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Contents |
Day 1 |
Day 2 |
Day 3 |
Day 4 |
Day 5 |
Day 6 |
Day 7 |
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Malta - Day Five Introduction to Gozo |
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Gozo got off to a bad start. As soon as we exited the ferry at Mgarr, we were hounded by a group of cabbies badgering us for a fare. Neither I nor my lovely traveling companion were interested in a cab and we were even less interested in having someone yell at us in Maltese, so it was not all that pleasant for us. Thus, the third and last annoying Maltese person (or, really, set of people) on the trip. There was still a bus available (the busses on Gozo are scarlet and gray, I might add), so we hopped on and headed into Victoria, the capital of Gozo. The name of the city used to be Rabat, but Gozo was so excited by the arrival of Queen Victoria on their shores that they renamed their capital after her. Some of the older folks still call it Rabat, and I really can't blame them. She stopped by -- probably on her way someplace else. It's not like she founded the city or bought them all ice cream or anything like that. Getting Rural in GozoThe countryside of Gozo was fairly similar to the island of Malta -- a little more fertile, but much less populated. I would guess that change comes little to the island of Gozo, mostly because change probably doesn't really get out that way very much. It doesn't visit, it doesn't send a postcard, maybe it shows up on a holiday or a special occasion or something, but does it bother to let Gozo know what it's up to? No. It's a wonder it ever comes around at all and then when it does, it wonders why Gozo isn't all smiles and happy to see it when it does show up. Where were we? Oh yes, on our way to Victoria. Which I keep wanting to call Rabat. Because Victoria just doesn't seem all that Maltese a name. Or Gozitan, for that matter. Yes, Gozitan is a word. The bus trudged up the hill toward the bus terminus and we were dropped off in downtown Victoria. In style and structure, it reminded me of the towns that mark time and distance on a drive through Northwest Ohio. At first glance it seems that, with a population around 6,500-7,000 people, Victoria is surprisingly small to be both the capital and largest city on Gozo. But considering that the entire population of Gozo is 27,000, this is not actually all that surprising. Our plan was to get off the bus from Mgarr at the central bus terminus, then jump onto another bus going to Xaghra, where we would go to the Ggantija Temples, which are about 5,000 years old. The issue was not the fact that those words are all spelled correctly. The issue was that we would have to wait about 25 minutes for the next bus, according to the posted bus schedules, and we were really not all that keen on waiting. But we did, because 25 minutes is really not enough time to go do something else in the meantime. Gozo Has a Lot of RuralOur next bus arrived without difficulty and we were transported across the Gozitan countryside toward Xaghra and the oldest free-standing structures in the world. Yes, that includes the Pyramids of Egypt. As we drove toward Xaghra, we were allowed a further view of this unfamiliar island that was even more unfamiliar than Malta. Gozo appeared to run largely on agriculture, with large areas of land devoted to long furrows that climbed up the flat-topped hills that so distinguished Gozo's topography. It was a land that was both familiar and unusual in a crossed convergence of familiar sights combined in strange new ways. The broad farmlands rolling across the landscape reminded me of the Midwest. Yet the flat-topped hills and rough edges of the topography reminded me of Arizona. I have the feeling that geologists get into a lot of arguments about Gozo. There was only one bus stop on the way between Victoria and Xaghra and we crossed the distance quickly. The bus wound up a series of switchbacks to the hilltop where Xaghra and the Ggantija Temples are located. Thank goodness the bus driver alerted everyone that the second stop was the one we wanted, or we would have had a very confusing walk to the Temples. After being deposited near the entrance to the national park, we purchased our tickets and headed toward the oldest free-standing structures on earth. |