WELCOME

This blog is dedicated to Malta - my island home. My aim is not to bore you with history but to share my thoughts and a few facts together with a photo or two. For a more in -depth background of the island please go here. The purpose of this blog is not to point out the short-comings of the island. There are plenty that do that already. My wish is to show you the beauty of an island at the cross roads of the Mediterranean, a melting pot of history; a place where fact and fiction are sometimes fused to create unique myths and legends; a country that has been conquered so many times that our culture is a mish mesh of the lands that surround us and of lands far away. I confess that my greatest desire is to make you fall in love with this tiny enchanting island.

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Monday 20 July 2009

A Tale of Two Balconies

Side by side they perch - as close as two lovers; as familiar as two old friends - through long, hot summers and the biting winds of winter. Beneath them they have seen countless generations walk through the streets. What secrets do they know? What gossip have they heard? Perhaps during the dead of night, when all around them is silence and slumber they come alive. And they whisper to each other. Of bygone days. Of people that once walked the streets below them. Of the ghosts of the past and the people of the present. Sometimes the air is filled with ghosts as they tell their secrets to each other. I wonder what they have seen. What scenes were played below their wide open eyes. I would love to know. It would be interesting to see the world through their eyes, to see the changes that the passing years have wrought.

Note

There are hundreds of these types of balconies in all the towns and villages of Malta. Although the enclosed type, like the ones in the picture, are the most common, open balconies also exist as do balconies which do not overhang the street but are part of an upper floor with a balustrade at the front and walls on the sides.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, yes, I too would love to know their secrets, and hear their whispers in the night.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would follow Jientje anywhere...especially to the island of Malta!
    I love your self description in your profile :)

    ReplyDelete

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