One of the things that traveling among the handicapped allows you to see is that frequently such efforts end up being rather chaotic and less well-organized than one would think. In stark contrast to Catania, Malta’s airport is at least easy enough to enjoy, with plenty of options to eat and shop. But it must be admitted that their emergency assistance is extremely chaotic, which can be amusing to watch but is not always as enjoyable to experience. After we were able to check-in, we were told to wait in a particular area for a wheelchair, and we were then led by a friendly person upstairs to the departure gates. Here, once again, my walking boots ran afoul of the metal detector but at least they didn’t fall off.

When we got to the departures area, it was too early for a gate to be shown to the flight to Larnaca (and then on to Dubai after that for the remaining passengers), so I went to charge my laptop while my mother went on a successful hunt for an elephant collectible. By the time this was done, it was about time to start boarding the plane, but the handicap service was nowhere to be found so I pushed the wheelchair through the additional passport control to international departures, where the gate was to be found, and then we waited next to the other wheelchair. At this point people started crowding the gate trying to get on the plane while we waited for the lift truck to arrive. By the time we arrived at the plane and were let into it after taking the lift, there were other passengers coming on the plane as well and we blended in with them.

In general, I have to give Emirates credit as a worthwhile airlines. Although our portion of the flight was only a couple of hours or so, we got the full meal plus entertainment treatment, and I was able to listen to a significant amount of music during that time–I chose to listen to some classic albums. When we arrived at a Larnaca, we were able to quickly move through the airport before waiting a bit for luggage and then heading by taxi to our hotel. I will have more to say about the hotel later, but the lady at the front desk seemed pretty overwhelmed when we arrived. Taking a walk to check out what was around the hotel led to a look at a pretty deserted area outside of the main road and a lot of stray cats, most of whom seemed somewhat timid.

When my mother and I went off to dinner, it was pretty interesting to note that while the main street next to the beach was pretty busy, the rest of the area where we walked had few people at all. For whatever reason, it appears like a pretty slow season in Larnaca right now, which is not such a bad thing. We will do more exploring tomorrow before leaving very early on Tuesday morning, so we will see more of what happens when we get there, I suppose. Hopefully the stray cats have a nice time of it, at least.