Florists

Yesterday and today I circled back to the two different florists I missed the other day. There are only 3 in Victoria and maybe 10 on the island total. According to these 2 places, the "popular" flowers to use for funerals in Malta are lilies, roses, chrysanthemums and carnations and they get most of their stock imported from Holland. Average cost is from 15 - 25 Euro.

It continues to amaze me how the locals are really not at all phased when I say I'm interested in funerals. They just roll with it. They seem intrigued but happy to help. Hopefully this will stay true as my time here progresses. Monday marks the 6 week mark which puts me at halfway done. I can't believe how fast the time is going here.

Today I heard those bells again - the supposedly "mournful" ones. I was going to head to the public registry office to look up some historic documentation but decided I'd better try, once again, to see whats up. This time I sat my dupa in the church from 4pm onward and right through the 5pm mass. I know I mentioned that they have mass all of the time at St. George's but I've got to spell it out. Weekdays they have mass at 5am, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, noon, 5pm, 6, and 7. Seriously. That's a whole lot of Jesus. I sat there through the mass so I could begin to build a base of comparison between funerals vs. regular mass. They did it speed style, busting out a 25 minute service. It was all in Maltese as well. Interesting that I could follow along because the layout is the same as any ol' Catholic mass yet at the same time I didn't understand a word they were saying. The church is gorgeous though and I should really take some photos of the inside. It's got the kind of decorations that are so elaborate and so painstakingly done that you could probably spend your whole life looking up at them and not catch everything.

Better shove off and figure what I'm going to do with myself this fine Friday night. Later.