Church and Torture on an Island

Sabbath

Malta! Excursion day! Yay!
We woke up earlier than we had on any other day because some of us were heading to church and wanted to make sure everyone had breakfast first. Vacation allows to the leaving behind of many routines but church on Sabbath is not one of them. Our group for the day met after breakfast and once again headed off the ship to get in taxis that had been arranged for us by one of the men in our group.

The church we went to, we later found out, is the only Seventh-day Adventist church on the entire island country of Malta. Even though only half our party was present, we still filled up a solid half of that tiny little church. Service was nice, short and sweet, and we hopped back in our taxis to go do the tourist rounds.

Maltese SDA Church

Our first stop was in the Silent City, Mdina. This is an Old Town area where you can see how the island used to look and take tours into the churches and cathedrals which, I kid you not, are located on almost every corner of that area.

Map of Mdina

Cox women do it well

The churches there are laid out the way Starbucks are in any major city in the US. They're gorgeous and they're everywhere. In Mdina, we saw a Dungeons and Torture exhibit that showed what happened back in the day for Christians and Muslims. There was one method of torture in particular that piqued my interest called the Torture Horse. This horse was made of wood that came to a point where you sat and your legs went astride it. Basically, you were sitting on top of a large, long triangle. This is the kicker, there would be heavy weights tied around both your ankles, pulling you down onto the point of this triangular torture horse. Though it would be painful no matter your genitalia, I feel worse for the men who had to go through that particular cruelty. I'm sorry to say I don't have a photo but you can Google it if you need imagery to further help you understand.

In which you are dragged through the streets and your limbs are periodically cut off

In which your back is turned into chopped liver

After that exciting little underground walk, our group of 17 split into 3 and we all walked our ways through the rest of Old Town, passing cathedrals and some of the prettiest doors I've ever seen. Such vivid colors they had.

F L E X X I N

Color so vivid

A little store and coat of arms. And purple doors and window shades.

 

So here for the color

 

Actual sign outside a church yelling at people trying to find Pokemon inside

The no-Pokemon church

Back of the town vibes

While we were waiting for the cabs to pick us up and take us to our next destination, we stumbled across something you don't see many 23+ year-old's getting excited for, swing!! We couldn't help but get on them and revert back to 5 year-old's for a few moments.

You would have done the exact same thing. So fun. I nearly flipped over the top bar at one point.

The San Anton Gardens was our last stop. There weren't many flowers per say the way you'd expect when you think "gardens" and half of everything in the place looked more dead than alive but I still liked it despite it's lack of vivacity and I got some decent shots.

Fountain (of youth?)

Meta (she was taking a photo of me at the same time)

A garden plaque

We headed back to the ship after the gardens and the first thing everyone did was run to get food. We were starving. After lunch, a friend and I went to the pool at the Havana bar where I met this black girl who laid out so many verbal drive-bys about STDs and having a 4-year old (she was 23) and rape and a Jamaican guy she didn't want to have sex with because his member was so big she was afraid he'd bust her wide open that it was everything I had to act like I'd heard it all before and she wasn't surprising me by telling all this to a perfect stranger. People do and say the darnedest things. 

Dinner was fine and afterward, mom and I went on a movie date and saw Star Trek Beyond in 3D IMAX. Yes, they had newer movies on the ship and yes, they had an actual IMAX screen. I don't know how they fit it in there either...

xx