It had been some time since we last visited the city of Mdina in the centre of the island, mostly because getting there and back can be difficult in terms of transport when using the Malta bus system.
We thought that it was time to make a return visit. I first visited in 1990 and it was wonderful, the streets were unpaved, the walls were peeling, it was sun stroked, wind weathered and frost bitten and it was as as though nothing had changed in over a hundred years or so. Maybe even five hundred years. In 2015 the first thing that struck me was that in twenty years there has been a lot of restoration in Mdina. The once crumbling walls have been repaired and the untidy concrete streets have all been repaved. I preferred it the old way because it seems to me that the Maltese have managed to transform this wonderful place into a sort of Disney World EPCOT interpretation of what it used to be like.
Nevertheless we thought we should go back and see what ten years had done so we took the ferry from Sliema to Malta and made our way to the busy bus terminal.
Travelling by bus in Malta is not a pleasant experience, they are overcrowded and you might be lucky and get a seat but most likely not which means standing and clinging onto something, anything for dear life and waiting along with everyone else for a seating opportunity. And it stops every hundred yards or so and five people get off and twenty-five get on and there is a suffocating smell of garlic and b.o. So it was not a great journey but on the positive side it was a lot cheaper than a taxi.
As it happened not much had changed so much in ten years since the last visit except that it was a little more commercialised but I guess that is to be expected and there were entry fees to the Cathedral when I am fairly certain that there didn’t use to be. I don’t like paying entry fees to a Cathedral because I think the Catholic Church is already wealthy enough already so we didn’t go inside but instead just walked the charming streets,
Looking for doors…
We didn’t stay long, I wished we hadn’t bothered at all if I am truthful, I worried about the bus ride home and queues of people because that happened to me the previous time so we had a drink and a very disappointing chicken wrap at the Fontanella Tea Rooms and then made a brisk return to the bus stop.
And then the day got a whole lot better. As we waited, first in line for the public transport bus a vintage Malta bus turned up and stopped and said that he had two seats left and did we want them? Did we want them? Of course we did! Of course we did!
Up until 2011 Malta had a wonderful bus service with a fleet of vehicles mostly imported from the UK, privately owned, lovingly maintained, customized and painted in a distinctive orange livery with gleaming chrome decoration that required sunglasses just to look at them.
Even in the late 1990s these old buses with their growling engines and banging gear boxes were, admittedly, beginning to creak with age and by 2011 the majority didn’t meet EU standards on carbon emissions and their fate was sealed a thousand miles away in Brussels and the upgrade could scarcely have been more undignified. They were removed from service, privatised and the island service put out to competitive tender.
It was wonderful, I am a sucker for nostalgia and I was sinking slowly in a memory swamp. I am certain that Kim enjoyed it too…
The vintage bus dropped us off on the seafront, we waved goodbye to the friendly driver and it continued to St Julians a mile or so to the north and we sauntered back to the apartment, opened a bottle of wine, sat in the sunny courtyard, played cards and swapped stories and just let the rest of the day slip carelessly through our fingers.
Later we returned to restaurant Ta’Kris and found it effortlessly this time and I was careful to order a smaller portion this time….
A Malta bus pre privatisation…
A Previous visit to Mdina, some time ago…
MALTA – I LOVE IT…
Have Bag, Will Travel 
