Wednesday and Thursday, March 25th and 26th, Goodbye Sri Lanka and Hello Germany (Part 1)

Today we headed to the airport at 9:30am. The hostel owners were very kind during the farewell and even offered to give me food for the flight. They also gave me a mask since I didn't have one. Everyone wished me luck, but as time went on, I became more confident that this time everything would go smoothly.

The drive to the airport was very fast since there were hardly any cars on the road and we were only checked twice, where I had to show my ticket. The only thing that got in our way were three peacocks and a monkey on the road :D

I arrived at the airport at 11:30am, but had to wait with other passengers outside the airport grounds since you can only enter the premises 4 hours before the flight. However, most of them were also flying on the same plane, had already experienced several flight cancellations, and were consequently very frustrated.

Later, everything went relatively quickly and I was more than relieved when I had my 3 tickets in hand! However, the atmosphere at the airport was tense for everyone and it was strange to see everyone wearing masks. Here in Sri Lanka, everyone is expected to wear one because if you don't, you are immediately approached by police officers on the street.

I flew to Doha at 9 pm with Qatar Airways and luckily I was able to sleep a little. However, I kept waking up because we had pretty strong turbulence. I've never experienced anything like it! The landing in Doha was also very rough... In Doha, I had a layover of about 2 hours before flying to London on the A380 (a truly monstrous aircraft). The flight took about 7 hours and 45 minutes, and since I was sitting by the window, I had a great view of the illuminated cities throughout the night. But the highlight was definitely the sunrise during the approach to London. Absolutely stunning!