How to spend nine hours alone in the airport overnight

In my most recent post on Kraków, I left off at the shopping centre opposite the train station, preparing to slowly make my way back home. The thing is, I headed off around 7pm, and only got to the airport around 9pm. My flight was at 6am, though. That gave me around nine hours worth of sitting around in the airport, with nothing to do but wait. 

You might wonder why I got there so early - after all, why wouldn't I want to walk around Krakow at night? Well, the answer should be obvious: first solo trip abroad, wandering around in a foreign country in the dark isn't exactly a recipe for success. Whilst yes, I know Polish, I'm also overly cautious. Best not to gamble, instead I should just head off and wait for my flight.

One thing I was weary of was how I was going to stay awake. I spent some time reading through articles on my phone about how you can stop yourself from nodding off, but none of them were useful. They all mentioned the same stuff everyone does: drink coffee, listen to music, try and occupy yourself. 

One piece of advice I did end up trying out, though, was chewing gum. At first I was skeptical, in fact I still am, but I bought a pack and made my way through half of it during my wait. It's supposed to stimulate blood flow to the brain, which improves alertness. I didn't find myself feeling significantly different, though. Maybe it does work, but on an incredibly minor scale.

 

The first three hours

There wasn't much to do in the airport, unsurprisingly. I could only pass through security six hours before my flight, meaning I had a couple of hours by the main entrance. I filled up the time listening to music and drinking some coffee. There were two outlets I could choose from, but one was shutting down when I got there, so instead I needed to choose the coffee downstairs. Thrilling, I know. This is as suspenseful as things got.

 

I also took the occasional walk outside, making my way to the hotel opposite the airport and back. Movement helps fight tiredness, too, for the same reason as gum. I found myself walking a lot around the terminal, revisiting the same few spots, but also finding some cool displays left around the airport. There's this Lego model of the airport, for example, which I found adorable, with all the tiny figurines crowding around on the airport apron. Some were boarding a flight, others disembarking into the miniature buses that take you from gate to plane. The display discussing prohibited items sold on the global market, on the other hand, kept me less interested.

 

Otherwise, though, there was not much else to do. I could still chat with friends and family, at least those who hadn't yet fallen asleep. It was boring, more than anything else.

The next three hours

Once I got through security was probably when I felt the most tired. At this point, there was genuinely nothing I could really do. Loads of the shops were still closed, aside from one cafe and duty free shop. Most people were sleeping on benches, heads propped against their luggage, but I wouldn't do that. I was going to stay awake, no matter what, even if it was a bit of a foolish idea.

I still had until 3am to find out what my gate was going to be. I passed the time doing what I did before, except this time the coffee came from a machine. I also nearly sat down to start writing up a blogpost about this whole ordeal, but I wasn't feeling any creative sparks flying that time.

There's not much else for me to add, really. It was boring, more than anything else. Also lonely; I wasn't going to trouble anyone at this time, and I was pretty sure my family was fast asleep by now.

The final three hours

Eventually, my gate was confirmed, and I headed through some passport checks to get to another stretch of airport. There were even fewer things to do here: at most, there was a jaunty duty free area, even smaller than the previous one. That said, I've never been into cigarettes or alcohol, so that wouldn't do me any good. 

I spent the next few hours doing what I'd done before; listening to music, chewing gum, walking around aimlessly with my backpack. Can't leave my luggage unattended, after all! 

On that note, actually, I might as well mention how few announcements I heard all night. I guess that's reasonable, considering there weren't all that many people there at the time. However, I've almost always expected to hear several announcements at an airport; I'm almost used to that gristly intercom muffle by now. Helped add to the disconcerting, liminal vibe, I suppose.

Eventually, though, I made my way down to my gate and prepared to board. There was another queue forming next to ours; whilst we were going to London, they were heading over to Tel Aviv. It took a while to make our way through boarding, thanks to the priority customers being shuffled on first, as well as the Tel Aviv people taking longer than expected to board themselves. 

Soon enough, though, all of us were crammed onto a bus, and we made our way to the plane. I'd made it through nine hours without sleep and much entertainment. I was quite impressed I'd managed so long.

 

Epilogue

Looking back, I'm pretty sure the caffeine helped. Two coffees in a few hours probably adds up, and now I'm far more certain caffeine does actually give me a boost. I remember a few months ago, I said I doubted it did anything for me, but I'm pretty sure by now that was probably down to me not needing it as much as I thought I did.

In the end, I spent about twenty-three consecutive hours awake, which ended up slightly messing with my perception of time. Once I'd landed and got home, the trip to Krakow felt a bit like a distant memory, a trip I'd made a few days ago and not literally yesterday. 

However, in the end, I'm glad I stayed up for as long as I did. I firmly believe everyone should stay awake for twenty-four hours at least once in their life, if only to know what it feels like. I'm also certain for most people, nine of those hours wouldn't be spent in an airport in the middle of nowhere, with several closed shops for company. That said, I don't mind the fact I personally did. 

Though I probably wouldn't do all this again. I am thinking of taking a different flight next time, just to make things easier.