We woke up to the sounds of artillery fire at 730 am. We jogged our brains trying to come up with a likely enemy of Malta, but their only quarrel is perhaps with British tourists. Evidently tomorrow is some kind of national holiday. The 7th of June commemorates riots that occurred in Malta post-WWI when economic hardships came to a head and led to riots. Did they have to practice at 730am? We also had some kind of infestation of flying ants last night. They seemed to have wreaked havoc on my ankles and legs overnight as I have several itchy welts now. Jerks. We both went with eggs today for breakfast having felt a bit weighted down after yesterday’s avocado toast which seemed to use two entire avocados. Even as Californians, I think there’s a limit on how many avocados one should consume.
Now under the influence having taken a Benadryl to combat my itching welts, Nicole drove us down to Xlendi. We walked around the bay a little bit and up a walking path that overlooked the water. We observed locals and tourists alike jumping from the shore into the water. It seemed fun and carefree. Maybe I’ll have to give it a go later on.
We also put our name in for a reservation later this evening at Ta’ Karolina, same restaurant as our first night on Gozo. It does get quite popular and we were trying to secure one of the more lucrative spots on the water. We then attempted to get to the Ta’ Cenc Cliffs. They are just down the coast, which meant it took 15 minutes to drive there. It was a short walk from the car park to a viewpoint where we could see these cliffs — taller and steeper than expected.
Following this, we embarked on another 15 minutes drive to grab a pastry-style lunch again. Nearby in Xewkija was a windmill and the Ggantija ruins. These ruins are older than the pyramids of Egypt, dating back to 3600 BCE when the wheel had not even been invented yet. It has the distinction as being the second oldest freestanding temple in existence. The oldest is apparently in Turkey. Being as old as it is, details are often a bit sketchy. The best they can figure is that it was used as a sort of fertility temple honoring a giantess named Sansuna who ate nothing but fava beans. Gassy.
Our final order of business was to make a stop at the island’s only microbrew. While Cisk is Malta’s well-known light lager, the pretentious-sounding Lord Chambray brewery brings a few different varieties to the equation. Most mainstream beers or national beers like Cisk are all kind of the same to me. A lager or a pilsner is inoffensive to the masses, but also tastes like pißwasser to me after a few minutes in the heat. Yes, perhaps I am as pretentious as the Lord Chambray name itself.
We had a sour, a brown, a hazy, a stout, and also tried a hoppy seltzer water, which Nicole wasn’t very keen on, despite her hand permanently affixed to the glass on the right side of the frame above. After purchasing a pair of 1/2 pint glasses (for sharing beers back home you see), we headed back to the hotel to lounge for the remainder of the afternoon. I slogged through my trashy novel. Will they or won’t they? I don’t care. Can they just do something interesting? I don’t care about Rosa’s mom being persuaded to make a vegan cookbook. And on the other end, Zach is all like, “Ohhhh nooooo, I have an inconsequential criminal background, so I’m making up for it by running a youth center in Valletta. I hope Rosa doesn’t find me too thuggish.” Ugh. At this rate, I wish Zach was still an actual criminal; he’d be much more interesting than the sack of dried fava beans that he is.
Soon enough, we were embarking back down the hill to Xlendi for our 7 pm dinner reservation. It’s good we made one because things were hopping. Despite every table being occupied, it does require some effort to get the bill in Europe, and we were there for almost two hours. We took a walk around the bay in the evening.
As we drove back toward the hotel, we could see that a basilica in the town of Victoria was lit up like a casino on the Vegas strip and decided to check it out. We parked the car just up the street (parking is surprisingly free everywhere here), and walked down to see some volunteers erecting all kinds of ornate columns, decorations, and lights for the festivities tomorrow — I think? We also heard more artillery during dinner, so I’m a little worried about what tomorrow may bring.
Tomorrow we head back to regular Malta. Valletta is known to have very bad traffic, so we will be returning the rental car at the airport and taking a taxi or something to get into Valletta. Hopefully things aren’t too crazy there. Many people describe Gozo as being a sleepy little island, which is a bit worrying. It begs the question: compared to what? I fear a very wild Valletta.
passports & pepto bismol 