Malta – diving into the Mediterranean Sea

The blue cave and a close up of euphoria melitensis, a beautiful endemic plant

We really needed a break lately so when I peered the chance of jumping on a plane and going somewhere else I instantly took it! I have a dear friend living there, we met in London ages ago and we’re still in touch, thanks to the very hated Facebook. He’s got a sister working in Venice and he came to visit her a couple of months ago, he also spend a couple of days with us before leaving and he made us promise to go and pay him a visit back very soon.

Well, I’m sorry folks but I really need to make you sigh with some postcard-like pictures I took during our trip. I won’t be long with words because I can’t even remember the name of the places we’ve been, Maltese is very difficult for me to hear since it sounds arab (although when I read it I can see many words resembling Italian). Pictured above there is this bay, with a narrow walking path that lead to a pebble beach. The slopes are filled with acanthus mollis (which I didn’t know could be so drought resistant!) and a beautiful white umbel which I couldn’t identify but I brought some seeds home with the hope they will sprout. At first sight you think Malta is a rather bare little island, indeed looking closely you realize how amazing nature could be, transforming limestone and dry clay in an open garden.

Above you can see the umbel I was talking about and the narrow path with that led us down the bay.

Malta has been inhabited for more than 4.000 years over history, history that is now literally layered above stones and sand, the island is in fact so packed with evidence of every single Age that it seems built of it, as though someone had emptied the Museum of Louvre on the sea and the result is a beautiful place full of surprises.

There was this swirling pattern engraved in a bunch of variations on prehistoric sites scattered around Malta. The link between every single age is the use of the maltese soft stone and limestone. The soft stone in particular has an amber colour that can reflect and amplify the already strong natural light giving it a very warm tinge that makes you feel like in a dream.

Medina

Medina was one of the old capital of Malta and I always enjoy visiting this place. Maybe because there are barely no cars around, the place almost look abandoned but not ages ago, as though all the people just left a few hours earlier than our arrive. Or maybe they were just hiding behind the billions of windows…

Everything in Malta has a different pace and measure, the place is very small and packed with beauties and rather weird people, they drive like mads and on the wrong side of the road! The food is fantastic, we had a lot of fish; seaside is breathtaking, you can bath (although you really need to be brave sometimes jumping from tall rocks into a pure, chilly water), you can get a suntan and you can watch undisturbed nature at the same time (yes, that’s a geko!).

The place is literally covered with: prickly pears cacti, maltese spurge (euphorbia melitensis), capers and some kind of unidentified grass. There are barely any trees though.

Unfortunately 4 days passed in a moment and we had to leave Malta and our friends in La Valletta with the promise to meet sooner than 10 years next time. I’m glad to keep in touch with people around the World that after years still think of me as much as I think of them.

Twilight upon La Valletta, seen from my friend’s flat where we were hosted

Sunset at Golden Bay

 

Advertisement

Tags: acanthus mollis, euphorbia melitensis, Malta, maltese spurge

• 15 May 2013
• Trips and reportages
• 31 Comments