10/1-2/2025: Settling In and Visit to Qormi

Wednesday, day 2, was spent settling in. We rearranged things in the apartment to maximize cupboards and shelf space. For the most part, everything is working out pretty well. The apartment is tired, but liveable. Some things don’t work, light bulbs are out,the shower is awful, but we’re making it home. And we love the view. The only downside for the view is that the trees across the street have gotten so tall that they block half the view to the right of the photo below.

We went to a neighborhood market called Meats and Eats to get some good crispbread crackers for Christine’s usual lunch. Of course, we got other things as well because it is somewhat of a gourmet market. We stopped into our market to see if they had ice cube trays. Last night I defrosted the freezer part of our tiny refrigerator hoping that maybe it contained a tray that had been covered over in frost. There wasn’t, so we hoped our market sold them. After searching and coming up empty, we asked the owner. He said no trays, but he had ice cube bags. I thought he meant bagged ice cubes. What he produced was a small box containing 10 plastic bags that, when filled with water that goes into small sections within the bag, can be frozen. We’ll give it a try.

Later in the day we took a stroll down our rocks along the seafront. The next two days are going to be very windy, so we wanted to walk along the sea before the big winds come. It rained off and on earlier in the day which turned some of the rocks into slippery, muddy spots. With the limestone, you can’t always tell if an area is hard rock or mud since it’s all the same color and I found out the hard way that oftentimes it’s mud. The dust from the limestone that covers the rock surface gets quite muddy when wet. What happens is that your foot slides across the mud. Fortunately, I didn’t fall, but that kept Christine from walking down near the shoreline.

In the evening, we made dinner with the leftover chicken we bought and had a nice salad with it. Then I tried to figure out how to turn on the TV. All the times we’ve stayed here, we’ve never once turned on the TV. I tried a lot of things, but to no avail. I finally texted the apartment manager asking how to work the TV. He sent back directions which, in my opinion, should have been in a guest book about how to use things in the apartment. Instead of a booklet, we have several notices affixed to the door with some information. At any rate, after much consternation, the TV worked and we actually watched a program on BBC. Trying Netflix will be a challenge for another day. I have to log in to Netflix on the TV, but when I try to enter Christine’s email (ctyrrell@stny.rr.com), when I type in the first r after the first period, it tells me the address is invalid and I can’t enter the whole thing. Oh well, I guess we don’t need to watch anything.

Thursday, day 3, is very, very windy. For the next 2 days we expect 20-25 mph winds. We decided to go on a little adventure inland hoping to be away from the wind. In the KM Malta airline magazine was an article about the city of Qormi (don’t say the Q). Part of what I want to do this trip is visit places off the beaten path that we haven’t been to before. We’ve never explored Qormi, so that’s where we headed, or at least to the oldest section of that city.

Qormi is nearly in the middle of the island and is about 30 minutes by bus from Valletta. It’s great that we can go nearly anywhere on the island by public bus transport. We typically bus into Valletta as it’s easier to get on a bus at its point of origin. Nothing has changed in busland with being packed in like sardines and the driver yelling “move back, please” on all the most popular routes. Malta is suffering from over-tourism like most European places. It’s such a shame as more and more great architecture is being torn down and replaced by 20-story condos. At least now, if a “home of distinction” or building of” “heritage” value is being demolished, the builder has to save the facade and have it incorporated into the new building. At any rate, not many tourist go to Qormi, so from Valletta we were seated comfortably on the bus.

The bus ride certainly showed that Malta is one of the most densely populated places on earth. Most of the population lives on the eastern side of the island in the major cities which run into one another one after the other. They say for every person in Malta there are 3 cars, so traffic is horrible. I had given a brief thought to renting a car sometime during our stay in order to get to some places that really are off the beaten path and not serviced by bus. But just being on the bus and seeing all the craziness the bus driver has to put up with made me rethink that idea. We’ll stick with the bus.

We got off the bus in Qormi not really knowing what we were going to do. I thought visiting the historic church there would be a good idea. What we learned is that Qormi is one of the few Maltese cities to have two patron saints, St. George and St. Sebastian, and two parish churches. The bus stop was very near to the “old” St. Sebastian church, which is now an adoration chapel. It was a small church and very lovely with great iconography.

I knew there was a new St. Sebastien’s church somewhere nearby, so we walked around the block and saw it immediately. The old church was built in the late 1800s and as soon as we saw the new St. Sebastian’s, it was clear that this was a new church. It was planned in the 1930s to accommodate the growing population of Qormi, but didn’t get completed until the mid-1980s. Although I had read that the church was open daily for prayer, we walked all around the church and didn’t find an open door. Fortunately, Christine was in the right place at the right time and saw a man coming out and he allowed us to go into the church. It was very light and airy in the sanctuary with its high, big dome. With the wind swirling around the large dome, it made kind of an eerie sound in the church, but one that seemed very spiritual. We wandered around for a few minutes, took pictures, said a prayer, and thanked the man for allowing us in the church.

We decided to wander around some of the small streets in the old section. Just two blocks away was a very busy thoroughfare with lots of hustle and bustle, but the small side streets were quiet and charming. We saw many beautiful traditional Maltese homes, well-kept, and lovely.

Believe it or not, those small streets are two-way streets and even a big bus comes down some of them! The jockeying of cars and buses on these small streets is something to see. I love the architectural details on the houses, like the face on the balcony support and the person who is training the potted plant to go around the doorway.

Many of the houses have beautiful number signs and name of the house. I took a photo of this one for Louis and Margaret, our cousins in Australia, to let them know we are thinking of them and they are with us in spirit.

After wandering around for a while, we stopped in a local shop and got a small pizza to share for a late lunch. A bus stop was nearby, so we caught a bus back to Valletta. We visited Upper Barrakka Garden (where there is a public restroom!) and took in the views of the Grand Harbor.

Christine wanted to walk down Republic Street to the library she visited as a child. Her mother would take her by bus and she checked out books. There’s a statue of Queen Victoria in front of the bibliotheca.

It just so happens that an historic cafe is right across the street, Caffe Cordina, established in 1837! It’s one of the oldest cafes in Europe. It’s a fabulous place. In addition to an outside eatery near the Queen Victoria statue, there is an inside restaurant, but the big draw is their wonderful pastries, just the thing for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

By now, we’re ready for a nap, so back on the bus home to Sliema. We did rest quite a while and then surprisingly, we felt hungry, even after our pastries earlier. We walked across the street to Peppi’s, our favorite restaurant. We sat out on the balcony, which was quite nippy considering the 20 mph wind, but it was lovely being there seeing the lights around the bay and enjoying a mixed shellfish dinner, which was very, very good.

And that ended our day. Seems like we covered a lot of ground, but it was fun.