Airports

Honestly, I almost feel as though I have spent the same amount of time in airports while being abroad that I have actually traveling abroad to different countries. I have slept on the floor of the Luton Airport numerous times while waiting for my plane to board at 6 in the morning, also while waiting for the bus back to Oxford at 6 at night. I have laid in the chairs of the Costa Coffee at the Stanstead Airport waiting to go to Germany and Italy, although I did not mind it as much back then because those were my first 2 trips and I was preoccupied with getting excited about my adventures that were lying ahead rather than how cold and uncomfortable the ground was that I was sleeping on.

I have ate probably at every single restaurant in both the Luton and Stanstead airports. The people that work at Starbucks at both places definitely know me by heart as well as the fact that I am going to order a "skinny gingerbread latte, hold the whip cream" every time I get in line. The police officers at Luton airport even know me and courtney because of the fact that we were laying down reading and waiting for our bus back to Oxford for about three hours and every 20 minutes that they passed us on their rounds around the airport they would say "hello."

I used to love flying. It was actually my favorite form of transportation for as long as I can remember. I used to love the smell of the airport, the hustle and bustle of people trying to get to their gate on time, the fact that every single person in the airport was either going or coming from not only a different part of the states but possibly from all different parts of the world! Airports absolutely fascinated me and I always expected them to stay open and packed 24/7. My perspective on airports has completely changed now since I have been abroad and although I still love to travel, I'm not sure I will be using airports as much as I used to, especially not Ryanair.

The cheapest way to fly in Europe is either by Ryanair, EasyJet, or Wizz air. All three of them have pretty decently priced plane tickets to all over Europe except everything else about them I would say is pretty much shit. For Ryanair, you have to get there extra early to stand in a very long line and get your passport checked off with the people at the front desk, then you have to wait a little bit and go through security (which is thankfully not too bad) then you have to sit by a monitor and wait for your flight to come up so that you can see what gate your in. After sprinting to the gate that you saw flash across the monitor, you have to stand in line again for about 30 minutes and wait for someone to come by and check that you only have one bag on you that is of a certain size and length. Then you have to wait in line again to board the plane, sprint to the plane, and get in the seat of your choice. It is pretty much the same for the other two airlines that I discussed above, except you don't have to get your passport checked first.

Landing on these airlines is a completely different story. Compared to this, everything else makes it seem like we're being treated like first class. You slowly are coming closer and closer to the ground and you can see your destination, the plane goes a little bit wobbly side to side until finally *BAM* you're landed on the ground with a few large bumps and your face pressed up against the person's seat in front of you. To top it off, on Ryanair, the pilot likes to play a "congratulatory" song singing "congratulations you have arrived on time". The song is supposed to be reassuring but, for me at least, it has the opposite effect of making me feel as though it is a "congratulations you are still alive song".

People always talk about how bad customs is and how it takes so long to get through it, but I never get impatient when I am standing in line for it. It usually seems to go pretty fast, and to this day I still get really excited about getting another stamp in my book! It sounds a little childish but hey when I look back and see all of these stamps, it is going to remind me of all of these memories that  I have made while traveling abroad in Europe.

There are a few places that I wish I had been able to go to now that I am leaving in a few weeks, and the only time that I usually think about them is when I am at the airport looking at the monitor wondering when my flight is going to pop up. I wish that I could've made time for Wales, Ireland, Switzerland, and so many more places. Traveling abroad is such an amazing experience, but a person really does need about 2 semesters to an entire year to actually be able to say they have "fully accomplished europe".