I also had some souvenir shopping to do for some people, which I got out of the way on my first day.



I sat down for some tea at one of Erbil's longest-running tea houses, Machko.



This hit the spot after having gotten up ~3:30 AM local time.



Looking up at the Erbil Citadel from the tea house.



I hiked back up to the top of the Citadel for sunset for a view of Erbil's main square.



I was in contact with my guide for the next few days at this point and went to some place for dinner at his recommendation. Only a few dollars for a massive chunk of chicken and some rice.



Day 3


I rose quite early to start the day with some breakfast before heading off into the north of Kurdistan. My guide, Rekan (picked him up from Indigo Traveler's videos on Youtube) was picking me up around 8 AM to head into the mountains, including camping for one night.



The original plan was to cover this with 3 days and 2 nights, but we ended up being able to fit it in with only one night but two very long days of driving.



On the road at last. Our first stop involved driving fairly close to Mosul (not part of Kurdistan). The Iraqi military had set up a checkpoint however that they would not allow me through without a visa so we had to go the long way.



Looking out towards Mosul from Mar Mattai Monastery.



Mar Mattai is known as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence.



Mar Mattai Monastery.



The monastery is located on top of Mount Alaf and is located only about 20kms from Mosul.



The monastery was established in 363.



You can barely make out the monastery in the center of the mountain.



Although the security situation in Mosul has improved in recent times, it was still a bit disconcerting knowing how close I was to what was recently a major ISIS stronghold. ISIS ceded control of the city in 2017.



On the way to our next stop we passed by one of many refugee camps in Iraq.



The camp was empty at the time we observed it, however, less than a month after my visit the camp now has over 11,000 refugees from northern Syria.



We then stopped off for some lunch.



Kebab.



The local news reporting on the Turkish-led invasion of Syrian Kurdistan.



One of the many oil fields in Iraq. Iraq's oil reserves are considered the 5th largest in the world.



Our next stop was the mountain village of Lalish. It's the holiest temple of the Yazidi people.



Lalish courtyard.



Rekan had me tie one of the prayer cloths and make a wish on this pillar.



Rekan also had me toss a cloth on top of the pillar he's standing next to and make a wish. If the cloth stays put, the wish is granted.



The jars contain olive oil reserves pressed from the groves in Lalish.