Muninn - 01.09.2014, Blaðsíða 36

THE TRUTH ABOUT
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS
They are said to be cold and forbidding places, airports are. Nonetheless, they are usually very comforting
places. They are your first stop to that long-awaited holiday or dream destination. After take-oíf, you can have
a birds-eye-view of vale and rneadow and man’s mind-boggling concrete jungles - and it’s breathtaking. You
can find an assortment of diffcrent objects at an airport, but there are three musts that are liable to always be
there, the uneomfortable bench, the weird bloke who talks to everyone and the ubiquitous vending machine.
The uncomfortable bench can be a godsend or a curse. When your flight has been delayed for many hours
and you’re knackered, it’s good to lie down and fall into a deep slumber. On the other hand, when you only
ha\re to wait a couple hours, you can find everything wrong with them, that’s something I’ve experieneed on
one occasion or two.
The odd pedlar can be of any nationality. Mostly, not always, he or she tries to sell you something or tell you
stories you don’t care to hcar. Many people are taken in by them and end up with a cheap imitation watch or
some generic sunglasses.
When you are waiting at an aiiport you often want some grub to satisfy that empty' tummy, like a bar of candy
or a bag of ehips. Peering at you from a distance is the saviour-like vending machine. You walk up to it, shove
a dollar in the slot and select your favouritc candy bar only to rcalise, to your dismay, that the frigging thing is
stuek. What a nightmare! Here is a trick: kick it real hard or just punch it. You will both get your candy and
can release sorne anger simultaneously.
Well, airports are amazing, aren’t they? They can be full of life and excitcment, but at the same time can be
venues of outlandish and lifeless proportions.