The World’s First Airport Park is in Amsterdam

I despise traveling. Well, let me rephrase: I despise the actual acts of preparing, packing, waking at obscene hours of the night to head to the airport, waiting on painfully long lines only to be groped by some grouchy TSA employee (I’d be grouchy too if I was groping people all day long) and having  my passport infinitely strapped to my breast so that at any moment I can whip it out and show that I’m legit.

And then there’s the inevitable delays: weather, traffic control, flight attendant cracking open a beer and throwing himself down the emergency slide — sh*t happens and you just have to expect it as a powerless passenger in waiting.

But what if there was an oasis in the middle of all the airport bedlam? What if you could have a freakin picnic while your aircraft is being checked for electrical complications? Well now you can, in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

At the new “Picnic Park” “there’s a variety of chairs and little corners for settling in away from the high foot traffic of the airport. Of course there are also plenty of outlets and the one free hour of airport WiFi. If you’re hungry, the park comes complete with a Park Cafe, serving fair trade coffee, (organic) burgers and other snacks,” reports jaunted. The indoor space also adjoins to an outdoor terrace, which is open when the weather is pleasant.

Although I’m aware that the lovely, serene haven is just another way to trick traveling fools like me into thinking that maybe the process is really not all that bad, at least I can sit in this daft stupor, latte in hand, while releasing steam through a therapeutic writing session on my blog (WiFi included!).

Photo by: springwise.com/Flickr

 

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The Culture-ist