Food is very expensive here at the grocery store. A small bag of fruits and vegetables was close to 50 euros. You have to get it weighed in the produce department and then take it to the cashier to pay. Michael’s aunts get their fruits and vegetables at the market on Tuesday or Friday morning just outside the church. This is where we headed this morning.
It was not so much a “market” but rather one truck. Locals were lined up and handed the farmer a list. The farmer found everything on the list and exchanged the filled bags for cash. He had all kinds of fruits and vegetables hidden in the truck. It was pretty amazing.
We did not have a list and had to navigate the language barrier but he was very patient. It is also not an orderly process, definitely not first come first served. The locals and people with smaller (likely regular orders) come first. We did eventually fill a large grocery bag for only 17 euros. The food was so fresh and worth the wait. We will be doing this every week.
St. Agatha's Tower (aka Red Tower)
This tower was part of Malta’s coastal defence system – a series of watch towers built by the Knights of St. John during the 1600s to protect Malta from a sea invasion by the Ottoman Turks. When an enemy vessel approached, the watchman would send a fire signal from on top of the tower. The other towers – all within the line of sight of adjacent towers – would follow suit. It served as a strong deterrent until 1798, when Malta was successfully invaded by the French (but retaken 3 months later by Maltese insurgents).
We first became acquainted with St. Agatha during our visit into the dungeons. She was Christian (during Roman times) and escaped persecution in Sicily by fleeing to Malta and hiding with friends in the catacombs of Rabat (just outside of Mdina). When she returned to Sicily she was captured and tortured. The explicit details have been authenticated and are pretty gruesome. She is the patron saint of breast cancer (for obvious reasons if you know one of the ways in which she was tortured).
We finished the day by driving out the North East point, where a little church stands all by itself in the wind. This church is not historic but rather a re-build of the original which fell of the cliff and crashed into the sea below.
We finished our evening with some spaghetti and calls home to Ashlyn (who is in the midst of exams) and also to Nanna who we have been calling daily to share our adventures.
i made the blog! (and the exam went well)
Wow – I hope you bought that beautiful artichoke from this post’s cover photo.
I can’t tell if it is the same produce truck but the produce is great. The wine left something to be desired
You’ll have to go with your list when you go to the veggie truck next week.