A scary first day in Baghdad Iraq
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
