seekingmygreaterperhaps

Before my flight to Paris, I slept in the Dublin airport, because my flight was at 6:05 am, before public transportation would be running. I could have called a cab from my couchsurfers house… but that would have cost me a bundle, and, as my mother always says, you either have a good time or a good story, you gotta choose one. So here is my good story.

I caught the last bus to the airport the night before. I get there and have no idea where one actually goes to sleep in an airport. There is a website that exists called sleepinginairports.com and they provided some helpful tips. They mentioned a bench at the McDonalds. However, it took me a good 45 minutes to figure out where the McDonalds was. When I got there, SURPRISE! There were a billion people there… sleeping… in the airport. This was a Monday night in the offseason. Come on people, get a hotel. ;]

I searched around for a little, but since I was a latecomer, there was not a padding place anywhere to be found. Lucky for me, the Dublin airport currently is celebrating some kind of anniversary, so they had a bunch of folded display walls (hard to explain…). I found myself a corner, on the hard, tile floor, and snuggled up.

At about 1 am a security guard kicked me in the foot to wake me up and make sure I had a boarding pass for the next day. I showed him my ticket and he moved on. At this point I had juuuuusst fallen asleep maybe 10 minutes before. Then it was super loud all of a sudden, but lucky for me, I have some handy dandy earplugs! Popped those babies in and I was headed to dreamland…

Unfortunately, sleeping on a cold tile floor is a lot harder than one might imagine. Also everytime someone around you moves, you jolt up ready for a fight if someone is taking your things. I was sleeping on top of my purse and backpack, so I would’ve been ready for some throat punches if needed. Overall, no one bothered me. However, it was extremely cold. I had been wearing layers because someone had put that tip on the website, and I was using my winter coat as a blanket, but the cold from the tiles was seeping through my bones.

As my alarm was set for 4:00 am (2 hours before your flight if you’re flying international), I think I slept for maybe 2 hours total. But while this wasn’t an experience I will repeat if I can help it, I believe I have now joined the ranks of a badass backpacker.

Upon arriving in Paris, it was kind of a headache to get into my next couchsurfers hands… and I kept falling asleep. For a brief list, here are places that I slept in those 24 hours:

-airport floor
-airplane
-bus
-metro
-couch

However, the end goal led me to PARIS. So I can’t really complain. Plus, now I’m hardcore.