New to the story? Start with the Prologue.

I am going to love it here… as long as I can find a place to stay (part 2)

20th of March 2024

The water issue

My mouth gets filled with a strange bitter taste mixed with what’s supposed to be fruit tea. I grimace. 

‘Tap water in Malta is drinkable, isn’t it?’ I ask myself and immediately ask google the same thing.

‘The tap water in Malta is generally safe to drink and complies with the requirements set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union (EU). However, like in many places, tap water in Malta may contain traces of minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, which can affect its taste and texture.¹’

1. Source: https://travellingwithboys.co.uk/

‘Well, that explains a lot.’ I tell myself and continue drinking the weird tea. But my mind immediately drifts towards the idea of buying water, which is something I’ve never needed to do in my entire life. Both Czechia and Switzerland have excellent clean tap water.

I put my tea cup on the table and start thinking about my journey so far. The previous night I was so tired after the day of travelling, that I fell asleep as soon as I got to bed. I vaguely remember some noise coming from the outside, but I was honestly out of it. This morning, I’m slowly trying to come back to myself and plan out the following days. 

Firstly, I need to get a Maltese police conduct², then a residence card, a public transport card and a health insurance card. In the meantime, I also need to tackle the housing issue. 

2.  This is a document that certifies that I have a clean criminal record in Malta. 

Yesterday evening, we agreed with Fefi that we would take the apartment. I messaged the owner, but haven’t received any answer. I’m not panicking at all! It’s only been something over 12 hours since she’s read that message and hasn’t responded.

Now I need to get up and head to Floriana for that police conduct. It’s a city right next to Valletta, so I might as well use my free time to explore the capital a bit. 

Second impression of Valletta

I’m wandering through the streets of Valletta without any final destination in mind. I’m just looking around, taking in the various buildings entirely created out of limestone, often decorated by the same style colourful balconies I saw yesterday in Birkirkara. Fefi mentioned that these wooden conclave balconies came from the Arabian world. That they were meant to keep the wives inside and unseen, while they could observe the world outside. In time, these balconies evolved and became typical signs of Maltese architecture. Whether this information is historically accurate I’m yet to find out but admittedly, they look stunning. You can find them in all possible colours. I even came across lilac. 

I walk through the length of the peninsula, until I reach a fort that looks like it has been turned into a museum. A few steps to the right I find out that it’s Fort St. Elmo and the National War Museum. I don’t go inside. I still feel like wandering around. But I seriously need to create some kind of a list of places to visit. I am, admittedly, seriously unprepared for this island. Knowledge-wise.

When I was younger, I used to create long lists of places I wanted to visit everytime I went on holiday. Once I studied the entire guide of Paris to be able to plan two weeks of holidays there. I grew out of that. Now I’m more into taking in the atmosphere and the ambience of places. But unlike other tourists I have the advantage of time on my side. Not everyone goes somewhere for six months and has time to discover things as they go. 

I turn around at the end of the peninsula and slowly head back a different way. Not even fifty metres farther I come across stairs down to the sea. They lead to what looks like a little Greek village, with small houses painted white and their windows various shades of blue. I descend the stairs and I finally get a whiff of sea air. 

I was quite surprised, the first day, that I didn’t smell salt in the air. I always had the sea associated with a strong smell of salt, but that’s probably due to my limited experience with the sea. When it comes to sea tourism I’ve only ever visited Croatia. As I said, I’m not a water person. 

This little Greek village might quickly become my new favourite place. It looks a bit wild, but I guess that’s its real spell. Plus there is the view over the bay towards other fortresses that allure me to add them on my visit list. 

I continue around the peninsula, visiting The Siege Bell War Memorial, and the lovely Lower Barrakka Gardens, which I find even nicer than the Upper Barrakka Gardens, which I visited with Fefi a day prior. 

I’m still in total awe of this place. Valletta really has that special something. 

Cockroaches are proud citizens of the island

‘Is that a cockroach?’ I ask myself and I proceed to capture this almost already immobile creature under a glass. 

About three hours later I’m watching a strange giant bug on my apartment floor. It’s on its back and looks like it’s dying. 

I have quite a lot of experience with cockroaches. In Switzerland, I had the luck of living in a building where some apartments couldn’t get rid of them despite the regular visits from pest control. So, they were spreading into the entire building over and over again. But those cockroaches in Switzerland were half the size of this one. 

Once again, I ask google what it thinks and of course, cockroaches are present on the island and doing generally great in this environment. Much to the annoyance of the human population. 

I’m slowly starting to understand the low reviews for this accommodation. It was quite a challenge to shower this morning – the hot water was more like a trickle than a stream. Now cockroaches. It’s getting better and better. 

At least my workplace looks fine. I stopped there on my way from Valletta, just to say ‘Hi’. The lady recruiter with whom I was in contact showed me around a bit and everyone I met seemed super friendly. The first impression is good. 

I’m starting to work there in a few days, a week after my arrival. You might think that’s quite a long time off, but the recruiter recommended it. To take a week to adapt and given the nerves I have from the apartment search, I think it was a good idea. 

The apartment owner from yesterday still hasn’t responded and I’m slowly starting to reach out to real estate agents. I want to have an apartment before I start working. I really need some stability in my life. 

Photography and I

Later that day, when evening is approaching, I’m walking through St. George’s Bay in St. Julian’s and towards what looks like a bit of nature, just behind the town. I really need to get out of the paved jungle for a moment. 

I pass a few expensively looking hotels and find myself on the shore of the sea. The waves are quite high today, mercilessly washing over the rocks and creating pools of salt water. Despite the rocks not being any cliffs and the risk of me falling into the sea being minimal, I keep my distance. I hold water in unhealthy respect. 

Instead I take out my camera and start shooting pictures. I want to test my new lens or better to say old lens – Helios 44/2 – 58 mm³. I took it out of my storage room in the Czech Republic, where it had been hidden for a few years. I wanted to check if I can actually take some photos with it. 

3.  Helios was a lens brand produced in the Soviet Union from the 1950s. The lens copied the optical formula of Carl Zeiss Biotar lens which became famous for its bokeh - the blurred background shaped in circles. Helios became popular within masses and has remained popular among manual photographers until these days.

In 2023, I almost entirely stopped taking pictures with modern automatic lenses. My Nikon camera has had problems with the auto-focus for a few years and I could never find the right time to send it in for a service. Mostly because I never wanted to be without a camera for a longer period of time. But this situation led me to finally learn how to focus manually and then I started testing all the vintage lenses I’ve had in my gear for years but never had enough time to actually use them. 

When you take photos with vintage lenses, you usually need to do all the work by yourself. Not only focus on the object you want to have in sharp focus, but you also need to set aperture to the right number to have the picture exposed correctly without it being too light or too dark. Of course, the modern technology of my camera helps with some measuring, but the work with the camera is still totally different than what you do with an automatic lens. It makes you think twice before you press the shutter button. 

That’s how, in 2023, I almost completely stopped using my fleet of modern lenses and fell in love with the gear I originally wanted to sell because I had no use for it⁴. 

4.  My father and I bought a huge fleet of lenses when I was in high school, studying photography. My father loved reading about historical lenses and I was preparing to become a professional photographer. That dream never came true.

But taking Helios out of my storage is taking it a step further. My dad needed to put together two non-functional lens adapters to even make this lens functional on a modern DSLR camera. Now I’m fighting, trying to figure out how to work with this little s**t.

‘This might take a while.’ I tell myself and I try to be patient. My first tries with the rest of my vintage fleet weren’t great as well. 

Suddenly my phone buzzes. Finally a message from the apartment owner, letting us know that she had been very busy that day and couldn’t answer. But she will have the apartment ready for us by Monday and we should send her our information for the contract. 

‘F**k…’ I breathe out. ‘There is no turning back now.’

Interested in more photos from Malta? Check on my Maltese photogallery.
Interested in more photos from vintage lenses like Helios? Check on my vintage lenses galleries.