Talking to people in Airports

innad

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

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

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

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

This post has been deleted.

gdawg87

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

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

Stinicker

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

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

Oulwans on planes can be great craic.

Ihatecuddles

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Oulwans on planes can be great craic.

not this one!
http://imgace.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/nervous-yes-very.-first-time-no-Ive-been-nervous-lots-of-times..png

keith16

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Oulwans on planes can be great craic.

I met this old dude on a flight to Poland once. Really interesting guy. Started out by asking "what time is the flight at" or some bollox. "Here we go", I thought to myself.

Actually was a professor of economics, and was chatting away to him on the flight. He was telling me about the movement of people across Poland after the war, and how different regions inherited characteristics / languages they would never otherwise have and all the struggles that entailed.

He then told me some brilliant stories from his travels back in his youth and came out with some great stuff. The journey flew by and I ended up boozing with him for a while on the Saturday watching the Lions game! Good times!:)

bear1

Doesn't bother me if the conversation is passing the time.
About 3 years ago I was coming back to Dublin after visiting my then girlfriend in Warsaw (now wife).
It was around Christmas time and for those that have been to PL during the winter you know what I mean when I say its' fecking cold!
Anyway there we are, a good few Irish lads waiting for Aer Lingus flight and commenting on the bastard of our luck with the flight.
Then the delay came, then pure silence, I mean absolutely no news about the flight until it was cancelled due to the weather.
They booked us all into the nearest hotel and sure enough when I went down for a pint there were some of the lads (they didn't know each other) drinking at the bar. Joined them and we all got totally gazeeboed.
Left the next day and haven't seen them since, was good craic though for the night

billie1b

bear1 wrote: »

Doesn't bother me if the conversation is passing the time.
About 3 years ago I was coming back to Dublin after visiting my then girlfriend in Warsaw (now wife).
It was around Christmas time and for those that have been to PL during the winter you know what I mean when I say its' fecking cold!
Anyway there we are, a good few Irish lads waiting for Aer Lingus flight and commenting on the bastard of our luck with the flight.
Then the delay came, then pure silence, I mean absolutely no news about the flight until it was cancelled due to the weather.
They booked us all into the nearest hotel and sure enough when I went down for a pint there were some of the lads (they didn't know each other) drinking at the bar. Joined them and we all got totally gazeeboed.
Left the next day and haven't seen them since, was good craic though for the night

I've been to Poland (Warsaw, Zagan) a couple of times during the winter, have to say even though it was snowing and cold, it was more of a dry cold than the wet cold we get here in Ireland, found Dublin much colder.
We got stuck with a delay aswell and lije you no info what so ever, the arrived two hours late but as my wife and myself were together we never got into any major conversations with people, just pleasantries

Legs.Eleven

thegreatgonzo wrote: »

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

Americans are also very friendly at airports...in my experience.

I met a really nice belgian dude on one flight, he was behind me at security and yer woman was being a bit of a twonk about the plastic bag I had (the same one I always bring flying with me but she took issue with it), and he was all talk telling me she was just being a pain etc and told me to have a good flight. Turned out he was sitting next to me on the flight, we had all the chats about healthcare which we both work in. He told me lovely places to go visit, and asked me where he should see on his return to Ireland. Really lovely fella.

It is mostly Irish though I've found to chat though but that's most likely because A. I fly mostly out of Irish airports, and B. They hear the accent and think "one of us". Also Americans from Milwaukee! They love the chats and the irish humuour.

Ush1

On a flight to Toronto that was oversold so wasn't sitting with the other half.

Sat next to this oul fella that was burning the ear off me. Kept name dropping and talking about how much money he made, then he would say I'm not bragging, just telling you how it is.

I stuck in my headphones and started watching a film and he starts hitting my arm saying he can't get his headphones working, did he think I was tech support for the flight?

I don't mind some conversations, but not when it's someone that just wants to hear their own voice.

mattjack

Legs.Eleven wrote: »

Americans are also very friendly at airports...in my experience.

Two Americans turned up at my bro in laws stag weekend a few years ago ,apart from one bloke none knew them even my bro. in law .Turned out they were two soldiers making thier way back to Germany and decided they,d make a trip across Europe to get thier base.
They got talking to the Irish bloke returning to Dublin for the stag in the bar and he invited them to the stag weekend.

cashback

keith16 wrote: »

I met this old dude on a flight to Poland once. Really interesting guy. Started out by asking "what time is the flight at" or some bollox. "Here we go", I thought to myself.

Actually was a professor of economics, and was chatting away to him on the flight. He was telling me about the movement of people across Poland after the war, and how different regions inherited characteristics / languages they would never otherwise have and all the struggles that entailed.

He then told me some brilliant stories from his travels back in his youth and came out with some great stuff. The journey flew by and I ended up boozing with him for a while on the Saturday watching the Lions game! Good times!:)

Hang on OP. I thought you hated talking to people on airplanes/at airports?

TheGoldenAges

double post

TheGoldenAges

Was taking a connection flight back home from New York after I'd been in Los Angelos and the flight was oversold not to mention it was 2am. All I wanted was to sleep but got put beside a morbidly obese couple from Jacksonville who were telling me their plans of "getting the most out of the Irish experience". I had to put up with talking to them for 3 hours before I was eventually was left alone and slept for about an hour.

They then decided to wake me up because the wife wanted to know some places to visit that they wouldn't have known about. I tried to be as friendly as I could but I was so tired and pissed off I'm surprised I lasted the whole flight without snapping.

keith16

cashback wrote: »

Hang on OP. I thought you hated talking to people on airplanes/at airports?

Not particularly, there are some people I would enjoy talking to, but others not. I think Ush1 sums it up well below.

Ush1 wrote: »

I don't mind some conversations, but not when it's someone that just wants to hear their own voice.

old hippy

It's good and bad. Depends who you meet. Last year, an old guy bought me a drink in Atlanta, which was nice. His pa had died and left him a fortune and he was in a generous mood.

Years back, got talking to a girl at the ferryport in Wales (iirc) and we ended up going out on a date.

Got stuck between two ladies on the way to Seoul, one of them was in a panic in case there were no McDonald's or Pizza restaurants over there :rolleyes: they weren't the worst, tbh but I was separated from the missus for the duration and had nobody's hand to squeeze for taking off and landing