Travel Tips

You’ve already been twiddling your thumbs and anxiously checking your watch for quite a while but now the news you’ve been dreading all day is announced over the intercom: your flight is D-E-L-A-Y-E-D. For quite a while too. The last chapter in your book has been read and you’ve got all the duty free you’re going to need, but there are still hours and hours to kill before you step on that plane. What to do to stave off boredom for a few hours? Here are a few offbeat ways in which to while away the time in an airport.

Pretend to be a chauffeur

Pick out one flight from the arrivals list, consider the probable nationalities of those on board, pick out a common surname, write it in large font on a sheet of paper and wait for the passengers to file through the gate. Some important business man might think that his transport has been arranged for him and insist that you carry his bags to a waiting limo. See if you can wrangle a few quid in tips off him before letting him in on the secret.

Treat the book shop as a library

Customers take certain liberties in all book stores and can easily spend up to twenty minutes or so leafing through magazines before getting an angry glance off the manager, but different rules seem to apply in airports. Challenge yourself to see just how long you can spend in an airport book store trawling through different material before somebody utters the line made immortal by Apu of the Simpsons fame, “This is not a library”.

Shine your shoes

A service offered in numerous airports including Dublin and a novel way to spend fifteen minutes of your time. Shoot the breeze with the shoe shiners, sit back and relax in the comfortable surroundings and by the end of it, you’ll look the part and be able to see your reflection in your good as new shiny loafers.

Exercise

If there’s one thing airports have in abundance, it’s space. Use your free time to speed walk around the terminal, maybe even use idle rucksacks as hurdles or take the trolley for a little spin. Try not to get too into it though. Doing push ups and squat thrusts on your own in the full glare of hundreds of people is just plain weird.

Refresh yourself

Ever see the film ‘Airplane’, where a passenger attempts to have a shave in the cramped on board bathroom. Needless to say the results are disastrous. Don’t let that be you. Take the opportunity you missed while in the rush to the airport and freshen up. Have a shave; tidy your unkempt hair, even have a shower if the facilities are available.

Sleep

Ah, the last refuge of the bored traveller. If you’re going to grab forty winks, at least try and make it comfortable. Find a nice piece of soft carpet or a nice comfy couch and stretch out for a couple of hours. Try and avoid the slouching on the chair, head leaning to one side approach. You probably won’t get any sleep, you’ll have a nasty creak in your neck and it will make you grumpier than a Monday morning.