Mdina: Malta’s Fortified Former Capital

Mdina, which is placed smack on top of the island of Malta, is a peaceful and quiet place, with narrow streets, tall walls towering over you, and a few open squares. A place that gave me a sandy, deserty feeling – because of the color of the buildings, I reckon 🙂 It’s a nice place to lazily stroll around, enjoy some beautiful buildings, and get away from the crowds elsewhere, but besides that, there’s not much to see and do…

Getting to Mdina was an adventure in its own right 🙂 An adventure that included a local bus with a hole in the floor, and, due to the very bumpy ride, had no shock absorbers…? A good thing I was stuck on it with good-humored fellow travellers, who also came in handy when we found ourselves “in the middle of nowhere”, and started to wonder if we were at all on the right bus. It took about half an hour to get to Mdina from Sliema, but for some unknown reason it felt a lot longer…

Update: I recently revisited Mdina, and things have definitely changed. I realised that immediately after stepping off the bus, or should I say on the bus. Lots of people, not the quiet place it used to be. For that reason, and just wanting to quickly pop in, I didn’t stay too long. However I could see that the moat has gotten a makeover. Didn’t go down to have a look. Guess I should have. Happened upon a wedding at the church too. Fun, while trying to be quiet and respectful. Seemed like the wedding party thought it was a bit amusing that the tourists went «bananas» 😀 Also gave me a chance to peek inside the church. Now there are renovated, vintage buses that run the route up to Mdina. Or you can get on the regular, modern ones.