Mosta, Malta

We tried to take the bus to Mdina today, but we were getting conflicting routes from the Malta bus website between Heather’s and my phone. We ended up just taking a Bolt, which was just about the same cost as two transit fares, and much quicker.

Mdina is fairly close to Mosta, about a ten minute drive. It’s a walled city, sitting on a plateau overlooking the rest of the island. It’s supposedly very atmospheric with no cars allowed. It may have been like that before mass tourism reached here; now it’s overflowing with tourists and horse-drawn carriages (and enough vehicles that you need to beware of cars). It’s filled with souvenir shops and restaurants catering to large groups. Just not our thing.

We did get tickets to the cathedral and associated museum. The 15 EUR ticket may have helped reduce the crowds, as it was pleasant to visit both.

This morning I had woken up with my phone screen on the fritz again, and it got progressively worse throughout the morning. I had my camera so just used that for pics.

We had lunch at a small restaurant just outside the city walls. We sat at a shaded table on the stairs, with an amazing view of Valletta and the Mediterranean in the distance. We had a full lunch over the next couple hours. So the day trip was a success after all :)

We used Heather’s phone to get a Bolt back to Mosta. There was a phone repair shop about 100m down the street from our hotel. They said it was my screen again, and probably related to another bump rather than a poor repair job by the previous folks. I suspect that I may have damaged more than the screen.

We fly out tomorrow, but they said they could fix it this afternoon. It would just cost a bit more to have the part express delivered. Hopefully this will last me until we get home, when I’ll just get a new iPhone. Unrelated, they had a cute little dog that took a liking to Heather.

We walked down to the Mosta Rotunda. More formally called the Sanctuary Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, it’s the 3rd largest unsupported dome in world. ^{[citation needed]}. It took a direct hit from a German bomb in WWII but the bomb didn’t explode. You can still see the tiles in the ceiling where the bomb went through, and the cracked floor where it landed.

It’s possible to climb up to the clock tower and view the interior of the dome. There’s a replica of the bomb in the church museum, and the ticket also includes a visit to the WWII bomb shelters under the church. Pretty good deal for 5 EUR! It’s a popular day trip for folks staying in Valletta; we had it pretty much to ourselves at 5pm.

Got back to the phone repair shop just after 6pm. My phone was ready, and working once again. Hopefully it will last two more weeks, as it’s doubtful I’ll find any tech repair shops on the smaller islands in the Azores.

We were still full from dinner, so just called it a day. Our flight’s not till 2:20pm tomorrow, so we didn’t need to do any pre-packing tonight.