Sunday 12 October 2008

Crystal Palace (aka Is-Serkin tar-Rabat)

Crystal Palace
Rabat (just outside Mdina)


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A traditional brutal-rural Maltese caff. Milky tea served from a kettle that predates the second world war, fresh pastizzi, dog-eared copies of Il-Passa and lots of hunters discussing birds and how to blast the shit out of them.

Most Maltese are vehemently against hunting. This lot are vehemently against people who are vehemently against hunting - so discussing the relative fairness of the EU Hunting Directive is ill-advised (to put it mildly) .




This place opens at 4 AM which would explain why it's so popular with hirsute hunters and night owls (or 'revellers' if you must). You'd expect the two wouldn't get along - and well, they don't really have to... they just ignore eachother. The twain shall never meet and all that.

Anyway - it's something of a tradition for people who spent their night at Gianpula or Tattingers to go to this place to buy their early morning pastizzi.


Interestingly, the hunters seem to be really, really into desert camo fatigues. An unusual sartorial choice considering they're going to be sitting in a stone hut for hours waiting for the right moment to shoot down the odd Kinder Surprise-sized bird rather than hunting down Taliban insurgents in northern Djalalabad. But then again, what do I know about hunting?


LINKS

"
Crystal Palace, Rabat, Malta" - drerk.de (text in DE, but lots of pics)

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