Erbil-The Last Day in Kurdistan Iraq: November 13, 2025

Today is our last chance to see Erbil. We walked the five blocks or so to Old Erbil hoping to tour the 6,000 year old Citadel, but the Citadel is being renovated so the only thing open to us was the view. Today was another post-election holiday, and the Citadel viewpoint was full of other people enjoying the view and taking their own photos.

One of the carpet shops below the Citadel

The Qaysari Bazaar (visible in the above right photo/right side of photo) is Erbil's oldest local market. It was built in the late 12th century to benefit those who lived within the Citadel. We spent several hours exploring the narrow paths.

We had lunch at a very busy spot next to the Qaysari Bazaar. There was a crowd of people waiting to order. We got into line said "2 lamb", paid, were given two colored tokens that we placed on the counter in front of the shawarma guy. When our tokens were up, we were passed our lamb shawarma sandwiches. A family made room for us to sit, and we had lunch. It was great.

The square had lots of kids feeding pigeons. A balloon popped and the pigeons flew.

After watching kids and pigeons, we explored the other side of the square and found lots of older men selling prayer beads who were willing to pose for my photos.

Before leaving Old Erbil to walk back to the hotel, a man asked to take our photos. We agreed and we then we took a photo of him and his family. They were from Baghdad and were enjoying the holidays. And then, I saw a woman on a motorcycle--that was a first for me to see in Iraq.

When we walked to Old Erbil, we passed a Gelato place and planned to sit and enjoy a gelato on our way back to the hotel. Unfortunately, the shopping center where the Gelato was located was without power when we stopped. The cafe had put all the gelato back in the freezer to keep it from melting. Instead we got a couple bottles of water and sat outside the cafe. The waiter came out again and gave us some of our money back. He said he'd made a mistake on the amount and was refunding the difference.

Instead, we sat and enjoyed the cool water while catching up on our New York Times games. We kept hoping the power outage would be fixed. It was not. Before leaving, two young men came over and showed us photos they had taken of us sitting there. They sent them to me via Instagram.

Photographer credit: (l-r) Ali Al-Jubouri and Eng. Mohamed Almser

Back at the hotel, we had a few more hours until our 7:00 pm pick up by the Airport Taxi service. The taxi took us to the Erbil International Airport. Before arrival at the terminals, the taxi stopped at an airport security checkpoint (Derek prepared us for this ahead of time) where a sniffer dog checked out the car, Dan was patted down, I was directed to a room where I found a female security person. She asked where I was from, patted me down, told me she liked my hair, and wished me safe travels. Then the taxi took us to the terminals where we were deposited. Flights were on time and we arrived home the next day.

I enjoyed every part of our travel in Iraq. It was beyond my expectations.

The amazing tour company: WanderingEarlTours