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Description
Iraq isn’t the average traveler’s dream destination. It is a country we often encounter on glum news headlines—among terms such as war, terror, and turmoil—but never on covers of fancy travel magazines.
However, my idea of meaningful traveling isn’t defined by the mainstream media’s advertising efforts. I have no interest in adding to the riches of posh resorts’ owners and to the millions of selfies taken in front of popular landmarks. I’m keener to discover disregarded lands and interact with authentic cultures that don’t treat me as a commodity. Hence, Iraq has been one of my own dream destinations.
My opportunity to visit it presented itself in autumn 2021. My lifelong, spontaneous globe-wandering did then lead me to its vicinity together with my partner. We’d wound up in southeastern Turkey, a few miles from the Iraqi border. It’d be regrettable not to cross it…
On a minimalist budget and with scant planning, carrying but a backpack each with our most essential belongings, we set off on a haphazard adventure around this ravaged and misconceived country. We experienced the Kurdish people’s astounding hospitality in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan; spent some days trekking and camping alone in the wilderness to climb the country’s second-highest mountain; provoked baffled enthusiasm among the civilians and impelled the army to stop us at every second crossroad while roaming at random through Baghdad’s chaotic streets; went on a historical tour to the ruins of ancient Babylon, one of Saddam Hussein’s countless grand palaces, and the supposed tomb of a great Jewish prophet; got appalled by the devastation and inspired by the locals’ spunk in the flattened city of Mosul… Many things happened throughout this journey until we ultimately returned to Turkey via the same border.
Although it lasted a mere three weeks—and I’m saying this after having been in nearly half of all countries—this trip to Iraq amounted to one of the most culturally shocking and bias-breaking experiences of my life. So I felt compelled to preserve these invaluable memories by writing this humorous travelogue you may want to read.
