Medieval Mdina

Finally posted the pictures from Medieval Mdina (which was last Sunday).
First of all, my cosplay pictures:

 I love this costume. It is comfortable, apart from being tight on the arm scye. The handpainted paisley turned out beautifully, and I am in love with the long circular sleeves.

 Mdina used to be Malta's capital city. I think it was built by the Arabs. It used to be part of Rabat, a nearby town, but the Arabs separated it from Rabat to make it easier to defend. Most of the buildings standing are palazzos and townhouses, probably sixteenth century.

 The reenactors we met near the bastions were nice enough to let my friends and I play around with the weapons and armour on display, provided that we were careful not to touch the metal, because apparently they rust very easily. This is a hand and a half sword, and it is extremely heavy. I would need to do some serious weight lifting before I could handle it easily. I had better luck with the smaller swords: one of the reenactors taught me a neat little tricks where you rotate your wrist, and kind of spin the sword (hard to explain, but if you've ever seen Lord of the Rings special features, you see Orlando Bloom doing it a few times and might know what I'm talking about)

In this picture you can see the bastions behind me, and beyond them fields and Mtarfa. These bastions are very tall and thick, and damn imposing: no wonder the Turks didn't attack the city during the Great SIege in 1565. The bastions allowed the people who remained in Malta during the siege some protection from the Ottoman army, with the people in the Great Harbour taking the brunt of the attack.

And here are pictures of the actual event:

Reenactors in very cool leggings (I think the correct Medieval term is hose). I saw some gorgeous reenactment costumes. One of my favourites was a this one girl's gorgeous velvet doublet with principle boy style boots: black and gold trim, and so cool.

These reenactors were doing a flag display, along the lines of the flag display/flag tossing done in Sienna, usually just before the Palio (the Palio is a slightly mad horse race around the main piazza of Sienna. It lasts about 90 seconds on average.)

 Men at arms. FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC

 My friend and her gorgeous dress. I know satin isn't historically accurate, but whatever. I think she looks a bit like Princess Fiona in Shrek, before she went green.

 My other friend, gazing out over the Maltese countryside. She was extremely patient with our constant begging for her to take photos of us prancing around :)

Tell me that this does not make you think of Shrek and Fiona in Shrek 2. We found this adorable cat snoozing outside a house. He was a very willing model.

 We found a German bagpipe band playing near the main gate of Mdina, and had to get a photo with them. Here we are looking slightly shy.

The band in action.