HEART OF GLASS: Smoky Moments with...the World's Most Beautiful Ashtray?
We found this shiny blue beauty in the Lavalette airport lounge in marvelous MALTA
Sometimes the best souvenirs show up in the least likely of places, you know?
Case in point: I showed up early for a flight at Malta International Airport, southwest of the Maltese capital, Valletta, in the town of Luqa. My mood?
This:
…and why?
A few days in Malta whips up all manner of pirate lair intrigue and unnamed emotions. It is not an easy place to process. There is too much history. There aren’t enough cats. The coffee is good. They filmed Troy here, and Popeye.
There are lots of fierce looking battlements and thick walls, and a sense of adventure — frozen — partly because of the unforgiving sweep of time, partly because of the sultry south-of-Sicily, almost African air, and partly because there are way too many “influencers” wielding selfie sticks like Gen Zombies that you might feel like tossing into Grand Harbour. Those legions of social media slaves are a big buzzkill, are they not?
On that note, hey, anybody got a light?
Because if you happen to be smoking a cigarette on the pleasant upper level terrace of Valletta airport’s nice Lavalette airport lounge, you’re going to need to someplace to put it out, and meine damen und herren, ooh do they have the ashtrays.
Let’s back up a moment here…
This is Mdina…
Said to be the most authentically Maltese city, which is a horse (but not a Maltese) of another color, Mdina is also site of the headquarters and factory of Mdina Glass. It’s located in Ta’Qali, an area that is home to many Maltese arts and crafts establishments, behind the fancy entrance to the city, above.
On my walk through Mdina, I spend most of my time dodging aforementioned selfie sticks, dopey tourists and yet more slaves to the ‘gram, a couple of whom even harangued my companion, who looked more Maltese than me (I’m guessing because he is a Maltese, though has no visible tail…I’m sorry, when I say the word Maltese out loud, or even to myself, and no disrespect to the people of Malta, but I can only think of guys like these:
…anyway yes, harangued or maybe I should say disrupted our attempted perambulation through the tangle of stony lanes to ask where some silly colored door was that some algorithm beamed to them on Instagram(🙄)
Sigh. So travel has come to that, huh? Anybody got a light, because I mean…
And I did not even notice, thanks to the tourist hordes, the Mdina blown glass shop. It took those faux-leisurely moments at the airport lounge, where I spotted the luscious blue ashtrays, to remind me of what I’d missed.
“Why is that guy taking pictures of an ashtray?”
Okay, so no one at the lounge actually said that to me, but I could see it in the Maltese blacks and whites of their eyes and you know what? No apologies. I love a good smoke, or I like the sound of saying that because I don’t actually smoke and I think it’s a disgusting habit, but I love me a distinctive ashtray, in which there is, after all, more poetry than a gaudy Boeing airplane from Qatar, n’est-ce pas?
The blue of the Maltese sea, the artistry and the craftsmanship, all captured in, yes, an ashtray. There were so many of them gracing the tables out on the airport lounge terrace that I could conjure my Israeli friends say, “Oh come on, just slip one in your bag, who’s going to notice anyway?” But no. Here at Greek Column, we don’t like Amazon.com tribesmen much. We support local business, so should you.
We also no longer purchase iittala glass from Finland, because that country has a terrible thing where they lock up foxes in dark cages and kill them for their fur. (The Finns also wildly exaggerate the Russian threat, and saunas are truly miserable overrated things, but those are other stories.)
Anyway, for about 15 bucks you can have the one of the coolest bluest souvenirs like, ever, and you know what? If you’re in Malta, buy one there. Or order online. And by the way, no, I’m not even going to use my ashtray for ciggies, or those of my buddies. I’m not going to reveal what ima use it for!
Small on land, but big on mystery…that’s Malta, people. And henceforth, that’s my ashtray.
Up next: My double date with an Imqaret date fritter