Wednesday 3 July 2024

Twilight in St Julian’s

One of the most picturesque scenes in Malta is in my hometown of St. Julian’s, officially called Spinola Bay. It used to be a fishing village with a few fishermen earning their livelihood through fishing. Nowadays it is just a tourist attraction, although the few boats you see in the bay belong to local folks, who may go out on a brief fishing trip once in while. But all in all, the entire bay is now filled and surrounded by restaurants, snack bars, souvenir shops and some hotels. Yet as twilights approaches, the place comes alive and stays alive until 5 am the next day. 

With an entertainment zone a few hundreds yards away, known as Paceville, many young people spend the evening and early morning in clubs, bars and socializing with friends. When I once asked my brother to drive me through around 8 PM to see what the place looks like, he said ‘Julian, if you don’t go after 10 PM, you won’t see anybody there!’ And he was right because the next morning I went down there to take photos of  the sunrise, and several young people were going home, exhausted, hobbling and despondent, probably drunk, or maybe even drugged. These two photos were taken an hour apart.

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