Everyone sleeps, and usually the hardest part about traveling is finding a good place to do it. Housing is expensive, and comfort is important. This series of posts shares some of my solutions to finding a cozy place to spend the night:
-Many people have spent nights in travel hubs. They're not the most comfortable nights, and usually sleeping on an airport seat happens by accident. For me, an airport or train station is a haven for sleeping. I just take out my sleeping pad, fresh from the trail, and lay it down next to all the seats, and I'm the envy of all the cramped travelers huddled onto the chairs. Those little plastic arms really are the hated enemy of comfortable rest. Luckily, on most models, you can slide your torso underneath the armrest, bend your knees over the next one, and rest your head on the adjoining armrest, to span 3 seats and get horizontal. That is, if you don't have your own self-inflating air mattress that you haul around with you (ok, I only have mine when going to/from the trail). I've styled my own sleeping arrangements in the airports of the US, the UK, Spain and Portugal.
-Lacking an enclosed traveler waiting area, which can be found at most airports or train stations, other accommodations must be found. In many train stations in Italy, the passenger waiting area was previously engaged. Many Rom families would move into the enclosed area at night, and turn it into an exclusive hostel. Not wanting to get mixed up in that, I politely found a place to sleep elsewhere. As I say, I really don't want to get into a turf war with gypsies. I'd find a quiet corner (no sense looking for a clean corner, it's Italy after all), and unroll my trusty sleeping pad. I found that if I buried myself in my sleeping bag, and slept on my valuables, with my bag right beside me, no one would bother me. It was a light sleep, but it was pretty obvious that I was a poor tourist backpacking around Europe, and neither the night watch nor the commuters would disturb me. The morning rush would wake me and I'd move on, so I wouldn't be sleeping through too much traffic.
-One of my favorite places to sleep, especially in the late winter/early spring, as nights were unexpectedly frigid, is off-duty trains. There's plenty of uneasiness that comes with dozing off for a few hours in a train car. Where will you wake up? Will an angry conductor shake you awake, demanding your ticket or else he'll turn you over to the police? Will the security guard mistake you for a graffiti artist and unleash his attack dog upon you? Sometimes the trains get cleaned at night, so the cleaning crew may discover you (as it happened to me in Salermo). If they're nice, they point you to a train that they already cleaned, and excitedly help you open the heavy doors. Not all discovery is bad, but I tended to avoid people checking the trains, or walking around the station. I don't get deep sleep in train compartments, but it's much warmer than the station, usually, and it's padded, unlike the stone benches. Seats are less comfortable than places where one can recline, but it's all a tradeoff. Traveling, at least how I do it, is not about comfort. It's about the destination. And for a free night's sleep, a train station that never closes can provide a warm and secure sleeping space.
No comments:
Post a Comment