Standing at the corner of the airport’s coffee shop

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Thursday.
Just a few hours before dawn and I am back to one of my wonderings through Lisbon.

It’s amazing the amount of life one can witness at the Lisbon’s airport around 4 am.
Granted that Lisbon is not a very active city during nighttime. There are no libraries where one can ease his hunger for a particular book, or a theatre that shows movies all night long, or an all-nighter video club to replace those old VHS tapes in the old Sony VCR.
Here, nightlife is usually associated, with going out towards bars or discos.
There you can enjoy a night out with friends either by: getting loaded; watching others getting fully drunk; scream your head off while competing with the musical selections of the DJ, in an attempt to get a simple “hello” message to reach your friend, who is just there on the other side of the table.
There is a group of people, however, who need some place to study, to read a book, to enjoy a coffee with a friend while talking at a very common low level, without forcing those precious vocal cords.
Lisbon’s airport has an all-nighter coffee shop called “Astrolabio”, where you can do this and more.
Late January is a crucial time for College and University studies, with the final exams and report’s deadlines coming; there is a great demand for a quiet place to study. There is a group of people who, like me, enjoy the magic of the night to dwell with the challenges of a report or the wild preparation for whatever an exam has in stored for us.
Last night, I entertain myself with the lovely conversation with a friend of mine, about the supposed meaning of life had for us. Meanwhile, I could not resist contemplating those eager minds, who defied the night’s rest at Astrolabio. In front of me, a group of hectic pens copied notes from History books; on the table at my left some game cards served as a distraction to a group of four youngsters who apparently had enough of the precious knowledge closed in their books.
Walking through the airport at 4.00 am is always fun, you get to see people from all over the world, even from Lisbon apparently. There are always those who find that the floor of the airport is very suited to a night’s rest, apparently it all depends on the sleeping bag’s quality.
By 4.30 am, I could watch a group of frenetic Japanese walking to the KLM check-in line, to catch their 5.50 am flight towards Amesterdam. What the heck makes a group of Japanese people get out of bed at 3.30 am to take a plane towards Amsterdam departing from Lisbon at such an early hour in the morning? I guess it’s those little doubts that make life so great in the process of wondering about it.
Obviously, one of my favourite pastimes is to gaze at the timetable for the day’s flights, and then imagine some preferred destinations.
Hmm… Maybe I could catch that first KLM plane, flight nr. KL1692, and then take a nice bicycle ride through the streets of Amsterdam, gazing at the tulips, or even enjoying the windmills as if I was a commoner of the city for ages! Who knows where would a lovely stroll through the streets of Rome take me, after a soft landing from TAP’s flight nr. TP5230, scheduled to depart at 7.50 am. I think, I am ready to embrace Barcelona with all its splendour, starting with a nice window perspective from the plane in flight TP5732. No, I guess I can wait for the noon and take flight nr. RG8707, from Varig, heading to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Ah sweet Brazil, I guess I can see me now getting lost in those beaches from paradise. (Oh, you dirty minds!!!)
For all that is worth, I think that even if I don’t go anywhere, it is always a pleasure to wonder about some possible destiny in my life, in that timeless gaze at the timetable.
It’s 5.00 am, in Lisbon’s airport and I feel a sort of freedom, the kind that makes me want to flight to the moon and back, for as long as a flight like that may take, even a year, or a split second.
Frankly, I don’t care. I just went to the airport to see nightlife in a way I don’t get to see anywhere.
One day, someone will be standing at Astrolabio, gazing at me, as I am hectically rushing towards the check-in line, while that someone is wondering “where is that stranger going?”; “what will he be doing?”.
Possibly, I might look back and reply: “I don’t know, I just got fed up of looking at all those planes leave, and feeling left behind. Today, I am going somewhere, just because I can!”


cocasman@zmail.pt