Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Catacombs, Mdina, and Malta


Today we took a trip to the city of Mdina, also known as the silent city. Perhaps the best part of the excursion was visiting the catacombs. We had a wonderful guide by the name of Bob. He has been working at the site for a number of years and he described himself as an amateur archeologist.




The catacombs were absent of many ancient artifacts, however, the walls alone told a plethora of fabulous stories about the history of the place. There were a number of World War 2 bomb shelters, old living areas, and burial spaces. I was especially touched by the bomb shelters, which portrayed the grim lifestyle of the Maltese during the Second World War.

Before our trip to Mdina, we visited St. Catharine’s school to instruct young people in the ways of robotics. We taught two groups of about 26 students a piece. Our consensus afterwards was that we had changed at least a few lives, which was a very gratifying feeling.

The team mapped three sites today. The first site was a water gallery that was visited by last year’s team. The last two sites were located in the same building as the entrance to the catacombs.




The sweet part of the day was our trip to a small café embedded in the wall of the city. The name of the place was Fontanella, and its pastries were excellent. I had a slice of blackcurrant cheese cake, while a number of the others had mint chocolate cake.



We ended the day with an excellent talk about Maltese corsairs from the curator of the Maltese Maritime Museum.

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