A Piece of Rural Iraq

When I was heading over here a lot of people kept telling me they thought I was crazy. While most of those people were talking about the cultural differences I would experience, a few thought I was nutters because they assumed I was moving to the middle of the desert and would probably mark my address in relation to which sand dunes I was stuck between.

Fact: Not all of Iraq is a desert. In fact, there are mountainous highlands, valleys, marshes, and grasslands in addition to the desert which lies in the southwest part of the country.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a friend's family home in a small village in the mountains near the Turkish border. We all know how much I love villages.



The area along the Turkish-Iraqi border is mountainous. Like really mountainous. There are twisty, turny roads and soon enough I expect it will be covered in lots and lots of snow.

I'll let a few of the pictures from my trip speak for themselves.

See. Mountains. The Turkish border is somewhere in that vicinity.
See the snow caps back there?

There were so many pretty mountains and valleys.

There was barbecuing.

There was hiking.

Cliff climbing.

There was barbecuing. There was picnicking. There was hiking. There were plenty of games of dominoes. There were many movies watched. There was a ton of food eaten. Most of the food was from my friend's parents' personal gardens and orchards.

How awesome is that?

Oh, did I mention there were sheep in the road?

So, there's a little taste of rural Iraq for you. Not what you were expecting, eh?