Traveling alone, coming back from India in 2013, I had a 12 hour layover. I'm prone to the occasional headache, but something about the cabin pressure of the flight and sinus blockage really fucked me up beyond belief. I was dangerously disoriented trying to find a hotel on my phone with no international phone plan, and I was at minute 59 of the free 1-hour Heathrow wifi when I booked a hotel room. I hopped on a bus to the place and didn't even know if the booking went through. Luckily it did, and I stumbled into the room, took a bunch of pain meds and passed out for 6 hours. When I woke up, I finally felt a bit more normal, but in that moment, it honestly felt like I could have slipped through the cracks of society and disappeared forever. I ended up walking around the city to take some pictures after feeling human again.
May 28, 2025
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I arrived at MSP yesterday, March 9th at noon, right on schedule. I have been planning and daydreaming about this two week adventure for almost three months (and also dreading the decision I made to take four flights in 24 hours with a minimum of 3 hour layovers between). It’s been pretty fucked up to be completely honest, but I’ve gotten to see some stuff and talk to some people I never would have, shared language or otherwise. In Philly I watched a guy sitting next to me at the bar put away three margaritas in an hour without looking up from his phone, and watched the slushy machine fall of the stand and shatter, splattering “frozé” behind the bar and all over the poor barbacks. That was the perfect segue for the bartender to tell me all of her mysterious ghostly encounters working at the airport which was just the right amount of drama to distract me from the fact that I didn’t do my homework right and was unable to fix the format on my phone. That was Philly (5 hours of airport Philly). The flight to Madrid was thankfully uneventful. I took a 3 mg melatonin which it probably equivalent to a Xanax for anyone else, and woke up every hour for 6 hours. Reflecting now I do feel like the melatonin was probably enhanced by the heavy ass pour of free white wine I was given upon departure. I felt strange and scared when I woke up but well rested enough to navigate the Madrid airport for the first time alone. I got off and did not stop walking for literally the whole hour and a half I was there!!! What a fucking clusterfuck maze!!! Nice though I guess and everyone was so helpful. Thankful for 2 hours of Madrid, I’ll be back for you in 6 days maybe we can get to know each other better. The flight from Madrid to Lisbon was honestly exactly what I needed: empty row in the back, sprawled out across three seats and passed out for an hour. Unfortunately I woke up to life threatening turbulence, which actually has turned out to be the theme of the day. The layover in Lisbon was fine, delayed as all hell though (weather, hole in the tarmac (????)). At this point not even “shake it” by Frost children looped as loud as possible can keep me awake and alert. They made me check my bag because they hate me but that is also a pretty good external sign that I’m holding it together well (they wouldn’t ask me to do that if I looked like how I feel on the inside, I presume) and now on the last leg, Lisbon to Porto, and I’m up ONE MILLION. Even though I did just cry watching the sweetest interaction between a dad and his daughter, and also because the woman across the isle from me had the cutest black cat with her. This is European equivalent to Minneapolis to Chicago, sort of an up and down and *no* around vibe. I keep getting missed connection texts from my friend who is three hours ahead of me in this journey too which is an interesting and helpful development, something to look forward to at every turn. Hopefully my bag is with me on this plane and I can have a cappuccino or vino verde or both in an hour when I get picked up from the airport princess style by my family who are impatiently awaiting my arrival :) hopefully I never do this again!
Mar 10, 2025
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they were training the british tsa that day and bc i got to the airport so early, pulled me aside for the training line but in doing so one tsa agent had directed me to the training line and the other to his own line and the two literally ARGUED about where i was supposed to go 😭
then in the training line, i set something off so they had to swab my hands and pat me down. and as if that wasn’t enough, they had someone in training not very supervised search my bag. she emptied ALL the pockets in my backpack, thoroughly swabbing inside each of them. people were staring!!! and when she turned to her supervisor asking if that was good he told her it was “more than enough”
then i had to face the chaos of the terminal’s waiting area which has a weird layout and not enough seats. i was dealing w a recent painful knee injury, but they only told you your gate 15-20 minutes ahead and i was worried i’d miss my flight so i had to go to my airline’s help desk and ask about it. it turns out they already know all the gates anyways they just don’t tell people ??? then on the flight there was a baby who scream-cried the entire time whose mom did little to help them. which is not heathrow’s fault but was the cherry on top
May 27, 2025
Overnight flights to London suck bad cuz it’s hard to sleep on the plane, eastbound means a short flight, and you arrive all disoriented, in pain, looking like dogshit. maybe even in a state of delirium cuz you’re all tyty. And it’s usually ass early that you’re landing. Can’t even check into a hotel for like 6 more hours!! What if i told u it doesn’t have to be this way?
Virgin Atlantic (the grooviest airline) operates an 8am out of Kennedy, with wheels down in Heathrow happening around 8pm local time. Yea, u gotta drag your ass up at around 4 or 5am EST, but just pretend you’re on london time already because ur about to fuckin be!
You spend the entire flight luxuriating in your own row, free from the hell of other people. upon arrival, you dip outta Heathrow, drop your shit wherever, and go party with yer mates. Fall asleep anywhere between 10pm-4am depending on what kinda night u want. then u wake up fresh as a fkn 🌼 on local time with no jet lag. Look at the pic man. when did u last see a flight that empty ?
biiiiig September 16th 2001 vibes but without the heartbreak
Feb 3, 2024
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Apr 3, 2024
Here it is, folks! Volume I of what could very well be a continuous project. Thank you so much to everyone that submitted - I smiled the entire time I was putting this together. It's best listened to with headphones ☺️
Liner Notes:
This collection of field recordings is a collaborative effort with users of PI.FYI, each of which recorded their own pieces. It features audio from all over the world and exhibits eclectic moments from London Underground commutes to cuckoo bird calls in Dhaka to the sounds of a century-old American diner.
Online communities like PI.FYI often represent a diverse set of people, places, and experiences, but together, the submissions form a living collage that highlights the commonalities of modern life - a unifying message for such a tumultuous time. The first track features all of the sounds played at once in an attempt to create an audio snapshot of an online community but in their offline lives.
The individual recordings are unedited except for minor gain and compression adjustments for consistency across the collection.
Mar 29, 2025
