The most terrifying thing about Iraq

It's not the border crossing, not the constant military presence, nor the War Zone that existed 15 minutes drive from where I was, the most terrifying thing about Iraq was the drive to the border from Turkey.
Getting to Cizre was easy, I got up and found the minibus station, 2 minutes into my search, I got intercepted by a guy who wanted to know where I was from, he then took me to the minibus that would take me to the border and helped me buy my ticket. People are incredibly friendly here. Then I waited for the bus, and got chatting with a guy from Silope(the border town) on his way back from studying medicine in Azerbaijan. He was an interesting fellow, interested in Canada, and eager to practice his english with me.
The bus itself went through some cool looking places, but the best was the edge of the mountains in Mardin province. It was interesting to see a city built on the side of mountains rather than in the valleys. It was about 6pm by the time the bus stopped in Cizre. Where my new friend from the bus introduced me to his cousin who ran a taxi service across the border into Iraq and he would love to give me a good deal.
So off I went with this new guy, who all I knew about him was that his name was Salmon, he drive a Taxi across the border and he didn't speak a word of english and had rather poor Turkish. However his cousin vouched for him so I figured I'd get there fine. It started out well, he offered me a Cigarette asked were I was from, my name, and my passport, all things I expected. Then we stopped on the outskirts of the city and he got out and started speaking to a guy sitting outside of a small building looking in rather poor repair.

A note about the deep South East of Turkey, land of the Kurds, they run the show, the kids don't learn Turkish, everyone speaks Kurdish instead, there was massive military presence, the area seemed heavily guarded with guard posts and military checkpoints aplenty. Not all of this is attributable to Syria next door.
Much of this region looked like in could use a coat of paint, lotso of rubble, lots of poor areas, all things which I would attribute to being an unwanted people in a region which for 20 of the last 25 years was in a constant state of civil war. These people came out on the loosing side. The Kurds are a people plagued by strive, wherever they go in the land they have lived in since the Golden Age of Greece they now remain unwanted.
The physical place was kind of depressing, but the people were remarkably resilient. They went about their daily business, enjoying life, living each day as one to be enjoyed. These were a people who know how to live no matter what life has dealt you. It was an experience and a half.

Back the taxi, this place turned out to be owned by Salmons cousin(or rando guy who needed a ride) who had access to 2L water bottles full of gasoline, which seemed to be in exchange for a ride a bit out of town. Once this passenger left Salmon lit another cigarette, and started texting someone, hardly looking at the road, which had potholes like a golf ball has dimples. Then the back driver side door popped open, going 100km/h. This prompts Salmon to look at me laugh, say a bunch of words that seemed rather vulgar turns around, and without stopping any of his previous activities turned around and closed it. "Oh, my!" is what I said to him, he nodded and we continued.
2mins later he reaches over into the glove compartment and takes out a laser pointer. Shows me a some cool things he could do with it, make it project pictures, or look like a disco ball. Then he starts pointing it to people on the street. He claimed it was military grade and shot 4km. That frightened me, because after informing me of this he aimed it at the police checkpoint we drove past,then he started aiming it at military outposts, then oncoming traffic, laughing the whole time.
Then we started to come upon traffic, so we cross the ditch and start driving down the wrong side of the divided highway shooting the laser into the eyes of oncoming traffic and trucks stopped on the right side of the highway.
We picked up another guy looking to cross the border, who eagerly joined in with the laser pointer fun. This continued until we made it to the border, which was a fairly simply procedure, car stops, passports are handed over they get handed back we procede to the Turkish military checkpoint, we get out, they check the car for guns, bombs and the like, wave us through then customs who asked who the white guy was, stamped our passports and let us through. Then we crossed the bridge into Iraq, stopped got out and got shuffled into and office where they took my temperature asked me if I was sick or if I had h1n1, I said no, they let me out, I walked across the street, got given a coffee and asked the standard questions, then they asked where I was going. They told me not stray from those places, and emphasized with actions, sound effects and serious looks on their faces "Mosul, Kirkut, Baghdad, no go, they kill you". I followed their advice, I don't think I'd be too fond of car bombings.

The first thing I did when I entered Iraq was have a pee, 10 hours after leaving my hotel in Diyarbakir, 4 litres of water and tea, I had not ever stopped long enough to go pee, and darned if I wanted to test how long a bus would wait for me without being able to ask how long it would wait.

All in all, it was a fantastic learning experience which would help me with all my other border crossings on my journey.
I hopped in a Cab and for 20$US I got taken right to my hotel ~65KM away in Dohuk.

The Train, and encounters in Kurdish Turkey

Needless to say the train was boring. The fold down beds stopped being interesting after about hour, I ran out of books and Magazines after about 12 hours, and nobody anywhere near me on the train spoke English or a version of Turkish which I could understand, and it was dark for 20 out of 34 hours.
All in all though, I would rather take it than bus for a journey of that length, at least I got a bed, a sink, a toilet and privacy, for about the same price.
34 hours on the train took me to an 8am arrival in Diyarbakir. I walked into the City Centre and was greeted by 20 metre high Black Basalt Walls of Byzantine origin.
Diyarbakir is considered to be the Capital of Kurdish culture in the region, and had an assortment of Byzantine, Islamic and Turkish history, all wrapped in a Kurdish setting.
I couldn't check into my hotel so I left my bag and went to explore the city, the Archaeological museum was closed, and apparently no longer exists in that location(thanks Lonely Planet). I then meandered back towards the main mosque, missed it but ended up on the 2nd largest complete wall in the world, which encircles the old city.
20 metres high, no railings, muddy/slippery footing in some areas, and public access you would think it would be at least monitored(apparently there are lots of muggings on the wall too). But no, so I walked all over the place, inside towers, to the top of parapets.
I then tried to see if I could see the Main Mosque so as not to miss it. As I was reading some plaques about the Mosque a guy who spoke French started giving me a tour. He toured me all around the old city, the Mosque and it's Medresa, a couple traditional homes and the home of a local famous poet. Turns out he was the former head of tourism for the region. He then led me to his friends Carpet shop for tea. Which inevitable led to carpets being laid out for me to look at.
It's incredibly hard to say no to such amazing carpets. I ended up buying a Kurdish Kilm, for 1/5 of the price I saw a similar one in Istanbul.
I then went down the valley to the Tigris River to get some sand. 2km down, 2km back up the hill, somebody could have told me there was no sand in the river. It did give me my first encounter with the poor of the region, walking down a road to the river the entire street stopped, the soccer game right down to the mothers preparing dinner, they all stopped to watch me.

The Resit(the tour guide) and I ended up going to the University for dinner, where I had some "traditional Kurdish food". It was pretty good, he introduced me to a few heads of department there and had a lengthy chat with the head of Architecture. It was a shame Resit ruined it by trying to sell me a tour I couldn't afford(in time or money), I said no a number of times, then he got depressed, which got me to thinking what kind of formerly prestigious tour guide needs to go to such lengths to get a client? He was kind of strange.

My introduction to the Kurds was fantastic despite the one hiccup. I made plans to take the bus to the Iraqi border in the morning, and I was going to need my sleep for such a grand adventure.

Istanbul Part 3

Istanbul giving New York a run for it's money since whenever this Big Apple was built

Now onto my post.
Ok so I lied, after Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque I went for a Hammam (Turkish Bath). Now for those who have experienced the joys of the Hammam you know what I am talking about when I say it is amazing. I'm sure I've never been so clean in my life. Hot room, scrubbers, and not having to do anything. Although strange Turkish men and the language barrier made things awkward at times, it was still amazing.

So the next day I decided to make one final attempt to get a Syrian Visa the way they want people to get them. So I turned up 10:30(I had planned on getting there earlier, but got lost after I took what I thought should have been a "Short Cut", I was wrong) and when I go there they said that they had closed for the day. It wasn't friday, it wasn't a holiday, they had just closed, made no sense, and made me mad, mostly at Syrian Bureaucracy(lots of more that to come).
So I headed to the Grand Bazaar. Basically a great big market, but with everything and covering a massive area. It's so big in fact that it has its own districts, Gold, Jewlery, Carpets, antiques, trinkets, food, and thats just the coverd part. In the uncovered section I discovered the Knife district, Guns, pants, sunglasses, clothes hangars, mannequin and shoe districts.

Overwhelming cannot being to describe how one feels wandering around the Bazaar, shopkeepers yelling at you to buy their stuff, backgammon being played, tea being served, business being had. The strangest moment was as I had stopped to watch two old men play backgammon, another younger guy was there watching and started conversing with me, berated me for not speaking turkish, when I explained that I had only just gotten into the country he said he understood, and pulled a baggie out of his pocket and told me he had great Hash and offered me some for 100 Euro, needless to say I declined him, partially becuase the amount of Hash offered wasn't worth anywhere near 100 Euro, but mostly because I didn't want any, especially in the middle of an incredibly busy street with cops around. If anything I'll say the guy had balls.
I did however make some purchases in the Grand Bazaar, I bought some pants(which I don't actually like) A mini Backgammon board, and a bunch of trinkets. mostly good deals except for the pants, oh well.

That night went and smoked Hookah with a bunch of Debaters from all around Canada, Calgarians, Torontonians, Easterners, all in all it was a pretty good night. Ended with McDonalds(a shame I know, but it was the only place open at 2am). This was the last time I saw any Canadians until Petra almost a month later.
At about 4am I woke up with incredible pains inside me, the McDonalds had struck. I like to think of it as Karma kicking me upside the head for degrading myself to eat McDonalds when I am in the middle of one of the greatest cheap food places in the world.

I survived the night, and made my way to the train station, which was on the Asian side of Istanbul. Asian Istanbul was an excellent place to go see. It was less touristy, the market I wandered through was far less of a tourist trap than the Grand Bazaar, it was more of a place for real people to do their shopping.
I had a fish sandwich, which consisted of a small loaf of bread with a whole fish inside. Needless to say it was the fishiest meal of my life and lived with me in my burps for the next few days. At the time of purchase, it was a great deal, I got a good meal for 1 Lira, but the more I ate the worse it got.
I then bought my ticket to Diyarbakir, and found a place to smoke hookah and read until my train left.

Next time Kurdish Turkey

Istanbul Part 2

The next day I decided to head out to the Syrian consulate earlier than the day before to allow myself some time to go see the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia.
I located the Syrian consulate was much easier to find this time, and I got there around 10am(they issued visas from 9-11am) to get my Visa, I figured I have my form filled out, I have my letter of recommendation, I though it would be a breeze, and indeed my time at the consulate was short, I arrived to discover that they had "already issued all their Visas for the day". That ticked me off, and at the time looked set to ruin my whole day.
But it didn't, I decided to make the best of it and headed on down to the Blue Mosque. From the way people pumped this place up it should have been akin to one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and I admit, the exterior was amazing, the colour, construction, it was stunning, especially at sunset. The interior was in fact quite exquisite, but I couldn't help feel uninspired, and underwhelmed. Yes it was pretty, but all the artwork seemed the same, and very similar to what I've seen in many other places Islamic and otherwise. I might have gotten a different feel for it if I had stayed for a prayer, but I decided to head to Hagia Sofia.
Hagia Sofia originally the most magnificent Cathedral in all of Christendom, converted into a Mosque in the 1200s, and now a museum, is a mixture of Muslim and Christian ideas and art, a place where Emperors were crowned and Sultans said prayers in hidden rooms. This place had culture, history, art, and Grandeur. The Christian Mosaics had been plastered over by the Muslims, who despite disagreeing with the centre of devotion could not ignore the sheer beauty of the art so they took notes before covering it up for the better part of a millennium. Some of them had been uncovred, but the majority were still plastered over.
Now along with the beauty of the art, the place was massive, imagine almost a full football field indoors, built in the year 600. This place not only was huge but it also seemed like the dome was just hovering there, the architecture was monumental in every sense of the word.
I then spent the night wandering around a few markets close by the hostel and then went to have some hookah with a bunch of people including some nice girls from Boston one who was something like a the 2nd cut away from making the US womens Hockey team for the Turin Olympics.

Cats, cats were everywhere in Istanbul, actually all over the Middle East, but it was a particular problem in Istanbul. They weren't afraid of people, because lets face it people were keeping them alive. At one point sitting in front of the Blue Mosque on a bench a Cat literally jumped onto my lap from behind me(I know the physics doesn't make sense, but thats what I wrote in my journal). Normally I love Cats, I like when they pretend to stalk you and then you jump at them, I like when they purr, but when there are this many Cats, I think there is a problem. and that's my piece on Cats.

Tomorrow Final Days and Hours of Istanbul before heading to the Deep South East and Iraq

Istanbul

So this is about where I started keeping any kind of journal, my entry for Istanbul merely outlines directions to the Syrian Consulate and some of the stuff I saw there, mostly designed to poke my memories to life again.

After worlds hung out at the Airport for a while, bought a plane ticket and then ran into a whole host of debate related folk, including the CA team, who were pleasant as usual(Right Siobhan). There were 4 flights from Ankara to Istanbul that night, if one had gone down, right there you lose close to a quarter of Worlds, thought that was interesting.

Once in Istanbul took the train to the Blue Mosque are(Sultanamhet) and met Mike who informed me that the cheap hostel was full, so I stayed at the one with more people I knew at it.

My first day in Istanbul consisted mostly of trying to locate the Syrian Consulate. I had a map, I actually had 3 maps, only 1 of which had the consulate on it, and none of which had the area in question on in in any detail. So off I went in search of the consulate, on my way I found the Hilton Hotel, the Military Museum(which was closed, and they had guns pointed at me when I asked for directions, they didn't know where the consulate was). I then found a Movie Theatre, and a whole assortment of monuments and parks dedicated to Atatürk(I will touch on him in a later post), all in all it took me almost 4 hours from leaving my hostel until I found the Consulate, when I got there they told me the Visa office was closed, and that even if it wasn't I would need a Letter of Recommendation from my government. That was frustrating.
But I knew where the Canadian Consulate was and it was easy enough to find, and I got to ride on a scary little trolley that looked and felt like it would fall apart imminently(pictured above). It was seriously scary, also I discovered that Turks are all deaf, we followed 2 minutes behind one lady who only got out of the way when we hit her.
A letter of recommendation from your government, which says that they passport number in the passport you have is in fact you. They confirm this by asking you if this is your passport, then write the letter. It took 5 mins, and cost $50, have I mentioned how much I hate bureaucracy to you before? This will become a theme for my time in Istanbul.
I ended the day by buying a Middle East guide book to replace the one I left at home and walking around some markets. Day ended with sunset over the Blue Mosque. I think I went to dinner with Julia and some guy from Ottawa starting a round the world trip, then a place with Sheesha and backgammon with Kristen, Sabrina and Michelle.

Worlds part deux

Ok, so the first few days of worlds was pretty good, but the latter days were arguably more fun.
First and foremost I discovered the Sauna and not being sick anymore.

Before I get into after new years, I missed an incredibly fun night from my last post, Global Night, anyone who was there can attest, more than a dozen tables hosted by people from around the world sharing their national alcoholic drinks. Needless to say this was a night that I banked a few drinks for my average. My favorite table was the Austrian table, not because it was particularly good, but because I got to show off and impress a bunch of people. They were busy lighting their shots on fire, then putting them out by putting their hand on the glass. I decided to one up them, sticking my finger in the on fire drink, lighting my finger on fire, then putting it in my mouth to put it out. I won, except for the one time that my finger didn't go out, it stayed lit far too long, and I ended up burning my finger, quite badly as a matter of fact. oh well, it's mostly healed now, fun times.

I spent New Years Day mostly getting better, recovering from my fever, and getting back on track to 13 drinks/day and prepping for the Public Speech final. It was a fairly laid back day that led to good for recovery.
I would like to thank Gareth for giving me the topic for my public speech, for in a break from him lamenting over his lost cell phone we got to talking about how ridiculously polite Canada is and how no one would ever invade us. Needless to say, I was massively short on topic, so this had to do. The speech went well, but didn't come close to winning, although another Canadian won. I still think the guy who talked about the Rainbow was entertaining, even if his links to the colours were stretching reason.
That night Dylan, Mike, Robbie and I decided it would be a good idea to go for a swim.
Now, the day had been quite windy, the seas were really rough,
But we didn't care, our chests did bare, for we were really tough.

In short it was awesome, Mike kept saying that he almost died, maybe thats true for him, I didn't nearly die. Yes it was rough, yes it was raining, and yes it was very dark, but I can swim, and know how to get out of trouble when currents start pushing you around.
I believe I spent the rest of the day playing backgammon and drinking, all in all a very good day, almost made up for missing New Years(but didn't :( )

The next day I watched Dan and Josh in their Octo-Final,(incidently one of the Australians who I too the bus with from Antalya was also in the round, and didn't perform particularly well) and then I believe I spent the rest of the day in the sauna and pool, alternating back and forth.
I think this was the night that we went to the club where there was the gangland shooting outside(I don't remember if there actually was a shooting, but it sounds more exciting this way). I shared the back of the bus into Antalya with Will Jones.
I don't know how many of you had the pleasure of meeting or spending any time with him, but he is full of himself, and in general is an elitist jerk(I'm sure I wouldn't feel this way if I were in his inner circle). Either way he spent the majority of the trip bashing Turkey, Canada and all the terrible debaters he judged(yes Robbie, I'm sure you were one of them).
There were some cool Kenyan dancers at the club, did some cool stuff, like pyramids, upside down pyramids, and other cool gymnastic things. Other than that though, the drinks were $9 and when i have free beer at the hotel, $9 is far too much to pay, so I left with the first couple buses.

The next day I again spent most of it in the Sauna and pool(and still catching up to 13drinks/day) Spent some time making pyramids in the pool with a mixture of Canadians, Australians and Scots. After that went to the Grand Final, which admittedly was good and entertaining. The banquet was also quite good, but oddly enough, I don't seem to remember it all but I do remember sea creatures hanging from the roof and I remember lots of drinks, and some dancing, but thats about it, also getting to bed around 4am.

So in review of worlds, it was awesome, the weather was great, the Mediterranean was swimmable in December, the Free Beer was good, the people were excellent. I didn't quite make it to 13 drinks/day, but at some point during the debate days I decided I was fine paying 1/4 of my reg towards food and accomodations, which meant that instead of 13/day I only needed to drink 8/day, which I am proud to announce I did achieve, as a matter of fact my rough calculations(found in my journal in the worst scrawl I seem to have ever written in) turned out to be 9.5 drinks/day over 9 days.

Despite performing poorly in the debate portion, I chalk worlds up as a success.

Tomorrow expect a post from Istanbul, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, and trying to get a Syrian Visa.

Worlds part 1

Some of you may find this part interesting, some of you may not, but it happened so it gets to play a part in my blog.


The next day I met 2 Australians and a guy from Western Ontario(Lenny) who had also been at my hotel. We went to find the bus that would take us to Belek(town nearest the resort we were staying at). Along the way to the bus I discovered some excellent oranges that had fallen from a tree, made even better because they were free.
Eventually got to the resort and checked in.
For those of you who don't know the process at worlds the first few days are briefing and prep stuff followed by prelim debates and then break rounds after New Years.
So the first days weren't all that eventful, except of course the free Beer. Yes thats right, part of the deal with the resort was for the entire tournament to get free local alcohol. When I discovered this I made it my goal to drink my tournament registration in Beer. Over 9 days of tournament assuming ~$5 a drink(cost back home) that brings us to about 120 beers over 9 days, so 13 beers a day, I had my work cut out for me for now suffice it to say the first few days I was well ahead.

As more and more people showed up the fun times got better and better, only thing that makes a debate tournament better is friends to share it with.

First 2 days of rounds went decently, the first day we had one wonky decision one close round and one where we clearly were the best, so it was an ok day, ended on 5 points.
Day two of debate rounds started off better, taking a close 2nd then a clear first, we ended up in a room with Alaska A a Yale team and some other American team(decent, but not great). We were first prop, suffice it to say that we made a mistake, setting the punishment for not stopping an Honour killing as the same as carrying it out, set in Pakistan. We did not know at the time that the penalty in Pakistan for Honour Killings is Death. In effect we were comitting genocide to prevent honour killings. We took a hard 4th

I think that night was the night we played poker, I don't remember, but it seems to fit here, a bunch of us from CUSID West played poker, it was good times, I lost, so not that good.

Day three started out terribly for me, woke up around 5am with the worst stomach ache ever(got pretty close to the pain from appendicitis), by the time I got up around 8am I had a fever, knowing that I had to debate, I took some Immodium. powered through and debated. In between rounds I went to lie down wherever I could, all in all this day sucked. Felt shitty, debated shitty.
That night was also New Years eve, which I spent in bed alone with my fever, however sometime soon after midnight a rather drunk Robbie appeared at my door, and gave me the 2nd piece of good news I had gotten all day(1st was surviving), he was rather excited that 4 Canadians including me had broken to Public Speech Finals.

The first half of Worlds was fun, it was my first time debating so it was different, far more stressful, but something I'm glad I did. I debated the poorest I had all semester but had a good time doing it.
Next post, Worlds after debate(no responsibilities=more fun)

Getting There

So I left home on Dec 24th to be in Montreal for Christmas, it was fun, spending Christmas in Montreal with my mothers side of the family always is, Christmas Mass at Notre Dame, staying up until 4am opening gifts, it's all quite exciting.
But alas I was only in Montreal for 36 hours because on Christmas Day I departed for Turkey.
Now when I originally booked my flight I was in Economy, a few days before my trip I received an email telling my my flight had changed, looking throughout the email I could not find any change to the times, flight numbers, except that I finally noticed that underneath it said Business.
Now I don't know how many of you have flown business class, but I assure you that if you ever get given the opportunity take it, Business class is head and shoulders above the squished compartment given to the chattle at the back of the plane. I could stretch my legs and not touch the seat in front of me, amazing food(actually good rather than just airplane food), real cutlery. I never want to fly economy ever again(if only my wallet agreed with me)

So I flew from Montreal to Zurich, where I went through the same security 3 times, long story short I didn't want to put up a stink about my full waterbottle, they had guns and looked very serious.
I eventually found the Swiss Airlines lounge where there was free food, beer, newspapers internet comfortable chairs, all in all a good place to spend my 2 hours at the airport, also an excellent view.
While taxi-ing to the runway looking out the window I noticed a traffic controller dancing, no idea what to, but I found it amusing enough to put into my journal, he did a bunch of different moves, only recognizable one was the moonwalk, it was impressive.
Flight from Zürich to Istanbul was uneventful, however in Istanbul Airport I discovered that my bags didn't have to clear customs with me, this was news to me and only discovered it after nearly an hour and a half wandering around trying to find someone who could help me(I had made the brilliant decision to put my turkish phrase book in my checked luggage).
Eventually I figured out that my bag didn't need to clear customs(which was strange considering the scrutiny it got later on), exiting the international gate area made me feel like the Pope, or maybe a rockstar. There were thousands of people pushed up against crowd control fences waiting for someone(based on the number of arab looking clothes, I guess they were waiting for people on the flight from Dubai), either way it was pretty cool.

Istanbul to Antalya was uneventful, and I ended up in my hotel around 7pm, at which point I heard some eerie music coming from somewhere(I believe "Con Te Partirò" Brightman and the Blind guy). I soon discovered someone was belting music over the Harbour, the kind of situation that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.

All in all my journey was pretty good up to this point, lessons learned: Fly Business Class, Pack your phrase book in your carry on luggage.

Hello world of Internets,

So in case you were not aware I recently returned from a trip to the Middle East. Over the course of my travels I visited Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank. It was a trip of epic proportions which started as a trip to the Mediterranean Coast in Turkey for the World Debate Championships but turned into an adventure.
I've started this blog to be able to share the tales of adventure, intrigue, politics, border crossings, military checkpoints, epic ruins, dead guys from the bible and more with as many people I know.

Over the course of my journey I kept a journal, which will be provide the basis of this blog. I will try to blog more or less every two days, but sometimes life gets in the way, or I get lazy, who knows. Some posts will be about my daily doings and will go over a day I had, or it could be a commentary or relection on something about my journey, who knows some posts will probably be a grab bag. Those of you who know me know that this could be all over the place.

This blog is not only a place for me to put my stories, but also a place for all of you to ask me questions about things, if you want me to delve more into something please feel free to ask me to, I'd be more than happy.

So sit back relax, pull up an overly sweet black tea or beer and enjoy the tales of which I will regale you.