Søndag 07. juli 1996
Tilbake til hele juli 1996 Tilbake til hovedsiden Ett r siden
| Dagens dyr: Pus |
 |
06. Juli 1996 |
08. Juli 1996  |
| Sted: | Gozo/Malta |
Marius:I was gently awaken in the morning by the soft sounds of Lidija making herself a breakfast. I and a couple more slowly returned to the world, and crawled over to the fridge, and the remains of yesterdays breakfast of cheese and rolls (now quite hard). Again, everybody had to use the Bathroom, and we didn't get to leave for Victoria until 12 o'clock.The sofa in the kitchen was one of the stupidest constructions I had ever seen, half the sofa had a back, and the rest had small shelves instead. Can you imagine what this felt like when sitting 5 people in it, all with sunburned backs, fighting for the soft part of the sofa. During the breakfast, we also discussed how/when to go to a) Victoria b) Valetta, and there were always misunderstandings, as people mixed up the names. Erika said that for the journey back to Malta, there was a hovercraft going from Mgarr to Sliema, which would be quite nice. We avoided the long bus ride, and we cheated the ferry company, who relied on people paying only when going back from Gozo. After a lot of wasted time, we went down to the Bus stop to wait for the bus to Victoria. And, we discovered that Frank was missing. It turned out tht he had thought that we were walking to Victoria, and since he's not a very good walker, he had started about 30 minutes earlier together with Tibor. Kevin and Ulrich went ahead to catch up with them, when the others waited for the bus. The bus came, and after a short while, we cought up with Kevin and Ulrich, and after some real persuations, the busdriver actually stopped to pick them up. The busses in Gozo all cost 9cent, but you'll never be able to get any change for a 10cent coin. Then we arrived in Victoria, without seeing any signs of Frank and Tibor. We tlked and diskussed and wasted time for a while, and then started walking aimlessly through the streets of Victori, looking for a cashmachine, and Tibor and Frank. Some people managed to convice a restaurant to take care of our things while we explored Victoria. We paid them a few cent, and we got rid of all the luggage, which had turned quite heavy overnight. The first thing we agreed to see was the Citadel, a really magnificient site, on the very top of a flat hill, overlooking most of Gozo. I thought that if I lived in Gozo, and I was to plan the Capital, I would have built it right here. It was very hot, so we tried to find somewhere inside to see. The Cathedral and cathedral museum were closed, because it was a sunday, but the archeological museum was open, and, with an ISIC card, it was actually free for us students. there was a lot of diffeent old stuff there, but unfortunately, we hadn't studied the history of Gozo, and so we didn't enjoy it as much as we could have. Sue was of some assistance, though. We actually ran inti Frank an Tibor as well here. The building where the archeological museum was, fascinated some of our architectural friends, in that it had no aircondition, but still, it was quite cool inside. This was because of the thick walls and high ceilings, and in general, a sensible design. We also found a refreshment bar at the Citadel, where we spent some hours drinking coke, and eating Hamburgers with chips and salad, and I bought a postcardwith a nice Maltese Cross which I sent to Odd-Rune in Norway, in a hope that he would be able to reproduce it in a form suitable for my web-page. After the refreshment, and the usual round of photography, we went to the museum of Natural Science. This was also in an old-style buliding, and there were roomes devoted to different parts of the science. Htere was a room of birds, one of naval zoologi, etc. The insect-room was quite interresting, and we actually found mosquitoes there, which had just been bothering us so much. We almost feeled they deserved being stuck to a pin. The Geology room was, in my opinion, the most interresting. They had a map over Comino and Gozo, with indications of which types of rock there were on the two islands. You could really see that all the valleys on the island, where there were no cliffs, were situated aling cracks and faults. There was also a large pilar made of the different types of rock, and indicating their relationship through the depths. This was very interresting, as it for us was difficult to distinguish other things than "yellow limestone". The upper layer of Gozo consists of Coral limestone. It is not very good for housebuilding, but cat be used for ornaments, you can actually see the shells of the animals that made the rock. There are some houses (cottages) which are made from rubble, and that is often this. Under this layer is a layer of relatively soft sandstone called "greensand". It is usually an orange colour, and is only rarely used for building houses, as it erodes away quite quickly. On some old buildings, you can see that the rock is crumbling, leaving just the cement and a mesh of harder rock. This is greensand. Then there is a layer of blue clay, which is used for all the pottery that Sue is digging for. And, since the greensand is porpos and the Blue Clay is waterproof, this creates a reservoir of rainwater, and some natural springs in the hills of Gozo. Underneath this is the layer of the familiar yellow limestone (actually a couple of layers of it). It is good for housebuilding as it is soft when it is cut, and hardens as it is exposed. It is formed from Calcium which is deposited directly from the seawater, making it very homogenous. Under this again is another layer of coral limestone. This is the same layer that the whole of Comino consists of, and is what makes it so painful to walk there. This is also only used for Ornaments and domestics (whatever that means). After the Natural Science museum, we went to the forklore museum, but, unfortunaltely, some of us were to slow and didn't get in before they closed the doors. (No entry 15 mins before closing time). So, we just hung around til the others came, and we climbed up on the walls, for more photos, and went back down to the city. We bought a drink at the restaurant where we had left our stuff, and played around with a movement detector which rang a bell in the bar everytime one of us moved into the "forbidden" area. It turned out that we had two choises for the boat back home, either the one that left from Mgarr at 16:30 or the one at 18:30. Since some of us were going to the Shakespeare play "MacBeth" the same evening, and since we were really tired, we took the earlier one. The bus to Mgarr was really packed wit people, and I had to stand in the back, just before the emergency exit door. The door looked really scary to me, and I would for anything in the worl try to avoid putting aby pressure on it. The roof was rounded towards the back of the bus as well, so I had to bend mye head, into Adrians backpack. In front of the rear windows, there was a grid, which looked just like it was there to protect people from falling out through the windows, so I grabbed hold of it and hoped for the best. The bus trip was as usal quite rough, caused by both the road and the driving being so, and after a not unusually hard breaking, i was flying forwards in the bus with a window-grid in my hands. The rest of the journey went without any trouble, though. In Mgarr, we found the boat. It was supposed to be a hovercraft, but it did not at all look like a hovercraft to me, but there where Marietta and Heli, whom we had lost somewhere around the citadel, and it turned out to be the right one. We could not stay outdoors, and the windows were all splashed with salty waves, preventing any view there. This was just as well, as we were getting rather tired, all of us. I was discussing the boat with Kevin, and we come to the conclusion that it was probably a hydrofoil, not a hovercraft. The boat even stopped in Comino to pick up some passengers from the hotel. When we arrived in Sliema, after a relatively short trip, the first thing we noticed was that the Boat really was a hoercraft. The front was clearly a hovercraft's. Then, we went to find a bus. We jumped on to the first one going in the direction of Valetta. We really filled up the bus, and the busdriver almost stopped me, with a "Hey, Joe" as I was the last one on board. Kevin however saved me by explaining that iwas with the others. After only few stops, Thomas yelled at us to get off the bus. I didn't understandf why, but people started pushing, and so we left the bus, to discover that we were in Gzira, while Thomas had thought we were in Msida. This caused quite a stir and lots of angry and tired faces, when we had to walk for 15 minutes from Gzira to Msida. But, still Sue was lucky to discover both a hotel called Susan, and a car with a Canadian license plate. In Msida, we found the bus stop, and started looking for a suitable bus. We bought icecreams and faces started brightening again. Some of us took the 47 bus which was quite full, while the others took the nr. 40, where we actualy bumped into Sarah (Irland) as well, on her way back from a trip somewhere. Then it was just time for a shower, and finding some suitable clothes to wear in the theatre. Erika know where it was, and so we set off. It was going to be an open air theathre in the San Anton Gardens. Bernd and Steve were a few minutes late, and Adrien started worrying wether he would get rid of their tickets, but, in the end they showed up as well. We had seats far to one side, and not the best view, but these seats were the cheapest. In the middle, there was somebody quite VIP-like, and we guessed it was the President, as they also played a terrible recording of the Maltese national anthemn when he arrived. I enjoyed the play very much, but I felt a bit strange sitting between Heli and Adrian, both sleeping. The play was slightly modernised, which seems to be a common practise with the Shakespeare plays these days. The soldiers wore quite modern uniforms, the king (Duncan) even had a personal bodyguard. I got most of the dialogue, but not everything, but in the break, it turned out that some of the girls hadn't really understood very much, so I quickly summed up what had happened so far; A prediction that MacBeth will be king, So his wife talks him into killing the previous king. Another prediction that Banquo's children will be kings, so MacBeth has to kill them but does not succeed... We rearranged the seats slightly for the second act, Adrian and Heli got to sleep on each other, and I sat beside Veronica, and, unfortunately in front of Sue. The first thing she did was trying to give my shoulders a rough massage, and with my newly aquired sunburns, I screamed aloud... When the play had started again,Veronica asked about something, and I was so consentrated that I replied in Norwegian :-). I discovered suddenly, and could repeat. I then proceded to making some quick remarks along the way when there was someting important going on. I had enjoyed the play very much, but I am sorry that most of the others (non-english-native-speakers) had not really understood enough, and combined with beeing tired from the weekend, really hadn't enjoyed themselves... Then straight home and to bed... |