Malta - Where the Sun Shines from the Heart

MALTA

Malta is a small European microstate, located in such a good place that it has a pleasurable climate and many nice beaches which makes it a wonderful holiday spot which I and my friends visited in the end of September.

Even when usually Malta is thought to be a beach-holiday-spot, we were aimed to see much of it's culture and sights (which Malta has plenty to offer - the Maltese islands were first settled in 5200 BC!); so we stayed only 2 days in the beach and 5 days exploring the island.

The small island is 314 km2 big and is heavily populated - with about 420 000 inhabitants. It gained indpendence from UK only in 1964 and is now a member of the EU which it joined in 2004.

Malta certainly worth to visit. NOTE - Malta has the oldest prehistoric temples in the world, even older than Egyptian Pyramides!

My travelling mates in Malta Here we are: KRISTI, I, EVE and RAGNAR

VALLETTA- the Capital of Malta

Valletta is called as the city of palaces built by gentlemen for gentlemen. It is such a small capital that you can walk around it within an hour and you do not need a car to explore it at all. It inhabitants about 6000 people and was started to build in 1566 and was planned in rectangular design by by the Grandmaster of the Order of Saint John La Valette, hence the name of the city. Photo: The view to Valletta

Photo: One of the greenest spots in Valletta- Barrakka Gardens

Photo: View to Vittoriosa, situated in the other side of Grand Harbour

Photo: The shelgun shot takes place at 12 each day. A lot of tourists go to see it. So did we!

Photo: Looking to Grand Harbour

Photo: Ragnar, Eve, I and Kristi in Valletta

Birzebbuga - our "home village"

Birzebbuga is a small seaside resort in the south-east of Malta, 8 km's from the capital of Malta (remember - Malta is VERY small, so 8 km's is already far away:)). We looked for something non-touristic where we can see Maltese life better than in a tourist resort, and I think we really succeeded with it. Our apartment was nice and cosy, the village was nice and we hardly saw any tourists at all. We had a lovely beach there (with only a few people besides us), and it was a very good place to stay overnight. Photo: Birzebbuga Beach

Photo: Birzebbuga has manufacturing area, too - beyond you can see tankers.

Photo: Ragnar and Eve and a match of wall with Ragnar's shirt...

Photo: We were proud to be Estonians :)

Photo: Birzebbuga's village centre
Photo: I with our rented car... We were hapy with it, even when the traffic is left-sided... poor Ragnar!

Temples in Malta - the OLDEST in the world!!!

The prehistoric temples of Malta are unique in all the world - they are the oldest standing stone structures which remain to us from ancient times. The temples date from 4000 - 2500 BC. They are older than Stonehenge, older than the Pyramids. I had no idea about it before I visited Malta and those temples!

Photo: Mnajdra Temples

Photo: Hagar Qim Temples

Photo: Tarxien Temples.

Mdina - the Silent City

Mdina - the lovely medieval city - is an old capital of Malta. Evidence of settlements in Mdina goes back to over 4000 BC. Nowadays, no cars are allowed in Mdina, partly why it has earned the nickname 'the Silent City'.

Photo: Narrow silent streets of Mdina.

Photo: The wall of Mdina.

Photo: St Paul's Cathedral in Mdina, built between 1697-1702. Notice the two clocks on the church - one shows the right time, another wrong. Do you know, why? The wrong is to confuse the devil and ward him off his evil ways.

Golden Bay

One of the most popular beaches in Malta is Golden Bay - situated in the western part of Malta. We stayed there for one day, went to swim in the sea and also watched the sunset... Photo: Golden Bay

Photo: Loving couple and sunset.

Blue Grotto

This Malta's natural sea cave, whose main arch is about 46 metres high, cut into the rock face. We made a boat trip to many different caves there which each had different colour of water - the caves sparkle both with blue reflections of the sea and orange, purple and green of the various minerals present in the rocks.

Photo: The beautiful Blue Grotto

Photo: I and Blue Grotto

Photo: We took a boat trip to Blue Grotto caves with a similar boat.

The other places in south part of Malta
The south part is much more underdeveloped than other parts of Malta, yet it has much to offer as well. It has a lot of interesting stone fences, narrow roads and... cactuses!

Photo: A nice view and some damaged cars on the cliffs...

Photo: Mysterious cart rutes are seen all over Malta - noone knows what they are for.

Photo: A cave where people were living still in the 19th century.Photo: Zurrieq windmill

Photo: Cactuses... very usual view in Malta.

Photo: Narrow roads in the south part of Malta.

Photo: Kristi looking over Dingli Cliffs

Marsaxlokk - a romantic fishing village...

The small fishing village - Marsaxlokk - became our favourite destination as we managed to visit it for several times. First, it had a lovely fishing market on Sunday morning. Second, it had many good fishing restaurants on the port. Third, the colourful Maltese boats (called luzzus) are so lovely to watch... And fourth, it was close to our "home village" - only 3 km's from it. So we just couldn't resist going there all the time :). Photo: Luzzus + the Marsaxlokk Cathedral.

Photo: I, Kristi and one of the luzzus. When you look carefully, you see that the luzzu has the Eye of Osiris - the Phoenicians' god of protection against evil.

Photo: Some more views of Marsaxlokk.

Photo: A night view of boats in Marsaxlokk.

Mosta Dome

Mosta Dome is the 3rd largest unsupported dome in the world. It's diameter is 37 metres. On 9 April 1942, the church was nearly destroyed during World War 2. An Axis bomb pierced the dome of the church and fell down to the floor, but failed to explode during the mass when about 300 people were sitting in the church. It was thought to be a Miracle. The detonator was removed and a replica bomb is now displayed as a memorial.

Photo: Mosta Dome outside, built in 1860's

Photo: Mosta Dome inside

Photo: The beautiful dome.

Photo: Kristi and Eve in Mosta Dome.

Maltese food

The best known food in Malta (for tourists) are:

1. Maltese rabbit - I, Eve and Kristi all ate it (I think Ragnar always preferred fish...), and I must say that I was the luckiest one - I got the best pieces while Eve and Kristi had only some ribs of the rabbit... So I enjoyed it a lot, but I'm not sure if Eve and Kristi did... Still, it was a good experience - I've never eaten a rabbit before!

Photo: Maltese rabbit (photo from http://www.yeungstuff.com/).

2. Pastizzi - the small pies filled with Ricotta cheese. The first time we ate them, they tasted soo good - we were very hungry! Those pies can be filled with peas, too, but we all agreed, that the Ricotta version is the best! We have eaten them at home, too, as during our first Malta-trip-reunion, Eve and Ragnar found a recipe from internet and made them. They looked different but the taste was the same:) Photo: Pastizzi pies

We also had breakfasts at our apartment every day; and sometimes we ate at our apartment for dinner, too. Once, Ragnar made an excellent fish dish!

Photo: Fish dinner we had at our apartment.

Photo: Our brekfast with pasta, tomatoes, basilica and mozarella cheese :)

Photo: Some Maltese wine, cheese and olives...

Kristi's birthday
Kristi turned one year older during our trip. For this occasion, she invited us to a dinner to a fishing village... Marsaxlokk (which we knew very well, as we had been dining there for several times). We had a great evening and managed to surprise Kristi with our present which she had liked in London Airport and which we had bought secretly. It was a cute pink watch.

Photo: Happy Kristi on her happy birthday :)

Photo: The birthday card I had written to Kristi at home and taken it together with me. The gift was wrapped by Eve and Ragnar.

Photo: Kristi's new watch for her birthday.

Pumpkin cheese-cake!

I continue sharing my recipes about pumpkins. In Autumn, I always try to use everything which comes from the garden - either my own or my relatives. I got a huge pumpkin from my brother in September, and now it's almost finished... Tomorrow, I'll make the pumpkin pie once more to go to visit my little niece and then... I have to wait for the next Autumn when I can make some pumpkin meals again!
This pumpkin pie is highly evaluated also by my best friend Kristi (who is a great cook) - it's worth to try for sure!
PUMPKIN CHEESE-CAKE

Bottom:
200 grams of Digestive biscuits
75 grams butter
2 tablesppons sugar
Filling
500 grams natural cheese (Creme Bonjour) (maitsestamata toorjuust
3 dl sugar
500 grams of pumpking (cut to pieces
1 3/4 dl sour cream (hapukoor)
2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
4 eggs
To cover:
2 1/2 dl sour cream (hapukoor)
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
To decorate: Creek walnuts

How to do it? Heat your owen to 200 degrees. Crush the biscuits and mix it them with melted butter and sugar. Press the mixture to the bottom of the open cake-tin and bake in the owen for 10 minutes.
Heat the pumpkin cubs in the pot in low heat until the liqued has vanished. Stew the cubs until they are soft and make a puree of them. Beat up the natural cheese (Creme Bonjour) and sugar. Add the pumpkin puree, sour cream, vanilla sugar, cinammon and sault. Add piece by piece also eggs.
Pour the mixture to the cake-bottom and bake it in the owen of 175 degrees for about 1 hour.
Beat up the sour cream, sugar and vanilla sugar and grease it to the cake, bake for 5 more minutes. Then cool the cake.
Before serving, keep the cake in the refrigerator as long as you can, minimum for 6 hours, but overnight is even better.
Decorate with walnuts and eat it! Your friends will like it for sure!

Happy Birthday to Minna - my Finnish friend

We all hope that Minna is having a great birthday today! Welcome to the group of "Ladies in their 30's" now! :)

I and Erik are very sorry for not being able to participate in her huge party on Saturday, but we are keeping fingers crossed that all will turn out like Minna has planned and that it will be a fabulous night!

PS - This is the birthday card I made for Minna....

Crete - the Island of Dreams

"Out in the dark blue sea there lies a land called Crete, a rich and lovely land, washed by the waves on every side..." --- The Odyssey

Crete island is the largest of Greece and is located in the south of the Aegean Sea. It inhabitants about 630 000 people and is 8336 km² large.

The tourist guide says, that Crete has everything to offer: mountainous landscapes, a coast with many beautiful beaches and rocky coves, beautiful towns and charming villages and harbors, excellent food, ruins of the Minoan Civilization, one of the greatest civilization ever, an exciting nightlife - hence it's called "the Island of Dreams".

I and Erik visited Crete in the end of September and beginning of October (I due to work and Erik just enjoyed a free week from work). Unfortunately we couldn't experience all the things Crete has to offer, but indeed it was a lovely island, though quite touristic (at least in the area where we stayed). But we loved our apartment, the beach, the nice warm days (compared to Estonian during this time of the year) and olive trees :).

OUR VILLAGE - Koutouloufari in Hersonissos

My Conference took place in Hersonissos which is a very, very touristic area. You can walk in the main street near the beach with loads of other tourists and enter all kind of different tourist shops and sit in loads of different restaurant, seeing many hotels everywhere. Luckily our accommodation was outside of this touristic area - in Koutouloufari village which lies on the foot of Mount Harakas. It had a beautiful view over to other places and the little village was just lovely. I booked our apartment from internet and both I and Erik were very satisfied with it.

Photo: The view from our apartment.

Photo: Our apartment situated in the house in the middle, on the first floor.

Photo: Our pool next to the house. But the water was quite cold... Once I went swimming there (dark in the evening) and I stayed in the water only for a few minutes... The Mediterranean Sea was warmer :).

Photo: Lovely blooming trees in our village :)

Photo: This is how our apartment looked inside.

BLUE CRETE

Like in other parts of Creece, you see a lot of blue colour in Crete as well.

Why Creek people like blue so much? The preference comes from an old belief of man, that the sky-blue shade had the power to keep Evil away. The radiation of the color composes an invisible shield, which prevents the approach of bad spirits.

That's why you see blue colour in the streets of Crete!

Photo: Blue is represented also in the flag of Creece.

Photo: Those white houses with blue windows are so romantic...

Photo: An open-air caffe place with blue chairs and tables.

HIKING IN CRETE

Crete island is very mountainous. Deep gorges split its huge mountains (Lefka, Ori, Psiloritis, Dikti) leading to lovely valleys.

The Creten people say only one is the gorge and they are referringo of course the the famous Samaria gorge which is Crete's pride, as no such other exists in Europe. They are right, but this time, I and Erik couldn't visit it (I wasn't feeling the best during the days in Crete and we thought that we'll go to Samaria - the 18-kms-long-hike next time when we visit Crete). But we still wanted to do a hike as we always do it while being abroad. So we decided to go to Imbros gorge. It's certainly much smaller than Samaria, but also well worth seeing as it's very picturesque and full of wildness. We loved the hike though it was far too easy for us!

Photo: Entrance to Imbros Gorge. You need to pay 2 euros to hike there.

Photo: I in the start of the hike.

Photo: Some places in Imbros Gorge look like that... Quite stony! Photo: I and Erik in the middle of the hike.

Photo: Erik in a small cave.

Photo: The narrowest place in the gorge - 1.60 m wide.

Photo: Even when the day wasn't totally sunny, Erik hoped to get some tan already there...

Photo: I in one of the dark places in the gorge.

FRANGOKASTELLO

After doing the hike, we went to swim in Frangocastello - it is know for its Venetian castle and being unusually flat area for Crete there are nice beaches. One of which we visited, too, and had a nice swim in the Libyan Sea.

Photo: The Venetian Castle and the beach in Frangokastello.

Photo: Some lovely blossoms in Frangokastello...

MY CONFERENCE PLACE

Each morning, we took a 40-minutes-walk to Hersonissos, when I went to the Conference and Erik went to the beach. It was so lovely to have a fresh start for the day, and enjoy the small walk in the narrow streets of our village.

Photo: The start of the day in fron of our house.

Photo: My Conference Centre.

My little niece :)

My little niece was born in October 08, 2008.

I'm an happy aunt now :).

Today, we went to visit her for the first time. She has been sleeping all days long, but today, when we visited her, she was awake the whole time, we could see her looking at us and I could even hold her. She's such a lovely skinny tall girl - will be either a high jumper or a model :).

So far, the name of the newborn remains unknown.

Photo: Kert, I and Erik visiting my niece in the hospital, she's 3 days old.

Photo: A card I made for her - as she's born in October, I thought a pumpkin girl suits well :).

Photo: Some of the clothes I gave to her. Among them, there's a pink flowered blanket which is a gift of my American penpal Cindy to my niece. Everyone thanks her for this lovely soft warm blanket :).

Pumpkin soup - mmmmm....delicious!!!

Hello friends! As Autumn is here, and soon it will be Halloween and you can see pumpkins everywhere, then I thought I'd share the recipe of the favourite soup of our family. Each Autumn we wait for the time when pumpkins are ready and I can make a big pot of pumpkin soup. It's worth to try!

PUMPKIN SOUP

1 kilo cleaned and peeled pumpkin
0.75 litre water
1 cube of chicken stock
4 potatoes
4 apples
1 onion
200 gr smoked cheese
150 gr ham
100 gr butter
1 tablespoon of curry powder

Cut the pumpkin to small cubes. Peal apples and potatoes and cut them to cubes as well. Chop the onion and fry it together with 50 g of butter, curry powder until the onion slices look glassy. Then add pumpkin cubes and fry them lightly. Boil the water, add the cube of chicken stock and then add the fried pumpkin cubes. Boil it for a few minutes before adding first potatoes and then, finally apples. Boil until everything is soft, take the pot from fire and add 50 gr of butter. Aftewards mash everything with the handblender (stabmixer). Pour the soup to the bowls and
serve together with ham slices and grated smoked cheese.
And now, eat together with cheese-bread, garlic-bread or anything similar!