Passport

I went to renew my Maltese passport today. Needing a witness to verify my renewal my father and I walked across Valletta to another city Floriana to see the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and the Property Market Chris Agius. Without an appointment he saw us straight away and visited with us for 45 minutes before signing as a witness to my passport application. Only in Malta. We walked back to the passport office with all the documents, signed in less than two hours, including a ferry trip across the harbor and back.

Returning back to Cospicua passing by my apartment in Senglea, a stone throw across the creek (top right hand apartment).

As I left my dad to rest and have an early sample of mum's vegetable soup, I headed out for a walk to get some running shoes from the town of Rahal Gdid. The ostentatious Baroque architecture becomes background noise once you live her long enough. But for visitors, this is a cornucopia of artistic wonders.

Malta is truly an island of Baroque architectural heritage. The influx of both European Union funds to restore older buildings matched with the astronomical inflation of realty prices have converged to revitalize this heritage. There are two stark omissions in the benefits to this growth. House prices have started to become unattainable for the average person and because of all the density and lack of pedestrian walkways it is impossible to get around in a wheelchair. I have seen people in wheelchairs in every city around the world. I have never seen one on the streets in Malta, ever. Even in Mexico City in the underground railway system, although there are no elevators those that use a wheelchair balance on the escalators. No such options exist in Malta as even the escalators tend to be too narrow for such acrobatic proficiencies.

© USA Copyrighted 2018 Mario D. Garrett