On Thursday I flew across the country for at least the 5th time, and I hated it just as much as I did the first time. That said, here are 16 things that EVERYONE hates about traveling.
1. Getting up early
Anything is better than when you have to be at the airport before the airport even opens because they want you there two hours before your 5 am flight.
2. Layovers
If you have less than an hour to switch planes, something is going to go wrong and you'll miss your flight, and if its more than an hour and a half its way too damn long to be sitting in a hectic terminal. So layovers just suck, period.
3. Bad weather
Flying in circles for an hour because its too windy to land might be the worst. Or feeling like your plane is going to fall out of the air because the sky is so bumpy.
4. Desperately praying that your suitcase weighs less than 50 lbs
Because if it doesn't you have to pay, like, a million dollars.
5. Having to sit centimeters away from people for long periods of time
Sitting in between two strangers, or even between two people you know for that matter, when zero of the involved parties have room to move or breathe is Terrible with a capital T.
6. Taking your shoes off for security
First of all, why? What could I possibly be hiding in my shoe that wouldn't be incredibly obvious? Also: smells bad and a time-consuming inconvenience. Kids don't have to take their shoes off, so I don't want to either.
7. Screaming children
Sitting in first class is supposed to be calm and relaxing, and it's most certainly not either of those things when there are 42 screaming kids on an airplane with you. To the parents who let their kids freak out: DO SOMETHING.
8. Long lines
There are lines for EVERYTHING when you travel. Lines to get food, lines to check in, lines to board whatever method of transportation you're taking, lines to get into lines to do other things, and its really just one giant impossibly long line.
9. Being alone
You have no one to talk to, no one to sit with, no one to eat with, and most importantly any picture you take is going to be awkward because it'll be a lonely selfie or a weird picture taken by a stranger. No good.
10. It can take an entire day to get where you need to go
Sometimes it takes FOREVER to get somewhere that is 4 inches away from you on a map. Especially if add jumping time zones in there? Forget about that circadian rhythm, and any concept of time or space you've ever had, because its gone.
11. Turbulence
Is the plane falling out of the sky or is it just a bumpy cloud? I don't know but I'm so nauseous either way, get me off of this plane.
12. *Shudder* Airplane mode
A flight or a vacation is so much longer and exponentially more difficult when you don't have access to the internet.
13. Its EXPENSIVE!!
As if I didn't already pay $400 to get on this giant piece of metal with wings, now its $10 for a small coffee and a bagel?
14. So how 'bout that airline food?
Those stupid little peanuts and pretzels plus 2 ounces of water is just not cutting it.
15. Jetlag
You get to where you're going and you're all good and suddenly the jetlag hits you like an 18-wheeler and it takes what feels like forever to recover.
16. ... And going back to real life when its all over
A week in the work world feels like a lifetime, and a week anywhere else feels like a millisecond. Vacations from life don't ever seem to last quite long enough; we blink and its right back to the regular old hum-drum.
