Let us start with a short lesson in Maltese pronunciation. ‘x’ is read as ‘sh’ – so the name of the fishermen village I will tell about in this episode reads approximately as ‘Marsashlock’.
panoramic view of Marsaxlokk from the Delimara Point
Marsaxlokk is the biggest and most picturesque fishing village in Malta. It is located on the South-Eastern extremity of the island, in the Delimara Bay. We reached it twice, one during our car rental touring trip, and the second time when we stopped there for lunch (well, most people had lunch …) during the organized bus day trip we took to see the principal objectives in the Southern half of the island. It is in the first day when we took the panoramic picture you can see above, with most of the city and the gulf, infamously known in the Maltese history as the place where the Turkish fleet anchored during the 1565 war and debarked on the island.
church on the side of the road near the village
A beautiful church on the side of the road, near the city raises as a testimony to the religious feelings of the inhabitants and their passion for building churches. It’s a fishermen village, people are not very rich, yet this church is imposing, and it’s not even the principal church of the village.
house by the harbor
The streets are narrow, as you would expect in a Mediterranean fishermen village, but some of the houses are imposing, and interesting in the mix of styles. Look above at the house that I photographed near the harbor – limestone, ‘classical’ columns, Arabic style archs, the Maltese closed balcony.
Maltese Labour Party Flag
The front-line by the harbor is very typical to all the Mediterranean area, and reminds strikingly the harbor areas in Jaffo or in Akko. What was special was a HUGE flag of the Maltese Labor Party, I have no clue why there and why on that Sunday, but its dimensions would have made Ehud Barak dream.
fishing boats in the harbor
The fishing boats in the harbor were freshly painted in strong colors, it may be a local custom to paint them around Easter, in any case they were looking good.
fresh catch in the market
The first day we got there was a Sunday, and the local market was open and crowded working at maximum capacity. It is first of all a fish market, and the catch of the day is available in the market to buy, or in the restaurants on the sidewalk.
carpets in the Sunday market
But then it’s a general market as well, not different from a Turkish bazar, or from an Arabic or Israeli shoukh, and not very original either. We could by a few souvenirs and we did not buy any of the carpets above.
Malta Chardonnay
The next day Marsaxlokk was the stop for lunch. You will need however to ask our friends how was lunch in the village, as we chose to eat at the fish restaurant recommended by the tour guide (worst guide we ever had in a guided tour, did I say this? if now I say it now). It started all well with a fish soup and nice bottle of local Chardonnay, but then the fried fish platter never came until the time to leave. The kitchen of the restaurant was simply overflown by the group and could not keep the pace. We had a better dinner that night, and I will tell more about it in the episode dedicated to food in Malta.