Time Flies When You’re Hanging in an Airport
It’s all in the attitude. How you spin it. How, even though you want to burst into tears and kick someone because you cannot face sitting on a hard chair drinking coffee and staring into the distance for another five hours, and even though you have seen the inside of dozens of airports, you choose to embrace this latest airport pit stop for all it has to offer.
You don’t need a shiny card that gets you access to some elitist lounge and a blue lolly wrapped in clear cellophane, to make the time fly. The airport is your playground and you have to see it that way. Choose not to see it that way, and instead kick the person next to you and shriek ‘get me on a plane I can’t wait anymore,’ then you will begin the slippery descent into delirium, and there is no worse a place to be delirious in than an airport. We’ve all been there and it isn’t pretty. It may or may not involve getting high off perfume fumes in Duty Free and rationalizing the purchase of a large jar of Kalamata olives (or was that just me?)
Changing your attitude is for the sake of your own mental health. There is no escaping the fact of life that is hanging around an airport, but there is changing the ordinary into a pleasant way of passing time.
Use Duty Free Wisely
The temptation is always strong to go a little crazy in Duty Free. Who doesn’t want an extra large bottle of a liqueur you’ve never heard of for half the price it usually is? And a kilo of M&Ms never goes astray. Particularly if it comes with a plastic green M&M dispenser. But hold your horses. Used appropriately, Duty Free is a God-send to the long haul flyer and not just as a cure for boredom. Once you’ve purchased your requisite inexplicable foodstuffs, move to the fragrance and cosmetics section. A few quick spritzes of Christian Dior’s latest limited edition and nobody will suspect you’ve been in transit for eighteen hours. Duty Free is also a brilliant place to discover products not available in your home country. Two words; stock up.
Catch up on World Affairs
Ironically, globetrotting can at times shield you from what’s going on in the world. Or, more aptly, what’s making headlines. This is where the Airport Newsagency steps in. Position yourself in front of the newspapers of the world and start scanning. Once you’re down with weightier international issues, move on to a trashy weekly gorge and then savour the monthly glossies. Scanning the covers will usually suffice, particularly with the weeklies, but to extend your time, select one publication per section to idly flip through. You’ll be up to date on global affairs in no time.
If Plane Food is the Last Memory Your Taste Buds Have, it’s Time to Eat
Eating can be the most enjoyable way to pass the time, depending on the scope of eateries available to you (some airports are riddled with great places to eat, some you struggle to find a peanut stand). Don’t beeline towards the first thing you see (old sandwich, tired looking sushi). Take your time perusing what’s on offer. Forget, for a moment, the hustle-bustle mindset that accompanies catching a plane, and take your tray to that big window that looks out over planes taking off. That brilliant view will make the meal taste that little bit sweeter.
People Watch
Sit back with a coffee (the purchasing of which will knock a good 10 minutes off your waiting schedule) and watch the world hurry by. Airports are full of people with their own stories, on their own journeys, headed for destinations you can only dream of. The energy they give off as they lug their trolleys to and fro, bark into their blackberries or swing on their battered backpacks is yours for the taking. Feel free to run footage of Love Actually through your mind as you watch long lost friends and family part ways or reunite.
That Book You’ve Been Carrying Around? It’s Time to Finish It
I always think ‘oh I’ll just pop in (insert name of classic novel) because I’ll have plenty of time in (insert names of airport stopovers) to read it and, invariably, I stock up on glossy magazines and never get round to Kafka. Take yourself off to a nice quiet spot – there are plenty to choose from in airports, you just need to know where to look – and crack the spine of the book that has been weighing down your carry-on. Once you’re finished, pass it on to a fellow traveler, or donate it to a hostel library.
Image of coffee and doughnut by Cohdra on Morguefile
Airport Image by NinoAndonis on Morguefile
