I was recently stuck in the airport with a nine-hour delayed flight. I sat in the airport from 1:30 pm until the flight boarded at 11:30 pm. These are the nine stages we ventured through while living in the airport for a day:

1. Shock

In our situation, we were going on a school trip, so we had heard that there may be a delay (thanks Ryanair for the strike), but in no way did we expect this delay to last as long as it did. We arrived at the airport at 1:30 and looked at the screen to see that our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:30. Now, in case you have trouble with math, that is 10 hours from the point that we arrived. We couldn’t even fathom this amount of time, so we just shrugged it off and went through security to find a seat to settle into.

2. Excitement

I know this state wasn’t true for all people. Maybe I’m weird, but I thought 10 hours in the airport with 30 of my classmates could actually turn into a fun adventure. I survived a 24-hour ferry with the same people only a moth before, so I figured 10 hours was nothing. Some people were worried, but I could only think of the silly adventures we could get into in that amount of time. Sadly, I was wrong. No one should ever be excited about this.

3. Drowsiness

After about to hours, the initial jitters wore off and I just relaxed into my super uncomfortable airport seat and dozed off a little. This feat was not easy due to the fact that all of my friends were also there, and because half of my classmates were worried about some stamp we had to get on our boarding passes. But really, what is there to worry about when you have over seven hours before boarding?

4. Bored

Now I was awake, and I had nothing to do. At this point we finished watching all of the videos we can think of, we have walked around the tiny airport multiple times and we are just sitting there staring blankly in front of us because the boredom has set in. I think it was time we got busy, so we started to color in coloring books, because what else do five college girls do when they have nothing else?

5. Anxious

It had been about five hours in this terrible airport now and the anxious jitters had set in. Since I have a very short attention span, I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. Now I couldn’t sit still for more than five minutes, so I had to take a couple of more laps around the airport, stopping to entertain myself with anyone I saw along the way. At this point, I started eating, just because I was so desperate to do something.

6. Frustrated

After six hours, we couldn’t handle it anymore. The worst part was that we were only about halfway through, yet I was suffering. Thank goodness for technology at this point, because my friend and I logged into the airport wifi and began to dubsmash (for those of you who don’t know what this is, it is when you film yourself mouthing popular quotes from movies, songs, etc.). If we hadn’t come across this app, I don’t even know what we would have done. Fortunately, this app kept our attention for an hour or more.

7. Hungry

Seven hours in an airport, and all we had eaten was a couple of snacks we brought with us. Why? Because we’re cheap college students and airport food is expensive. Thankfully for us, we were getting some free sandwiches because of the Ryanair strike and daylong (maybe a little exaggeration) delay.

8. Drunk

Now we were fed and energized again. Unfortunately, we still had a little over two hours before boarding. What is there to do after you have done everything you could possibly think of? Drink a bottle of wine. Since we’re in Europe and are legally of age, why not share a bottle of wine with your friend when you can’t sit and wait for an airplane any longer. So we shared a bottle, listened to some music, and hoped that time would pass by faster than it did earlier in the day.

9. Delirious

Half a bottle of wine, a sandwich or two, and nine hours later, we were delirious. I guess you could blame a little of this on the wine, but I blame the majority of it on the toll that the airport was having on my sanity. We were going insane, but all we had to do was hold out for one more hour.

Somehow, I don’t know how, but somehow we survived the day, boarded the airplane, and took off just before midnight heading to Krakow, Poland. For us, this airport adventure was just the beginning of our Poland adventure, which was just as chaotic as the delay day in the airport!