We tried to see if we can climb up to the minaret but security forces are all over the place so we just wondered about small alleyways discovering the old houses. Lots of men taking photos of their friends, we noticed a lack of women here, we found them in the bazaar, shopping for clothes and jewelleries! There is a security check beyond the statue and we wonder if we are allowed in, we walked to the security dude and he cupped us and let us go in, this is the ancient settlement where hundreds of stones and mud brick homes are seen, it looks like a ghost town as the government paid the residents to evacuate and so they can redevelop the place with help from UNESCO, it's eerrie especially at dusk but we found a few interesting buildings one with nice tiled ceiling mosaic frescoes.
ERBIL TO SULAYMANIYAH TAXI DRIVER
3 hours more or less we drove into dry desolate landscape, brown and arid at this time though there is already a chill in the air as it is now autumn, I noticed a number of checkpoints and we got checked 3 times, most soldiers can't read Roman letters and they thumb through my passport meticulously and asks where I am from as if my passport does not says it at all.Įventually made it to Erbil but my taxi driver won't drive down to the garage, he wants me to get off somewhere in the city and get another taxi to my preferred hotel, really ticked off at this dude, he eventually dropped me off somewhere and a taxi guy waiting quoted me 4,000 dinars to get toĮrbil for Iraq it is, they have no backpacker's facilities here after all this really is rarely visited as of yet.Then next task is to find ATM machine Frank the German guy and I walked towards the big park with fountains just below the citadel on the south side, there is a big mall on the other side of it called Nishtiman there we found an ATM machine at the bank of Baghdad, a small branch is on the side of the mall, they were very helpful as I tried in vain to draw money, Frank the German had no problems but my card always gets declined, one of the managers told us to try the International Hotel 10 minutes away pointing us the direction, they have a couple of ATM machines there, ok so we set off, and we noticed a wall of concrete barriers surrounding the hotel premises and we have to go through a couple strict security checks, the locals refer to the hotel as Sheraton but its really not!Īnyway after getting inside the hotel we looked for the ATMs they were at the lobby next to the restaurant and Western union office, alas both ATMsĮrbilclimbed up the citadel and in the southern side where there is a sculpture of a sitting Mubarek Ahmed Sharafaddin, a 12th century historian. Walked to the share taxi stand next to the bazaar, I paid 15,000 dinar and waited half an hour to get more people before we set off.
I have to wake up reception, still sleeping at 9am, paid my bills and he wrote me a place I can stay in Erbil. If you are planning to go straight to Erbil from Mosul airport, why not just fly straight to Erbil or Sulaymaniyah? For the Kurdistan region (Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah), many nationalities are issued with a special Kurdistan visa on arrival for free, but this visa is not valid for the rest of Iraq (including Mosul).Ī cheaper way of getting into Kurdistan is to fly from Istanbul or Ankara to the brand new Şırnak Airport in the SE of Turkey, close to Cizre and Silopi where you can easily find transport to take you over the border to Zaxo or Dohuk.there was even a Turkish Airlines shuttle bus which met my flight and took me to Silopi where I changed to a minibus to Iraq.CitadelWoke up early to leave for the next city, Erbil, about 180 kms away is the capital of Kurdish Iraq. You'd need a visa for Iraq, which is not easy to get unless you have a very good reason for going.
However travelling to Mosul is not really recommended, especially if your trip is a tourist one, as it is one of the most unstable and dangerous cities in Iraq. I haven't been to Mosul, so I can't tell you where to get taxis or buses from.
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