Malta - Walking on the Edge

Side•walk

noun \sid-wok\
: a usually concrete path along the side of a street for people to walk on.

Malta took this very seriously.
Some of the sidewalks are so narrow here in Malta there is just barely enough room for one person to walk it, the chance of elbowing a car as it whizzes past you is a real possibility; it's too close for comfort and if you meet someone, one of you is going on the street or ducking into a doorway to the let the other pass. Sometimes the sidewalk just ends, that's it - nowhere to walk - I have turned around a few times, walking along with the traffic is not an option here. Not only are a lot of the sidewalks narrow but so are the streets, drivers are pretty patient here, having to stop often to let other vehicles pass by before continuing on their journey.

There are indeed wider sidewalks here and the 4 km long Promenade along the beautiful Silema seafront is very generous for those taking a leisurly stroll, jogging or riding a bike.

My favorite is the top left picture, a line with two people painted on the walking side; then there was the tunnel, needing to get to the other side and not sure if it was pedestrian friendly I went for it and indeed there's a line - room enough for one to walk....it can be a little sporty.

Pull right up

Many of the gas stations here are simply along the sidewalk with a small storefront there are some larger pull-through stations but most you pull off the main road and have your car fueled up. That's the air hose in the cone!

There are 89 petrol stations here and fuel prices are the same all over Malta and Gozo so comparing prices is not necessary; the minimum age to drive here is 18. Vehicles are so much smaller here than back home - my "small" car that I drive back home is ginormous compared to most cars here!

It's dark in there!

On one of the hop-on hop-off bus trips it was decided that going the the Ghar Dalam Cave & Museum would be a good idea. Caves are not really my favorite place to be and it was not until I was at the entrance to head into the cave I realized I'm alone, going into a dark cave, why am I doing this? It's 144 meters deep - surely I can handle that. As it turned out you could only go the first 70 metres - even better.

Ghar Dalam - means "Dark Cave", discovered in the latter half of the 19th century it is Malta's oldest prehistoric site, there are bones of ice age animals visible inside the cave and the museum contains thousands of semi-fossilized bones. It was very interesting and I forgot that I was all alone in the cave till I heard whispery voices in the dark.......not cool.

Back outside where the welcoming sun is there are benches and lovely foliage and I was very pleased to capture a bee and two different butterflies on flowers! A flower book is in the works.

Hope you are enjoying Gypsy Travels Blogs!
More to come on the Cats of Malta.