Ragnar's World: Welcome down into Erbil city, where the sun is hot and the girls are pretty

After checking out from my first hotel, I started looking for a new place to stay. I had checked out hotels before I left, and found one that sound promising. It was located in Bata Street. I had no idea where it was. The porter of the hotel gave me the general direction. "You could take a taxi. But it is also good to walk!" I couldn't agree more. I thanked him and was on my way. The sun was hot. Very hot. I have just spent a few weeks in relative cold, so my body wasn't ready for it. But this is how I adjust. I spend many hours out of the comfort zone. Sweating my shirt soaking. After a while, the body gets the message, and I can move normally without turing into a pool of water on the sidewalk. I walked around for almost an hour before I followed a hunch, and lo and behold. The hotel suddenly stood right in front of me. I walked up the steep stairs and met a guy who spoke about 5 words of English. But he understood what I wanted. At least I think he did. They had no vacancies. Figures. This was supposedly the best of the cheapies. So I walked across the street and that hotel had a vacancy. So I checked in, emptied my bag of all non-essential stuff, and went out into the baking oven again. It was 40 in the shade. But precious little shade.
I found that the hotel was right beside one of the sights I wanted to see in Erbil. The citadel. The original part of Erbil. It is said to be the oldest city in the world. They are doing some excavations at the site, so we will probably know soon. I walked up to the entrance nearest the hotel, but was stopped by a guard. "No entry! Construct!". I saw a sign saying I had to go to the north entrance. No problem. I walked around the city walls. On my way, I saw a sign I wanted to take a photo of. I picked up my camera and took a picture. Suddenly, a police officer came up to me and put his hand out. I looked at him for a second and thought maybe he wanted to see the photo I had just taken. Some places, people are seriously paranoid about foreigners taking photos. So I started preparing to show him when he slapped his hands together. "Ah! I'm sorry!" I said and laughed. He laughed too. He just wanted me to shake his hand. I did. He opened up a broad smile. "Salaam my friend! Where are you from?" "Norway!" "Ah! Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan! You work here?" "No I'm a tourist!" "Ah! Tourist! Welcome!" Another officer came by and said something about "Radio!". He picked up his radio and changed the frequency. Some policecars stopped nearby. "Ok! You can go now!" he said to me. I think what he meant was "You should go now!". I found it best to leave the area. I have no idea what it was about. So I just continued towards the north entrance. I passed a booth with a guy sitting there. "Sir!" he said and waved me back. "Your name please!" he asked. I said my name and my nationality and he wrote it down in a book. "Thank you! Please enter! Have a nice day!". I walked up the steep road up to the citadel. It was obvious that the temperature was getting to me. I was short of breath and I felt like I had never moved for the past five years. I had to stop to catch my breath before entering the citadel itself. I always find it interseting to see old cities like this. My imagination runs wild. I can sit for hours trying to imaging what it must have been like to live there. What people who saw it might have thought. This heavily fortified city on a hill. Impenetrable. With tall, thick walls. Unfortunately, I was unable to do so here. Most of the site was off limits to visitors due to reconstruction and excavations. So I could only walk the main street. And even then I was stopped from going the length of it, by a guard who politely told me that the street was closed of "Due to construct!" So I just took a few photos here and there and walked down again. A bit disappointed, I have to admit. But now I was getting seriously warm, and I could feel my body was drained of fluids. So I picked up a bottle of water and a can of coke from a guy on the street. I drank it all in one go. Now I started looking for a place to change some money. I found one spot where they had pictures of all the important currencies of the world. Dollars, British pounds, Euros and Norwegian Krone. I had to smile. Among the few selected notes they had on display, was a Norwegian 1000-kroner note. I took out $150 and got 180 000 Iraqi dinars in return. Stashed them into my side-pocket. Feeling rich. I walked through the bazaar. I love bazaars. I'm not the shopaholic type. But I guess if I was, this would be a vertitable mecca. But to me, it's just an incredible place to watch people. And all the things they sell. And how they sell. I read somewhere that shopping here is supposed to be a fair deal. There is no "special price for you". They give you the price they expect and that's it. No haggling. No back and forth. Just a price. And they give foreigners the same price as locals. No difference. And here's a new for me : Many places I've been, nobody has change. That's not such a problem here, but I have had a few encounters where the seller didn't have the correct change. And then I found something extraordinary that I have never seen before. The seller makes sure that the change I do get, is in MY favor. He actually accepts a loss because he accepts that it is his problem, not mine. I was a bit surprised the first time it happened. But now I see that it is common.
After many hours of walking, I decided to check out the many food stalls around. I wanted to try the local shawarma. I found one place and ordered one. The shop had many chairs standing by the wall. I sat down on one and sunk my teeth into the delicious freshbaked bread with juicy meat. Ah! After a long day, it was time to retire into my room. I had switched the aircon to 28 degrees. It actually felt a bit cold. But wonderful.
Today I continued my adapting to the local climate. I visited a park about half an hours walk from my hotel. And also checked out a couple of software shops. "If it exists, we have copied it". One of the shops, the proprietor spoke English reasonably well.
"You speak kurdish?"
"No, I'm sorry. Only English!"
"No problem! How long you work here?"
"I don't work here. I'm just a tourist."
"Ah! Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan! Why you don't work here?"
"Because I have a good job back home."
"Where are you from?"
"Norway!"
"Ah! You must come and work here. Very good!"
"Nah! I like my home country."
"Ok! You are welcome here!"
I thanked him and left. I have to say that I found the hospitablility here rather awesome. People come up to me every now and then, shake my hand and welcomes me to their country. Makes me wish I knew some kurdish, or arabic, so I could've spoken more with them.
And I don't think I've been anywhere where the sheer precentage of pretty women are so high as here. In the first hotel I stayed in, when I came for breakfast, this incredibly stunning beauty entered the restaurant. With her mother. I would have said "hi!" if it weren't for her mother looking like she would tear my heart out and force-feed it to me on toast if I even smiled at her daughter. So I minded my own business and had breakfast. Stealing some glimpses every now and then. She saw it and smiled. But just walking down the street, I see beauties all the time here. Sigh! I admit it, I like to look at them. In China, I learned that the Chinese word for beautiful really meant "easy to look at". And I guess that is a fitting description.
Another good thing here is the soft-ice. Ah! The soft-ice. It is so delicious it is unbelievable. I could have lived off that alone. 40 cents will buy you a cone with this soft delight. It melts in minutes. But that's no problem. It is gone long before.
So there it is. My first couple of days in Iraq. I'm loving it!
Some pictures from my walks around the city.