Gozo, Malta

The main harbor in Gozo

We woke up extra early to try and catch a bus to the ferry that would take us to Gozo.  After a lot of search for a bus terminus (turned out it was just a bus stop, not a terminal like we were expecting) we finally found that bus.  It was a pretty tight bus so we had to stand, and if you saw in my last post the drivers are crazy and the buses are super old, so it wasn't so easy.  The ride was also about 45 minutes so Caroline and my arms felt like they were going to fall off by the time we got to the pier, but we made it!

Gozo is the second biggest island in Malta and it has been inhabited since 5000 BC, hence why it's claim to fame are the Ggantija temples which are the oldest free-standing and oldest religious structures in the world - even before the pyramids and Stonehenge.  Another interesting factoid I learned about Gozo is that it's nickname is the Isle of Calypso, based on the location of the island Ogygia in Homer's Odyssey.  The island in the myth is controlled by the nymph Calypso who holds Odysseus as her love prisoner for 7 years.  Apparently Gozo is considered the modern day Ogygia...how bout that?

Anywho, facts aside, we were very excited to go to Gozo and explore.  We took a bus to the main city of Victoria, known by locals as Rabat.  The main sight in Victoria is the citadel, which is thought to have been first fortified in 1500 BC during the Bronze Age.  Some of the high walls of this citadel were built up by the Knights of St. John, who I will talk about in another post, to apparently keep out barbarian pirates trying to forage for slaves in the village.  These high walls did allow for some great views of the island and the sea.

Sitting on a wall of the Citadel

View of the cathedral within the fortress 

The other sight to see in Victoria was the Cathedral of the Assumption.  It wasn't very exciting, especially compared to all of the cathedrals we have seen, but it was worth a look.

After Victoria we found another bus to take us to Xagrah, the sight of the temples of Ggantija.  It was 8 euros to get into the UNESCO World Heritage sight and usually I would scoff at it being so expensive, but this time it was actually Caroline who scoffed and I promptly said "Caroline, these are the OLDEST ruins ever, we have to go in," but once we actually saw the ruins it seemed like 8 euros was a bit too much.  Now if you go see the pyramids (which I haven't) or Stonehenge (which I have) I feel like you would feel a little more...fulfilled when you leave, whereas I left these ruins not feeling so fulfilled.  BUT I will give you some history on them anyways and some pictures just so you can see what I'm talking bout :)

According to my guide, "the awe-inspiring megalithic complex" was created from 3600 to 3000 BC by the community of Gozo.  There are actually two temples connected and there are thought to have been life and fertility rituals performed in them.  It looks as if the temples were used for about 1000 years and for some reason the Temple Culture disappeared abruptly.  The temples were then used as a cremation cemetary during the Early Bronze Age (2500-1500 BC).  The temples got their name because prior to their excavation, the ruins looked like just a large mound of stones surrounded by an even larger wall.  They were thought to be the remains of a defensive tower that was built by a "race of giants".  'Ggant" is Maltese for giant, so hence the name Ggantija.  I think I was a little disappointed because you only got to walk in a few meters into one temple and you barely saw much of anything in there.  I thought we would be able to see more, but you mainly got to see the outside of the walls.  Here are some pictures:

Yep, this is mainly what we got to see

So after seeing the temple there was really no way to see when/where we could catch a bus back to the main harbor.  They didn't really have schedules up anywhere, we also didn't have a map so we had to walk back to the ruins and ask a person working there.  He was actually very helpful and told us we needed to walk for about a mile until we hit "the main traffic light" and we could catch a bus there.  It was a beautiful day so we were up for the walk...unfortunately it was on main roads that didn't have sidewalks just like when Court and I decided to walk to the winery from the train station back in September.  Fun.

That's me trying to stay as far to the right as I could - oh and also since Malta was ruled by the British at one point, they drive on the opposite side of the street.

Once we finally found the one stoplight and were waiting for a bus, we decided that the main harbor couldn't be too far and maybe we could try to walk it.  I blame Caroline for this since she said that once before this trip and the walk ended up taking almost an hour and half.  As much as that girl hates to work out, she LOVES to walk.  So of course as soon as we started our walk, a bus went by that we couldn't catch, so our fate was sealed...walking to the port it is!  We had to basically guess the direction based on the buses and my internal compass (it's actually pretty good if I will say so myself!).  

After a good 45 minutes to an hour and a lot of goofiness on our part from hunger and tiredness we finally saw we were getting close to the port.  But this is the actual image we saw:

The ferry we wanted to catch was leaving

Since we saw the ferry leaving, we knew we had another hour to wait so we ran into a grocery store get some snacks.  It was so odd at this store - they made you lock up your bags in these little lockers before you went in, so weird.  I ended up just getting some M&M's, crunchy and peanut.  I was way too excited about the crunchy M&Ms, but you can't get them in the States anymore and I LOVE them!  Anyways, we made it on the ferry and had a gorgeous sunset view of Gozo on our way back to the main island of Malta.  I'll try to only post a couple pics...

Once we got back to Malta we had another harrowing experience on the bus.  Caroline actually described it as a death roller coaster and I think we spent a couple minutes each praying that this wouldn't be our last bus trip...honestly it was BAD.  But we survived and were exhausted!

On another note, today marks 3 weeks until I am back home in the States!  I am very excited, but at the same time sad to leave here.  I am working though to get this blog up to date before I leave since I don't think there will be a chance when I get home, so get used to a lot of updates from me!

A dopo xo