At the airport carpark with a long stream of migrating birds flying across the sky just above. Raad, our local fixer/guide and Amad, our driver, was waiting for us and warmly welcomed us to Iraq.


Before setting off into the city, Julian and Charlie asked if we could check out the old Iraqi Airways 727 that was next to the airport carpark.


Raad said that it used to be a restaurant, complete with tables placed between the original airplane seats.


Walking out onto the wing after squeezing through the emergency exit.


After the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Iraqi Airways was grounded by the United Nations' sanctions against the country. After the war domestic flights were also a rarity due to the No-Fly Zone imposed by the United States and United Kingdom over Iraqi skies.


In June 2005, Iraqi Airways resumed domestic flights for the first time since the fall of Saddam with a Boeing 727-200 flying from Baghdad to Basra.

Checking out the cockpit. International flights resumed soon after, and Charlie said that the planes overnighted outside the country, with the morning flights flying out of Tehran, Beirut, Amman, Dubai etc, did the spiral dive into Baghdad and then flying out again in the afternoon back to safety outside of the country.


We then drove into the city. On the way I spotted a Burger Fuel restaurant, a New Zealand burger chain. Apparently they had to close in 2014 with the rise of ISIS but reopened last year as stability in the capital had improved.


Outside the Baghdad Hotel where we would be staying for our time in the city. Western journalists, workers, and members of the Iraqi Governing Council frequently stayed at the hotel after the 2003 invasion. There was subsequently a suicide bombing outside the hotel in October 2003. Although the surrounding hotel blast walls were not breached, six Iraqis were killed along with with thirty-two others wounded including three U.S. soldiers. Although they do still occur, similar bombings in Baghdad are much less frequent now, with one typically on average per month.


And a nice big Christmas tree in the hotel lobby! It was quite surprising to see so much festive decorations about.


A newly wed bride and groom also in the lobby. Apparently it was wedding season with quite a few decorated SUV's out in the hotel carpark.