For those of you who are new to the sleepinginairports.com blog, every now and then I will showcase a useful or entertaining airport review sent in by one of the site contributors. In this edition, let’s have a look at Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine….because I’m sure you all are planning trips there one day.
Contributed by rossbd
Well, let me take you back 50 years. In their defense there is no good reason to visit here unless you know someone here, so they are just a old soviet type serviceable airport. At arrival you are led off the plane and papers checked before boarding the bus. The bus then travels maybe 50 yards and I swear the same guy checks your papers again as you get off. He must run along side! You are then lead up stairs thru a corridor last painted by Stalin himself and straight to a small room for passport control. It was like being herded like cattle. There is absolutely nothing there to distract you. Then on to baggage claim and customs which is no hassle, but again there is nothing but that. The second you walk out of customs you are in the meeting area which is the size of my bedroom and then outside. There is NO margin for error!! On departure they have a small bar. coffee area and hard few seats. It is not much better once you pass passport control or customs in the boarding area. Only a small duty free and sudo-bar type place. All hard seats, all no-nonsense all typically soviet era. It not bad, you will feel safe, but if you are looking for a pleasant experience, forget it. It is what is is!!! If you wish to travel back in time, you can do it by just a visit here. Just don’t expect much at all.
The next time you fly, don’t forget to include your airport review to the site. CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR AIRPORT REVIEWS.
(Contributed by Tangerine) “My worst airport experience yet. I had 6 hours to kill before my flight to Bristol in the afternoon, and after travelling 20 hours from Auckland I scoured tiny, jam-packed Bergamo for an armrest-less seat to get some sleep. I found one right at the back of the airport near the wall, but as soon as I got cosy and closed my eyes a guard appeared from no where to prod me awake, tell me off in Italian and point in the direction of Milan. Sleeping is strictly banned at Bergamo, you aren’t even safe sleeping with sunglasses on or next to a friend who is awake - no one escapes the guard’s wrath. Check-in is hell, the staff are lazy and unhelpful. The check-in lines stretch forever and no one queues properly, so line up really early. I waited for 3 hours in customs in the “Non-EU passport” queue. It took so long that my bags were ordered off the flight which waited for me and two other “non-EU” passengers for 1.5 hours while we tried to get through customs. Finally an air hostess came down and managed to squeeze us through militant customs. When we finally walked up the plane steps the pilot greeted us to say “No, you’re too f**ing late” as if it was our problem that we weren’t born in Europe, but eventually let us on board. The second experience at Bergamo was an over-nighter. The airport closes at night so expect to be led (or kicked out) to the refugee-camp style, cold, hard, concrete floored room outside the airport. Don’t go there, this place will even taint your desired destination. AVOID BERGAMO!”
READ MORE ABOUT BERGAMO AIRPORT
I’ve never slept in any train stations, but I must say that after reading many of the reviews you’ve sent in, I certainly wouldn’t try it alone. It seems to be a more popular thing to try in Europe, but I think only for the brave…..as you’ll discover reading this gem.
(Contribued by Iwmimi) My friend was to meet me in Copenhagen in the middle of my trip in the Nordic and I was supposed to pick her up at the bus stop outside the railway station in the early morning. Having limited budget, I decided to stay a short night in the station since I arrived at 11pm and will leave at 6am.
There is less than 10 benches there and not other seats. It’s impossible to sleep in the platform as it’s freezing cold. But the main lobby isn’t any better also. I was frozen even though I wear all clothes I have (including a down coat) and stayed in my sleeping bag.
There’re loads of drug addicts or drunken people around. I was waken up at around midnight as somebody poured beer onto my sleeping bag. I was too scared to yell at them and just wipe that off and continue to sleep.
Then somebody woke me up at 1am and ask me where did I put my luaggage. I lied that I locked them in the lockers. And he told me that the station is gonna close and suggested me to go to his place. I declined with a trembling voice and he left with a few swear words.
At 2am I was waken up again, this time by the security. The station was closing and I was thrown out to the freezing street in Copenhagen. Lots of drunken people were vomiting at the entrance.
Shivering and scared to death, I wandered around and found a BurgerKing which opens till 6am. I got in, bought a Burger and started writing on my travel diary. I pretended to be a travel writer getting ideas in the middle of the night so as to prevent being kicked out.
Then I got my friend’s message that she’ll be arriving at 9 instead of 6…
I went back to the station at 6 and tried to continue sleeping. This time the station looks more safe and clean but I was waken again at 8am that sleeping is not allowed in the station. So I got up and walked around until my friend finally arrived.
(My friend couldn’t regconize me, she said I looked terrible.)
Buddies, for the sake of you life, better go directly for the overnight fast food shops to chat with people there if you really need to stay over night there.
Do you have any sleeping in airport or train station experiences to share? Send them in here.
READ MORE ABOUT SLEEPING IN THE COPENHAGEN TRAIN STATION
I know I add a lot of negative stories here to the airport spotlight feature, but they just tend to be the most entertaining. Here’s a nice airport experience that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when reading it. Thanks to Papa Whiskey for sending this one in.
We were a group of four people travelling via Addis Ababa Airport to Djibouti. Our flight from Europe landed about midnight in Addis, and our connecting flight with Ethiopian Airlines departed at 9am the next morning, so we decided to spend the night at the airport.
We were able to check in our luggage after our arrival (well, there was a place near the passport control marked with a sign “connecting baggage”, where all the connecting luggage for Ethiopian flights got the destination sticker and was put together on a large pile; but it worked out fine!).
So we ended up on the airside just with our cabin luggage. There were benches with relatively hard plastic cushions, but with no armrest, so everyone was able to sleep flat and outstreched.
Then a big surprise: a policeman walked up to us, and positioned himself about one metre away from us, watching us. After about 5 minutes, i asked him whether everything was okay. He told me that of course everything was okay, but his job is to protect the people here at this airport, so he is going to stay here so that “nothing bad is going to happen to European tourist visiting this beautiful country”.
He woke us up at 7am, to tell us that his shift is now going to end and he had to leave us. I invited him for a Coke at the bar (Coke is something quite extraordinary because of the price compared to local income), he accepted it very happily and we chatted for some minutes.
Also without our personal guard I would not have had the feeling, that the airside of Bole Airport is in any way insecure. It is a nice new building, providing all the necessary infrastructure on a basic but for Africa unexpected high level (shops, bars, internet…), although at very “European” prices, for expample 2 Euros for a Coke with would cost you 10-20 Eurocents outside. Inside the Airport, they do not accept Birr, only EUR or USD.
READ MORE ABOUT ADDIS ABABA AIRPORT
We’re going retro with this review. Here is a new story about an old airport, Hong Kong’s retired Kai Tak airport. Thanks to Dangerdude for sending in this story.
I noticed there are no stories about the old Kai Tak airport. 8 of us arrived there at about 10 pm in November 1989, and, yes, we got the thrilling ride onto runway 13. Our Cathay Pacific flight had arrived an hour late & we had a connection to make to Sydney, Australia. Back then, you had to leave the plane on the tarmac, board a bus then they drove you to the terminal. upon getting off the bus, we saw security people with our names on white boards urging us to hurry with them. We ran down the terminal behind a little Cathay Pacific lady, running along in high heels calling out, “Follow me please!” Then, once we had reached the end of the terminal, she realised she had been leading us in the wrong direction & we proceeded to run in the other direction at top speed. Because our flight from Vancouver had arrived late & there were 8 of us, they had held the plane for us for 1/2 hr. So once we got to the right gate, we threw our passports, boarding passes at the gate attendant & ran onto our plane to Sydney. In all, we had been in Hong Kong 20 min. As we took off for Sydney, I kept thinking, “Were we REALLY here??” I’m planning a trip to Hong Kong this coming September so I’m looking forward to the new airport but will miss the quaint smallness of Kai Tak & the wild approach over Kowloon.
READ MORE ABOUT THE MODERN HONG KONG AIRPORT
As I prepare to announce the best and worst list in a few weeks, I’ve been pouring through all of the reviews that you all have sent in over the past year. I’m 1/4 of the way through. In the process, I’ve found a few reviews that deserve a little more recognition, so I’ll start getting the “Spotlight” feature going again. Thanks to Damo for this entertaining read!
“What a place! Arrived here from Galati, Romania to catch a train the next morning to Belgrade, Serbia. I don’t know where to start! A few years ago this station was the epicentre for every roaming scumbag imaginable. The situation seems to have improved as these black clad security type guys now loiter around the entrances extracting bribes. Apparently you do have to pay to enter the station if you are not travelling, but even if you have a ticket for onward travel the next morning these guys still want cash. Fair enough it was only about 1 which is whore of a cheaper than any hotel in Bucharest. There is a cafe open all night which is dirt cheap but dirt dirty. The seats in the “First Class” waiting room look like police cell benches, wooden and very uncomfortable, be prepared to share with whole families of Gypsies and gluesniffers. On a final note avoid the toilets at all costs!!! I dont know about the ladies but the gents is the worse I have ever encountered. At the bottom of a stairwell you will find its flooded to ankle height with brown colored water. Floating articles included turds, condoms, and discarded porno mags. The worse thing though is that they have the cheek to charge to use this hellhole. During the day if you need to go visit Mcdonalds nearby!”
Sound like a fun place? Wanna read more about the Bucharest train station?
Not much airport stuff going on at the moment, so I’ve been a bit quiet. I’m off to Colombia and Ecuador next month, so hopefully I’ll have some fun photos to post. Here’s another review for those of you who travel with kids…
(Contributed by Heather) “I was travelling with my sister and 3 year old son. We arrived at Milan’s train stazione after an excruciating 10 hour train ride from Naples. We then took a taxi to Malpensa airport, arriving there at midnight. We had only a few lire to our names so we had no choice but to bunk down at the airport. By this time my son was already sound asleep. With my backpack on my back and my smaller pack flung around my front, I carried my sons limp, sleeping body around Malpensa airport until we found the British Airways counter. Finally we slunked down on the floor. It was freezing, I put my coat over my son, and shivered all night. My son slept on an end table, my sister and I on the floor. I being a mom kept my weary eyes open all night to watch for predators. We had some weirdo guy walk around us several times, but he disapperared after a while. The cleaning crew ignored us, and so did security. This was probably the worst night of my life while I was living it. But now when I look back, it was an experience we’ll never forget!”
READ MORE ABOUT SLEEPING IN MILAN MALPENSA AIRPORT
Recent Comments