set and the sea rolled below us.
On Friday, we set out to explore the island of Malta, which entailed driving to Gozo’s port city of Mgarr, taking our car on the ferry across the Mediterranean Sea to Malta’s port city of Cirkewwa, and driving to Malta’s capital city, Valletta. The Knights of St. John built Valletta in the 1500s and 1600s. The Knights of St. John were European nobleman on a mission to protect the Catholic faith and Europe from the attacks of the Ottoman Turks. After the Great Siege of 1565 by the Ottomans, the Knights vowed to turn Malta into a fortress.
Here, we visited St. John’s Co-Cathedral. By decree in 1816, the church was raised to a status equal to that of St. Paul’s’ Cathedral in Mdina (the official seat of the Archbishop of Mdina), hence the term “Co-Cathedral.” The exterior is plain and austere and fits with the fortress motif of the city and with the Knight’s somber mood after the Great Siege. The inside, however, is a surviving expression of Baroque flamboyancy. The artist commissioned to decorate the interior, the Calabrian artist Mattia Preti, used scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist (the Knight’s patron saint) to decorate the vault turning it into a “riot of gilded foliage, flowers and angels.” The side chapels, four of which extend on each side of the vault, were designated to the eight langues (divisions based on nationality) of the Order and dedicated to the particular langues patron saint. The eight langues include Germany, Castille and Portugal, Aragon, Auvergne, Madonna of Carafa, Provence, France, and Italy. The inlaid marble floor of the Cathedral consists of ornate tombstones of Knights buried there that often depict characteristics of the entombed knight. The oratory displays works by Caravaggio (1573-1610), including the famous piece entitled the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, the only piece signed by the artist.
The following day we took a boat to the small island of Comino and relaxed with the many other tourists in the Blue Lagoon. That night we went to a big dance party at a club called La Grotta near our hotel. The club is housed in a limestone cave in the cliffs above the valley and has a labyrinth of rooms and hallways, many open to the sky, to wander around in and get lost. Cars were parked on both sides of the road for miles.
On our final day, we continued to explore the island of Gozo. We visited the city of Xaghra that is home to the Ggantija temples, the largest of the megalithic temples found in the Maltese islands dating from 3600 to 3000 BC. We returned to the restaurant on the cliff overlooking the bay in Ta’Cenc for our farewell lunch.
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