By Anna Anhofer-Hochstrasser & Stefanie Schirgi, Malta 2023
A year ago we always wondered what it would be like if we worked abroad and lived in a different country for a while, but now we know: it’s great! When we found out that we had the opportunity to work abroad thanks to Erasmus+, we couldn’t think of anything else. So we took the chance and traveled to the beautiful island “Malta”.
We worked for Heritage Malta at the Ħal Saflieni Hypogaeum. This museum is actually an underground facility that was used to bury the dead. It was in use between 4.000 BC and 1.500BC. Some human bones still lie in the museum. The Hypogeum consists of three levels where you can visit various caves. The Wall paintings with the red oak and the sleeping lady that was found in a chamber are very well known. This burial site has also been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. So it was very important for us to work there. On our first day of work we were shown the entire museum, then we found out that we had to do the tours ourselves. At the beginning it was very overwhelming, but we managed it well and learned a lot. The employees were very open and helpful. We also met other interns and made friends. We had very relaxed working hours and were able to spend our free time exploring the cities of Malta. Since our museum is part of the Heritage Malta network, we were able to visit all of the associated museums with our ID card. Of course we took advantage of this opportunity and looked at some museums. We also enjoyed the wonderful sea as well as some of the sights and the beautiful landscape.
In conclusion we can say that not only the Island was great also our job was ideal for us. We would like to thank Erasmus + very much for allowing us to have such a great experience.
