Out on the Town in Erbil.

On Tuesday, we woke up in our random hotel in Erbil, and we had absolutely no idea where we were, except that it was somewhere near Erbil. We checked out of the hotel and caught a taxi in towards the citadel and the bazaar at the center of the city, since we knew that there were more (and cheaper) hotels there, and we wanted to be close to all of the points of interest. Our taxi driver seemed super excited to see us, and spent the drive teaching us Kurdish and Arabic phrases that might come in handy. We didn't exactly know where we wanted to go, so he just dropped us off on a street in the center of the bazaar.

We immediately spotted the Ali Hotel, which was one that we had read about, so we marched on in and requested a room. Luckily, they had a triple room for 40,000 dinar/night (about $35). While Brian was looking at the room, a guy and a girl walked in, sized up the situation, and said, "Hey, what's up?" At first I really wasn't sure if they were for real, since people would quite often say English phrases that they knew to us, but they didn't really understand the phrase or what we were saying if we answered. However, it soon became clear that they were really fluent in English- and American English at that! They introduced themselves as Matt* and Mary*, and we had a quick conversation about where we were from and what we were doing, etc. They said that they worked with the US Army in Erbil, which explains why their English and American slang was so good. They just happened to be staying at the hotel during some time off and were returning so that Mary could get ready to go back to work.

They helped get everything figured with our room, and when we asked them for a restaurant recommendation (since it was noon and we hadn't eaten yet at all), Matt basically said that he'd take care of us while Mary went back to work. And, apparently taking care of us meant that he spent the next 8 or 9 hours showing us around Erbil! I think that we were so lucky to just sort of bump into these guys as we were checking in to the hotel that our taxi driver just happened to drop us off by.

The first order of business was lunch, and he took us to his favorite Kurdish restaurant, which was just a short taxi ride away. We had our second typical Kurdish meal- the servers really went all out to the point where even Matt was thinking that it was unusual. We had salads, pickles, that bizarre milky drink, several stews, lamb kebabs with rice, pitas, etc. At the end, to serve us our tea, they actually just had us move to a free table, since our table was so littered with dishes that it was impossible to even put the small teacups down!

Jessi and Brian at lunch.

From there, we took a taxi back to the citadel. There's a big plaza with fountains at the base of the citadel, which was not something that I expected to see in Iraq. I always think of Iraq as one big desert, so a massive water display seemed rather out of place. As we saw more of the city and country, we started to realize that this is actually normal. Iraqis use water like it's going out of style! Given that it was over 90 F, walking through the water spray actually felt quite refreshing. It seems that we were actually pretty fortunate with the weather; a week or so before they had a massive dust storm, and the sky was still hazy from that storm. It had been cold up until then, and it seems that we got to experience the first really warm day of the spring. I'm pretty happy that we weren't there when it was much hotter- my poor Minnesota self couldn't take the heat!

Plaza and fountains in front of citadel.

Important historian of some sort.

Erbil from the citadel.

Main plaza with fountains!

Inside the citadel.

Matt showed us around the citadel and the Kurdish textile museum. The citadel is possibly the oldest continuously-occupied city in the world (8,000 years and counting) and is about 50 m above the rest of the city, since people just kept on building on top of previous generations. The current buildings are about 200 years old, and there is a significant restoration campaign underway. The weaving in the museum was really beautiful! The colors were so vibrant; it was incredible that all of the colors were from plants!

Textile museum.

Inside the citadel.

We walked through the citadel and around several parks around the base of the citadel, all with fountains and roses in riotous bloom. We were right next to the bazaar, so we walked through the bazaar. We were quite the sight of interest, and at least one family stopped to get a picture with us. I purchased a beautiful Kurdish tea set from one of the stalls in the bazaar. It was a very interesting experience. Matt acted as my translator to deal with the shopkeeper, and I could only deal with the shopkeeper through Matt. The shopkeeper handed the tea glasses to Matt, who would hand them to me. I would them hand them back to Matt, who would return them to the shopkeeper. I handed the money to Matt, who gave it to the shopkeeper, and then the shopkeeper returned the change the Matt, who handed it to me. Finally, the shopkeeper wrapped everything up and handed the bag to Matt, who gave it to me. So strange. I'm not sure if it was because I was a woman and/or because Matt was doing the talking, but it was different.

View over Erbil.

Wall of the citadel. And poppies!

Roses.

Erbil Government Building.

Jessi in the park.

It was about the middle of the afternoon and freakishly hot, so we wandered back to the main plaza with all of the fountains. There were chairs set up under umbrellas outside the various cafes on the plaza, so Jessi and I sat down under one while Brian and Matt went to fetch beverages. At this point, Jessi and I realized that we were on the receiving end of quite a large amount of attention. Literally, men were pulling up chairs in rows around us (outside of our circle of chairs under the umbrella) and settling in with the tea and hookahs to watch us. I mean, this was not just discreet watching from where they were sitting or even just blatant staring- this was straight up move-your-chairs-for-the-best-view blatant staring. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or run away screaming, but after a while we sort of got used to it and could almost ignore it. I have to admit, sitting in a random plaza in the middle of a city in Iraq and being surrounded by rows of men staring was quite a bizarre experience.

As we were enjoying our fresh cantaloupe juice (and the return of our male companions), Dave* showed up to hang out with us. At first, we really thought that he was American, but he turned out to be Matt's friend from work, who was also an Iraqi. Once they were together, the stories really started rolling, and it was really interesting and surreal.

They are both translators working with the US Army, which explains the friendliness towards us Americans and their American appearances and their American names and their masterful command of American slang. They seemed to really enjoy working with the army and loved all things American. I think they knew more about current American music than Jessi and Brian and I did! They had gone on missions with the army, had helped capture insurgents, had been shot, had won medals, etc. We saw pictures and videos and medals and scars and heard story after story.

Of course, their work hasn't been without a cost. Matt actually had grown up outside of Iraq, because his family was in danger from Saddam's regime, and his family had only returned since 2003. Mary's whole family was killed because she worked with the US, and some of Dave's brothers were killed for this same reason. The three of them have prices on their heads because of their work, and they know that it won't be safe for them to remain once the US pulls out of Iraq. In fact, they've all been accepted for a special visa program for Iraqis who worked with the US and are moving to America in a few months! It seemed so sad and overwhelming. I mean, I guess they chose a side, and they have to deal with the consequences. They were actually pretty excited about the move, though. I think that they had seen too much and were ready to move on.

I'm not even sure how to put it into words, but this was really a major reason that I wanted to go to Iraq- to see and to hear and to experience. Sitting in a hot plaza in the middle of Iraq and talking with people who were about my age who had seen so much and who had made such hard choices and who had experienced such loss helped make the cost of war and the reality of the situation real in a way that watching hours of news never could. It was like talking with living, flesh-and-blood history books.

After a while, we decided to head over to a large park that we had read about in our guidebooks. The park was huge, with ponds and mini-golf and playgrounds and sculpted topiaries and even a gondola ride, Ala the Minnesota State Fair! I may end up saying this many times, but I have no idea what I was expecting from Iraq, but gondolas and mini-golf and topiaries were definitely not on that list.

Big park!

We wandered through the park, chatting with Matt and Dave, and enjoying the scenery and watching all of the families who were out and about. We ended up taking the gondola ride, just for the heck of it. Jessi and I were in one car, and the guys were in another. It was actually a little sketchy, and Jessi and I entertained ourselves with thoughts like, "Wouldn't it be funny if we made it all the way into Iraq only to die in a freak gondola accident? How would our parents explain that to other people?" But the view was actually quite nice.

Jessi and I on the gondola.

Citadel.

At the other end of the gondola ride was Minaret Park, which is named for the ruin of an old minaret that stands in the park. We walked through this park and then headed back into the center of the city. The sun was setting, and the city was really starting to come alive as it cooled off. Parks that had been empty before were now crawling with people. We ended up back at the big plaza with the fountains, and sat on some benches to watch twilight fall on the city. We were able to just chat for hours with Matt and Dave. We also made friends with an old Kurdish man who gave us cigarettes and perfume and prayer beads. Heh.

Once the sun set, we went back to the hotel to freshen up, and then Dave took us out for dinner in the American enclave of Erbil, to this American-style bar called the T-Bar. I've never had to go through security to get into the bar- the guys were patted down, but Jessi and I got off with just having our bags searched. Immediately, Dave saw some friends of his, and we sat down with them.

Dave's friends ended up being a bunch of Americans: divorced men in their 40s and 50s who were living in Iraq because of all of the business opportunities. Once again, one of those cross-sections of humanity that I never knew existed and never expected to meet. It was really interesting to talk with them and get their opinions on Iraq. There was a business man with lots of different ventures going on, a lawyer there to promote and facilitate American business investment, and a builder building a palace for a sheik. Of course. So, in keeping with the theme of random for the day, we had dinner and talked with these guys for hours, until all of the sun and walking caught up with us and we started wilting.

We caught our final taxi for the day back to our hotel, and it smelled SO strong when we got in. Dave asked the driver how he kept his car smelling so nice, and the driver opened the compartment between the seats and started pulling out bottle after bottle of scents (while driving, of course)! There were at least 2 fruity car perfumes and about 8 men's colognes (not cheap stuff, either)! That about capped off our really interesting and unexpected day in Erbil.

[As a side note, I've realized that I really didn't take as many pictures as I thought I did. Since Jessi and Brian and I each had a camera, pictures that I am in usually ended up on another camera. And since we were all taking pictures, I think I felt like I was taking more pictures than I actually was. On top of that, I always find it harder to stop and take pictures the more I am immersed in a situation, and I think I was so focused on seeing and experiencing and absorbing everything that was going on around me that I just forgot. And since about a million people were staring at us all of the time, I actually was feeling self-conscious about taking pictures. Something about going somewhere to be a tourist and ending up being the attraction is a little discomfitting. So, anyways, I am sorry that I fell down on the job. I'm sure Jessi and Brian will have some great photos to post once they're back home, so hopefully I'll get some of those.]

*Names changed. Just in case.