All I know is that when I landed at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam yesterday morning, all I wanted to do was stagger into my hotel room and pass out. I had left Newark Liberty Airport at 5 pm and by the time I landed—between the flight time and the time change—it was 6 am the following day. The grim visage of Batman greeted me in the terminal lobby, and I was certain that I was hallucinating. It turns out that I was not, as the event is actually being held in an abandoned terminal within the Schiphol Airport.
After making a mental note to keep an eye out for suspicious characters trying to win an LCQ to get past airport security, I ran into UDE’s very own suspicious character Gary Wise, and we hopped a shuttle to our hotel. I was able to check in and took a shower before heading down to the lobby to meet Gary and the rest of the just-arrived UDE crew for breakfast.
Everyone agreed that the best course of action was to stay awake as long as possible so that it was evening before going to sleep, attempting to get on something resembling a normal sleep schedule. After breakfast, we all trundled off to the city and saw the sights. I was bone-weary and could only manage to toothpick my eyes open for so long before I caved in and went back to the room around 4 pm.
The hotel room is very nice but the bed is extremely narrow. I have never fallen out of bed in my life, but when I rolled over at one point to answer the phone, I was shocked to find myself thumping to the floor. I woke up several times and tried to cling to the bed throughout a turbulent jetlagged night of sleep.
I can’t complain, though—at least I had a bed. Not every competitor at this event can say the same. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jason “J.T.” Tomberg, a.k.a. Tom Hanks in Terminal.
JT is a Florida-based player who found himself in a financial quandary, having to choose between a trip to Canada for snowboarding and his PC Amsterdam experience. Rather than choosing between his passions, JT decided that he was going to skip the expense of a hotel for Amsterdam and spend the week sleeping, changing, and showering in the airport after reading about the showers in the Schiphol airport.
JT has had experience spending the night in an airport before—he was laid over in the prior cases—and figured it had to be better than spending the night outside of a club for concert tickets or waiting all night for tickets to a Star Wars opening, which are two things he’s done in the past. He did look into affordable hotel options, but found all the hotels were either out of his price range or beneath his standards.
“I had a choice of doing one or the other and decided to do both,” shrugged JT. “What can I say? It was a mix. There was the cost of staying in a nice hotel and the cost and location of the places that I could afford. It’s cleaner to stay at the airport, and it’s probably a lot safer, too, based on the number of police and armed military personnel I have seen here.”
JT, who arrived early this morning, got right into the swing of things by changing into a fresh new competitor shirt. “We got in at like six this morning, but we are going to do like anyone who gets stuck in the airport with a layover. Hangout, grab a nap in a chair—minimal luggage, everything is stowed in a locker—wake up pull some clothes out, take a shower, change, lock everything back up.”
The lockers run about five euro a night for a space large enough to hold two carry-on suitcases and a backpack. The shower scene was still an unknown item on the week’s budget. “We haven’t had a chance to scope out the showers yet. Registering for the PC was our first priority. Worst-case scenario? Lots of deodorant and a lot of fragrance to protect our opponents so they don’t pass out, but showers are a priority. We saw them and we know they exist. We just don’t know what the cost is for towel rental, etc.”
Finances are an issue for JT who spent more money than originally anticipated in Canada. “I just came back from snowboarding and blew everything I had except what I set aside to get the ticket to come here. This is ‘How to Spend a Week in Amsterdam on 200 Euro.’ That is my entire budget.”
JT was hoping to find a couch that he could stretch out on, but as you can imagine, the airport—despite providing showers and lockers—does not make it easy to take up residence on their property. There are arms between the chairs (the most comfortable option) making it impossible to stretch out, and the benches all feature a similar obstruction. JT was not relishing spending any more time sleeping in a chair. Hopefully the event staff won’t look too carefully under any of the tables in the play area this afternoon.
“Three days of no sleep after coming from one country into another does not a comfortable plane ride make,” groused the rumpled JT. “From Canada to Florida was eight hours with a layover in Vancouver. Then no sleep when I got into town, because I hooked up with a buddy for some last minute deck tweaking. Then I got on a plane to come here.”
How long was his flight from Florida to Amsterdam? “I can’t count that high anymore. To count that high, I would need to be playing Yu-Gi-Oh!”
It might be a longer weekend than JT, or any of his opponents, were anticipating. While he was registering and looking for last minute cards, I wandered about with a camera in hand to snap photos of the relevant plot points of his story. I could not access the area where the showers were, costing 12.50 euro to use, because they are only available to passengers with a boarding pass.