Malta trip #12 – Day 4 – Lazy and Free

As a tourist I am the lazy type, but as a photographer I make more effort to get the shot I want than I would put in anything else. But this morning, which was a Sunday morning, both sides of my personality were satisfied at the same time. I wanted to take a great shot of the sunrise, but I didn’t have to go anywhere for it. I could shoot the sunrise right from the balcony of my room, in my pj’s. What can be better?

For some reason, I got up very early in Malta on most days. I am talking 0430, 0530 type of times. And I got up easily without having to force myself to keep my eyes open. I didn’t feel fatigue or sleep dep type of symptoms from it either. Was it the sunshine, the nice weather, the sea air, I don’t know. This day also I went and looked out the balcony a couple of times for the colour in the eastern sky and when I didn’t find it I went back to my writing. Yes, I had carried that keyboard from Gozo back to Malta.

Then the next time I went out, I found Roberta on her balcony, quiet as a ninja, shooting the sky with her camera. The sky was just beginning to show some reddish colours. I set up camp on my balcony and shot a lot of photos. There was a low, rambling building in the sea on our left. The waves crashing against its base presented a great scene. I used my mirrorless camera for a couple of long timelapses and used the phone for videos and photos. In case you don’t know a timelapse is when you set up the camera in one place and used the programmed mode to take photos at set intervals. The result is video that flows like a....ummm, well, like an animation,  you could say. It’s used in films a lot to show the passage of time.

 

For some reason, Blogger is not able to display the videos that I upload. Might be it’s too high resolution or the file sizes are too big. For now I will share just the photos from that morning session and later I will see if I can compile the videos into a vlog episode.

After shooting the sunrise our paths parted. Don’t worry, just for the day. Roberta wanted to cover a couple of sights today and I wanted to just roam around which I find to be a good way of getting to know a place. Plus, the first spot on her list was Mdina and I don’t know why but I could not get excited about that place no matter how many people recommended it.

 

Here is the story in two parts. Roberta left for her sightseeing and after lazing around for a bit, I got ready and went out by myself. I found a café to have a coffee and sandwich. Have I mentioned Latte Macchiato yet? Well, they didn’t have it. The sandwich was ok. Then I walked through St. Julian’s clubbing area to find the nearest bus stop. Have you ever been to a nightlife spot in the morning? It looks like the tail end of a misspent life.

I grabbed the bus for Valetta which is the capital of Malta and a historic city. Again, this was a crowded bus and I had to stand for a large part of the journey. Not fun. In Valetta I just walked around and took pictures of anything that took my fancy. That was the plan to begin with.

 

Although, I got tired in Malta a lot, it was quite funny in that way that it was not my knees or legs that felt tired but the bottom of my feet. They felt kind of rough from all the walking around, kind of like blisters but not as severe. I think I have been too sedentary during the pandemic and the soles of my feet might be too soft now. Need to work on that for the next trip.

Reminds me of an Urdu sher which you won’t understand but I will explain:

Jinke hothoN pe haNsi paavon mein chhale honge

Haan, wahi log tere chahne wale honge.

 Translation: Those who will have a smile on their lips and blisters on their feet, yes, those people will the ones who will be in love with you.

 What’s the deeper meaning? I have no idea. Actually, I do but it doesn’t fit here so let it go.

 

Valetta main street was like a normal market and here I was able to do something I had been wanting to do since I arrived. I went into a tourist trap shop and bought a couple of tshirts. Both were great. See pictures. They were €10.99 per tshirt which is not expensive but quality wise they were only ok. Hey, nobody twisted my arm to buy from there. They also had lots of souvenirs and I really liked the small soldier statues they had. I am the poster boy for buying things I don’t need but lately I have been thinking about toning down this habit, not stopping, just toning down. I thought about my living room and decided that I didn’t have any place to display that figure. In front of my TV would be ideal but that space is limited in height and it would block the screen. I have two small angel figures there that my nieces gave me on a birthday long ago but they are small so they fit in that space. Anyway, I liked it a lot but I left it on the shelf. The story of this soldier is not done, wait for the next part.

 

 

Walking around in that pleasant weather was great and when I found an ice cream shop I did not hesitate even for a second. But then I was ready to go back. On the way back, I didn’t even consider taking the bus and simply called a Bolt. I don’t know if it’s because of the size of the country or what, but whenever we book a taxi, we didn’t have to wait very long. Ten minutes would be the longest we had to wait.

 

Roberta was still out when I got back to the hotel. She got back in another hour. She had been to Mdina and also the Blue Grotto. The latter was one of the sights on my list as well but I preferred walking around as we had only one day left. The sea was too rough today but Roberta’s taxi driver drove her to a high point from where she could take photos of the natural arch that makes it photogenic.

 

The Corinthia had five swimming pools including one that was indoors and warm. Roberta’s plan for today’s included swimming. I had packed my swimming shorts as well because, well....I was going to an island. We found that you had to book your time in the pool so we made a booking for 1800H and looked around the hotel in the meantime.

 

At 1800, we were back there. There were only four more people there with us who were all good swimmers. Roberta is a better swimmer than me so did a couple of laps. I did my usual thing of walking as far from the shallow end as I dared and then swimming back to the shallow end. It was super fun. We tried the hot tub and even the sauna for a bit.

 [Photos from Roberta's travels. Unedited.] 

Next part – Malta Nightlife.