Greetings from the Dubai airport, where a long layover can also be a destination

['Hannah Bloch', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Vertical-Align Middle .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar Is .Alignleft .Alignright'] TPR: The Public's Radio 2025-08-20 13:51:10

(Hannah Bloch/NPR)Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR’s international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world. While returning to the U.S. a dozen years ago from a reporting assignment in Kabul, I had a long layover at the Dubai International Airport and got to know it well — its ebb and flow from quiet to clamor and back, as passengers from all over the planet arrived and left. With hours to fill between flights, I roamed for miles around this colossal airport, the busiest international hub in the world. I spritzed myself with perfume at the duty-free shops and decided to get a pedicure at 2 a.m. The mix of familiarity and disorientation at the airport made me feel I might be anywhere, everywhere — and nowhere at all.