Byline: By Billy Muir
I have done a lot of travelling around the world but there is something about returning to Wales that always invokes a special type of feeling, foreboding and gloom.
This is nothing to do with the country itself but more to do with Cardiff International Airport.
For me this airport has all the warmth and friendliness of a Turkish Prison.
In fact the closest airport I have seen in comparison is Bucharest airport in Romania. That had been under Communist rule for fifty years but still the coffee was better.
When I walked upstairs to departures for my early flight I was confronted by a newsagents that didn't contain a morning paper and a cafe that would make Billy Butlins proud.
After security, the actual departure lounge again contained very little except a similar newsagent to the one I passed earlier and a Costa Cafe serving pastries and sandwiches. If you want a hot meal you are out of luck. At least I was.
The amusement centre is anything but amusing and as a last resort you need to head for the bar. Don't even think about internet access. There are no comfortable seats for you to wait for your flight. Just bum numbing ones to perch on.
Arrivals is worse. After you trundle off your flight you trudge through a corridor that is dank and full of chipped paint. You get a feeling it's a wartime experience and you are being herded forward for selection. At the baggage counter, you may get your bag if you're lucky or jokingly be told it's still in Amsterdam and you have to wait an hour to fill out a form.
Meanwhile any loved ones waiting to greet you, have to stand in a space that has no shops or cafes for them to pass the time while their parking bill mounts up.
Cardiff Airport could definitely be responsible for the disintegration of many relationships, because by the time you emerge from the flight, the family want to kill you.
This airport is the first impression many people will get of our country. Isn't it time that we made sure that impression was a positive one.
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