About sleeping at the airport: utility and bikes
I fly a lot and have seen different shit like an eight-hour flight delay and large windows between transits in 3 transfers. My friends lost documents, or we just flew through Copenhagen in the summer, when a hostel bed costs 15 thousand rubles per night.
We slept in Copenhagen at the airport and it was scary. When I returned, I learned a lot of interesting things about this kind of hobby.
First, go to sleepinginairports.net . There is a huge knowledge base, there are a lot of guides from the series “Be careful at this airport, there are no outlets” or “There is zone A, where it is best to sleep”. It also shows where the shower, where you can wash your feet (in the chapels) and where the yoga room. The yoga room is an atrocious wine, it is very good to sleep there.
Here is a video where a man in Domodedovo is sleeping on a running luggage tape.
')
So do not.
So how should it be? For starters, take a pillow with you. Canal light sleeping bag, light blanket or a large scarf. Take earplugs or buy them at the pharmacy (take better). The day at the airports usually starts at 5 am, and it’s noisy until midnight. You will need a mask for the eyes - the light at the airport is not turned off anywhere. And sometimes it also blinks. Some airports have zones of subdued light - for example, in Iceland, at KEF, very cool done.
Next comes the food and water, because at night almost all the shops are closed. I take another book and antiseptic.
If there are stickers and felt-tip pen, you can write something like “wake me up at five in the morning” and stick it on yourself. They say it works. When not in Russian. In Russian, with some probability you will wake up without a bag.
Check airport hours. They sometimes close at night. For example, we flew from Paris. Not checked to how many the airport works and arrived there with the firm intention to spend the night in warmth and relative comfort. Everything was fine exactly until 11 o'clock in the evening, until we were triumphantly driven out of the door. Some of the same losers, like us, went to look for luck in the nearest McDack, and we decided that if we had a tent anyway, we would spend the night in it. Straight on the lawn in front of the airport and put it. At 5 am, we got up, collected and went to direct the marafet in the airport toilet. Well, have breakfast in the cafes.
It also happens that some terminals are closed, so you need to sleep not in the terminal of domestic flights, but in international ones - they are usually open. But everything needs to be rechecked, so that it does not happen that at 11 pm you are expelled from the airport in a sleepy state.
Go to the transit area. If you have checked in for the flight and the baggage you have passed (or are traveling without it at all), then at most European airports you can go through the boarding pass immediately to the transit area. It is more comfortable to sleep inside than in the outer part of the airport - not only passengers spend the night there. Usually in transit areas there is a shower, more comfortable seats, a bunch of additional services, and even a room for yoga. In addition, there is less chance that you will be robbed. And the airport staff will not pull to check whether you are a passenger or not.
Think about security. Find a medical center and police at the airport. Almost all civilized airports have them. It is best to lie down to sleep somewhere near them - less likely that you will be robbed. At least that's what counts.
A backpack must necessarily embrace or at least put an arm or leg on it. Some particularly nervous chained themselves to their bags. If you are lying on the floor, it is better to turn the backpack or suitcase with a zipper / lock against the wall. This will make access to things more difficult, and the theft process will become louder at times. You can wrap your carry-on luggage in a second layer in a light gym bag - such as those sold in Ikea. Just do not take red.
A place. If you are in the transit zone, then everything is greatly simplified. There you can sleep in rest rooms, in children's rooms (they usually have carpets on the floors), in libraries, in a room for yoga. You can also sleep in the lounges. In these zones, you can go if you pay a certain amount. It may be cheaper than spending the night at a hotel at the airport or in a capsule hotel. There was a case when one enterprising traveler several times bought a business class ticket with a free exchange, return and business hall. He came to the airport, rested in the business lounge, ate and drank before departure, and for some time went and changed the ticket. At some point, the airline disclosed the scheme, but a couple of times this trick worked.
If there is no registration for the flight, it will not be possible to enter the inner zone of the airport. I can’t sleep on the seats - look at the beautiful rubber ladders at the check-in counters. They are soft, not cold, quite anatomical shape. A couple of hours before check-in you can sleep.
Option in the extreme case - rent a car. If parking is free, it may be cheaper than a night at the hotel.
Do not forget to ask. Sometimes airport staff can help with a night's sleep if you are in the “clean” zone, because in the “dirty” it may turn out that you are just a homeless person, and the employee will not find out. In Charles de Gaulle you can give the whole set: a blanket, a rug, a blindfold, a toothbrush. Then you just lie down on the floor, hug your suitcase and sleep. The main thing is to ask. Employees can themselves go with the packages of first need. See that people are trying to sleep, fit and give everything you need. At the airport in Brussels, according to rumors, clamshells generally roll out. That is, it always makes sense to ask local workers. If you are not sure that you will have a good night, just come and ask: “Can you give me anything?”
Each airport has its own specifics. In one place you will be left alone, and in another they can wake up and check your boarding pass every hour if you fall asleep in the common area (not transit). Some employees just don’t like it when they spend the night at the airport, and they can throw it out.
In Singapore (Changi International Airport) there are free sun beds:
And this is Seoul (Incheon International Airport):
He constantly argues with Singapore for the title of the best airport. Sleeping areas are separate from busy shops.
In Tokyo (HND) seats without handrails, that is, you can sleep in length. This airport also has hotels - not only for people, but also for animals.
In Helsinki (HEL) there are paid capsules for sleeping and the soothing sounds of nature for those who are not afraid to oversleep the flight.
It is better not to stop in South Sudan (JUB) - there in the rainy season there are mud puddles in the hall and it is dripping from above. In Saudi Arabia (Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport, JED) huge queues: “I personally met an immigration officer who fell asleep while checking my documents. Then he actually left his post, just to splash water on his face, and then came back and fell asleep again. ” But there is free Wi-Fi.
Then Nigeria - Port Harcourt International Airport (PHC). Employees are said to extort money for literally everything. For example, they can say that the visa is incorrect and you need to pay for the correct one. You actually arrive at the tent.
More bad places are Greece, Crete (HER). Corresponding to the code - incredible queues. Also try not to fall on long transits to Nigeria - Lagos Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS), Greece - Santorini Thira National Airport (JTR), Tanzania - Dar es Salaam Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR), Greece - Rhodes International Airport (RHO) , France - Paris Beauvais-Tille Airport (BVA, it is closed for the night), Uzbekistan - Tashkent International Airport (TAS).
About 200 people come to Sheremetyevo every night to sleep. Do not live, but sleep. In fact, this is only a problem of Sheremetyevo - they do nothing with it. In the cold put up only the most violent - those who did not want to follow the rules. And the rest still come there to sleep, they even have their own seats, the airport staff knows them. In fact, this is a big doss house. By the World Cup, these comrades are promised to be expelled for a month so as not to shock tourists. Let's see if it works or not.
Heathrow lives from 20 to 100 people. There, too, do not keep statistics, but some time ago a whole series of articles appeared in the press about such people. Eram Dar, one of the “residents” Heathrow, in an interview described her life at the airport as follows: “Living in Heathrow is like being in a good hotel. Warm, very clean, and no one touches you. I think it's luck that I'm here. Every night I sleep in the same place (between the American Express exchanger and the ice cream machine on the floor of the corridor leading to the first terminal). Sometimes passengers glance at me as they pass by. Night cleaners wash the floors right around me. I just close my eyes and wrap my head in a scarf so as not to hear anything around. ”
At the airport of Singapore lives about 11 people, about one of its residents will be lower. In Atlanta - about 12. In Frankfurt - about 50 people.
Many of these people are, in fact, not homeless. Most often they had to stay because of some problems with the documents. Sheremetyevo had a family for a very long time that was trying to get refugee status in Russia. Our border guards released them, and the Germans sent them back. And a guy named Edik lived in Sheremetyevo for a week, but he was fairly well known, so he was quickly given permission to enter.
At the airport Charles de Gaulle permanently lived one bum. It was the tenth of December 2017. So, around 17:30 pm in terminal 2F, he, as usual, bypassed the airport trash. In the process, accidentally pushed the door, it opened. And behind it - the office owned by the cash company Loomis. And it happened exactly on that day when the company was going to take out cash. The homeless did not lose his head and took two bags. It was reported that 300 thousand euros were stolen, later the number increased to 490 thousand. "Lucky" can not find to this day, although his identity has been established.
Feng Zhenghu went to Japan for treatment. When he tried to get a return ticket, he was not allowed to go. He tried to buy it again. Again the same situation. In total, Feng tried to return to China 8 times. Before he was allowed on board the aircraft, he had to live 92 days at Tokyo airport. Upon arrival in China, he was put on special control, and soon the phone, laptop were taken away and put under house arrest. This is due to Feng's journalistic activity - for a long time he criticized the Chinese Communist Party in his articles.
The woman who hides her face (as well as her name) has lived at the Singapore airport for 8 years (and continues). She is not homeless, and her documents are in order. In 2008, she overtook the financial crisis - the lady was left without money. A terrific plan came to her head: to temporarily live at the airport, and to hand over her own apartment until life improved. "Temporarily" stretched for 8 years. A woman receives about $ 1000 per month, so she has no problems with money.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri - one of the most famous cases thanks to Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks: the reference to the film “Terminal” at the beginning of the text was not just like that. This man set an absolute record - he spent 18 years at the airport Charles de Gaulle, from August 26, 1988 to July 2006. Why Mehran was in this position is not known for sure. According to one version, he was kicked out of the country, on the other - he wanted to leave himself and refused the citizenship of his native country in order to move to live in England. But either his documents were stolen at the airport, or the British services decided that his documents were unsuitable. In any case, he was deported to France. Already in France, the authorities refused to let him into the country. He survived due to the fact that people gave him, washed in the shower, he made a house of two shops in the basement of the airport. He was even given pillows and sheets. Some say that after 18 years, his lawyer rescued him from there. Others believe that the officials simply descended to him. According to the latest data, he now lives in Paris.
PS A couple of days ago in Moscow it was forbidden to lie on the seats and put luggage on them.
We slept in Copenhagen at the airport and it was scary. When I returned, I learned a lot of interesting things about this kind of hobby.
First, go to sleepinginairports.net . There is a huge knowledge base, there are a lot of guides from the series “Be careful at this airport, there are no outlets” or “There is zone A, where it is best to sleep”. It also shows where the shower, where you can wash your feet (in the chapels) and where the yoga room. The yoga room is an atrocious wine, it is very good to sleep there.
How to sleep at airports if you are a traveler
Here is a video where a man in Domodedovo is sleeping on a running luggage tape.
')
So do not.
So how should it be? For starters, take a pillow with you. Canal light sleeping bag, light blanket or a large scarf. Take earplugs or buy them at the pharmacy (take better). The day at the airports usually starts at 5 am, and it’s noisy until midnight. You will need a mask for the eyes - the light at the airport is not turned off anywhere. And sometimes it also blinks. Some airports have zones of subdued light - for example, in Iceland, at KEF, very cool done.
Next comes the food and water, because at night almost all the shops are closed. I take another book and antiseptic.
If there are stickers and felt-tip pen, you can write something like “wake me up at five in the morning” and stick it on yourself. They say it works. When not in Russian. In Russian, with some probability you will wake up without a bag.
Check airport hours. They sometimes close at night. For example, we flew from Paris. Not checked to how many the airport works and arrived there with the firm intention to spend the night in warmth and relative comfort. Everything was fine exactly until 11 o'clock in the evening, until we were triumphantly driven out of the door. Some of the same losers, like us, went to look for luck in the nearest McDack, and we decided that if we had a tent anyway, we would spend the night in it. Straight on the lawn in front of the airport and put it. At 5 am, we got up, collected and went to direct the marafet in the airport toilet. Well, have breakfast in the cafes.
It also happens that some terminals are closed, so you need to sleep not in the terminal of domestic flights, but in international ones - they are usually open. But everything needs to be rechecked, so that it does not happen that at 11 pm you are expelled from the airport in a sleepy state.
Go to the transit area. If you have checked in for the flight and the baggage you have passed (or are traveling without it at all), then at most European airports you can go through the boarding pass immediately to the transit area. It is more comfortable to sleep inside than in the outer part of the airport - not only passengers spend the night there. Usually in transit areas there is a shower, more comfortable seats, a bunch of additional services, and even a room for yoga. In addition, there is less chance that you will be robbed. And the airport staff will not pull to check whether you are a passenger or not.
Think about security. Find a medical center and police at the airport. Almost all civilized airports have them. It is best to lie down to sleep somewhere near them - less likely that you will be robbed. At least that's what counts.
A backpack must necessarily embrace or at least put an arm or leg on it. Some particularly nervous chained themselves to their bags. If you are lying on the floor, it is better to turn the backpack or suitcase with a zipper / lock against the wall. This will make access to things more difficult, and the theft process will become louder at times. You can wrap your carry-on luggage in a second layer in a light gym bag - such as those sold in Ikea. Just do not take red.
A place. If you are in the transit zone, then everything is greatly simplified. There you can sleep in rest rooms, in children's rooms (they usually have carpets on the floors), in libraries, in a room for yoga. You can also sleep in the lounges. In these zones, you can go if you pay a certain amount. It may be cheaper than spending the night at a hotel at the airport or in a capsule hotel. There was a case when one enterprising traveler several times bought a business class ticket with a free exchange, return and business hall. He came to the airport, rested in the business lounge, ate and drank before departure, and for some time went and changed the ticket. At some point, the airline disclosed the scheme, but a couple of times this trick worked.
If there is no registration for the flight, it will not be possible to enter the inner zone of the airport. I can’t sleep on the seats - look at the beautiful rubber ladders at the check-in counters. They are soft, not cold, quite anatomical shape. A couple of hours before check-in you can sleep.
Option in the extreme case - rent a car. If parking is free, it may be cheaper than a night at the hotel.
Do not forget to ask. Sometimes airport staff can help with a night's sleep if you are in the “clean” zone, because in the “dirty” it may turn out that you are just a homeless person, and the employee will not find out. In Charles de Gaulle you can give the whole set: a blanket, a rug, a blindfold, a toothbrush. Then you just lie down on the floor, hug your suitcase and sleep. The main thing is to ask. Employees can themselves go with the packages of first need. See that people are trying to sleep, fit and give everything you need. At the airport in Brussels, according to rumors, clamshells generally roll out. That is, it always makes sense to ask local workers. If you are not sure that you will have a good night, just come and ask: “Can you give me anything?”
Each airport has its own specifics. In one place you will be left alone, and in another they can wake up and check your boarding pass every hour if you fall asleep in the common area (not transit). Some employees just don’t like it when they spend the night at the airport, and they can throw it out.
In Singapore (Changi International Airport) there are free sun beds:
And this is Seoul (Incheon International Airport):
He constantly argues with Singapore for the title of the best airport. Sleeping areas are separate from busy shops.
In Tokyo (HND) seats without handrails, that is, you can sleep in length. This airport also has hotels - not only for people, but also for animals.
In Helsinki (HEL) there are paid capsules for sleeping and the soothing sounds of nature for those who are not afraid to oversleep the flight.
It is better not to stop in South Sudan (JUB) - there in the rainy season there are mud puddles in the hall and it is dripping from above. In Saudi Arabia (Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport, JED) huge queues: “I personally met an immigration officer who fell asleep while checking my documents. Then he actually left his post, just to splash water on his face, and then came back and fell asleep again. ” But there is free Wi-Fi.
Then Nigeria - Port Harcourt International Airport (PHC). Employees are said to extort money for literally everything. For example, they can say that the visa is incorrect and you need to pay for the correct one. You actually arrive at the tent.
More bad places are Greece, Crete (HER). Corresponding to the code - incredible queues. Also try not to fall on long transits to Nigeria - Lagos Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS), Greece - Santorini Thira National Airport (JTR), Tanzania - Dar es Salaam Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR), Greece - Rhodes International Airport (RHO) , France - Paris Beauvais-Tille Airport (BVA, it is closed for the night), Uzbekistan - Tashkent International Airport (TAS).
Homeless and vibrant personalities
About 200 people come to Sheremetyevo every night to sleep. Do not live, but sleep. In fact, this is only a problem of Sheremetyevo - they do nothing with it. In the cold put up only the most violent - those who did not want to follow the rules. And the rest still come there to sleep, they even have their own seats, the airport staff knows them. In fact, this is a big doss house. By the World Cup, these comrades are promised to be expelled for a month so as not to shock tourists. Let's see if it works or not.
Heathrow lives from 20 to 100 people. There, too, do not keep statistics, but some time ago a whole series of articles appeared in the press about such people. Eram Dar, one of the “residents” Heathrow, in an interview described her life at the airport as follows: “Living in Heathrow is like being in a good hotel. Warm, very clean, and no one touches you. I think it's luck that I'm here. Every night I sleep in the same place (between the American Express exchanger and the ice cream machine on the floor of the corridor leading to the first terminal). Sometimes passengers glance at me as they pass by. Night cleaners wash the floors right around me. I just close my eyes and wrap my head in a scarf so as not to hear anything around. ”
At the airport of Singapore lives about 11 people, about one of its residents will be lower. In Atlanta - about 12. In Frankfurt - about 50 people.
Many of these people are, in fact, not homeless. Most often they had to stay because of some problems with the documents. Sheremetyevo had a family for a very long time that was trying to get refugee status in Russia. Our border guards released them, and the Germans sent them back. And a guy named Edik lived in Sheremetyevo for a week, but he was fairly well known, so he was quickly given permission to enter.
At the airport Charles de Gaulle permanently lived one bum. It was the tenth of December 2017. So, around 17:30 pm in terminal 2F, he, as usual, bypassed the airport trash. In the process, accidentally pushed the door, it opened. And behind it - the office owned by the cash company Loomis. And it happened exactly on that day when the company was going to take out cash. The homeless did not lose his head and took two bags. It was reported that 300 thousand euros were stolen, later the number increased to 490 thousand. "Lucky" can not find to this day, although his identity has been established.
Feng Zhenghu went to Japan for treatment. When he tried to get a return ticket, he was not allowed to go. He tried to buy it again. Again the same situation. In total, Feng tried to return to China 8 times. Before he was allowed on board the aircraft, he had to live 92 days at Tokyo airport. Upon arrival in China, he was put on special control, and soon the phone, laptop were taken away and put under house arrest. This is due to Feng's journalistic activity - for a long time he criticized the Chinese Communist Party in his articles.
The woman who hides her face (as well as her name) has lived at the Singapore airport for 8 years (and continues). She is not homeless, and her documents are in order. In 2008, she overtook the financial crisis - the lady was left without money. A terrific plan came to her head: to temporarily live at the airport, and to hand over her own apartment until life improved. "Temporarily" stretched for 8 years. A woman receives about $ 1000 per month, so she has no problems with money.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri - one of the most famous cases thanks to Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks: the reference to the film “Terminal” at the beginning of the text was not just like that. This man set an absolute record - he spent 18 years at the airport Charles de Gaulle, from August 26, 1988 to July 2006. Why Mehran was in this position is not known for sure. According to one version, he was kicked out of the country, on the other - he wanted to leave himself and refused the citizenship of his native country in order to move to live in England. But either his documents were stolen at the airport, or the British services decided that his documents were unsuitable. In any case, he was deported to France. Already in France, the authorities refused to let him into the country. He survived due to the fact that people gave him, washed in the shower, he made a house of two shops in the basement of the airport. He was even given pillows and sheets. Some say that after 18 years, his lawyer rescued him from there. Others believe that the officials simply descended to him. According to the latest data, he now lives in Paris.
PS A couple of days ago in Moscow it was forbidden to lie on the seats and put luggage on them.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/371483/
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