A New Yorker in Mdina

G8S from Manhattan, whose days in Malta were a dream come true, writes about his day exploring Malta's old capital Mdina and posts his photos. From 'Welcome to my upper-left-hand corner':

On the morning of 13 September, I boarded a bus from Valetta to Mdina, the ancient, pre-Knights era capital of Malta. My plan was to throw my backpack in a hostel outside the city gate, and hike out to Fomm ir-Rih, a beach so secluded, many natives had never heard of it. Upon arriving in Mdina, I was told that there were no rooms available, even though I'd made a reservation the day prior. The hike from Mdina to Fomm ir-Rih is approximately five hours in each direction. Facing the prospect of carrying a huge backpack ten hours in the hot sun, I gave up & decided to spend the day exploring Mdina, instead..

There's even an attraction called, 'The Mdina Experience,' replete with souvenirs and a website. But there are other bits of the city, mostly actual homes which can't help being on display, and refuse to divulge any information whatsoever. Mdina has been dubbed 'The Silent City,' and not without reason. Turn just once after entering the city gate, and the sense of quiet becomes deafening. Without cars, within walls, and standing high above the land, Mdina's sealed lips humbled me as I shuffled about the city. The golden stone from which most buildings are made relected the sunlight, bathing me in a warm glow wherever I went.

And as if the quiet weren't enough to recall Sundays in church, corner-shrines abounded, to watch my every footstep. But I'm making it sound unnerving, when in fact it was beautiful. Perhaps because I live in Midtown Manhattan, and am therefore coming from a noisy place, I found myself entranced by the illusion of solitude as I wandered around Mdina. In truth, it's a very small city, and there's not a lot to do; if I could see the whole of it in two hours, what do people do, who stay at the hotel? My guess is that they are people who seek contemplation. If there was ever a place to ponder life, it surely must be Mdina. With its high-walled narrow streets it was much like a labyrinth, and I probably could have lost myself in my thoughts.

Every street was so much the same, yet so different from the one before. All the closed, but brightly-painted doors & windows, all the golden bricks on every side. Streets led in circles, and sometimes to dead ends hinting of opulent interiors but not for outsiders like me. For me, there was only the offered beauty of the architecture and ambience, and of course Mdina's commanding view of the Rabat countryside. I took the shot of this view quite nonchalantly from a cafe situated on one of the city's walls. I sat there with a bottle of water, writing in my journal, wishing I could stay, wishing I wasn't one of the...