(Vending Machines of Malta (and Gozo))
It’s the post I didn’t think I would be doing, done!
Malta certainly has a complicated past, and from 1813 to 1962 was essentially a British colony with the result that much heavy or light engineering would come from there, though thankfully (nothwithstanding miserable wartime shortages) British food wasn’t one of the things forced upon the local population.
This means that like a number of places, a lot of the phoneboxes and postboxes are still from the British era. And whilst English is incredibly prevalent (unlike Wales for example, even modern roadsigns are usually not even bi-lingual, i.e. in English only) there does feel like a slight current from the current generation to finally ditch this legacy. Not everyone agrees of course, although the final big withdrawal of UK military forces was 1979, no doubt amongst older people there are many, or peoples relatives, with some links to that past.
This art installation in a popular tourist area of Valletta was a comment on the remaining colonial infrastructure; though the many forts of course which are unlikely to be removed any time soon have a history hundreds of years earlier than the British era. As you can read in the article, the installation did not last long.
Here it is again today. Coin operated payphones seem to have been removed some years ago, but now even the cardphones are mainly missing from all the Kiosks we saw in Valletta, the capital. The only one I spotted in-situ was from the bus and I wasn’t going to stop to take a picture (sorry!).
Most of the remaining vending machines are modern but can be a bit unusual. Take for example this plastic Coke bottle vending machine which I saw a couple of – maker unknown. This one charmingly guarding the public toilets next to the Scarlet Window, is a bit out of order due to severe corrosion of the remaining metal bits!
A different machine, appears to be working, but… if the refrigeration temperature really is 95F, well, that’s 35 degrees centigrade, no thanks!
From bottles to babies now, and this fairly awful ‘reverse vending machine’ which was part of Santo Spirito Hospital (closed 1967) in Rabat, was one way of giving up a baby that could not be cared for. Better than being dumped on a doorstep but horrific for all involved I’m sure, the worst thing is that ‘baby hatches‘ have had a 21st century comeback, suggesting that (surprise!) we never learn from the past.
Reverse plastics vending is a bit less controversial (actually, is it?) and very popular over here, this is in Xlendi bay, Gozo;
As you can see, some clever people have already worked out that the ‘worthless’ contents can be stolen and fed back through again to get more vouchers!
Telescopes are ever popular too, here’s a selection all from Mdina;
Otherwise there are a number of the usual multivend machines, though the contents are a little bit local, perhaps more so than other European countries; Kinnie being something I think that is pretty much confined to Malta & Gozo!
This machine (like most EU countries, alcohol being sold by a vending machine rarely presents a problem) has the local lager, Cisk, but also Becks which feels like a blast from the past for anyone growing up in the 90’s. And Skol!
Twistees are a local corn based snack, again, I’ve never seen them anywhere else and one of the few packaged goods that appear to be completely made within Malta itself. A lot of the other dry goods and prepared foods you will see in the shops are from Italy. There also seemed to be a bit of a big marketing campaign for those long life croissants you can see right in the middle too.
Water for horses, via a vending mechanism? Well, that’s what this looks like…
I have no idea if the required cards are free or paid for, or even if this is in use (it’s switched on!). Speaking of switched on but not in use, these bike hire stands are everywhere, always empty, and assumed abandoned…
This one is at Victoria bus station on Gozo, but there are loads more. If you look carefully, the screen is waiting to hire you a non-existent bike, long after the bike and the card reader has been removed! Its a shame as on a small island anti-social use, theft etc… shouldn’t be the same issue they were in say, Bristol…
Thankfully, the bus travel card vending machine is unaffected! As you can see, although these machines are slightly more aimed at tourists, English is the sole and de-facto language. I did think that on Gozo though you were far more likely to hear local people speaking Maltese amongst each other.
Oh, and they also had these tiny boxes of jellies what would have been ideal for our machines!
As this was a 2 week holiday, we needed a trip to the launderette halfway through, on a island with contactless on nearly every vending machine, guess what the machines took? 50c or 1 euro coins only, of course!
And the machines….
Well, that’s it for now. Our next two holidays (we tend to plan way ahead!) are all to places we’ve been before, but you never know what we might find!