A scary first day in Baghdad Iraq

A scary first day in Baghdad  Iraq

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so that's the... hello every guys, surprise surprise  i'm in baghdad without my bicycle, and you can see   in the distance you have martyr's  monument, so that's one of   the iconic monuments of baghdad,  probably the most iconic, but sadly the video did not start, doesn't  does not start well, i wanted to   to show you the monument to start the video, but  it's closed, it's a little bit weird, i think it's   because it's ramadan, so everything uh closes  super early, it's half past one in the afternoon   and they explained to me that it closes us at  two, but uh at half past one it's already closed   anyway, yeah okay so to start uh, to explain you why  i am in baghdad, basically i flew to baghdad from   kurdistan, uh in order to have the correct visa,  because now after iraq i want to go to jordan   and in order to have the visa for the entire  country of iraq, you need to fly to baghdad, so i   flew to here, so now i have the correct visa, and  uh and i won't be cycling for a while because uh   before retrieving my bicycle, i'm gonna go around...  around iraq, around the south, then back to baghdad,   then probably mosul, maybe kirkuk, and then  back to kurdistan to retrieve my bike,   get it in a car, put it in a car, and uh and  make it transit to jordan, so that's the thing   and yeah and let's go to see in the  distance, this beautiful monument of martyrs that's martyr's monument, which sadly  i can't visit because it closes at   two, and at half past one it's already closed,  anyway what's funny also is... it's a windy day   and as you can see there is a  sandstorm, since a few videos   every time i film there is a sandstorm, it's  funny, so it's ramadan so for this first video okay i walked about three kilometers, and i could never  film because it was military building after   military building, i think it was uh government  buildings, but they were all heavily guarded by   military forces so i could not film, yeah so anyway  funny, first filming first adventure here today   and look there is a christian uh  cemetery just behind me, very interesting   anyway i'm crossing the road, so i need to... just  to explain you quickly what happened there  

so i wanted to start the video at the martyr  memorial monument, wow look at this bridge hopefully it does not collapse under me yes i wanted to start the video  there, but it was not possible so now i'm just walking towards the tahrir square   and let's see if we can find uh some food as  well, it's ramadan let's see if we can find some   food during the daytime, and i'll  film later because there is army on the way and if you can see behind me as well, in the  distance there is a... well you don't can't see   the cross, but there is an armenian church, well  something that looks like an armenian church   so maybe it's the right area to look  for food because i'm really hungry i think i found some food i don't understand so aleph hunus, aleph i know it's one thousand, and unus it's uh 500 now i understand and i was gonna walk to eat, but no i better  not walk, but it was easy to find food anyway good like this... glass so hunus is 500 when it goes with aleph so 500 for a grape juice, very nice oh it's so sweet, fantastic good, very good very friendly people around here the juice is awesome, exactly what  i needed, sweet uh grape juice   to get energy to finish the walk to tahrir square 500 so that's 30 cents for one juice okay so here is the babi sherji so we have many friends in babi sherji very nice, great place okay, where can i go without filming  the army, let's go this way okay okay i'll continue the way, there is  the army at the crossroads, so   i will need to switch off the camera,  and let's go to tahir square we start to arrive at very lively areas but uh   there is... i started filming and there is  a checkpoint just in front of me, so i   have to switch off again, just give you  a quick glimpse at the market here wow so i'm coming across a market,  let's go across the market, it's   very complicated to film because  there is army everywhere basically oh i have no idea where i'm going, it's  full of shops... i try not to film the   the shops where there is army stuff also   because in kurdistan uh they stopped me from  filming that so i guess it's the same here   but wow, i feel a little bit the same as when i  stepped in a tripoli, it's a bit overwhelming here and the normal areas well,  on the big streets, it was very busy... hello  

it was very busy but i could not  film because basically there is army   everywhere, there are checkpoints  everywhere, everywhere there are   people there are checkpoints and army basically,  with big guns, and they don't look like a joke okay so now i'm heading straight to tahrir square   which is supposed to be kind of the... one of the  main squares in baghdad, let's go have a look at it i feel like uh i'm back in lebanon where it was  very complicated to film, and oh yeah and sorry   i just realized i forgot to explain you why i  had to stop filming when i was at the martyr   monument, so basically i explained you why... so  the thing that it was 1 30 but it closes at 2 but   it was already closed, uh and then  the thing is, because it was closed then it was...   i was not allowed to take picture of it or  film it, so that's why then the police came to me   and started shouting at me, so then  i had to go back to the to the entry,   to the entrance, and uh and then they told me well  okay you're not allowed and then they told me   uh to delete the footage, but then i told them  well i need a computer to delete the footage   so then they just let me go, so that's how  i got away with the situation basically   but uh anyway, it was interesting, it was a first  adventure, quite an event eventful first uh, first   video for me, at least emotionally, it's quite  intense, anyway i think we are arriving at tahrir square okay so i did not film in tahrir square, i just took  the shot of the monument, because   it was army everywhere basically, maybe 100  army guys, i don't know, it was like so so many   and now i'm walking back towards my hotel, and  a last thing i want to see for this video   and i passed by this street which is insane look at that such a beautiful architecture, look  at that, that's a historical building   beautiful balcony, it's all ruins such beautiful balconies that's insane okay i'm gonna walk back towards uh towards the main street which is just just there,  just after the kind of barricade you can see   in the distance, wow look at that, look at the  decoration, the refinement of the decoration   on top of the doors, you can see the decoration  of the stick of the balcony that's probably old beautiful  baghdadi houses, all destroyed wow it's funny because, well it's funny,  i've seen many many vlogs of baghdad i've never seen  anything like that in any vlog okay i'm now heading to finish this video,  i'm heading to the banks of the tigris river   which we saw in cizre in turkey, just before  arriving in iraq here, just before arriving   in kurdistan, and now we're gonna  see it again much wider in baghdad oh my god, it's gonna be challenging to film here,  because you always have to be aware of uh... where  

is the police, where is the army, any street corner  coming up, it could be a heavily armed   guy hiding just around the corner, so i'm  gonna... i will have to be careful when i film   okay the banks are just there, you see the  park, just behind is the tigris river so that's the deserted, that's the deserted uh  park on the banks of the tigris, i guess it's   deserted because it's... because it's ramadan, you  can see the stalls ready to sell some stuff   all the areas for kids to  play, there's nobody around absolutely no one strange eerie place so i can't go to the banks of the tigris   because there is barbed wire all the... that blocks  the access of the nearby path, and just in  

front of me there is a guy who is being stoned by  kids, i think they are just playing, i don't know look at that, i don't know if they are playing,  they are chasing him away, and here we have another, probably what was a playground slide as well   but the slide is missing, the guy  there is being stoned, i don't know very very weird atmosphere  here, especially with the with the cloud of sand, it gives a... it  gives a very strange atmosphere to this   first day in baghdad for me, look at that  the kids there... his hands are full of   stones, he's throwing a stone to the guy there,  and the guy is responding with another stone and here we are, the last monument  i wanted to show you, and this is sheherazade and king shahriyar yeah the big monument, the  statues for the 1001 nights   the story comes  from the region, and you have the beautiful sheherazade telling stories to king shahriyar the legend of the gulf, arabian or persian  legends, it depends on which side you are on,   mythical book that comes from... legendary book  that comes from here, somewhere between iraq  

and iran, somewhere between the arabs and  the persians, the stories of the 1001 nights   date from way before islam, and the legends  actually survived islam, the   rise of islam, i think they were they were  islamicized, well they were made so that they they   don't go against the laws of  islam, but but they survived and here you have a statue paying a  tribute to those beautiful legends   and those beautiful stories compiled  in the one thousand and one nights over the millenniums of history here   in this region of the world, and  there in front of me, you can see in the distance i won't go any closer  because there is an army guy on my left but you can see that's the  tigris, a little bit from far and you can see how thick the fog of  sand is, there is the sun up there and uh   the fog of the sandstorm, i guess it's something  that is quite common in the region to have these   uh this thick sand sandstorm, anyway and to finish  well i'm gonna i'm gonna sit... i'm exhausted, i   walked, i walked i walked... i walked almost  three hours to film this video, to conclude that   i want just to say that at least i'm happy...  at least... well i'm happy to be here in baghdad   i'm happy it looks like  it's going to be challenging   it's uh, it looks like it's gonna be a very  very interesting journey here uh in iraq proper   in the real iraq, i hope to you i hope  you liked this uh, these first impressions   for me, my first time here in baghdad, and  see you for the next adventures ciao guys

2022-05-21 22:42

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