Stop-Over: Doha

What can I say - this morning I missed my Turkish Airlines flight to Berlin via Istanbul. I would like to blame it on the airline but it was entirely my fault 🤦
I booked the original flight about 1 year ago together with my other intercontinental flights for the past 6 months but against my better judgement I didn't do the online check in, as usually. 🙄 I guess I was influenced too much by the “Hakuna Matata” (no problem) mentality in Tanzania in the past weeks 😅 Otherwise I probably would have realised in time that the flight schedule was changed and the flight was moved 1 hour up in comparison to my initial booking. To make matters worse, the flight was initially scheduled for 7 am which is why I had gotten up at 4 am that morning. In hindsight that was either at least an hour too late or completely unnecessary. 😠
At the airport, I was initially wondering why the check-in counter for my flight was already closed but I didn't realise what was going on straight away. Only when I tried in vain to do the online check in, it did slowly dawn on me what was going on. So, I had no other choice than to buy a new ticket. Luckily, there was another an acceptable option in Qatar Airways flight at 11:45 am on the same day with a long layover in Doha. 🍀 But at least it did allow me to arrive only 12 hours later than initially planned. The ticket was surprisingly cheap (only 500 EURs) though.
So, I got up at 4 am that day only to sit for hours at international airports waiting for my flights - great. 😒

The Dar es Salaam International Airport was surprisingly empty and quiet. Even in the smoking lounge there was only one person. 😅 Maybe that was all due to Ramadan but I am really not sure. And the theme continued on the way to Doha: the first flight that was operated by Oman Air with an Airbus A330-300 was also nearly empty. 🤷 Only in Doha I was again surrounded by a lot of people again and things felt kind of normal at the airport.
I had approximately 8 hours „to kill“ until my connecting flight at 2 am on the next day Since I had already spent a considerable amount of money 💸 earlier that day, I didn’t care that much if a few EURs would be added to the overall expenditure. So, I went for duty free shopping 🛍️ - already in Dar es Salaam but also in Doha - and also into the Oryx Lounge at Doha international airport where I stayed until the boarding of my flight to Berlin. 🥳もっと詳しく