Stella Maris Street, Sliema,

In the early 1960s Susan spent 18 months on this street with her parents and elder sister. She’s not been back since and this was the main reason for our visit to Malta. She has vague memories of living here, which is only to be expected, but today brought back some glimpses of when she was here.

Her dad worked for the Admiralty and was posted to the island for what they thought would be 6 years. In the end it was only 18 months before they returned home.

What we saw of Malta today was a bit of a Curate’s Egg. We loved the back streets, like Stella Maris and certain parts of the coast, like the extra at Spinola. Other areas were rather dilapidated and unkempt. Some older properties have been restored, some are yet to be done and many have been replaced by 21st century developments.

While some recent developments are sympathetic to the existing architecture some are at odds clashing glaringly with the traditional stone buildings. There’s a considerable amount of construction going on which is very distracting.

There’s a great deal of 21st century commercialism too with many of the brands common at home. And fast food is growing with many “Bolt” delivery services on every street. What happened to the Mediterranean diet?

Electric scooters are very popular and also a nuisance. Riders weave in and out of pedestrians on the pavements dinging their bells to warn you of their presence and expecting you to get out of their way.

Tomorrow we will explore Valletta which I’m looking forward too. We’ll go further afield in the next few days, probably to Gozo. I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve seen more.

Thank you for your comments so far. While I’m away there’ll be little time for visiting journals but I’ll try and respond to comments made on my journal.