Donna's Favourites - 2000

December 2001 - I'm getting better.....only two months since the last update!!!  After September 11, the reviews stopped coming in, then exactly on October 11 they started arriving again.  Let's face it it, now with earlier check-in times sleeping in airports is a no longer just the budget traveller's way to save money, but every traveller's reality.  So let's get on with my favourites from this update:

• What is happening at the Dallas bus station?  We have not one, but TWO new listings.  And you know, I think both contributors ran into the same homeless crack addict....read for yourselves.  

• For all you folks planning trips to Kabul in the coming months....forget CNN, read this listing before you go.

October 2001 - Has it been 8 months since my last update?  Judging from the size of my mailbox, I would say yes. So here we go with my favourite or most memorable listings for this update.  First, for the ladies, how many of you have a "thing" for firefighters?  OHHHHHH, there is just something about a big strong man, saving lives and flexing muscle.  Oh dear, excuse me, this isn't a porn page, but I would like to  thank the nameless contributor who gave us the Ste. Anne des Plaines listing.  He/she was homeless for the night and simply went to the fire hall.  I have fire station about 10 minutes from my home, but I just may go up for a little visit on the weekend.  I must be in a raunchy mood today, because another favourite was one man's experience on the Calais/Dover ferry. :) 

• If you enjoy toilet humour, check out this funny story at the Agadir airport.

• After a late night of partying in London, it's good to know that the underground train is a viable option

• Sleeping in the airport isn't for you?  How about a car rental?  

• Down on your luck and need some inspiration? Try this story from Kansas City.

And finally, with great sadness I share this listing that I received way back in April 2001.  When I read it for the first time today I cried.  

"WORLD TRADE CENTER, New York  (Contributed by Susana Arnaiz)
On August 1999 two friends and I (two young ladies and a guy) were in New York City and we had nowhere to sleep in, so we left our backpacks at the Port Authority train station and at 3.00 a.m. we decided to go to the World Trade Center square, as it seemed to us the safest place in NYC. We just laid there, between the Twin Towers, to sleep and no one bothered us, except for a policeman who came and ask if we had any problem, and another one who told us to get up in the morning."

Safest Place in NYC?  I suppose the terrorists thought so too!  :(

February 2001 -  It's been 3 long months since the last update, so there are a few more memorable stories than normal.   People often ask me about security.   Is sleeping in airports safe?  Will my bags be stolen as I snooze?  It has been MY experience, that if people were to start touching me, talk loudly around me or even sit near me, I would wake up.  I think most airport sleepers keep some sort of external eye open as they snooze.  Not so for one poor guy who stayed in Frankfurt and wrote "I awoke to find one of my bags missing and my shoulder bag cut from around my body.  The thieves had even cut through my coat."  Talk about heavy sleeper.  Alternatively, Robyn Bone found that during his experience at JFK airport, not only were his bags all accounted for when he awoke, but an additional bag...that of another traveller who I suppose didn't want to drag his bag along with him and felt it was safe with this sleeper.

I'd say that half of our listings have come from people who were delayed due to airline problems.  Everyone's experienced them.  The reasons for delays range from weather to equipment problems.  But imagine being told that the temperature in your arrival destination is so hot that the airline is afraid the engines will catch fire.  That's what happened to the Chris who shared his Moscow story with us.  Yikes!!!

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