More on Getting Around
In preparation for the day I start driving here, I have been paying very close attention any time we go anywhere. The mental exercize is exhausting.
Imagine a small highway, but none of the exits are marked. Every so often you come upon roundabouts or go through tunnels. There are some signs, but they do not make much sense to me at the moment, and in any case the place we are going is never on the signs until we are very close. M keeps drilling me: “okay, we are at the roundabout with the palm trees, where do we go from here?” I think hard and look around and shyly point… that way. Then, “we are going through the square tunnels, what comes next?” I sit there puzzled, the square tunnels come after the round tunnels… but before the other round tunnels? Or are those the *other* round tunnels.
Pretty soon my brain feels like it has just spent an hour at the gym. It gasps for air and cannot see clearly. Invariably, I lose concentration at some point and frantically ask, “Have we left the main road? Did we go through any roundabouts? Did I miss something??!!??”
And so I quietly dread the day that I have to take the wheel on my own, and navigate the tunnels and roundabouts, highways and side streets, concentrating intently so I will find my way. And did I mention that in Malta you drive on the left? I get nervous just thinking about it all.
I look forward to the day when I look back and laugh, and say that I cannot believe I was ever nervous about driving in Malta. Let us call that a happy goal.
so i take it you can’t necessarily google directions for malta yet? if you can, perhaps looking at satellite photos will be helpful. oh, at least to feed a stalkerish tendency in you. hell, it does for me. just when i start to look for a benign address like the cleaners I end up digging up my ex’s address just to see what craphole (at least from a satellite point of view) he’s living in now. =) but i digress…
Patricia:
Google only gives you blurry images of Malta, and you can’t zoom close enough to distinguish streets. Actually, have of the island is too fuzzy to tell any details at all. That is satellite pics alone. No maps. Anyhow, by now Greg must have got a good, old-fashioned roadmap of the island. Anyhow, like in the Little Prince’s planet, “going straight ahead can’t take you too far away”. You can always stop and ask for directions. And at that, even if you ask in Maltese, they’ll hear your accent and reply in English without even thinking about it. Really getting lost is mission impossible in Malta.
Grego:
¿Que tal la comunidad en Malta? ¿Llegaste a pasar ראשהשנה con ellos? ¿ya tienes dirección postal? Mira que como le digo a Patricia, no se te puede buscar en el directorio de Google.
well, actually maps.google.com gives you a relatively decent HALF of the country. but if Grego lives where I’m suspecting he does, well, you’re in the blurry bit!
The MEPA map server is a bit better - http://www.mepa.org.mt/Planning/index.htm?MapServer.htm&1
Thank you for this trip through comedy central. Sheer and utter gaffaw. To envision this excursion with M through square and round tunnels, past highway exits with no exit signs… the mere visions in my head leave me rolling on the ground. Thanks for sharing!