LAX is absolutely the worst airport I’ve ever been to. (And that’s saying something, because I’ve flown into Cairo. Which wasn’t too bad. Clean restrooms.)
And I live in Los Angeles.
Just arrived home on an international flight last week. Same old teensy rickety escalator-in-a-tube leading down, down into the grimy leaky bowels of baggage claim and passport control. Sagging ceiling tile. Corroded construction seams. Sickly overhead interrogation-type lighting. Windows? In a prison? What are you thinking? And (WHAT is that on the walls? Never mind, I don’t want to know...)
And what’s that on the left-hand side as you duck your head and descend in that tiny tube? A big, shiny high-school-esque portrait of our ex-gang-banging, gap-toothed mayor in a cheap frame, welcoming you poor bastards to this third-world way-station. What does he care? He flies private.
Same old fat, surly, union customs goons barking at people because they don’t already KNOW which line they should be standing in. At least they make no distinction between Americans and foreigners — they’re equal opportunity rude bastards.
And heaven forfend you need a restroom. They all look like where the bomb squad blows up suspicious luggage. You’re much better off waiting till you exit the gulag and finding a palm tree to sneak behind.
Yeah, um, LAX is not a pleasant place.
Midway Airport: “Any landing you can walk away from is a surprise to us.”
haha. just flew out of and into LAX on international flight a few weeks ago and often fly domestic in and out of LAX. You nailed it!
Call me crazy but I find dystopias interesting. I’d like to check out that rickety escalator in a tube. Was it built in the 1960s? If so, bonus points. Retro-futuristic decay is cool.