Mini Series - Malta

By Ieuan Dolby

Unusual and different, old and silent: historically important and living in the past. The initial viewing gives the impression of a North African City, Algeria or Morocco perhaps. Sand stone buildings with small windows, protected by strong iron bars! European influence creeps in with tiny iron rail balconies with the odd bountiful window box of flowers bringing lovely smells to passersby and gaily colored shutters liven up the prison like quality of the secured windows.

Impressive buildings strive for attention as they rise in haphazard fashion up long and winding streets. Roads appearing at Piazzas float around the central fountain, clock or monument before starting another leg, another avenue of escape up another hill. Narrow lanes lead to busy highways which lead to winding paths but all eventually end up at one piazza or another, a meeting place of souls and vehicles before it is time to move on to the next.

Content mothers lean on the tiny balconies, testing the strength of these flimsy structures, or they prop up doorways as they watch there children play with their neighbors kids. Others still just stare out into space alone or in groups, lost to a world in a place where worlds can be lost.

Cars zoom knowingly along narrow streets, each car missing the next by mere inches as pedestrians skip with practiced alterness between them, through gaps that hardly exist. Bus drivers rev up as they meet the next hill only to brake violently as they top the crest and start the steep roll down and delivery trucks maneuver with skill as they navigate alleys designed only for those with two feet.

Shopkeepers with doors flung open wide talk without pause to customers as they come and go, gleaming valuable information to one so that it may be passed to the next or when the time is ripe. Old men gather and pass the time of day under a cloud of smoke, silently talking to each other with nods and shakes of the head: For them, it has all has been said before!

The Copyright of all articles, photographs and drawings remains solely with the original authors. At no time may any material presented on this site be removed, copied, distributed or reprinted in any manner whatsoever and at no time shall due credit to these works be altered or removed. All material is for free reading on this site only: unless prior agreement is made with the author and shall remain so until such times as the author sees fit to change.