Malta according to Godfrey Dykes

Godfrey Dykes first visited Malta in 1955 and was later drafted to Lascaris in Malta with the British navy between 1957-1959. He came back a number of times in the 1960s and 1970s en-route to Asia. In this piece he looks at his Malta experiences following a nostalgic holiday in February 2004:

..To those who know Malta but haven't returned recently, I can tell you that very little has changed from the 1950's and the place still presents itself as a loveable sleepy backwater. A good 80% of her public transport has not changed in 50 years and little appears to have been done in preparation for joining the EU...Lots of hotels have been built on hitherto backwaters; gardens have been created; rarely did I see people crossing themselves on passing the ubiquitous religious icons; gone are the ladies of the church who stood on corners of Valletta streets dressed in black and large hooped hoods inviting donations; post cards with topless beauties are plentiful and explicit lingerie shops abound, which in my time would not have been allowed by the Church.

Valletta has changed the name of its main thoroughfare [which is pedestrianised along its length but traffic criss-crosses it at many points] from Kingsway to Republic Street and apart from smart cafes replacing less-smart cafes nothing has changed and even the proverbial Maltese promenading {passegiata as they call it} continues. Strait Street is no longer the 'Gut' and they will show indifference at being reminded that there was such a place. Nevertheless, the street remains exactly the same [how, in its environment, could it possibly physically change?] and yes, it still has bars and cafes although I would wager a bet that the tills are not as busy as when the fleet hit town. Floriana's 'gut' is still physically there, but the bars have gone. Most annoyingly and 'flying-in-the-face' of tourism, is that on certain days everything stops at 1pm and the streets are deserted by the locals [but not by tourists] and all shop shutters are lowered...