Tag Archives: Malta

Dec 8 2015

Visit to Malta – Go to Gozo

Gozo is an island of the north west of Malta, a pretty simple ferry ride over.

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Getting around feels a bit like a childhood trip to the Isle of Wight, on a open top bus.    Met some pleasant other British chaps on a tour around.

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Pleasant closed off bays with marinas and hotels

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The Azure Window does sound like a Microsoft application, but in Gozo its a famous landmark made out of limestone.   In Maltese it is Tieqa Żerqa.

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There was a big fort here.   Wish I wrote this article last year while I could remember my trip better.   I remember there was a big grain silo here, this was needed in World War II, as Malta doesn’t produce much of its own food, stock piling materials was needed as no transport was going and in out meaning the Nazis would of starved the Maltese to death.

St Julians Bay – Quite homely for the British – Marsaxlokk – Valletta the old capital – Community in Malta – The best nativity scenes in Europe? – Go Gozo

Nov 24 2015

Trip to Malta – Valletta the old capital

Malta’s capital city is about a 3 kilometer walk from the hotel I was staying in St Julian’s

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valetta street

This ancient streets look a world away from anything else!!

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There’s a lot of cafes and restaurants in this old city’s centre, but my camera decided it was broken possibly after being dropped earlier in the day, so not many pics here.

Plaque displayed proudly in the city centre square, showing its Commonwealth connections.

St Julians Bay – Quite homely for the British – Marsaxlokk – Valletta the old capital – Community in Malta – The best nativity scenes in Europe? – Go Gozo

Nov 12 2015

Trip to Malta – Marsaxlokk

Marsaxlokk is pronounced “Marsa shlock” is a picturesque fishing town with quite a few outdoor restaurants.

The market resembles half a fish market and half a car boot sale 🙂

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marsaxlokk fish

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My good friend Peter lives here, he was born in Malta, and lived for a while in my home town of Portsmouth, now hes back in Malta and teaching English.   He often takes his students out for a beer when they have finished studying.    This was a really pleasant afternoon in this small village.

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This cacti look interesting, they look like a lot of the ones I’ve seen in Israel.   The Maltese take off the fruits (which is very difficult and dangerous due to thin razor spikes on them)  and make them into honey, well, its more of a flavoured syrup.   I bought some of this to take home which I think is a uniquely Maltese thing.

St Julians Bay – Quite homely for the British – Marsaxlokk – Valletta the old capital – Community in Malta – The best nativity scenes in Europe? – Go Gozo

Nov 8 2015

Visit to Malta – Quite homely for the British

IMG_20141128_085921718This is what I saw when I woke up in my hotel in St Julians.  Yeah my hotel room faced not the beach end 🙂

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Its cheap too.  I had a beer and a F’tira which is a local sandwich made from Maltese own style of bread for about 6 Euros.   I think this must be one of the cheapest Euro-currency countries to live, although I don’t think the salaries here are all that great.  There are a lot of retired British people out here.

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It also appeals to boaty sort of people, being a tiny island, there are ordinary folk and the rich and the wealthy that live here.   The first day I got to see this marina with my good friend Peter who lives out here.

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Shops are quite old school here, less big stores and chains and more smaller type places, here this petrol station seems oldy worldy.   Might be to do with this island is quite tiny so petrol stations have to operate in smaller places I think.

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Unlike all of mainland Europe, but like Britain, this country drives on the left!!    Sandy white walls remind me a lot of Israel.   I’d recommend renting a car like we did, which is as little as 12 Euros a day!!

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valetta phoneboxSadly, only a few years before I visited, it seems Malta’s characteristic ancient yellow buses and no longer in service.   I think might be to do with them being less and less unreliable and not so feasible to run, occasionally I did see a few like this one re-purposed as a mobile gift shop.

St Julians Bay – Quite homely for the British – Marsaxlokk – Valletta the old capital – Community in Malta – The best nativity scenes in Europe? – Go Gozo

Oct 15 2015

Visit to Malta – St Julians Bay

Last year I visited Malta, a small island in the Mediterranean which sits half way between Europe and North Africa.

In actual fact, October of last year I was get fed up with my job and needed a break, I have meaning to visit Malta for years as I have a friend over there and lots of history to see.

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This is the wonderful St Julians Bay.   I stayed here a lot of the time, I opted to go for a week, going wednesday to wednesday and staying at my friend’s flat at the weekend.

Malta is wonderful as its hot, is both Mediterranean with a slightly British flavour (drives on the left!), uses its own Semitic language (ie: part of the family of languages from Hebrew and Arabic) it seems quite cheap to eat out, and has a part to play in early Christianity when Paul visited.

Related:  Other tiny countries I have seen:-Andorra, Gibraltar, Iceland, Liechtenstein,  Luxembourg, Malta, 
Monaco, San Marino

St Julians Bay – Quite homely for the British – Marsaxlokk – Valletta the old capital – Community in Malta – The best nativity scenes in Europe? – Go Gozo

Jul 30 2010

Apostle Paul on twitter

Was thinking the other day, about Twitter the hugely popular way of making a commentary of life events, things in the media and often how celebrities get followed and current news events get shown.  I was perhaps a bit mean with my earlier writings thinking it was a bit naff, but lately I was thinking about someone who told me that maybe the Apostle Paul in the bible was the world’s first blogger, so imagine in Paul was on Twitter too, it would be interesting to see as one of the first followers of Jesus who brought Christianity to the gentiles, travelled around various corners of the Mediterranean and got put in prison a few times, how his tweets would of looked like….

SaulOfTarsius I’m outside the Sanhedrin with my fellow Pharisees.  Today we are stoning some guy called Stephen.  #MyBenjaminTribe #MyRomanHomies

SaulOfTarsius Feel the urge that I need to do some writing for some reason.
sent via Papyrus

SaulOfTarsius Sorry not been online for a while, crazy week.  Only just got my eyesight back

SaulOfTarsius Had serious meeting with the boss.  Put me straight about some things.  #Salvation #FoundMoshiach

SaulOfTarsius Thanks everyone in coming to my baptism, it was a nice day

SaulOfTarsius PS YHWH told me to change my name from Saul to Paul.

SaulOfTarsius @Ananias, thanks for relaying what I needed to hear.

SaulOfTarsius Follow my new active account at @ApostlePaul

ApostlePaul Now in Damacsus.  Had some help to get there whilst my sight returned #Damasq #Asyria

ApostlePaul Praying with my new friends @SimonPeter and @James #Apostles

ApostlePaul Writing a book, I am going to call it Acts. Got a feeling, it will be one of many.

ApostlePaul Oyvavoy… Has it been ten years I have been speaking the good news in Damascus now?
via carrier pigeon

ApostlePaul @Barnabus thanks for the invite to Shabbat, look forward to helping your congregation in Tarsius.  #Tarsius #Nicetobehome

ApostlePaul Went and rebuked Elymas the sorcerer whilst staying Cyprus.  Also got a Roman soldier following Christ.  #Paphos #Κύπρος #Cyprus

ApostlePaul Leaving Cyprus to go on a mission trip to Asia Minor tomorrow, looking forward to it. #AsiaMinor

ApostlePaul Was a pleasure to stay with you #Lydia G-d bless.

ApostlePaul Myself and @Barnabus are off to Jerusalem meet new Christians #Judea #ישראל

ApostlePaul Spending 18 months working in Corinth with @Silas and @Timothy #Κόρινθος #Greece plan to see Ephesus some point soon.
via Greek post office AD52

ApostlePaul In Jerusalem in prison.  At least I escaped from being killed in the temple.   #depressed #WhatAboutRightsOfRomanCitizens #CaesareaJail

ApostlePaul said to the soldier today ‘is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?’ I’ll put that in Acts 22.

ApostlePaul Out of Jail.  Roman bureaucracy takes a long time, its only taken 18 months.. But Governor Felix has let me out today.

ApostlePaul Off to Malta.  The Lord told me this ship really isn’t safe and I dont like the look of those clouds, or how choppy the sea is. 😦

ApostlePaul Ship got wrecked.  Oh well, Maltese people offer unusual kindness though. #Malta

Please note, biblical extracts are very approximate and locations are probably not in chronological order.