The plan was simple enough in theory. Fly from Munich to
Hamburg Monday night, find a comfortable enough row of terminal seats/patch of
floor to sleep on, and then hop on a plane to Rome early the next morning.
I arrived in Hamburg according to plan, sat down at a little
table where I could plug my laptop in, and splurged on an hour of wifi. But
when I looked up from my screen at the end of the hour, it was like I had
entered the twilight zone. No one in sight. All the stores and shops completely
closed. Had I missed the rapture? I gathered my things tentatively and headed
toward the terminal of my morning flight. A single worker was sitting in the
passport checkpoint booth; he was on the phone, probably with his wife or
something. He seemed confused by my presence, as I was confused by the overall
lack of presences.
“In Hamburg,” he explained in broken English. “It is
prohibited to fly at night.” He looked at my confused face again. “You are going
to… sleep?”
I nodded.
“Poor thing,” he said, and let me through.
 |
| empty |
 |
| totally empty |
Left. Right. Total 360 turn. Yep—I was, quite literally, the
only person in that entire wing of the airport. I had lots of open space and
chairs all to myself, not to mention a fully charged laptop and a whole lot of excess
energy.
It was quite the opportunity to make a fool out of myself, and revisit some of those old show choir moves.
I wish the German police officer had made it into the frame
so you could see him. Don’t worry, I wasn’t arrested or anything. He just
directed me, in German, to a terminal that was actually open 24 hours a day (one with very
uncomfortable chairs, homeless people, and about fifteen different construction
projects going on).
Needless to say, I did not get much sleep last night.
Thankfully, however, I was so excited to see Rome that I managed to function. I’ll
write more about my study abroad group/first day in Rome later, but suffice it
to say I think it’s going to be a fabulous month.
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