With a luxurious 5-week winter holiday that could probably be my last, and with round-trip flights to Europe as low as 39XX CNY (It seemed that Qatar Airway’s year-round sale had never ended, and I was quite amazed to find such fares departing only three days from the Chinese New Year, and from my hometown Hangzhou), I planned another trip to Europe, with some good friend back to ninth grade.

Previously, I had 16 flights in and out of my home town's airport, all of which were domestic. Now, I could add its "international departure" to my achievements list.

Shops at Hangzhou Airport International Departure Hall
Shops at Hangzhou Airport International Departure Hall

The images in this post are hosted on Imgur. Email me should there be any display problems.

It's a Chinese airport and it's a wide-body jet, so predictably there were huge lines at the check-in, luckily not many people were waiting at the online-check-in-fast-bag-drop lines. So we ended up with loads of time to kill at the departure hall.

Boarding Passes
Boarding Passes

Also, since Hangzhou Airport only had a tiny International terminal for its flight volumes, and Qatar's A332 would stay there for like 8 hours, predictably it's a shuttle bus ride to the apron.

Thai AirAsia A320 (HS-BBO)
Thai AirAsia A320 (HS-BBO)
Hangzhou Airport Tarmac
Hangzhou Airport Tarmac
Boarding Flight to Doha
Boarding Flight to Doha
Boarding Flight to Doha
Boarding Flight to Doha
Takeoff at Hangzhou Airport
Takeoff at Hangzhou Airport
Village of Yipeng(义蓬)
Village of Yipeng(义蓬)

Dinner wasn't served until 60 minutes into the flight, which was very typical of Qatar Airways. But as usual, I always found myself quite enjoying their meals.

Dinner Service
Dinner Service
I picked chicken rice. I especially enjoy the noodles.

Then I slept all the way till breakfast was served, which was like 2 hours before landing, a little bit too early in my opinion as one could still take a nap even after all the food trays were retrieved.

Breakfast Service
Breakfast Service
I picked fish porridge.
Liwa, Oman
Liwa, Oman
Coastal Road of Oman near UAE
Coastal Road of Oman near UAE
Al Lisaili, Dubai
Al Lisaili, Dubai
With the camel racetrack pretty visible from above.
South Dubai
South Dubai
Port of Dubai
Port of Dubai
Leaving Aircraft from the Rear Doors
Leaving Aircraft from the Rear Doors

After that, it was an uneventful transfer at Doha. One thing to mention, since our connecting flight departed from Concourse D which was far from transit screening, we got to experience Doha Airport's ever-empty tram.

Doha Airport Concourse D
Doha Airport Concourse D
Boarding Flight to Madrid
Boarding Flight to Madrid
Qatar Airways B787 Cabin
Qatar Airways B787 Cabin
Since I was one of the first economy class passengers to board the plane, I had the opportunity to take this shot.
Game onboard Qatar Airways B787
Game onboard Qatar Airways B787

Having boarded the plane, I was exploring Qatar Airways B787's onboard entertainment system and found this game that didn't require the ABXY buttons (with appalling feel and awful delays in any other aircraft I had previously been on). Maybe it's a better idea Qatar Airways set up things like leaderboard, and, send out miles to the weekly leader?

Barwa Village in South Doha
Barwa Village in South Doha
Buildings in Al Wakrah
Buildings in Al Wakrah

Yes, it's a Boeing 787 with its disgusting electronically-dimmed windows, so I weren't taking a lot of photos along the way. Guess had Qatar Airways offered two B787 segments and I would instead opted for Aeroflot.

Breakfast Service
Breakfast Service

On the same plane were some FCB junior team coming home after winning some soccer champions. No, they won't be the famous Barcelona Club (as otherwise they would sit in Business), so my best guesses were FCB junior or FCB backup, things like that, as they were all wearing FCB uniforms.
But since I didn't care about the soccer world at all, let there be guesses.

Team FCB Resting
Team FCB Resting
Tunisian Shorelines
Tunisian Shorelines
Snack Service
Snack Service
Chicken Sandwich
Shorelines of Ibiza Island
Shorelines of Ibiza Island
Snow-Capped Mountains in Eastern Spain
Snow-Capped Mountains in Eastern Spain
Farmlands North of Madrid Airport
Farmlands North of Madrid Airport
Iberia Airlines A333 (EC-LUX)
Iberia Airlines A333 (EC-LUX)
Flying between Madrid and Sao Paulo.
LATAM Airlines B789
LATAM Airlines B789
Just arrived from Santiago and onto Frankfurt.
OneWorld Fleet at Madrid Airport T4S
OneWorld Fleet at Madrid Airport T4S

After we touched down at Madrid Airport, under the trypophobia-bamboo-roof we found that immigration was thronged with people. To make matters worse, the Madrid Airport Wifi seemed to be discriminating against my Android devices by asking me to do surveys (that I could not actually submit) first and surf the internet later, while my friend's iPad was enjoying smooth network connection all the time.

Madrid Airport T4S Interior
Madrid Airport T4S Interior
Madrid Airport Shuttle Train T4S Station
Madrid Airport Shuttle Train T4S Station

END