Football and Presidents

Arjen Robben's face contorted into an ugly mess before launching another tirade at the match referee.  The Netherlands forward had already missed a sitter earlier on in the game and was now looking for a penalty to redeem himself.  As a lover of all things orange, but as someone who would quite happily see the former Chelsea and Real Madrid player fail miserably, I was quite conflicted in my support.  In the end, Andreas Iniesta - a player I do like, stole the show and robbed me of my Oranje dream.

That was when the car horns starting blaring out over the previously quiet city.  Those citizens who had been supporting Spain in the absence of their home country at the World Cup filled out into the streets of Duhok and got the party started.  That was when I suddenly remembered that I had been watching the World Cup final in a cafe in Iraq.

I had been doing a lot of that in the days after crossing the border from Turkey.  Hey, I'm drinking a juice in Iraq; wow, I'm eating a kebab in Iraq; ooo, now I'm watching the sun set and I'm in Iraq!  It wasn't so much that any of these things particularly stood out more than in any other country, but it was the first time I had been in a country with a war raging.  Not that I was in any real danger of stumbling upon the conflict, but still...  I looked across at my travel companion, Carol, and saw that she too was grinning from ear to ear.

A couple of days earlier when I was still in Turkey and visiting the city of Diyarbakir, I had gone online and left a message on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree - a website for travellers to get the latest information about various places, looking for a travel partner to help cut the costs of my trip to Iraq.  Almost instantaneously I received a reply from a Taiwanese traveller saying that she was doing the same trip and would like to discuss strategies.  It also transpired that we were Couchsurfing with the same host, Hasan, and it seemed the Travel Gods approved of the union.

Our first port of call after crossing the border was the city of Duhok.  I had only originally planned to spend one day there and then move on to more interesting places, but the city turned out to be such a pleasant place with a good atmosphere, that we rejigged our plans on the spot and decided to use the city as our base and make trips out to the other places.

One day trip we made was to the sleepy village of Ameida, built up high on a plateau at the top of some mountains.  The village itself had nothing to offer the 'sightseeing' tourist other than a lazy charm and super friendly residents.  It was impossible to walk more than 5 yards without somebody stopping us and inviting us to join them for tea or some fruit.  Even without a common language, it was great to interact and exchange pleasantries.  Walking around the village, I couldn't help but notice that a lot of the houses sported various shades of purple, orange, green, blue and red.  I never did find out why, but it looked very pretty.

We hitchhiked back down from Ameida to the neighbouring town of Sulav.  While Carol and I ate a late lunch, we became aware of a large military presence.  Unsure whether something was happening or if the soldiers were just taking a break from their duties, we thought it best to do the rest of our exploration before the swarm of camouflage green got in the way.  However, that was easier said than done and as we walked up a narrow alleyway we found ourselves swept up in a crowd of people, who looked very official and important.  We found out that at the centre of the huddle was Masoud Barzani, the President of the Iraqi Kudistan region.  He was showing the new American Ambassador around and the picturesque backdrop of Ameida had been chosen.  We followed them up as part of the entourage until someone noticed us and asked us to drop back a couple of metres - though in a very nice and polite way.

Watching the photo-op and press conference didn't really appeal, though, so we decided to hitchhike back to Duhok and watch the football showpiece.  Even though it was a 'dry' experience (alcohol is sold and drunk, but not at most cafes and restaurants), the locals really got into the spirit of it all and cheered on either Spain or the Netherlands.  It wasn't to be a happy ending to a great day, but I'm sure the world will turn orange one day soon... and I was in Iraq.