2010 March - Malta

Valletta
In March the whole island started being so green and weather started being amazing.For me that was a good time to start swimming, of course I know some people who started swimming in January, but March had some few days when it was really hot.
There weren’t any events or I wasn't been on any this month.
Valletta – the Maltese capital city. From every small town in this country there are buses to Valletta, Valletta has a big bus terminal situated before the gate to the city. The bus terminal has a very nice Triton Fountain and many kinds of busses, there is only one place like these. The Triton Fountain is very nice in the dark, this is a good place to arrange a meeting when you don’t know the city, because everybody will help you with finding this place.

 

Every day at the noon there is old gun fire. A good place to see it is the Upper Barracca Garden – close to the main gate to the city. An observation from gardens is for free, another option is to pay 4e to visit a museum and to observe close to the fire gun. The ceremony starts at about 11.45 and from this garden there is a nice view for Three Cities (Senglea, Victoriosa, Kalkara) and for the Sea Ferry Terminal where big cruises are moored.

 

The first church in Valletta is St Paul's Church situated on St. Paul Str. This a very nice and quiet church which has some valuable relics. Valletta has a Catedral which is  St John's Catedral full of splendor and  paintings. Inside there is museum where are some Caravaggio’s paintings and one of the famed ‘Beheading of St. John’.

There are many nice place like the Palace with Armory, Archeology Museum, Manoel Theater, Fort St. Elmo, when sometimes they reenact and Knights Hospital where everybody can see the Maltese history.

Near Knights Hospital there are stairs which go down. This is a footpath which goes around defence walls in St. Elmo direction and there are big stairs .This is a very nice place to have a rest and to be near the sea and close to Kalkara. 

Walking near the sea and finally finishing near ferry terminal – the cheap ferry to Sliema – a price is 0,80e and this boat takes you from Lanca str, near the Water Polo swimming pool.

Near the Palace there is an another fountain, where children love running between water streams.

Some information about Valletta:
http://www.cityofvalletta.org/cityofvalletta/home.aspx

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/131

http://www.visitmalta.com/valletta-town

'Ghar Hasan Cave' near Hal Far
At the end of March we decided to find a cave called ‘Ghar Hasan Cave’. It is near Hal Far. From Valletta there is a bus to Hal Far but it goes really occasionally. We went with bus nr 11 to Birzebbugia and we walked to Hal Far. For sure it was good that we had a map because the way to this cave isn’t marked. Hal Far is an old airport situated near the cliffs and the cave is on the cliffs.

At this moment the cave is ‘closed’ it is a dangerous place because the cliffs are in process of disintegration – water and wind are really destructive factors for them.  Inside the cave is a big room which has corridor to the next room, there are some places where the light is necessary. At the end we found a nice room with a beautiful view on the sea.

Our route in this cave was normal, sometimes there was a section when you had to go sloping. There were really small corridors, but we hadn’t got clothes for change and only one torch. The way back to Valletta was the same. We walked to Birzebuggia and near a sandy beach we took a bus to Valletta.