I love airports, me!
I am terrified of flying, but before I fly I always get there either 2 hours or 4 hours (depending on if it's domestic or international) before I have to board. This way I can sit in the bar, have some drinks and calm down before I get on the plane.

Best experience ever was coming home from the UK. I got the train from Brighton to Gatwick, with a massive fuck off hangover (thanks 100% Kitten, Static Girl, Teaseress and Vulga!) and when I got off the train, a nice young airport official clocked my luggage and my walking cane and asked if I wanted assistance. Hell yeah! When we eventually got into the airport, the line at check-in was huge, so nice chap tells me to stay put and a minute later he comes back with a wheelchair. Straight through check-in and straight through security.
By this point, it's 09.30am and my plane leaves at 12:00pm. I have a little buzzer thing round my neck, so that when it buzzes I can go to the nearest desk and they put me on one of those carts to go down to the airplane.

Meanwhile, I'm getting drunk in the bar at Gatwick, and smoking like buggery as I have a 9 hour transatlantic flight to Atlanta ahead of me.

Flight was smooooooth, and we land in Atlanta. I'm met off the plane with an official airport chap with a wheelchair - "oooh, thinks I, cool!" He gets my luggage and takes me through immigration and customs. Then we go through security.....I keep beeping, so they literally carry me out of the wheelchair (despite my protests that I'm not that crippled and can hobble through). Turns out I have 4 lighters in my bag, and 2 in my pocket so they confiscated them all.

4 hours later, I'm finally on a plane to California to be re-united with my wonderful husband whom I hadn't seen for two months :)
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Tue 7 Mar 2006, 5:19, Reply)