Airport

(some mood music for this article http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liH-uW2iymk)

Spending all night in the airport is not much fun, but in order to make it through the night you either need to find a way to sleep or carry out some random activities to while away the wee small hours.  Guess which of these the author has a prediliction to.

Activity 1.  Jump on inter-terminal buses.  This is an option only in larger airports.  The terminals are very terminal through the night but some exploration of the options available in the different terminals could yield some rewards.  Whereas terminals 1, 2 and 3 may only have vending machines available terminal 4 could boast an all night McDonald´s (this is true for Madrid Barajas airport).

Activity 2.  Bulking up your bag.  If you find yourself, as I did, with a near empty bag with potentially fragile items inside you need to do something about it.  I had a near empty bag which was too large to take on as hand luggage but necessary for the return journey.  It had a few things in it but they could be easily damaged as they had no padding which a full bag would provide. The solution: newspapers.  Get your hands on a few free newspapers or magazines and then scrunch them up to provide bulk to cushion your bag.  I do not know how this went down with people in close proximity trying to sleep.  It is possible to scrunch slowly which is slightly more quiet than doing it with gusto.  Finding an empty place to do this is advisable for the noise factor and also it may look a bit unusual filling your bag with scrunched up newspaper int he middle of the night.

Activity 3.  Wander around.  I advise this one with caution as you need to be prepared for disappointment, as anything you may discover on your wandering may be closed or out of service.  For example most shops are closed and if you spotted a Chapel or Prayer Room you would find that place for solace or reflection closed in the middle of the night too, probably to stop people sleeping there.  The advantage of the wander is you can spot the best places to be for an future nights spent in the same airport and therefore reducing the need to wander in the future.

Activity 4.  Read.  For this activity to be successful you need to be prepared with some decent reading matter, plan ahead is the key.  There are only so many times you can read your airline tickets, clothing care labels, food labels or free leaflets without being utterly bored.  If you have some work or studies to do this could be your ultimate place or little distraction to get that reading you need to do done.