Talking to people in Airports

Daqster · 03-12-2013 08:45PM

taytobreath wrote: »

you must have a big rapist head on ya:D

Yeah, must check to see if Crimewatch was on the night before or something and my doppelganger was on the fecker or something

Nah, honest, the guy didn't even look at me, he was fumbling around with the bike still running and helmet in his hand and was mumbling to himself as I opened the door. My thinking was that he reliseed he left his money at home or something and just wanted to get away quick so he could scream 'Fuuuuccckkk!' after having driven up all that way.

April O Neill II · 03-12-2013 08:51PM

keith16 wrote: »

Is it an Irish thing?

Yes, we're special. Let us wonder at ourselves some more. I love navel-gazing.

Serious answer: Can't say it's something I've noticed happening very much at all. Certainly has rarely, if ever, happened to me!

April O Neill II · 03-12-2013 08:56PM

Candie wrote: »

I don't know what the problem is. I love those random chats with complete strangers, it brightens up the day. It's nice to connect with your fellow humanity.

Alun wrote: »

Me too, I really don't get this obsession with cutting yourself off from the rest of the world with earphones or whatever.

It's not an obsession. For introverted people like me, small talk tends to make us quite anxious!

wexie · 03-12-2013 08:57PM

hmmmm....I travel a lot and generally on my own, usually put my headphones and axe murderer face on shortly after getting out of the car and they stay on till I get to my hotel at the other end.

I'm really not interested in your cousins-sisters-bestmates-mother-in-laws tumor or how great a time you had last year visiting buttfuque in mozambique when you went to visit your thirdcousinsonyourmotherssidefatherinlaw who's building a house for the local parish handicapped goats herd who got hurt during the big storm when he tried to save several orphaned mongoose.

furiousox · 03-12-2013 08:59PM

As Jean-Paul Sartre once said, "hell is other people..."

lertsnim · 03-12-2013 09:00PM

Headphones usually keeps them away though you will get the odd person that will signal at you to take them off to have a chat.

Legs.Eleven · 03-12-2013 09:01PM

April O Neill II wrote: »

Yes, we're special. Let us wonder at ourselves some more. I love navel-gazing.

Doesn't make us "special" but it has happened quite a lot to me flying to Ireland.

Fox_In_Socks · 03-12-2013 09:02PM

furiousox wrote: »

As Jean-Paul Sartre once said, "hell is other people..."

Hell is the Ray d'Arcy Show.

They would just love sitting at airports, doing a Paddy o Gorman.

Fukuyama · 03-12-2013 09:07PM

I generally try to keep to myself when I fly alone. If someone tries to chat to me I take a second or two to decide if their hot(and femake)/not weird/interesting/sober. If they're the opposite then I'll just nod along before ditching them or putting in earphones.

I DESPISE drunk people who try to talk to me on public transport / a plane. They talk pure crap and breath on you.

MadYaker · 03-12-2013 09:08PM

Being laid back and casual enough to have the craic with randomers in situations like that is very much an Irish thing in my experience. I love it.

April O Neill II · 03-12-2013 09:10PM

Legs.Eleven wrote: »

Doesn't make us "special" but it has happened quite a lot to me flying to Ireland.

My post was in response to the OP asking is it an Irish thing. Happens a lot around here, and often about things that happen absolutely everywhere. I don't think the chatty airport has ever happened to me anywhere!

Legs.Eleven · 03-12-2013 09:10PM

MadYaker wrote: »

Being laid back and casual enough to have the craic with randomers in situations like that is very much an Irish thing in my experience. I love it.

Saying that, I can see why people might not like it. I can't imagine someone who'd continue trying to talk to you after you gave them an indication that you're not interested though unless they were nuts or lacked social skills.

I probably just like it because I'm usually excited about going home.

Legs.Eleven · 03-12-2013 09:13PM

April O Neill II wrote: »

My post was in response to the OP asking is it an Irish thing. Happens a lot around here, and often about things that happen absolutely everywhere. I don't think the chatty airport has ever happened to me anywhere!

Fair enough. It happens to me almost every time I fly home tbh, which is about 3 or 4 times a year.

Sh1tbag OToole · 03-12-2013 09:17PM

I try to talk to randomers whenever I get the chance - at airports, on the train, anywhere. It's probably good for the soul to do so. Although most people these days in public have earphones in and have their eyes glued to their 'Pad. Every now and then you can be lucky and start chatting to an ouldfella who is a bit mad and is a bit of craic

MadYaker wrote: »

Being laid back and casual enough to have the craic with randomers in situations like that is very much an Irish thing in my experience. I love it.

Where are people in other countries going wrong that makes them averse to this sort of thing?

wexie · 03-12-2013 09:18PM

Legs.Eleven wrote: »

Saying that, I can see why people might not like it. I can't imagine someone who'd continue trying to talk to you after you gave them an indication that you're not interested though unless they were nuts or lacked social skills.

I probably just like it because I'm usually excited about going home.

Or are nervous about flying, that seems to be a reason for a lot of people to get horribly chatty and somewhat unstable.

If you're looking for sympathy it's in the dictionary between **** and syphilis.

:mad:

Legs.Eleven · 03-12-2013 09:21PM

wexie wrote: »

Or are nervous about flying, that seems to be a reason for a lot of people to get horribly chatty and somewhat unstable.

If you're looking for sympathy it's in the dictionary between **** and syphilis.

:mad:

Yikes! :eek: Can't tell if you're having a go at me there....

April O Neill II · 03-12-2013 09:28PM

wexie wrote: »

Or are nervous about flying, that seems to be a reason for a lot of people to get horribly chatty and somewhat unstable.

I used to be terrified of flying and... gawd, yes.

Remember taking fúckloads of Diazepam before a flight and talking crap at the poor woman next to me for the duration of the 3 hour flight. Tried to hug her at one stage too.

Sugar Free · 03-12-2013 09:29PM

Majority of my travel is for business so I doubt I give off an 'open to a chat' vibe.

Aside from that I normally try to sleep when flying so any small talk would be restricted to the terminal.

legrand · 03-12-2013 09:29PM

fado fado bused it between NY and Boston - think journey was about 5 hours if memory serves. Not so much chatted to but vicariously had to endure a woman talking to a stranger next her. She literally talked for 5 hours of the most inane ****e imaginable. I at least has a few cassettes to listen to and thus prevented me from reaching out and strangling her - quite how others around her did not react I don't know.

wexie · 03-12-2013 09:42PM

Legs.Eleven wrote: »

Yikes! :eek: Can't tell if you're having a go at me there....

ey?

No not at all, just like to be left alone when travelling (on my own, if I'm with family usually hands full), I seem to attract pretty weird individuals when I'm travelling on my own. I had some ginormous american woman actually ask me could she hold my hand flying from Atlanta to Austin :eek:

Not to mention the most surreal bustrip between Montreal and Toronto, overnight bus in the middle of a snowstorm. I found out afterwards that somewhere in between, I forget the name of the town, there used to be a mental hospital that closed up shop sometime ago. All the patients were released but just kinda hung around and tended to travel on the bus.

innad · 03-12-2013 09:44PM

I usually don't mind chatting to strangers - and I must give off an "approachable" vibe because it happens wherever I am.

But the last time I was flying to Germany I had really bad laryngitis (I know, shouldn't have been flying at all but I really needed to see my family), my voice was reduced to a croak and trying to talk was extremely painful. And well, the guy next to me on the plane would not stop talking to me and asking me stupid questions, even though it would have been obvious to anyone that I really wasn't able to have a conversation. No amount of "sorry, I can't really talk right now" made him let up. In the end my hearing went as well, and I ended up gesturing with my hands and croaking "I'm sorry, but I can't hear you and I can't talk" before trying my best to ignore him.

And all of this on a 7am flight! :eek:

Legs.Eleven · 03-12-2013 09:45PM

ey?

Misunderstood you.

No not at all, just like to be left alone when travelling (on my own, if I'm with family usually hands full), I seem to attract pretty weird individuals when I'm travelling on my own. I had some ginormous american woman actually ask me could she hold my hand flying from Atlanta to Austin :eek:

Haha!

innad · 03-12-2013 09:47PM

wexie wrote: »

I had some ginormous american woman actually ask me could she hold my hand flying from Atlanta to Austin :eek:

when I was about 15 and travelling on my own, I ended up sitting beside a pregnant lady who was terrified of flying so she was knocking back the glasses of wine while trying to make me drink some, and squeezing the bejaysus out of my hand.

I still preferred that to the randomer who fell asleep with her head on my shoulder on an airport shuttle bus :eek:

wexie · 03-12-2013 09:51PM

innad wrote: »

I still preferred that to the randomer who fell asleep with her head on my shoulder on an airport shuttle bus :eek:

and sleeping people drool :eek:

FizzleSticks · 03-12-2013 09:51PM

This post has been deleted.

gdawg87 · 03-12-2013 10:17PM

A few years ago I, like thousands of others, was forced to go abroad to find work. My father and older brother brought me to the airport and we had breakfast there. Hardly a word was said. I had no idea when I was going to return, I had no intention of going abroad and earning money only to spend it all on a return flight to Ireland for a 2 week holiday and then back to Australia again. I said my goodbyes before I went through the gate. My father, 63 years of age, hard as nails man, burst into tears, hugged me and sped off back to the car park. My brother trying as hard as he could to smile, hugged me and said goodbye.

On the other side of the gate I had a 2 hour wait for the plane. I sat there, depressed. I wasn't even in the mood to listen to my ipod. Just felt empty inside. There was a man sitting opposite me. He asked me where I was going. I told him and he struck up a conversation. Turns out this guy was flying to Malawi in Africa. He had organized a few containers of food, water etc. to send there and was flying there to meet them and then stay for 3 months to work/help people. He had done this a few times. He was also leaving his family. We talked until we boarded. He said he could see I was depressed and gathered I was leaving my family. He was a pleasure to talk to and took my mind off my troubles. I was in a much better mood after talking to this guy and will never forget him.

So now I have no problem with strangers talking to me in an airport. You never know what their situation is, where their going. Maybe a few words of conversation could make a big difference to them.

thegreatgonzo · 03-12-2013 10:46PM

Not just an Irish thing.
I got talking to a guy in Chicago airport and he followed me home :-(

Stinicker · 03-12-2013 11:45PM

I usually talk to people in Airports and have traveled over 100,000 airmiles in recent times so have been on a fair few flights and through dozens of airports.

A few things stand out, 3 years ago I was flying into Bangkok from Abu Dhabi on a particularly quite flight, this particularly attractive girl sat next to me and for the next 7 or so hours were spent in non-stop conversation and drinking. She was from Belgium flying into Thailand, we shared the taxi into downtown Bangkok where I disembarked at my hotel and she was continuing onto Ko San Road the backpackers district.

About an hour and a half later Hotel Reception rang my room that I had a visitor and it was her. We hit the town and she stayed with me that night! Score for me but looking back I realize she totally played me, she went looking for a crappy hostel and then decided instead to bunk in with me in my Hotel which was pretty opulent. We went on the town despite our jetlagged state, I paid for everything and we got slashed. Looking at her facebook two days later she was in Perth and she played me from the start for free lodgings and stop-over in Thailand. The sad thing is sexy-time was not had unless it happened involuntarily in the wee hours in my semi-comotose drunkard extremely jetlagged state.

I had a bizzarely similar situation when I was 17 and flying back from cousins in New York by myself. This American aul-wan about 40 was all about me and said she'd "mind me" as I was young, again a half empty plane saw her sit next to me and 2 or 3 hours of questioning and small talk later it became obvious she had a taste for young lads, a bit of the Mrs. Robinson if you will. It was embarressing and I was not at all interested in her. Eventually she went off the sleep and I switched seats. Coming it to land she came and found me and asked me was something wrong, I just told her I felt very ill during turbulence and was afraid I'd vomit and went to sit on my own incase I'd end up puking on her. I eventually lost her somewhere in baggage reclaim but it was funny looking back at it now.

Ihatecuddles · 03-12-2013 11:57PM

I never know what to say to people. I just feel awkward and stutter and blabber on about absolute crap.

Why cant I relax and be cool around people?

The Backwards Man · 04-12-2013 12:13AM

Oulwans on planes can be great craic.

Talking to people in Airports

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