Travel report: Iraq
Date of visit: April 2017
Traveling to a war-torn country
On Christmas 2016 my cousin drew my attention to Erbil, a city in Iraqi Kurdistan. He works as a cameraman for Swiss national television and is often filming in Middle East war zones like Aleppo or Mossul. For this reason he has already been to Erbil several times, as the Kurdish city is not far from Mossul.
At this point I have already started counting countries. But I hadn’t visited a really special country yet. I had already been to 47 countries and my last trip was through the USA, Mexico and the Bahamas. I was eager to finally dare to take on the more difficult countries.
While my cousin and I were discussing odd travel destinations, he therefore recommended Erbil in Iraq. “You don’t even need visa if you want to visit Iraqi Kurdistan. There is also a German beer garden. It’s fun!” he said. This sounded strange for me. Too strange to be true. I had to do some research online, and it turned out to be true.
The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go. And it came as a big plus that I could combine Iraq with an Iran trip. Iran had been on my radar for a long time. So, I started organizing a two week-trip to the Middle East. Iran was going to be the country, where I would spend the most time of that trip. And I also added the United Arab Emirates as an easy start and end to that trip.
The only problem was that a wild war between ISIS and the Iraqi army plus Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers took place in Iraq back then. However, I have to be a little more specific here. Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq are actually not the same. Although Kurdistan is a part of Iraq in the north of the country, it is an autonomous area with its own government, army, etc. But to be honest, it’s like two different countries.
The Kurdish part of Iraq is far less dangerous than the rest of the country. ISIS never made it to Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers proved to be bitter opponents of ISIS and fended off the terrorist organization at the gates of their homeland. Consequently, a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan was a good loophole to visit Iraq with a rather low risk.
I would be lying, however, if I say that the trip to Iraq did not make me feel uncomfortable. My cousin always assured me that it was safe, but war was not far away. More precisely, it was only 80km away, which is the distance between Erbil and Mossul.
When I had decided to visit every country in the world, however, I wanted to travel to the unusual and dangerous countries rather sooner than later. On one hand, I had to prove myself that I am really serious about traveling to every country. On the other hand, I thought it would be a good idea to travel to potentially dangerous countries at a young age when I’m still fit and have no obligations. A family for example.
It came as a huge plus that Ibrahim, a friend of my family, lives in Dohuk, which is not that far from Erbil. I contacted him first and asked if he had time to see me. He accepted of course. He also assured me that Iraqi Kurdistan was safe to visit. That made me feel more comfortable.
Alone in Iraq…
It was 7 AM when my flight departed from Dubai. As I didn’t have time to travel overland from Iran to Iraq, I traveled back to the Emirate and took a flight from there.
The flight departed from Dubai’s infamous Terminal 2, the terminal from which the “shitty destinations” are served, as an ignorant may say. But to be honest, Terminal 2 in Dubai really sucks. It has nothing to do anymore with the ultra-modern Terminal 1 or 3 in Dubai. It’s more of a third world terminal.
Nevertheless, the flight was quite unspectacular and I landed two hours later in Erbil. It was a strange feeling when the aircraft hit ground. I was nervous and excited at the same time. My host Ibrahim told me that he would be waiting outside the arrival hall. But first, I had to pass immigration. It was a short procedure. The officer stamped my passport and said “welcome to Kurdistan”. Two minutes later, I left the airport building.
And so I stood in Iraq. At first I couldn’t really believe it. Somehow I had the feeling that I had just made the step from mainstream traveler to real globetrotter. Iran was a nice warm-up, but still too “ordinary”. Iraq, the troubled country in the Middle East, was a completely different league though.
The airport was not heavily frequented. Not surprising, after all, the number of flights that land daily in Erbil is very small. Occasionally, people came out of the arrival hall. Some of them got on a bus that went by every few minutes. Others got into a taxi or a private car.
Although I was excited, the feeling of insecurity came back. I was no longer in the protected airport building, but was now on my own. Moreover, I was asking myself already before this trip how all the ISIS fighters got to Mossul. For me, it was obvious that ISIS fighters would also enter and leave Mossul undercover via Erbil. After all, the airport in Mossul was not in operation at that time. So could it be that Islamist terrorists were on the same plane as me and were now walking past me?
To make things worse, there was no sign of Ibrahim, although we had arranged to meet in front of the terminal. So, I just stayed outside the terminal and waited. 30 minutes have passed and Ibrahim did not come yet. I asked myself if he understood 9 in the evening instead of 9 in the morning. There was no WiFi in the airport, so I couldn’t text him. It wasn’t a good start in my 51st country.
After 45 minutes, I had no other choice than calling him, although the short call would cost me a small fortune. But did I have other options? Ibrahim answered and it turned out that the real arrival hall was not where I was standing. I had to take the bus that went by every minutes to get there.
“I never thought I would ever greet you in Kurdistan,” said Ibrahim delighted after we hugged each other. Ibrahim lived in Switzerland for many years before moving back to Iraq to live with his family. Ten years have passed since we saw each other the last time. He still looked exactly the same.
He put my luggage into his car and we were ready to drive to Erbil’s city center.
Good Old Erbil
It wasn’t a long drive from the airport to the center. 20 minutes maybe. The landscape was barren, the buildings a bit run down and the sky blue. Like in most countries in the Middle East. While Ibrahim and I were chatting, I had a strange feeling again. I was actually in Iraq. Road signs indicated the way to Baghdad and Mossul. It felt surreal.
Surprisingly, there are a lot of hotels in Erbil, many of them 3 or 4 star. I booked a room in Erbil View Hotel for $75 per night. It was a very nice hotel with many rooms, although it did not seem that they were having a lot of guests. Not many people travel to Iraq in these days.
Anyway, I didn’t know what to expect of a hotel in Iraq. After all, Iraq was my most exotic country back then, so I had no idea about the standards of their hotels. But, as I said, it was nice. I had a spacious room in the fourth floor. The bathroom was also comfortable. I couldn’t complain.
We didn’t spend much time in the hotel and went to Erbil’s city center. Erbil is an old city, some sources call it the oldest in the world. And that’s what Erbil looks like. Old. But also charming in its own way. Some of the buildings we passed were in desolate condition. I didn’t mind though. After spending a few days in Dubai I was happy to be back in the old world.
The main attraction of the city is the citadel, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This citadel was built thousands of years ago and you can see it from almost everywhere in the city center. It was the first sight of our tour, and there was also a museum behind the walls of the citadel.
An old lady welcomed us and showed us traditional Kurdish clothes on puppets. There were also other ancient exhibits in three different rooms. To be honest, it was rather a shop than a museum, but I didn’t complain. I mean how often are you in a Kurdish museum?
Fortunately, the temperatures were reasonably comfortable. In the days before I had over 30 degrees in Iran, in Dubai it was even almost 40. In Erbil the temperatures were under 30 degrees. Since I had dressed conservatively and had long trousers on, I was glad that it was warm, but not particularly hot.
In my opinion, the most picturesque spot in Erbil is when you exit the citadel and see the main square from above. The main square is where all the action happens and it was a good decision to see it from above before we went down.
While we were standing on top of the hill, we could see war planes flying above the city. Either towards Mossul or towards their base. We could also see more of these planes when we went down to the main square. As I said, the war was still going on back then and you could feel it in the city.
It wasn’t just the war planes that reminded me that war was going on. The city was also full of Peshmerga soldiers. As I wrote in the beginning of this article, the Peshmerga proved to be ISIS’s hardest opponent during the war. ISIS never made it to Kurdistan. The Kurds withstood all attacks and conquered areas of ISIS themselves.
I didn’t see many foreigners in Erbil either. The only exception were small groups of white men. Mostly they were 3-4 people. And it was noticeable that all of them were extremely athletic. “CIA or Mossad,” Ibrahim said. According to him, up to 20,000 US soldiers were stationed in and around Erbil.
The main square was actually very nice and right next to the square there are a lot of restaurants. Since we haven’t eaten anything yet, we treated ourselves to a large portion of kebab skewers with rice. Admittedly, it wasn’t very good. Maybe it was because the week before I was eating the best kebabs of my life in Iran. However, many people wrote on TripAdvisor or in message boards that they didn’t like the food in Erbil. So I wasn’t the exception.
There was also a big bazaar right next to the square. This bazaar was like other typical markets in the Middle East. From textiles to fruit and spices, it offered the usual things you can find in this part of the world.
In all the hours we spent downtown, I never felt insecure. People made a friendly impression and the high presence of soldiers also created a sense of security (ironically, in many cases the presence of soldiers is more a sign that it is insecure as they are often the target of suicide bombers).
Wedding trouble and Schnitzel
There was trouble anyway. But not as I had expected. Ibrahim and I briefly went back to the hotel to rest for an hour. I also needed it badly because I had to get up at 4 in the morning to catch the early flight.
When we sat in front of the hotel after the siesta and had a coffee, we witnessed a wedding. I don’t know if the participants were also staying in the same hotel or if they happened to be standing in front of it. Anyway, they played loud music and danced on the sidewalk.
There were about 40 guests including bride and groom. And while the dancing continued about five meters in front of us, Ibrahim said that I could film it. Frankly, I wasn’t particularly motivated to do that. After all, it would be one of hundreds of videos I would never watch again. Nevertheless, I pulled out my cell phone and pressed the record button. That was a bad idea.
Although I filmed the whole thing discreetly, it took a maximum of ten seconds until one of the guests caught me and pointed with the finger towards me. After another five seconds, five male guests of the wedding party stood around me. All young men between 20 and 40. One of them aggressively said something in a language I couldn’t understand before clearly underlining his request by saying “delete it!!”.
At this point I thought that in the next few seconds I would feel a fist in my face because I had “dishonored” the wedding party. Or worse, because I dishonored the bride. And what would I have done in such a situation? Apart from the fact that you don’t want to fight twenty Kurds, these gentlemen could have quickly pulled a knife or a gun.
While the men positioned themselves threateningly around me, I followed the request and deleted the video. To be on the safe side, I held the display to the leader of the group, a 40-year-old man, and pressed delete. I also apologized, but the men just turned their backs on me without saying anything and continued their celebration as if nothing had happened.
I was completely perplexed by this situation. Admittedly, I was acting out of the reflex when Ibrahim told me to film it. I thought he as a local knew what was OK and what was not. Normally, I don’t film or photograph people without permission. In this case I thought that it would be all right because Ibrahim asked me to do so.
“They weren’t Kurds,” Ibrahim said. “I could not understand their language. Probably they were some kind of gypsies.”
The story was quickly settled and we visited a large park in the city. There we saw people walking, picnicking and playing games. The Kurds have the reputation to be quite relaxed, also concerning their religion. For example, very few Kurdish women wear a headscarf and a burka.
We still saw some fully veiled women. “Arabs,” Ibrahim said. The war has forced many Arabs, who make up about 75-80% of the population in Iraq, to flee. Many of them took refuge in Erbil. As a result, the population of Erbil has increased rapidly within a very short time.
We walked around the park for about an hour before leaving it again. It was also the last sight we visited in the city. Erbil is not a city that scores with many sights. There are some mosques, but the highlight is and remains the citadel and the main square.
In general, I wouldn’t call Erbil a beautiful city. It is an interesting city, but you can see its age. Many buildings and the streets are not well-maintained. It looks partly dusty and dirty. Those who expect a pearl like Isfahan will be disappointed by Erbil. The nicer city in Iraqi Kurdistan would be Sulaymaniyah. Unfortunately this city is about three hours away from Erbil, so we had no time for it.
There was one more thing to do in Erbil, though. We were ready to spend the evening at the place my cousin recommended to me.
We headed to the German beer garden, called Deutscher Hof Erbil. They frisked us for weapons before we could enter. That’s somehow understandable. The place is popular among expats, who work in the oil industry, so it would be a perfect location for an assault.
There were actually some guests in the restaurant. They had a good selection of beers and of course I ordered schnitzel and fries. Obviously, it felt surreal again to have this kind of food in Erbil, but it was still a cool experience. Besides, how many people can say they had schnitzel with fries in a German beer garden in Iraq 2017? Not many, I guess.
Afterwards we drove back to the hotel. I was dead tired and looked forward to the bed.
Traveling rural Kurdistan
We left Erbil on the second day to see Kurdistan’s green countryside. First we drove a good hour through hilly landscapes and the more we moved away from Erbil, the greener the scenery became. The roads were not in very good condition and there were also many houses that looked more like ruins.
After two hours we reached a small town (unfortunately, I forgot the name) where we had lunch. Ibrahim said that this was a popular holiday destination among people from Iraq. Not only the Kurds liked to come here but also the Arabs.
“A few months ago it would have been too dangerous to drive here, because this is one of the most important roads between Baghdad and Mossul. That’s why ISIS was never far away,” said Ibrahim. Now it looked idyllic and anything but dangerous. It was a small village in the midst of nature, which exists hundreds of times in Switzerland.
Also otherwise the landscape reminded me sometimes of Switzerland. Although everything was a bit run down, it looked pretty. Ibrahim drove me to various places, which offered a good view over the landscape.
We came back to Erbil in the late afternoon and had dinner in a mall before Ibrahim headed back to his hometown. I was glad that I had him with me, it made things much easier and I also felt safe with him. Before he left, he gave me some local currency for my dinner and informed the hotel reception that I needed a taxi the next morning.
My time in Iraq came to an end. I turned another round through the main square before I went back to the hotel and watched a football match of the German Bundesliga in the hotel lobby. The next morning I drove back to the airport from where I flew back to Dubai.
My travel experience in Iraq
Iraq was my first really special travel destination. In the meantime I have visited even more unusual places, but at that time Iraq was a big deal for me. As I said, I thought that this was now the final step to be recognized as a real globetrotter when I entered the country.
However, I must admit that Iraqi Kurdistan is not the same as Iraq. Kurdistan is an autonomous area within Iraq that was more or less safe even during the war. So I have avoided the real Iraq and used Kurdistan as a loophole to get the country off my list. I did the same half a year later by visiting Somaliland in Somaila. That doesn’t mean that I won’t travel to Iraq though, as I am highly interested in visiting Baghdad someday.
The two days in Erbil were the end of e two week journey through the Middle East. Although my zest of action wasn’t that big anymore, I really enjoyed my time in Erbil. I am glad that I traveled with Ibrahim, because he showed me so many things and I’m not sure if I could have seen all of it without him.
Back home I got asked a lot whether I felt safe or not in Iraq. I always answered yes, as I did not felt uncomfortable (except for the situation with the wedding ceremony). However, “I always felt safe” is a dumb expression anyway. If you could ask people who died from a terror attack whether they felt safe or not right before the attack, what would they say? Would they answer that they felt unsafe? Probably not. Most likely, they just did their thing, before hearing a bang and then everything went black…
Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!
