Gdansk Group Trip – Day 1 (Stansted Shanty Town)

A couple of years ago the decision makers at Stansted Airport decided that they didn’t want people staying overnight in the terminal, but there appears to have been a compromise where a small section has been begrudgingly turned over to passengers. God forbid that the passengers that Stansted serves might have any chance of getting some crumbs of comfort. The airport has poor early morning public transport connections and limited affordable hotels, so it’s not clear what the management are actually expecting to happen here. Perhaps the whole Sleepless in Stansted arrangement is a complete surprise to them, bewildered that their lack of forward planning in enabling more accommodation options to be available has become part of the problem. But anyway, I mustn’t digress into such matters because I’m being very positive for this entire trip, I’ve decided.

They’ve cordoned their seating area off in case anyone might get comfortable. They’re trying to avoid people sleeping, but it also means that people use the seating areas at places such as Burger King, so customers of their fast food delights then can’t get a table.

The confined area is inevitably full of people, some trying to sleep and some just trying to find a wall to lean against. They’ll be lucky in this terminal to even find a pillar to lean on.

The main area of the terminal is closed off and there’s a sign saying that it’s open at 03:00.

Fortunately, most people don’t seem to know about the nearby coach terminal which is peaceful and quiet. I don’t travel from Stansted Airport very much, but this is always where I go as it’s calm and there’s relatively comfortable seating. The only slight issue for me is that the airport appears to turn its wi-fi off overnight, which is sub-optimal when I was trying to save my phone battery. Anyway, not long now before the terminal re-opens and the delights of Stansted airside will become available to me in all of their glory.