Oh. Christmas just passed and I completely forgot to go to church.
If you committed the same omission, God allows you to make up for it by watching this church video:
(From Borat.)
Living in a predominantly Catholic country (like Malta), I feel more compelled to mock Christianity. I wonder how this urge will play out when I move to Saudi Arabia or Iran.
A few weeks ago, when I first was in Malta’s capital to take some photos of Valletta for you, the scenery and atmosphere reminded me of the film “Munich” by Steven Spielberg (2005).
The film, staying close to real events, describes the Israeli effort to track down and kill the Palestinian terrorists who were responsible for the Munich massacre, when Palestinians attacked the Israeli team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany and took them hostage. The Palestinian terrorists killed 11 of the Israeli sportsmen and one German police officer.
I remember thinking, as I was lingering through the narrow and steep streets of Valletta: “This would have been a perfect place to shoot parts of ‘Munich’ “. It turned out that someone else had exactly the same idea.
Large parts of “Munich” were actually filmed at various locations in Malta, standing in for scenes that play in Tel Aviv, the West Bank, Beirut, Cyprus, Spain, Athens and Rome in the film.
The hotel explosion that you see on the DVD cover above and in the short trailer above was filmed in Bugibba, just a few hundred meters from where I live now. In the film, the hotel is in Cyprus.
I am especially proud because I discovered and recognised this hotel by accident during my evening stroll around Bugibba tonight. I waited with taking a photo until it was dark, to increase the resemblance to what it looks like in the film.
Primera Hotel, Bugibba, Malta – 25 December 2011 – (C) Andreas Moser
The same hotel being blown up in “Munich”.
The following photo from the film also must have been shot somewhere in Malta.
the Israeli agents in “Munich”
And this one most definitely, as you can see from the typical Maltese yellow bus in the background.
“Damn, the bus gives it away. We should have blown it up as well.”
When Avner (Eric Bana) and Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush [“The King’s Speech“]) walk along the promenade in Tel Aviv, Israel, they are really in Sliema, Malta.
I will try to find this exact spot in Sliema and take a photo to post it here.
The following outdoor café scene takes place in Rome, Italy but was filmed in Rabat, Malta.
IMDB says that other scenes were filmed in Cospicua, at Malta International Airport at Luqa, Marsaxlokk (representing Athens), at Republic Square in Valletta (for the outdoor café meeting between Avner, Andreas and Tony) and in Valletta again (for the hotel in Athens).
I will try to find all these locations and document them with photographs. If you live in Malta and you know one of the locations’ exact whereabouts, please let me know. And if you are Hollywood and looking for a location scout in Malta, please do the same.
By the way, “Munich” is a good film. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it and then come to Malta!
One of my first tasks after arriving in Malta was to find an office space where I can work and focus on my studies. Luckily, I found the perfect spot in my new home town of Bugibba/Qawra: Salini National Park, only a short walk away from where I live.
Here I can study in the midst of nature, largely undisturbed, except for the occasional dog that smells the food in my bag.
After a tough day at work, it is also a nice place to relax.
I want to learn Italian because it can save lives and prevent espionage plots from being uncovered:
A scene from “Inglourious Basterds” in which three US soldiers posing as Italians are introduced by a German actress to a Colonel of the SS who catches everyone by surprise with his fluent Italian.
If you haven’t seen “Inglourious Basterds” yet, watch it! It is one of the best films of the last years. It is worth to watch it for the performance of Christoph Waltz alone, and then one more time just for the film music.
On the subject of this post, I actually had Italian at school for one semester and therefore know the basics, but I would love to learn it again and much more in-depth. Maybe I will move to Italy next.
Last week, I spent a sunny December day on Malta‘s west coast, hiking through Il-Majjistral Nature and History Park and along Anchor Bay. I set out at Għajn Tuffieħa / Golden Bay and made my way north through this barren landscape:
There is more vegetation than first meets the eye, and even some dwellings where you could seek shelter if you got lost and had to spend a night.
All the colours found in this nature reserve are represented in this photo:
I was drawn to the rugged coastline which I walked along dangerously close to the edge of the cliffs.
This is me, only a few feet away from falling down into the Mediterranean Sea:
By the way, just because this area is a nature reserve apparently doesn’t mean that there is no hunting, as these bullet casings demonstrate:
Towards the northern end of Il-Majjistral Nature and History Park, I made my way down to Anchor Bay where I wanted to get as close as possible to the powerful waves.
Both the wind and the waves were ferocious and I enjoyed watching and feeling these forces of nature, before I stumbled – on the other side of Anchor Bay – upon the cute village of Sweethaven, also known as Popeye Village. (A separate blog post about this will follow soon.)
(C) for all photos: Andreas Moser
I hope you have enjoyed my previous photos of Valletta. I stayed in Malta’s capital city for the evening, to take more photos of this beautiful and romantic city for you:
As you see, the city seemed to be empty at night. I was the only person walking through the narrow streets.
Only this spooky shadow followed me around on my tour:
(c) for all photos: Andreas Moser
Yesterday, I visited Valletta, Malta’s capital city. 
Valletta is the smallest capital city of any EU member state, measuring just 600m by 1000m and with a population of around 6,000.
My arrival in Valletta coincided with a Scout music band marching along Triq ir-Repubblika (Republic Street) which already put me in a good mood because I love the sound of bagpipes.
Valletta was only built in 1566 to protect Malta against a Turkish invasion (this was after the Great Siege of 1565). It was the first planned city in Europe with a grid system of streets (see map above). The long straight streets allow the cooling sea breeze to circulate, serving like an air conditioning system for the whole city.
It’s easy to walk through the whole city in a few hours. You will come across everything from grandiose sights
to shops (and a cinema) that throw you back in time by 50 years:
Even the residential buildings are beautiful, with their countless bay windows and balconies.
Despite its small size, there are several parks to have a rest underneath trees and next to water fountains, primarily the Lower and Upper Barrakka Gardens and Hastings Gardens.
Overall, I found Valletta a relaxed and slow city which is maybe best summed up by the following picture:
I stayed in Valletta for the evening after sunset and I will share these photos in a separate post “Valletta at Night“.
(This article was featured on Hopper.)
And what have we achieved?
“My business is blooming.”
The government finances aren’t in any better state:
And now the most dangerous numbers of all:
While the withdrawal of Western forces will not automatically mean the withdrawal of developmental aid, I predict that most foreign aid agencies will leave soon thereafter as their staff will get kidnapped, attacked and killed in larger numbers. We can of course still transfer money to the Afghan government, but the record of the past 10 years doesn’t make me optimistic about the sensible use of this money by President Karzai’s government or whoever will be in power after ISAF will leave.
The current massive spending by international aid agencies and foreign military certainly crowds out some local spending and investment that might otherwise happen, but the hypothetical GDP per capita without foreign aid is nonetheless a shocking number to keep in mind: 27 $ per year.
Sorry Afghanistan, but I really can’t be optimistic about your future; try as I might.
The Times of Malta reports:
“All of us or Andreas Moser. Choose!”
A group o 152 sub-saharan Africans will be leaving Malta to embark on a new life in Germany on Tuesday.
All had arrived in Malta after the outbreak of the crisis in Libya. They are 43 men, 73 women and 36 children from Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.
Most of them already have family ties in Germany.
In recent months the refugees participated in “cultural orientation courses” and received information about life in Germany.
Basic German language courses were offered and the German community in Malta donated warm winter clothing.
The refugees will be flown to Nuremberg on a charter flight and from there they will be allocated to different areas in Germany.
Their first targets will be to learn German, take part in integration courses and find an appropriate job. During this transitional period they will be accommodated and financially supported.
In the last two years some 81,000 asylum seekers arrived in Germany. Some 300 refugees were relocated to Germany from Malta in recent years.
In return, Malta has agreed to accept one immigrant from Germany and I have volunteered to make this move to Malta.
Between all parties involved, the Republic of Malta, the Federal Republic of Germany, the African refugees and myself, I can’t help but think that I got the best deal out of this whole affair.
The Happy Hermit 