Ancient Malta
Trip Start
Unknown
1
36
109
Trip End
Ongoing
Malta, Malta
Thursday, August 5, 2010
We then went to Mount St Joseph a retreat house where my uncle works. We met a couple of priests there who were very nice.
After that we headed to my cousin Myra's place which she is building with her fiance. She's going to have a great view and it will very nice when it's all finished. I hope to come back in 2013 for her wedding, fingers crossed I'll be in a position to come.
Our uncle then drove us to the town of Gharlapsi which is not far from the Blue Grotto. It has these caves and small enclosures where you can swim not far from the open ocean. We didn't swim there though just went for a view and photo op.
We then found ourselves at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra temple site. These along with a couple other ancient sites around Malta are the oldest free standing structures in the world. Older than Stonehenge AND the Pyramids. They date back to 5000BC so that's over 7000 years ago. This was information none of us knew. It was pretty amazing to be in the presence of something so ancient and it really opened my eyes to how old this little island is. It's incredible to think what this island has been through and makes me proud to know this is where my family's history is from.
The temples we visited were right by the water so whoever built them knew that building with a sea view would really drive up the property value (actually I think it was probably more to do with when the sun would rise). It was quite funny when we went to the second temple there were not many people there, and we were up a level in this little room that had three sections. You'll see one of them had these holes in the stone. All three sections had ropes in front of them. As I was taking my pictures I could see at the back of my eye my cousin go through to the back room and at first I didn't realise but he jumped the rope to do it. My Uncle then encouraged us to jump the rope too to get pictures in front of the stone with the holes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Maltese they tend to not follow rules very well. You only need to spend 5 minutes on the road to see this - give way must not translate as no one seems to do it, roundabouts are decorations on the road and indicators, what are they???? So I have coined a new phase - When in Malta do as the Maltese do, which translates to 'break all the rules'.
We then went and visited my Uncle Charlie's parents. They are so lovely. It was funny my sister said she would have a coffee so my uncle started to make but when his mother saw he wasn't using the nice cups and saucer she kicked him out of the kitchen and made it herself. It reminded us of our Nanna back home, she used to always use the good cups and a saucer when we had a cup of tea and would never let us have a chipped cup or plate.
We were then invited to dinner at our Aunty Mary and Uncle Nick's place. We grew up with them before they moved back to Malta so we know them well and it was so good to see them. My Uncle and I talked AFL for ages it was so good to talk footy. We had a great dinner and a laugh which is always the case around my Aunty Mary. My Uncle Vince stopped by after a long day to say hello which was good to see him.
Our Uncle Charlie then picked us up to take us to Hallija, a town is also celebrating their feast this week and are known for having the best fireworks display in Malta, which in a Malta that's means they are going to be very good cos if there is one thing Maltese love and are passionate about it's fireworks.
