h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Your article brought some memories back for me also!
In 1972, when I was in the RAF, I had to go to Malta for four weeks when the Premier of the time, Dom Mintoff wanted the British to leave.
I was in a party that was removing all the ordnance from our dumps.
Kalafrana, Mosta and Berzie-Buggia (Spelling??) come to mind, as well as evening trips down Straight Street in Valletta (!!!!!!!)
We were billetted at Luqa.
'G'

I had lovely holidays from the age of 5 to about 10 in Malta - I revisited two years ago and although the rubbish and the noise were the same as I remember the people were still as friendly, this history is still fascinating as well..

Yeah, this is an excellent article!

I am actually half Maltese myself, and my father's family lived through the second world war events that are described. They had a house in Valletta, and they were bombed out twice.

My parents named my sister "Melita" after the original name of Malta.

Oh, and it's "Birzebbuga"; the g has a dot over it to make it sound as in "Gelatine" rather than as in "Gate".

And as for the language... Malti - il-lingwa Internazionali!

(yeah, right! )

Thanks for that Jim. My Uncle was based there in WWII as well.

The only Maltese word I can remember is Periklu!!!

(Danger)!!!!

(It appeared on signs to the runway approaches)

'G'

This is a very good article, I dont know why I found it in the 'least' section. Am I right in thinking that there is some 'pre-history' in Malta, carved and standing stones and the like, pre-dating the Ancient civilisations?

I just found it under "least" too. Here's a boost.

One thing the article's missing, which nobody's talked about yet, is: Where does one get a beer on Malta? Are there authentic English pubs there? Beachfront lounges? Third-world-like dive bars?

Is the English beer shipped in 12-ounce cans? Or is it all Italian beer? Or is there no beer at all, to avoid offending Arabic sensibilities?

As one might imagine, these are important questions to resolve before I schedule a vacation to Malta. B^{D>

Hop Leaf beer (the local brew) is rubbish!!!!!!!!!
Take my advice, and stick to shorts with a mixer.
You will find it cheaper than 'imported ' beer!!

'G'

I recently got back from a trip to europe during which i spent 11 days in malta. I would agree that it is a beautiful country and the people there are very hospitable. malta does have a pre-historic history. there are pre-historic temples on malta and gozo. while there we visited Hagar Qim and Mnandra on malta. however if you plan on visiting them someday keep in mind the close a 2 in the afternoon, this caused us to have a rather short visit. one more thing about malta is that it is tiny, taking a bus from one side of the island takes less than an hour total.

ARABIC sensibilites are not offended by alcohol (incidentally a word derived from Arabic!). MUSLIM sensibilites are offended. By the way, if you are seeking all things English, how about a holiday at home in England?

Why not holiday at home in England? Well, because I live in Massachusetts. I figure the odds are against Samuel Adams beer being available in Malta, but some good English stuff might not be too much to ask there.

As for Islamic vs. Arab sensibilities... four out of five people I've met from Islamic countries (1) like America, (2) like alcohol, and (3) get along nicely with Hindu and/or Jewish co-workers. So, I know the stereotypes often go right out the window, whether or not we're talking the religion or the ethnic group.

I`m on Malta at chirstmas. So I will have a lookout for beer, and write, if I remember. Which I wont think will depend on the amount of beer intake...

Just got back from a week on Malta, was pleasantly surprised by the standard of driving! If you can drive in Birmingham or Harlow, you have nothing to fear on Malta. Peril sensitive sunglasses optional for passengers.

And it is a horror if you are used to driving in Germany, and I don´t know how New England people would "apreciate" this style.

Massachusetts boasts a standard of bad driving that no other state or province in North America can match. From what I hear, only the Georgia hillbillies even come close.

Still, I've never dared drive in Europe. Luckily I've never had to, because the public transportation's so good there. I doubt I'd drive on Malta either, because the island's probably about the right size for a bicycle.

But if Malta drivers are good by British standards, they might be about like Massachusetts drivers.

I´ve been driving through all of New England, i.e Maine, RI, Mass, NH and (I love it Vermont, and EVERYWHERE it was absolutely laid back driving. I came back here and was so used to not doing more than 50 miles an hour on the country road, my former 100 - 110 Km (aprox. 70 miles) seemed rather daring to me. To believe Americans could have some kind of "bad driving" seems impossible to me. Let us take out Boston, cause thats a city. Things are different in the city.

If you remove Boston from New England to improve the driving score, you'd best take all the suburbs too. By the time you take all those, you're left with the parts of New England where if you drive faster than 50 mph, you fall off the road at the next curve.

And in those parts of New England, you get an entirely different kind of bad driving. I've been in a car with a senior citizen who pulled out into traffic, got honked at, and said, "Some people think they own the roads."