Sometimes it’s better just to rip off the bandaid

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 Malta, being a former British colony, drives on the left side of the road. Even as a passenger (who has a tough time remembering not to try to get into the driver’s seat on the right side of the car), I found car and bus trips there unnerving, especially the roundabouts. Entering them, I feel clueless.

I’ve driven twice before in countries that drive on the left - Australia and New Zealand. I suspect I am still banned from renting a car in both. 

When my son Brady was working in Wellington, I flew over to visit him for a couple weeks. I flew into Auckland on the northern tip of the North Island, met him, rented a car, and took a leisurely drive south, down through Rotorua, winding up in Wellington on the southernmost tip of the North Island. I am guessing Brady still has nightmares about my driving. “Dad! You are way too close to the edge of the road! Watch out for traffic from the left! Slow down!” We did survive and did not damage the rental car.

Whenever I am in a country that drives on the left, I am reminded of a story told to me by a fellow ARAMCO employee back in the 1980’s. He was a Brit and had worked (military or police, as I remember) in an African country that was becoming self-governing after colonial rule. As a symbol of their newly achieved independence, the leaders chose to change from left hand drive to right hand drive. 

But to do so gradually.

On the first week, cars would start driving on the right.
On the second week, trucks would start driving on the right.
On the third week, bicycles etc…

I could find no verification of this happening in a relatively short Google search, although I found many countries did change from left to right after colonial rule ended. So this story may well have been just a rude, rather racist joke about the ability to self-rule. 

But it does seem to offer a lesson that some changes are best made all at once, not gradually. Changing large tech systems like student information systems, email applications, etc. were best done all in one fell swoop. Chaos often erupted, but it usually died down in a week or so. Should the change have been made over the course of weeks, the chaos, I’m sure, would have lasted much, much longer.

Rip the bandaid off - it’s less painful in the long run.

Hiking in Malta; hiking through history

Breakfast at Chapel 5 B&B in Naxxar

Learning has always been my primary motivation for traveling. New landscapes, new foods, new customs, new histories - I enjoy them all. But I forget sometimes that traveling is also a means for learning about oneself. I was reminded of this on my recent trip to Malta.

Germany’s largest wine barrel. I could only finish half.

After spending a couple days in Germany en route (visiting the Heidelberg Castle that I remembered from a Rhine River cruise in the 1980s), I flew to Malta - the largest of three islands that make up the world’s 10th smallest country in area. I signed up for a late November self-guided hiking trip with MacsAdventure at a somewhat late day. My regular travel buddy had already taken trips with her sister and daughter this fall, so I went solo on this one.

View from hike near Mdina

Five days of hikes on three different islands were challenging enough for this 71-year-old. Part of the reason for going on this trip was to simply reassure myself I was still capable of doing eight and nine mile hikes. (I was.) And it was also to reassure myself I had the mental acuity to deal with international navigation, train and bus schedules, new phone SIMs, etc. (Pretty good this trip.) Although the weather was less than ideal - drizzle and winds most days, downpours on three days, I enjoyed the hikes. MacsAdventure uses downloadable GPS maps of each hike which worked great. I saw virtually no other walkers any day, except for the walks in towns.

 Single lane stone foot path - good hill on the other size

I have to say that the country of Malta is not really very pretty. Rocky landscapes, uncontrolled building development, and post-harvest fields (along with the gray skies), wasn’t postcard material. Many of the bays and seashores were lovely and old churches and fortresses were amazing. 90% of the roadways through towns were basically narrow alleyways - amazing to watch the huge public buses navigate through these tight streets. Oh, Malta as a former British colony drives on the left side of the road. 

Typical street in Mdina. Designed to be confusing to invaders who would all be within an arrow flight’s range.

What did make this visit fascinating was Malta’s historical remains. From the 5000 year old stones of Ggiantia in Xaghra to the Mdina fortress, evidence of cultures and civilizations told stories of how these island were alway changing. Located between Europe and Africa and on the Mediterranean sea lanes of corsairs and Turkish navies, the islands were invaded, looted, terrorized, and enslaved throughout history. I am reading David Ball’s historical fiction novel Ironfire, set in 16th century Malta. 

Walls of Victoria’s Citadel

I stayed in two B&Bs on this trip. One in Naxxar (na’shar) on Malta and one in Xaghra (sha’-ra) on Gozo, the smaller island to the north. The B&Bs had both good and poor elements. Great breakfasts, friendly hosts (although at one there was only one worker and she spoke NO English),  the rooms were clean and beds comfortable, and the shower water was hot. The B&Bs both were converted old houses, some 300 to 400 years old. Narrow winding staircases, thick walls, small windows, lots of steps, confusing floorplans - not dungeons, but a castle-like feel. My main problem with both B&Bs was their location. Both in small towns. Both a long walk to the nearest restaurants and grocery stores (about half a mile in Botanica's case). I am no nightlife party-animal, but neither place had other residents with the exception of two nights. It was strange being the only person staying in these dark, chilly rustic places. I read six books over the course of my stay.

Citadel on the hill - the end of my seven mile hike for the day

It was perhaps staying in these old, too quiet residences and hiking alone on isolated paths that I also learned that solo travel does not hold the appeal to me that it once did. When employed, it was good to get away by oneself now and then. Now retired, I have plenty of solitude day-to-day. My view has always been that a great travel year is comprised of one solo trip, one trip with a lover, and one trip with family. I may need to revisit this. My solo trips may now be with guides and groups.

Salt pans on the coast of Gozo

More photos here.

Three and a half hours - really?

I was looking forward to Martin Scocsese’s movie Killers of the Flower Moon. Based on a book I liked, starring DeNiro and DiCaprio, and tackling events in history that need to see the light of day, what could be better? 

That was until I learned the runtime was three and a half hours. That’s at least three cartons of overpriced popcorn, two Diet Coke refills, and four trips to the bathroom. And a struggle to stay awake regardless of how intriguing the story or time of day.

I am not sure what our obsession with overly long movies is. For me, it started with Peter Jackson’s filming of the Fellowship of the Rings.  Each movie and the Hobbit movies that followed ran over three hours. (Although Gone with the Wind from 1939 was over three hours long as well - but as I remember, it had a built in intermission.) Google “long movies” and you will find quite an extensive list of films over three hours long.

Is the length of today’s films due to artistic due diligence to the plot and characters - or the need to compete with serialized titles streaming on Netflix and Amazon? Quite honestly, I am not a huge fan of streaming titles that run 8-12 episodes over multiple seasons. I even thought Game of Thrones would have been a better production had it been a season or two shorter. 

Bad movies are nothing new. I was reminded of this when I started exploring streaming movie channels that are ad-based like Tubi, Crackle  and FreeVee. I am amazed by just how many bad (cheap) movies have been made - especially in the 50s and 60s. I suppose when one’s only source of entertainment was the local movie theater, one went to whatever was showing. As a kid, I did.

It may be that I am valuing what remaining days I have left in this life and not wanting to waste my time watching junk. Or reading junk. 

Or perhaps writing junk.  I will quit whining now.