First impressions of IRAQ | S8, EP19
American flags on there, you see that? America.. america Passport passport - Passport, yes America? Duhok, Iraq Season 8 - Eps. 19 Good morning Internet, it is 8 o'clock in the morning and welcome back to the channel First things first, let's have a breakfast There is yogurt, tahini, date syrup And bread All right I am now somewhere here in the north of Iraq in Kurdistan Uh, this is Mosul. This is Erbil, those are two big cities but Mosul is actually part of Federal Iraq And Erbil is part of Kurdistan and today I'm riding kind of in this area Slightly toward Erbil and then I want to spend the night somewhere here I think it is Okay I am ready.. to go I installed my phone mount as you can see One day earlier...
So now I'll be navigating on there It's another gorgeous day and I have about well, less than 200 ks to go And two interesting stops along the way Look at that big mosque cool right? Yeah, I hope that I can reach the places I wanted today Because um Because well, as a foreigner you're not allowed to go everywhere Um, for my own safety So.. I'll just see how I get on, if they send me back somewhere I find another route Or I don't know come up with another plan But um, first I'm going to try my plan Oh, I miss my tablet already So nice to have this big screen but anyway If you ride over your own tablet then that's the end of that - flashback to the drama- Salam Okay, I do need to fix something.. so that my phone kind of is wedged between my little fairing Because obviously this can turn and I thought, oh it will stick here but it's still Doesn't really stay on its place so I need to MacGyver something for that I'll do that later Salam alaikum "Safity First" American flags on there, you see that? Somewhere up here. I'm going to go up into these mountains I don't see the road yet but it's there They're draining the water like, right in the middle of the road This way Oh oeh Okay so yeah. If there's a lot of water then suddenly, of course you have a river on the road
Salam America.. america Passport passport - Passport, yes America? - Hm? - America No Holland Yeah Thank you It's okay For a second I thought he was not going to let me in But uh.. no problems Wow, this is incredible What a location Amazing Look at this This is where I just came from and here is the monastery So I am now at the Sant Hormizd Monastery So this monastery was built in the year 640 So about 1,400 years ago and it's a Catholic monastery And there are caves all around which I believe were meditation chambers Or chambers for prayer. So you can see them, they're like in the rocks and up there as well
So in the mid 1700s, the monastery got attacked and then again around 1830 It got attacked again and then also the library got looted and damaged So a lot of the old manuscripts were destroyed back then and as you can see now it's very quiet But um, of course I'm very close to Mosul I think.. I think I'm now probably about 40 km north of Mosul I just went into the church but you're not allowed to film in there And uh yeah, I think I'm just going to go back to Frankie Go down the hairpins and then onto the next place which is also very interesting I think Okay let's go Back down Bye Don't touch my car. I wasn't planning to But I am planning to do is buy some water Really thirsty Salam. Um water Water - Water - Uh huh This one Hmm.. water Salam - Salam No! Please! You sure? Thank you Hello goodbye - Hi Where are you from? Holland - Holland Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you too Thanks You need anything? No. I'm good thanks
Bye You know this keeps on happening Last night as well, I bought some grapes and he was like, you don't pay Then I had some kebab Then a man paid for me. I think he was police or something He was like, you don't pay, I'll pay for you They will not let me pay Anywhere I mean I have seen some amazing hospitality But where do you walk into a grocery shop wanting to buy water And then the owner of the shop says you don't pay Take it That just doesn't happen right? Really, ah The people here take hospitality to the next level Just really, wow So nice! Unbelievable And I keep on saying, no please, please let me pay And they're like, no no, take it I really need to fix this soon It's getting a little bit annoying The turning I'll fix it, I'll fix it but not right now Anyway, it's like 9 kms till my next stop There you go Lalish Temple That's where I'm going Salam Where are you from? - Netherlands Oh welcome - Thank you You need to go Lalish? - Yes Ok, welcome. Give me passport - Yeah So I am now in Lalish And this is where the holiest temple of the Yazidis is I think it is just opposite of me there. Just going to wander around a little bit I had to take off my shoes. So you have to walk, well either barefoot or on socks So the Yazidis are a Kurdish people, indigenous to Kurdistan who practice Yazidism And that's a monotheistic Iranian ethno religion And I am now about to enter their most important temple And I think these niches are for oil lamps that are then lit in a sanctioned order every day Beginning once the sun has set on the mountain top I'm now entering the courtyard for the main temple And there is a Yazidi legend where the Ark of Noah nearly perished When there was a leak in the ark but a black snake plugged a hole saving the ark And that's why the Yazidis have a respect towards black snakes I'm now entering the main temple and you can see seven columns One for each of the seven angels of Yazidism And all these columns are draped with these prayer cloths And pilgrims may make their wishes by first untying a knot So they released the previous pilgrim's wish to be granted, and then they tie and retie the knot three times while reflecting on their own wish and on the third turn, they tie it tight having made their wish Now below here is a cave containing Kani Zim Zim which is the Zim Zim spring water But it's forbidden for non Yazidis Yazidis perform a ritual here so it's forbidden for me to go in here And this cave is directly under the tomb of Sheikh Ad Oh, there's a whole underground part here as well So every Yazidi is expected to make a pilgrimage to this place. A six day pilgrimage Once in their lifetime to visit this temple Very beautiful place and and as you know, Islamic State committed genocide on Yazidis Both here in Iraq and in Syria Thousands and thousands of Yazidis were killed by IS, Islamic State or they were forced to convert to Islam Women turned into slaves It's just horrible I think this is another temple That was a special place Now I have 60, what is it? No 76 kms to go Till my destination for today It's not the most scenic place But I'm hungry There's restaurants here Ah! I have some kebab This looks like a pilaf And all sorts of sides. Wow, amazing
That was delicious Yeah, so far I am a fan of the food in Iraq It's delicious and I just love all the sides that you get with it Similar to Turkey but here they even give more sides than in Turkey Anyway, I am now riding through, I don't know some random town I got about 41 km to go How are you? Good and you? And then uh.. there's like a family guest house there Um, I contacted them to ask if I could stay So they know that I'm coming You know, what I don't understand is that some cars have yellow license plates See, and others have white ones I wonder if it's maybe some cars are registered in Kurdistan and others in Federal Iraq? I'm not sure Just something I noticed Wah! Ha ha That kid looked like 12! Wow, look at this Oh! That looks so cool right? Wow Stunning place This is very cute Oh Did not see this coming This is amazing No I'm wrong I think This is not right. I need to take the next one Somewhere here I think Over here Hello Yes Yes, perfect. Thanks Hi - Noraly - Noraly Hello - How are you? Welcome! Thank you! How are you? - Can I hear your name? Noraly Noraly - What? - Noraly Noraly! Yes That is a.. that is a common Kurdish name
You like to be a Kurdish name! Ok, welcome in our house! Thank you Okay, I have macgyvered some amazing construction. I'm pretty proud of it Now this is not going to go anywhere so that is perfect Frankie is fine here. I am just going to uh, walk into town a little bit This is such a beautiful place right? So this town is called Akre and it was built in the 7th century BC And that makes it one of the longest no.. Salam alaikum I do have to say, I love how the traditional Iraqi clothing for men I find young men seem to wear like jeans and t-shirts but older men tend to wear like traditional clothes and I love their outfit it looks so classy Anyway, what was I saying? This place is one of the longest continuously inhabited towns in the world How about that This late afternoon light is just so pretty right? Peshmerga Oh there's a horse Hey kitty Are you looking for a home? This is the old, I think castle or palace Of town Ah, I go up here? Yeah Oh Wow. Look at the view over town
Getting a private tour Oh wow! It's a different part of the city Ohhh! Amazing! That sunset is gorgeous hey? They're doing a photo shoot. Wedding Ah, perfect Thank you Erm, your name? Haja Haja, my name is Haja Haja Salam alaikum My name Noraly - Noraly - Noraly All right, I spotted a restaurant Oh, there's a horsie Oh, a couple of horses Oh Hi - Hi That was a really random cup of tea I had there Really nice. I'm not really sure what it was I think it says castle with a lot of history, I think but Hi Sorry I just had to order Um, yeah so I'm not really sure what the building was, it's.. it's apparently old Some castle. I'm not quite sure but anyway
I got a.. I got a tour and then um, I had some chai So very, very nice people around here So I thought let's have some dinner before it gets dark and then I'm going to walk back to the guest house And uh, call it a night Oh wow! Looks amazing Rice Yeah This is soup - Soup Okay Yeah very good! Look at this, ah! I'm telling you the food in Iraq is amazing Sorry, the mosque is just calling for prayer now Okay, so this is very nice meat. These are apricots They are absolutely delicious, so soft and sweet Then we got some pickles, some cabbage, that's also pickle What is this? This is like a sauce I think And then I think I have three soups or not This is an onion soup I'm pretty sure Yeah, I would say onion soup This a spicy tomato soup And what is this? This actually tastes like a lentil soup So with my food here and the mosques blaring, this is a great moment to end this video I really hope you like this video. Ah, I had an amazing day so I really hope you enjoyed it too If you did please give me a big thumbs up, subscribe down below and then I will see you in the next video
2024-12-18 15:45
