Folks, I think at this point I should scrap the hockey writing and just become an airport blogger because right now both of my blogs consist of life at the airport. While my first one praised the wonderful Buffalo-Niagara International Airport, my travels yesterday landed me locked in Gate 7 at Heathrow Airport for the night.
I was returning back home from my study abroad trip to Cyprus, and wound up with an overnight layover in Heathrow. I thought it wouldn’t be that bad as it is a large airport and I was landing at 11 p.m., but boy was I wrong.
When we landed, those of us whose final destination was not London were wrangled up and put through a back room which led us to private security. I thought they were just rolling out the red carpet for an A+ celebrity like myself, this was not the case.
Finally, once all of us were through (if anyone has flown through Heathrow you know it was not a quick process) we were escorted to what is now the infamous Gate 7. We were allowed to go to the only open cafe for food with our chaperone once we arrived. I assumed the muffin-shaped thing I bought (for like $6) was a muffin, it was fruit bread. Who would ever pick up a fruit bread over a muffin. So I didn’t eat, and headed back to my lovely chamber.
Finding sleep in a hopeless place
Once we were all herded back into our enclosed gate, I found the bench with the least amount of garbage on it and made it my home. Naturally, all the benches had metal arm rests that made laying in them quite a pain.
As I contorted my body into my best pretzel impersonation (find the best tips for sleeping on these benches later in the blog), I moved in and out of sleep as phone alarms, women screaming, and general conversation rang throughout our gate. Once 3 a.m. hit we were all instructed to wake up and leave.
As I trudged through the airport to find a quiet area, I stumbled upon another set of benches which I would make my home for another few hours. Thankfully, I was able to sleep with the faint humming of the walking escalator thing next to me.
Using my dirty clothes for warmth, I drifted into a sleep while trying to understand why all of these benches have these metal arms on them.
Tips for sleeping on those benches (with diagrams)
I found two sure-fire ways to sleep on these awful feats of engineered benches.
First, we have the lay-on-the-back method which consists of you guessed it laying on your back. You have to expertly contort your body around the arms of the chair, then thread your right leg through the opening like a needle. Once there, you think about your life choices and how you ended up here.
The second method, and my personal favorite is what I have dubbed the on the side. Here, you lay on your side, and wrap your body ever so close to the metal beams beside you, then you fit both of your legs through the arm opening and hope you god you can get out afterward.
Final thoughts
You know I am very glad I decided to not get a hotel and brave the harsh lights of Gate 7 for a night. Firstly, I was able to write this incredibly detailed blog about it, but also, I had -6.22 in my account so a hotel probably would not have been a sound investment.
Have you folks had similar experiences while spending a night in an airport? Let me know below because I had no idea it would have entailed chaperones and fruit bread.