Airports: Stops on the Way

 Airports: Stops on the Way

Airport Stopovers: Stopovers are an integral part of having a house in another country.  We try to make the journey as easy as possible, and also as interesting as possible and so we have tried various options.

Takis in Italy

Me in Florence, I obviously have to go again. I rubbed the hog's nose!

 This year we will go via Singapore and Istanbul to Athens, and then after a break fly on to Lemnos.  It may seem a round about way to go, but in fact, for us, it was the best deal we could find as at the time we leave Singapore Airlines does not fly to Athens.The journey will involved 20+ flying hours plus  2+ hours in stop-over airports, so say 24 hours of travelling after we leave Melbourne to arrive in Athens and we’ll still have to fly to Lemnos.

Athens in Spring

 Our main stops on the way have been in Dubai or Singapore, and because of our need to recover from the long haul flight we often stay a few days at our first stopover in Europe. We have varied our final place of arrival in Europe in order to see a little more than just the island of Lemnos! And so far we have spent a couple of days in Paris, or London, or Italy before the final lap to Athens and the island.

Paddington Station, London

Orchid Gardens Singapore

Coffee Shop Singapore

 

 Airport Malls: Pico Iyer in his book called The Global Soul says that in airports we encounter ‘a mixed marriage between a border crossing and a shopping mall’. He describes what Takis and I have sometimes been entranced by, and sometimes ‘endured’. 

Iyer says,

‘So often we find ourselves in their accommodating, anonymous spaces, surrounded by the familiar totems’ 

He mentions The Body Shop, and I would add ‘Costa’s Coffee’, Starbucks, MacDonalds, Duty Free, Victoria’s Secret’ and so on and he continues,

‘A modern airport is based on the assumption that everyone’s from somewhere else, and so in need of something he can recognize to make him feel at home.’

 

Airport Crowds: To some extent you are alone in an airport for it is a ‘border crossing’, and you are an alien even though you are surrounded by crowds. They are all strangers - wearing mulitcoloured saris, black burka’s, by turbans and galabias.  

 

How appropriate Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote!

‘What is man but a congress of nations?’

Perhaps we can say what is an airport but a congress of nations.

Luggage Taken and Brought Back: There were times we took large cases filled with took tools and door handles for the renovation in Greece. I’ve always taken books and packets of seeds.  But now we take small suitcases with just enough to see us through the few days we spend in transit, until we reach our home on Lemnos. We have all we need there – and anyway we are past the days of heaving large cases off carousels. 

And always we have stowed away a few gifts, for neighbours and family. The Greeks have all received fluffy Koalas, and the Australians calendars from Lemnos. I have to think of something else to take this year!

Also, the last two years, I’ve even begun bringing back things, finding that over the last ten years I’ve accumulated more than I need on the island.

 Dealing With Bodies: This can be difficult as there is always, though perhaps a very diluted and vague sense of fear when one is in an airport.

Pico Iyer puts it

‘Everyone, in fact, is on alert to some extent when he goes to the airport, and it is that sense of Free-floating apprehension that all the life-insurance companies… hope to turn to profit.’

But also there are bodily difficulties as we are so tired.

 

It might be the combination of fear, weariness, and the anonymous spaces that takes us into that ‘airport feeling’.

Again Pico Iyer describes this state so well,

‘I slipped into that peculiar state of mind – or no-mind – that belongs to the no-time, no-place of the airport, that –out-of-body state in which one’s not quite there, but certainly not elsewhere.’

Airport Responsibilities: Even in airports, in these somewhat ‘accommodating, anonymous spaces’, we still have responsibilities. When flights are delayed, when we have to wait in queues, we should still respect those around us. We have put ourselves into a situation where there will be crying children, we can’t expect them to disappear.

Simone Weil (quoted by Iyer) says

‘We must take the feeling of being at home into exile.’

I interpret this to mean that though we are not at home we should act as though we are; still be a good citizen and have regard for the feelings of others.

We take ourselves with us, and we will not arrive in a new place as a person without responsibilities. While we might be on a tourist journey planning to enjoy different lifestyles this is not a time to only ‘take’: take photos, sample food, etc. It is also be a time to ‘give’: to be fully there, to share some of our ways of being, and hopefully this will be appreciated and will benefit those we meet along the way.