Stansted Airport

By way of seeing my sister and her family for the first time since about Christmas I spent the day at Stansted Airport. By choice. Never places one would choose to go to unless travelling, always dry and airless, busy and consumerist, queues upon queues. Not a favoured Sunday outing, it has to be said.

I sat at arrivals with a coffee and croissant watching people stream through the arrivals green light gate, cases piled high on trolleys with wonky wheels, exchanging pleasantries with a cab driver waiting for a man from Istanbul with an unpronouncable name written (he hoped) correctly on a laminated sheet. My crowd arrived first.

We escaped to a nearby town for some lunch and then came back to get in the queue for their onward journey to Edinburgh. Thinking we'd found a sneaky short queue we were promptly informed that actually the queue started a whole length back. Easyjet. Never fly them. Always huge queues, too few checking in staff, and on a transfer flight you had to collect the luggage and go through check in again. The queue was mammouth. Almost two hours long. Inching. Incredibly slow. By the time we got back to the point where we thought we were joining originally it was a relief to be able to read the advice notice about what you weren't allowed to take on the plane for something to do. Issued with a clear plastic sac (it had no handles) they got to take: a nappy and wipes for the baby, wallet, purse, passports. No toys, or changes of clothes (being of an age prone to accidents and in need of quite a lot of distraction this could have been seen as a bit of a problem but at least the flight was short).

Flying recently has become hellish because of the airport. Crowded. Queues snaking back and forth across the check in area. The only thing that keeps you going is the thought of the trip at the end. We got to the check in desk and they had to run to catch their plane (10mins to get there - through additional security and running to the gate so they reported later). I on the other hand, left to catch a train back to London. I've got that slightly-seperated-from-reality feeling that you get when you're in those not-quite-anywhere places. I've spent all afternoon queuing with no reward at the end!