I was in Malta, but without a doubt, one of the main highlights was the Hamrun Festa (Hamrun is a town). I am still not exactly sure what it represents, but it is held in August, on the 'Feast of St Gaetan'. Broadly speaking, the citizens of Hamrun support either the red band or blue band and they are huge rivals of each other. Once again I do not know what these bands represent, however I got the impression they were might have been political groups. I did ask multiple times but no one gave a clear answer...
Pictured: politics in Malta. You can just see the blue band in the background.
Either way, early in the morning everyone on Hamrun starts drinking, they march around with marching bands, yell at each other sing songs, and then drink some more! All in all it is considered the most exciting of the Maltese festas due to the massive rivalry between the bands and the vast quantities of alcohol consumed. Fights are not uncommon and I was warned by many locals not to go.
A marching band
So why did I go? I hear you ask. Well, it is simple really - my father was born in Hamrun, so I had to represent the family; I was invited by a resident of Hamrun (JJ - an awesome fire-twirler we used for EF events); and JJ's partner is HUGE and he vowed to protect me.
My newest friends, I was safe as long as I did not lose the vodka. You can see the densely packed crowd. It was like that for whole streets, everyone drunk and it was about 11am.
The day started at about 10 am where I met JJ's friends. They handed me a bottle of vodka and a cup and we were off. Before I knew it I was surrounded by hundreds of people decked in red marching and singing and waving flags. I clutched onto the vodka for dear life, knowing that as long as I had that my new found friends would never leave me. Eventually we ran into a police line. Across the square the Blue band were similarly held back and then the insults and chanting started. It was all in Maltese but I was taught a few sounds to make so I obliged. At one stage some fisticuffs started out near me and we got involved (it was fun).
Damn straight we won the fight - admittedly I spent most the time hiding behind this guy...
After a some time the police let us through and the Red band invaded the square and proceeded to scream at a building for ages (I do not know why). I was hefted onto some guys shoulders and continued to wave my arms and sing in a foreign language. The I was put down and hefted some strange lady onto my shoulders.
So, to make things clear, a very large mass of people yelled at this building for a loooong time.
This was followed by marching through the streets of Hamrun with the band. Everywhere we went red confetti was been thrown from the upper story windows of the houses making a weird red/snow screen on the street. Families opened portable bars on the street (I swear I was served by, like, 10 year olds) and we drank more - the vodka was long gone by this time. Finally we made back to where we started and entered some outdoor bar for more vodka/whiskey/beer.
Two things made this event super awesome, both, not surprisingly, revolved around JJ.
- At one stage JJ came and grabbed me from the crowd of revellers and took me the house where my father was born!!!
- After the event was done and I had managed to get lost I wandered back to JJ's house to say good bye and was fed the best roast I have ever had. Yup, sorry mum and nan, that crown is gone.
Dad's home!
To think this day could not get better when I finally returned to the EF hotel after drinking for hours and hours in the extremely hot Maltese sun I was invited by Clint and Marco to a wine tasting festival in Valletta. for 12 euro you get entry and a glass ad then you wander around the area (in this case the lovely Upper Barracka Gardens) tasting all the wine. Whilst there we ran into more and more people and out little group grew and grew into a pretty good EF party.
Before we indulged in wine...
Also, on the way home - for some reason I walked - I found a pub with a pool table and a bunch of old timers having some very competitive games. So I indulged in some more beer and a few games of pool. I think they were surprised someone as sloshed as me nearly won a few times (they were quite good).
...after we had indulged in wine.
All in all a pretty solid Sunday.
As usual I have to bail Baiky out of trouble.
