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hawkwing_lbA while ago I talked about writing a post about Away. Real Life (™) unfortunately intervened, and I’ve spent the time since then wrapped up in other things.
But I do want to talk about Away.
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jmeadows chimed in in favour of setting (as she calls it). So I’ll talk about Gozo in terms of the scenery, at least for now.
Gozo (Ghawdex in Maltese) is an island off Malta, in the centre of the Med. It’s 7km wide at its widest point, and 14km long. Unlike Malta proper, it has quite a rural feel, particularly the western end of the island. In a way, it reminded me a lot of the west of Ireland, only warmer. And... not older, precisely, but ancient in different way. When the wind blows you can smell the sea, and the dust, on the wind that blows up from the south and the Sahara, across the green centre of the island and little patchwork fields of onions and tomatoes and grain. You can smell warmth in the wind, and the taste of dust and salt and other, more fertile, things. The roads are narrow and wind abruptly from countryside to villages where church roofs gleam in the sun and the yellow and tan sandstone traps the heat and gives it back; where Mediterranean women of indeterminate age sweep the dust from in front of their doorways and men wander in shirtsleeves in the shade of shuttered buildings. The architecture is Mediterranean, Moorish, old: you can taste timelessness in the quiet air where tabby and tortoiseshell cats groom themselves in the tiled shade before the church bells ring out in a noon or evening clamour.
It was spring when I was there, and thus green and temperate. In summer the heat hits you like a hammer, pounding you into the stone.
Victoria is the island’s largest town, and its most central one. Known as Rabat before a British queen gave it her name, and still called that by most of the Gozitans, at its centre is the Citadel, an impressive fortress originating in the late Middle Ages, built on one of Gozo’s several flat-topped hills.
Stand at the bottom of the curtain walls looking up and I promise you, you will never feel large again.
URLs for pictures. Do the clicky thing.
On the walls: http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1068.JPG
Citadel wall from one of the bastions: http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1067.JPG
Citadel stairs (with people for perspective): http://www.maltavista.net/en/list/photo/965.html
View from above of one of the many bastions (this is quite a small one): http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1070.JPG
Fortress wall from near the top: http://www.maltavista.net/en/list/photo/973.html
An aerial view of the Citadel: http://www.maltavista.net/en/list/photo/954.html
Inside the Citadel: http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1094.JPG
http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1089.JPG
http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1079.JPG
But I do want to talk about Away.
jmeadows chimed in in favour of setting (as she calls it). So I’ll talk about Gozo in terms of the scenery, at least for now.Gozo (Ghawdex in Maltese) is an island off Malta, in the centre of the Med. It’s 7km wide at its widest point, and 14km long. Unlike Malta proper, it has quite a rural feel, particularly the western end of the island. In a way, it reminded me a lot of the west of Ireland, only warmer. And... not older, precisely, but ancient in different way. When the wind blows you can smell the sea, and the dust, on the wind that blows up from the south and the Sahara, across the green centre of the island and little patchwork fields of onions and tomatoes and grain. You can smell warmth in the wind, and the taste of dust and salt and other, more fertile, things. The roads are narrow and wind abruptly from countryside to villages where church roofs gleam in the sun and the yellow and tan sandstone traps the heat and gives it back; where Mediterranean women of indeterminate age sweep the dust from in front of their doorways and men wander in shirtsleeves in the shade of shuttered buildings. The architecture is Mediterranean, Moorish, old: you can taste timelessness in the quiet air where tabby and tortoiseshell cats groom themselves in the tiled shade before the church bells ring out in a noon or evening clamour.
It was spring when I was there, and thus green and temperate. In summer the heat hits you like a hammer, pounding you into the stone.
Victoria is the island’s largest town, and its most central one. Known as Rabat before a British queen gave it her name, and still called that by most of the Gozitans, at its centre is the Citadel, an impressive fortress originating in the late Middle Ages, built on one of Gozo’s several flat-topped hills.
Stand at the bottom of the curtain walls looking up and I promise you, you will never feel large again.
URLs for pictures. Do the clicky thing.
On the walls: http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1068.JPG
Citadel wall from one of the bastions: http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1067.JPG
Citadel stairs (with people for perspective): http://www.maltavista.net/en/list/photo/965.html
View from above of one of the many bastions (this is quite a small one): http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1070.JPG
Fortress wall from near the top: http://www.maltavista.net/en/list/photo/973.html
An aerial view of the Citadel: http://www.maltavista.net/en/list/photo/954.html
Inside the Citadel: http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1094.JPG
http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1089.JPG
http://www.gozo.gov.mt/showdoc.aspx?id=931&filesource=4&file=DSCN1079.JPG
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-09 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-09 01:22 am (UTC)