IKEA

There is something about an IKEA that reminds me of the airport.

First of all, there is this massively multinational crowd. There are few places in the world where so many languages are crammed into so small a place. There are curious eastern tongues, interspersed with the lilting sounds of Nordic languages, punctuated by clipped Germanic sounds. The only English sounds one can hear, seem to be warning kids to behave themselves.

Secondly, everyone is spaced out - as if they were trying to see beyond what was directly in front of them. Airports, understandably, make folks want to be at their destination already. And at the IKEA, no one sees the products. Instead everyone is busy imagining everything they see, in their own places. Sometimes this brings on such ecstasy, that one has to jump out the way if one has the misfortune of being stranded between said ecstatic shoppers and their target.

Then there is the world-in-a-world nature of the IKEA itself. Just like the airport, everything you need to survive an entire day is available in the store itself. Food, rest and a purpose - available on every floor. But that is not the only similarity. Just like the airport, once you are in an IKEA, it is going to be a while before you are back in the parking lot again.

That said, there is one key difference between an IKEA and an airport. You can always find lone travelers that need to be in the airport on business. But in an IKEA, you always go in pairs. And never on business.