January 26 // 2:55PM
Il-Brolli // Malta
It was rainy and gloomy the day before. I had been trapped inside my apartment and I was anxious to get out and see more of the country.
Malta is an eclectic place, with culture and architecture from almost every single direction on the map. Geographically it’s located south of Sicily in the Mediterranean sea. With Europe to the north and Africa to the south, the island finds itself sandwiched between many different cultures. Through the centuries, the Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans ruled here, then later, a long period of Arab rule. After the Arabs came the Normans, the French, and then finally the British Empire, before it became it’s own independent country. Because so many cultures have had a hand in shaping the country’s history, it really is a melting pot.
The architecture today, for me, looks quite blocky. I like say that if you built Roman style buildings with only Legos, you would get Malta.
On this day, the weather was nice and I walked along the bay with all the boats floating on the water. There weren’t a lot of people around, and it was great to just walk alone and enjoy the views. January is the off-season in Malta, which tends to be more of a summertime destination. The wind blew across the water and shook the tiny boats, which were all painted in bright decorative colors. The sun peeked through the clouds, and little spots of light would illuminate this boat or that boat – making the colors light up like neon.