Malta Overview

We've gotten some questions from Stateside about our life here, so I'll try to answer some of them:

Our street. The trees on the left are the landmark for our building, also left.

We were asked if where we live is a "suburb" of Valletta. "Suburb" is not really a term used here. Malta is the most densely populated country in Europe, so one is never really "out in the country," as we Midwesterners would think of it. What they call farms are just big gardens to us. "Rural" here is just bigger gardens. We've never seen a tractor or other agricultural equipment in a field. Towns that were once quite distinct have grown together. The entire east-central portion of the island -- probably a third of the land mass or more -- is one big urban sprawl.

Our flat is on the top floor, centered in this photo.

We are in a tourist community. Most of the buildings here are condo units, though some traditional homes remain not far away. Ours is one of the shortest apartment/condo buildings because it's older. Many are six or eight or more floors, especially nearer the water. We live on the top floor, or what Americans would call the 4th floor (in Europe, the ground floor is zero, so that makes it the "3rd floor" here). In any case, there is no elevator, so we get our exercise. Many of the condos around us are empty now because they are rented to tourists in the high season.

Our flat is based on a very long hallway.

Most buildings in Malta are still built with cut blocks of globigerina limestone held together with cement mortar, not much different than the way the Romans built things on these islands 2200 years ago. The stone is abundant here (not much else is), and it fulfills the basic function of all structures on the islands: keeping the heat out. It gets very hot here in summer, and air conditioning is only a recent invention. Newer buildings have central heat for winter. We have only a space heater. Often it is warmer outside than it is inside the flat.

Our flat is pretty much identical to the student flats below us, except that we only have two people living in ours, and only one bathroom. There are six in each student flat, but each has an extra full bath off the back bedroom. The design is long and narrow -- at least 130+ feet from the front window overlooking the street to the back window overlooking the neighbors. At the front end is a fairly large room we use as our living room. It has a bed in it, as well, and our predecessors essentially lived in the one room for much of their stay because it was a cold, wet winter and the space heater only can heat one room. We are experiencing the warmest winter on record, so that hasn't been as much of an issue for us.

Down the very long hallway are a dining room, kitchen, bathroom, a small bedroom primarily used for storing all of Luther's stuff, and at the end of the hall a larger bedroom, where we sleep. Everything is strung out along the long hall. Each room has at least one window, but most open into a narrow central courtyard, and see only the window of the flat opposite in the stairwell. They do let in light and air, however.

The kitchen and bathroom are very small by American standards. The washing machine is in the kitchen, so the refrigerator must be out in the hallway. We have a dryer, but hanging clothes on the clotheslines on the flat roof above us is usually preferable -- the dryer takes hours. The roof also serves as a sort of patio, and our students spend a fair amount of time up there.

Most windows open into a narrow central courtyard.

We are only about 200 meters from salt water, and there is a beautiful promenade that goes all around the bay. We can walk along the ocean for a couple miles in either direction if we go down to the water. Along the way are all sorts of hotels, shops and restaurants aimed at the tourists, who are mostly Germans and Brits.

People all think we must be Brits and are surprised to discover we're Americans. They don't seem to pick up on the different English accents, even though many Maltese speak English with a British accent. Their first question is almost always, "Trump isn't really going to be president, is he?" The second question is usually something about guns and why Americans have so many.

The promenade runs for miles following the water.

The University is a two mile walk each way. It takes about half an hour if you are moving at a good pace. Bus service here is terrible, so you can ride the bus but it takes longer to get to campus that way than walking. And you still have to walk about a quarter mile or more from the bus stop. 

We have no car, and I wouldn't want one. Streets are extremely narrow, parking is a nightmare, and it's said that the least-read book in Malta is the driver's manual. Traffic is a free-for-all! Yet Malta has more cars per capita than most anyplace in Europe. Walking home from campus this afternoon, the cars were at a standstill and we were moving faster on foot.

We were asked if the local beer is good. I am really missing Decorah's Toppling Goliath, because the local beer is terrible. It is called Cisk (pronounced "Cheesk") but the guy who owns the pub down the street says it should really be pronounced "sh*t" (he went to university in the UK, so he knows the difference). It's just European Budweiser. This was a British colony for over 160 years, so there are good English beers, but usually bottled rather than tap, and they are relatively expensive.

The problem is, there's no water here -- few springs, no lakes, no rivers. Water we get from the tap is desalinated seawater (water bills are astronomical by Midwestern U.S. standards, even though heavily subsidized by the government). That creates a number of problems, but one is that making good beer requires good water.

Hanging our unmentionables out to dry on the roof.

The local wine is very cheap, usually €3-€4 per bottle. It's not great, but it's drinkable. Sicily is only 60 miles away, so low-end Italian wines are also inexpensive, also drinkable but not great. One gets what one pays for.

The food, however, is wonderful. We've had a couple mediocre meals here, but never a bad one. Rabbit is a traditional meat here, and there are many different ways it's prepared. Of course the seafood is fresh and good. Pasta is a staple.