Arriving by Air
With moving to Europe comes the sense that so many places that I would like to visit are now within easy reach. Almost as if to illustrate this point, the pilot on my flight to Malta seemed even more excited about this than I was. Shortly after take-off from Frankfurt, he came on the plane’s PA system to announce that we would be flying over the Alps, and just a few minutes later he informed us that Lake Cuomo was visible from the left side windows. At this point I looked over and saw that the young man by the window seat had closed both windows and was fast asleep. I looked around, only to discover that my aisle seat had a perfect vantage point in which to have no line of sight with any other window.
A few minutes more, and the announcement came that Corsica and “the tiny island of Elba” could be seen to our right. Yes, the very Elba where Napoleon was exiled. My eagerness grew, and this time I unbuckled my seat-belt and got up. I seemed to startle everyone around me, as I felt many pairs of eyes suddenly turn towards me. I went up the aisle trying to catch a glimpse out the windows, but from my angle I could only make out water. Defeated, I sat back down. Sigh.
Nature called me to the windowless lavatory, and so I used my imagination when the “tiny island of Monte Cristo” was pointed out. Upon exiting the restroom in the rear of the cabin, I found that the beverage service was blocking my way. It was a one-aisle plane, and my seat was near the front. The flight attendant asked if I would wait a few minutes, and I agreed. So I made myself at home in the kitchen area, where I had my own private window on which to gaze at, as the pilot put it, “the magnificient city of Rome” on the left side. Sure, I could not see the Colisseum from 33,000 feet, but there was Rome before me! I sat there gawking as Naples soon followed, and soon after that, Sicily.
I was back at my seat when Gozo and Comino (Malta’s sister islands that make up the country) were below us. At this point, I had had it. Courtesy or not, UP went the window and displayed before me was Malta, the island that was to be my new home. I recognized many of the landmarks from my visit the year before. Now, before we go any further, Malta *is* quite small. And while it did take a good twenty minutes from when Gozo reared its head until the end of Malta, it does strike you while landing just how small this place is. To start, the plane has to “overshoot” the island, over the water, and turn around at the last minute. “Wait,” an inner voice yelps, “you missed the island!” Secondly, as the plane gets ready to touch down, there is a coastline on the left and… a coastline on the right. This visual effect is quite stunning. Then, something almost magical happens as the plane touches down: the view of the sea disappears, the horizon is suddenly land, and it no longer feels so small.
In fact, once you land, it is deceivingly large.
