Glimpses of Malta

Malta is essentially a city-state. Yet, where we are is exceptionally quiet. The flora is a cross between tropical Mediterranean and pure desert. Palm trees sway above hedge-walls of cacti. The most common animals we see are snails, lizards, cats, and roosters. The hilly land is riven with terraced ravines, laced by crumbling stone walls. Each morning is silent, save for many roosters and the clip-clopping of our neighbor's horse/buggy, which always leaves at promptly 7am Malta time (see note below). It is only a fifteen minute walk to be amid a Manhattan-feeling bustling city filled with tourists. And the sea is often visible in the distance, crowded with ships. Yet here, on the hill above the town, all is very calm.

​(Note: 7 am Malta time means it could be 6:30am, 7:45am, 8 pm, or never. The concept of "time" is quite abstract here, as is particularly evident in the busses, which exist in a separate reality and bear no connection at all to the bus app that supposedly lists their times)