Back to Erbil
Back to Erbil. It’s time to go home. I felt sad to leave this place, I had had such a good time. It was supposed to be a 4-5 hour drive back, but about two hours into the journey, our car broke down. We advanced at a turtle’s speed. Eventually, we stopped at the gas […]
Choman
We had one more day in Choman. It was our day off and I was looking forward to learning more about Kurdish culture and just wander around the city by myself. The Bakery: The day started by going to a local bakery. This ended up being quite an experience! So many people were queuing up […]
Mt Sakran
After a few hours of Choman, we went to another set of mountains named Sakran. We started off from a village with blue roofs and walked to a base camp just below the snow line. It was interesting to see that these little stone huts in the village all had satellite TV. The village itself […]
Mount Halgurd
Finally, we were ready to head out and conquer Mt Halgurd! Mt Halgurd is the highest mountain that lies entirely within Iraq (technically, the highest mountain is Cheekha Dar, but it is partially in Iraq and partially in Iran). We were all super excited, got our bags packed up on the jeep and drove to […]
To Choman
The next day, we were ready to go to Choman to then climb up Mt Halgurd. It was a full day drive with many military checkpoints. Occasionally, they checked our passports, but mostly it was enough to say that we’re under the protection of the foreign minister for them to let us go through. It […]
Erbil
I ended up loving Erbil as a city. In the morning, I met with Jan and chatted with him for a couple of hours. Jan is a soft-spoken Dutch gentleman. He has lots of travel experience and it was fun exchanging some stories with him. Jan is the kind of guy who has been to […]
Off to Kurdistan
breathe, breathe, breathe. This morning, I managed to go to the wrong airport for my flight. I sort of had a feeling that it was the wrong airport, but people kept telling me it’s the right airport. So when I finally got there, and the counter for my flight was closed, I knew something was […]