The Short Road To Freedom

45 minutes.

That's how long it takes to fly from Libya to Malta. If that was British Airways, you wouldn't even get a smile from the cabin crew. Air Malta will give you 2 cans of Cisk lager, or whatever tipples your fancy. The atmosphere on any flight out of Tripoli has to be experienced. The 1500hrs flight to Heathrow is 'The Party Flight', they've got three hours of gin & tonics and they will abuse it.

Pay Your Respects Here

I'll spend more time queuing in immigration in Tripoli, or waiting for my bags when I come back or probably waiting for some muppet Libyan to come back and shift his car so I can get out of the car park* than I will actually flying. And yet Malta is the perfect escape. It's British enough (it has the pub that Ollie Reed died in), they speak better English than a good percentage of the population of England, you can get everywhere from anywhere within the hour, the seafood is great, the bread is superb and they have broccoli the size of basketballs.

Aye, Just park it here love.

What's not to like ? Their driving is more liberal than the UK, but not as anarchic as Libya. It's hot but not in a blast furnace way. They have beaches, but they're not covered in plastic bottles or hair gelled lotharios. It's small enough to see most of, but not feel smothered by. And it's full of old cars, like a set from 'The Sweeney' or 'The Professionals'. No wonder so many Libyan based expats have apartments there.

We're off there tomorrow for a few days with the Hash. A few days of relaxing, drinking and we might even do a run. I'm taking a large bag to bring back plenty of culinary essentials. I'm also currently training for the 2011 Malta marathon on Feb 27th. as I'll most likely still be working here then. Whether I'm actually fit enough (and not injured) then, doesn't matter. It'll be worth the minor investment in the flight just to savour the sweet taste of freedom once more.

*Or you can help a group of equally annoyed Libyans to pick up the offending car and move it - taking care to cause as much damage as possible in the process.