Kurdish life in North Iraq

helping my driver with the beers he bought on the road to Erbil

Duhok. Small town in Kurdish Iraq, where river Tigris brings "dirty" water from Mosul. Mosul is second largest city in Iraq, and during last couple of years, is considered to be most dangerous. Therefore, many Arab refugees, along with people from the villages in the north Iraq, moved to this small town and made it overpopulated. Except of green hills, post-apocalyptic houses, crowded markets and strange advertisements, there was not much to see. So, we went towards the road to try hitchhiking. The idea of hitchhiking in Iraq is non-existent, so first driver we stopped brought us to the bus station. The second car driver understood what we were doing, as he lived in France where he was a refugee for some 20 years, so he agreed to bring us to Erbil, regional capital of Kurdistan, Autonomous Region of Iraq.

We crossed hills, plains, villages and many police check-points. He stopped to buy some 6 bottles of beer, and started drinking along the road. As he would finish the bottle, he would throw it away through the window, neither looking where it crashes nor feeling guilty. After a while, we finally arrived in Erbil and he invited us to join him for a typical Kurdish kebab.

Erbil greeted us with a busy Friday atmosphere. A huge ancient citadel built on a small hill, overlooks the city and its flat roofs, traffic jam, markets, vegetables and carpets with a picture of a prophet Mohammad. During the day, not many women could be seen walking around, so naturally, many eyes were following Ilaria. Later on, we met our host Mohammad (name for every second person in Iraq), who was happy to share coffee with us, and bring us to try good kebabs (again), in a place where curious eyes of some 20 random men kept us company.