Since I wake every morning in a different place, no wonder that with years I slowly lost enthusiasm for sightseeing - Europe is still my all-time-favourite place in the world but even here it all comes down to three main things: post office, supermarket and Wi Fi. I have walked up and down trough Lisbon, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Nice, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Genova, Livorno, Rome, Naples, Palermo, Venezia, Dubrovnik, Athens and Istanbul so many times (and this is just the Mediterranean) that nowadays its hard to find something interesting that would thrill me again like the first time when I saw these places a good decade ago. However, there is always something that inspires me and reminds me of a beauty of travelling - this time it was prettiest little forgotten corner of Mediterranean, Malta.
Malta stands roughly halfway between Europe and Africa. It is not just a island but a true archipelago with only three of the largest islands inhabited (18 much smaller islands are still completely empty) and millions ago this was land connecting us with Africa. It also means that this was the place where all sorts of different cultures, languages, races and traditions were mixed, not to mention wars fought for this particular spot. There are two official languages spoken here: English and Maltese, which is some combination of various influences (Italian, French, Arabic and Semitic) and local people are the sweetest, friendliest and happiest people I have ever met in all the years that I travelled around the world. I noticed long time ago that when long-faced and serious people enter my shops they are usually from Northern Europe and if they come in a large, smiling and chatty group, speaking the language I don't recognise, they are usually Maltese.
Being where it is, at this strange geographical point neither here or there, Malta was probably first populated by people coming from Sicily, which can still be seen with naked eye on a clear day from here. We know next to nothing about first, original islanders except that they left impressive temples behind them, lots of underground cemeteries and all sorts of figurines of people sleeping. And they disappeared suddenly. So this temple-building people were the oldest known Maltese people but somehow they ended forgotten by history and would stay forgotten if not for a chance accident some 100 years ago when some builders fell trough a hole in a basement and discovered impressive labyrinth of underground temples, true prehistoric secret world. And a lots of figurines of people sleeping which even today nobody can explain. Sleep? Death? Cult of death? Another interesting curiosity are absolutely mind-boggling wheel tracks in a stone roads that nobody can explain logically. I mean, we are talking about stone age so what kind of transport left marks in stone roads? Everything else that came after was less impressive - Bronze age people came later with their weapons, Romans, Carthaginians, Byzantine Empire, Sicilians, Muslims, Knights of Malta, it was all well documented and true, there are some interesting stories about them but these first mysterious Maltese, I tell you, this was Atlantis.
I have visited capitol of Malta on many occasions before but this time I had a mission: to finally go to the local National Museum of Archaeology and see with my own eyes the famous The Sleeping Lady, the figurine from thousands of years ago. Valetta is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places I have ever seen in my life, magnificent medieval town built by Knights of Malta right after the horrific Siege of Malta in 1565 when Ottoman Empire tried unsuccessfully to invade the island (and locals won the heroic victory over ten times more powerful army) - thanks to historic documents we actually know the exact date when first stone of the future new town was placed, it was on 28 March 1566. It feels and looks completely fantastic, like some fairy tale about knights and dragons, actually it looks like much bigger Dubrovnik, in a way. Valetta is also very crowded with tourists not only because of the beauty of the place but also because it has warm climate and it feels dreamy and heavenly there. Palaces, churches and museums all over the place. I can only imagine what it looks like in the evenings, it must be out of this world. Well, this time I was absolutely determined to see The Sleeping Lady and went to the museum immediately, even though the heat was truly killing me - true African heat - it turned out to be really pretty palace and exposition about prehistoric Malta was actually very interesting, these first people have left quite a few figurines of chubby, sleeping people behind but this one is the only one that survived several thousands of years. And there she was, the mysterious Sleeping Lady of Malta in her own room, under one dramatic light just like Nefertiti (but much, much older) - I almost squeaked with delight for finally finding her and was happy as piglet. She is adorable figurine (not bigger than palm of the hand) of chubby lady sleeping on her side and since she was found in the underground temple that also served as cemetery, I think she probably represented death. But since my impressions were excitement, happiness and joy, I got nothing negative here, the vibes I felt were love, peacefulness and comfort. Being a secret pagan, I have my own vague ideas about reincarnation and possibility of re-visits to the places we knew from before so this all makes perfect sense to me. I had the same feeling in Jerusalem, the whole experience left me thrilled, excited and happy like I had just visited some place from a dream.
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