Footloose with Josephine

Josephine Burden is interested in how people tell stories and compose their lives. She is a university lecturer but is currently traveling for a year "playing at being a writer". She arrived in Malta by ferry form Sicily and is blogging here about her travels in Malta. In this post she describes Valletta during Notte Bianca:

Notte Bianco on Saturday in Valletta was a good way to get an idea of the various venues around the capital. The event has been held each year for three years. The streets are decorated with the parish church banners and all the churches are dressed up with all their saint statues. The people of Valletta throng the streets and sit in the churches praying. They are joined by locals from all over the island as well as tourists.

Public transport busses keep running until late so I was able to get back to Marsaxlokk after enjoying a wander through the streets and a browse through several of the sites that were open free of charge. I went round the museum of archaeology to find out about the temples, the General Workers Union building to find out about the history of trades unions in Malta (GWU started the same year that I was born) and the Manoel theatre. There were also performances in the streets and art exhibitions.

I now have a map of all the arts venues and on Sunday went up again to Valletta for a harpsichord concert in St Catherine's of Italy church and to the Mediterranean Conference centre to go round their exhibition of the hospital of the Knights of St John as well as the concert, Voices, which is a bi-annual offering for charity by a 120 voice choir of volunteers along with a band and soloists.

Bones and snails

A graphic designer from Belgium has posted these Malta photos at Carrie Can blog