Time Does Not Fly – Eastern Europe’s Airport Experience (Eastern Europe & Me #16)

Whenever people ask me about my travels in Eastern Europe I usually talk about Budapest, Lviv Krakow or Sarajevo. The magnificence of the Croatian coastline or the delights of Bosnia. Something which will reveal a hidden treasure awaiting discovery. One thing I purposely fail to mention is the mundane and monotonous side of these trips. Such as the fact that I spend a good portion of my travel time waiting. If there is one thing that has been consistent across twenty plus trips it has been playing the waiting game. This entails waiting in airports, at bus stops, at train stations, on the metro and at restaurants. Waiting at passport control, waiting on luggage, waiting at the currency exchange, waiting to check-in, waiting to check-out, waiting for the day of departure, waiting to arrive, waiting for the return trip home. Travel is a waiting game. There are many ways to play it and no way to win it. The second I touch down anywhere in Eastern Europe the clock starts ticking. My entire travel life flashes before me in just two weeks. The time passes in a head spinning, mind bending, mesmerizing manner. There is only one exception to this rule, airports. 

Extortionate Prices – Consumers Held Captive

“Time flies” is a phrase used so often that it hardly elicits a second thought. Everyone knows this means time is passing faster than we can possibly comprehend. This is especially true when we are having the time of our lives. Ironically, there is one place where time does not fly, in airports. This is the one place on earth where a traveler can experience geologic time in action. Every process from check-in to departure moves at a glacial pace. This is the reason I have come to loath airports. The ones in Eastern Europe are not much different from the ones in Western Europe or America. They may be smaller and more crowded, but the travel experience is similar. In other words, it is irritating to the point of maddening. In my opinion, the entire process is setup to cause maximum consternation. In this regard, it never fails.

I have never been in an airport in Eastern Europe where the food and merchandise would be considered affordable by local standards. Everything is overpriced. A soft drink or cup of coffee is at least double the price outside the airport. Food is the same and sometimes even costlier. I have experienced this on multiple occasions at Budapest Airport. This rather modest one terminal affair still sells food and merchandise at prohibitively high prices. For some reason, I was under the naive impression that because Eastern Europe is much more affordable for westerners the airports would be a better value as well. They are not. It did not take me long to realize why. Anyone who lives in Eastern Europe that can afford to fly will cough up the equivalent of five euros for a cup of coffee. They are held captive to extortionate prices because they have no other options. Airports are distant from all other competition for food, drink, and merchandise. This is true from Budapest to Bucharest, Podgorica to Prague.

Paying The Price - Eat, Drink, & Be Miserable

The exorbitant prices charged in airports are also possible because of the dreaded waiting game all passengers are forced to play. For many years I have vowed to purchase nothing more than a drink at an airport. Unfortunately, flight delays erode my willpower to the point that I find myself capitulating. Anyone who has been forced to spend extra hours at the Budapest Airport will know what I mean. Passengers waiting out delays are forced to eat, drink, and be miserable. These are first world problems, but they are still sources of irritation. How can they not be? Once the waiting game begins, the will weakens and so does one’s hold on their wallet. A great way to relieve anxiety is too purchase overpriced food . This is a sure way to cure anti-depression. There is nothing like lamenting an overpriced croissant harder than concrete.

I do commend Eastern Europe for having small airports. They are a throwback to the way flying used to be or at least that is what I want to believe. The problem is that with passenger numbers exploding since 1989, quaint has come to mean cramped. Comfort is sacrificed for a dilapidated sort of charm. The airports in places like Dubrovnik, Podgorica, and Thessaloniki are tiny by comparison to other European airports. This has an unintended psychological benefit for me. Smaller airports might be packed, but at least they do not have huge yawning spaces that make waits seem that much longer. It has been my experience that the larger the waiting area, the worse the wait. Vacuous spaces have a timelessness that makes the traveler feel as though they are trapped in a time warp. Minutes lose their meaning, hours become the true measure of time, and delays become everyone’s destiny.

Taking Flight – A Lesson In Patience & Gratitude

One side effect of delays is that they have helped me hone my people watching skills. I have seen cultural traits materialize before my eyes. These reveal greater truths. For instance, Eastern Europeans will tolerate greater levels of discomfort than those in the western world. That is because they have little choice. Anyone who has flown Wizz Air out of Budapest knows what I mean. The line for check-in is often little more than a melee that passengers tolerate with little complaint. The planes do not land at the gate. Instead passengers disembark on a tarmac that is often frigid or infernal. They are then packed inside a bus and shuttled to some anonymous entryway. They soon find themselves standing elbow to elbow with their fellow bleary-eyed passengers while awaiting luggage. This is met with a shrug of indifference. Stoicism is the preferred attitude to this accumulation of annoyances.

Considering Eastern Europe's history of upheaval and hardship, airport inconveniences are certainly easier to tolerate for those whose ancestors were often forbidden to travel beyond their own national borders. For someone like me, who comes from a land of comfort and plenty, air travel in Eastern Europe is a lesson in patience and gratitude. The latter is especially important to keep in mind. The fact that in 2011, I flew from Budapest to Bucharest to Sarajevo in a matter of hours is nothing short of sensational when compared to communist era. As late as 1989 this would have been impossible. The experience was not as comfortable or leisurely as I might have imagined. The waiting game was just as excruciating as anywhere else, but the miracle of shuttling between countries that were once forbidden territory for foreigners makes me more than happy to play the waiting game. I just wish it was a tad less uncomfortable.