Gozo, Malta: A Lovely Little Place with Smiling People

Gozo is still a popular tourist destination, also a good alternative to Malta, the main island of the Republic of Malta for those who prefer less noisy and crowded places: The island of Gozo is not overpopulated, like many parts of Malta and therefore greener and quite more peaceful.

Gozo in Maltese is called Ghawdex (pronounced: Awdesh). It has an area of 67 square kilometres and 43 kilometre coastline.

The island is often called the Island of Calypso, originating from the Greek mythology: Odyssey. (See: Ogygia). Calypso kept Odysseus the prisoner of love here for seven long years, until the gods decided to set him free.
You can find Calypso's cave not far from the town called Xaghra (pronounced: Saara) where you can admire the breathtaking view to Ramla Bay, the place where they say Odysseus got washed ashore.

You can get to Gozo from the main island, Malta by ferry boat, operated by Gozo Channel Line, usually in every 30-60 minutes, and the journey takes approximately 25 minutes. The ferry costs €4.65 per person and €8.15 per car. All prices are calculated on a return basis.

The ferry operates between Cirkewwa on the Maltese side and Mgarr on the Gozotian side. From Mgarr terminal, there is a direct bus o Victoria, the capital of Gozo, numbered 25, and for a ridiculous price of €0.47 you can take the ten minutes ride into the centre of the island. Just to compare: the white taxi costs you around €11. So we can say that every road leads to Victoria. But what is the city like really?

There are quiet a lot of things to see here as for the buildings and the customs. You can see the old Citadel, where you can buy original Gozo lace, and on the other hand there are some shopping centres, too, the biggest is Arcadia, where you get all the high street shops, from Monsoon to French Connection. The prices are about the same as elsewhere in Europe for these products, if you want something cheaper, you have to go to one of the squares where the bazaars and the free markets are found. Unfortunately the prices are still not low enough compared to the poor quality of goods sold here.

Food is considerably expensive, people wonder how Gozotians live on as the average monthly wage here is even lower than in Malta. The answer is: the main sources of income are from Tourism, Agriculture, and Fishing. If a family has 5-10 houses in Gozo, they are still not considered to be rich, it is normal as they say, they rent them out, and when a boy grows up and gets married he has a piece of land to build a house on and a block of apartments to rent out for tourists, of course some cash too to build more properties.

(By the way: if you are planning your holiday in Gozo you have to be careful to look out for building sites, as there are 2-3 developments going on in every street at the same time.)

That's the custom that has been passed on from one generation to the next one. I wonder how they do it, they were the least effected by the credit crunch, in Europe, although the cost of living have gone up "a little bit" -they say, but you can hardly hear any Gozotian complain, 85% of them are very satisfied with their lives, as per the latest study (2008)