There were a few things that compelled me to take a trip to Malta.
First, as longtime blog readers know, I love travelling, meeting new people, and visiting new places.
Second, my wonderful wife, the NFO said it was OK (actually, that should be first).
Third, since I think “change is the only constant,” the act of putting yourself deliberately in new situations is how you condition yourself for change.
Fourth, it is super critical to take yourself out of the day-to-day (particularly when your economic success depends on creativity) and relax, stretch, and inspire those brain muscles.
Of course, all of these are arguments for most places. Why Malta?
History, I suppose. This place is loaded with it. More on that later.
Uniqueness…we heard, on more than one occasion, people say “how did you know about our country?” (there aren’t too many places where they say that, is there?)
Remote, but not too remote. Situated where it is in the central Mediterranean, but still part of the Euro zone, it offers a lot in the way of civilization, but also the feeling of being “out of it.”
And it met my criteria of “not taking too long to get there” and not being ridiculously cold.
We arrived around 4pm on Wednesday and took it easy for the most part that evening.
Thursday’s primary activity was an excursion to Gozo, the 2nd largest of the 3 primary islands that make up Malta. It has only about 4% of the population in total and measures about 12 miles across. The larger island took us about 45 minutes to pretty much go across the whole thing!
Yep, Malta is small. Total population is about 400,000 people. 99.6% of them are Catholic. There are 365 churches (“one for each day of the year,” as the Maltese like to say). And note, divorce and abortion are illegal there..an interesting side note.
For those of you who have been to Israel, it is remarkably similar using limestone to construct most buildings.
So, we took the bus to the Gozo ferry terminal, where we then took the boat across to Gozo.
We hired a cabdriver, G’akbu (aka Jimmy) [Maltese and English are the two official languages, since Malta was a colony for 150 years of so) to show us the sights (interview w/him is below).
He did a great job and started us off at the so-called “Azure Window” in which I am pictured here.
What’s fascinating about Malta, among many things, is how many times it has been involved in REALLY important historical moments.
Most recent was 1942 when it was under constant bombardment for over 150 days from the Axis (by comparison the famous London blitz was 56 days) in an effort to subdue the population.
Why?
Because Malta’s position as a naval and air base was a key asset in the Allies’ ability to disrupt Axis shipping in the Med and, in fact, the destruction of convoys was a key reason that Rommel lost at El Alamein.
We ended the day by joining the 100 person strong Maltese Jewish community for a Hannukah celebration.
More on the Malta Story is forthcoming….
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