El Zorro: Fly, fly fly away (飛飛飛)

I always feel a tinge of excitement at the departure hall. You'd harbor all sorts of mental images about the fascinating places you'd be visiting from the hurried research you did on the internet . Many of them may be much better than some of the places really turn out to be and many others much worse. You'd never know until you're actually on the ground. Whatever the outcome may be, your mind is already thousands of miles from the departure hall. And seeing so many people of all races and colors, both men and women, with or without children, busily dragging along their trolley suit cases in all kinds of shapes, sizes, their back packs, dressed in tatters or in their holiday finery, rushing here, rushing there on the smooth floor of the airport is already enough to make you feel a little tense with anticipation.

After fidgeting a hundred times in the crowded sofa bench of the departure hall amidst people talking loudly to their traveling companions or shouting into cell phone to the recipient as if they were trying to make themselves clear over actually huge physical distances or suffering the dull and unimaginative bleeps from video games from the electronic mobile devices of the young or the dialogues from free online film or TV programs and after having stowed my back pack on the overhead compartment, I could finally sit down and relax in my plane seat and switch on the in cabin TV screen to see if there's anything interesting.

I've got a number of drinking options beside my seat but not feeling particularly thirsty, I didn't touch any of them.

before long, I was offered some Chinese snacks

and soon afterwards some fruit, yoghurt, cheeses and cold cuts, plus my favourite croissant which I consumed at leisure because I've got another 7 hours ahead of me before landing in Dubai for the connecting flight.

It was a huge airport, designed along very contemporary lines

all curves, columns, straight lines, glass and chrome plates in different combinations with some wood panels to give it a slightly more human feel.

Some contorted reflections on one of the chrome-plated columns

The arches give the modern airport an Arabic feel, recalling perhaps a bit of architectural motifs one finds in mosques.

The sun is showing through the patterned reinforced glass panes in an ingenious mix of modern technology and Muslim-like arch shaped columns.

patterns of light breaking up the monotony of the polished grey-color tiles.

although the floors could certainly use a little more cleaning and polishing

I like the shape of the sail like glass wall

As there was an hour of two before the next flight would leave, I took time to have have a stroll, just to stretch my legs a bit. Although notionally a Muslim country, where alcohol is religiously frowned upon, business is business.

Champagne which my classmates would certainly enjoy.

Empty wine bottles can be put to good use outside the shop

I went to a waiting lounge, where I discovered a few hard cover French publications by Flammarion on one of the shelves, placed between two metal globe-shaped book-end stands, obviously not intended to be actually read

So I passed my eyes over other shelves and found to my delight some natural crystal slices

with the crystals surrounded by some colored rings

and rock crusts.

there were also some vases with burnished metallic like finish

but in traditional Middle East shapes.

I don't know how they made them. But it looks like different kinds of metal or mineral painting mix had been dripped upon their surface.

Two yellow vases with mosaic like elongated hexagons in the shape of plant bulbs

a shallow glass bowl decorated a very intricate metal mesh

a real rose on each coffee table in the lounge

a sign of information in the form of a comb, perhaps combing the flow of flight and other relevant information?

As there was still time after my coffee, I strolled to the duty free area where I found, samples of the Middle Eastern people's favourite snacks: all kinds of nuts.