Erbil’s Citadel area

Mosul to Erbil

My flight situation to get from Erbil to Delhi was still top-of-mind for me as I woke up this morning in Mosul, even before having breakfast.  For now, I had planned on using standby and loads are highly changeable.

We left around 0900 by taxi for garage and hopped into an intercity bound for Erbil near the new mosque of Prophet Jonah (also in the Bible).  He’s the one that was swallowed by the big whale or big fish.  Some believe that the creature is buried under the hill. Others believe it is the prophet himself.

Leaving Erbil, we saw glimpses of the best reconstruction of Nineveh, which really doesn’t amount to much.

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We managed to get going pretty quickly at 0925 and crossed the “border” into semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan around 1005.

There were a couple of checkpoints that were a bit more thorough than most of the others we’ve had (except around Samarra where they were strict).

Once we were in the urban area of Erbil, it was so modern compared to the rest of Iraq.  Even though I had been here five years ago, the tall gleaming high-rises seemed a different world from where we had been over the last ten or so days.

As we got closer to the centre, buildings were less modern but didn’t have the wrack and ruin in the rest of the country.  We were dropped off at the MyHotel around 1120, much earlier than we had anticipated.

We had a suite room with a sitting area, to finish off our trip in style.

Exploring Erbil

After a rest, we headed out about 1300 towards Erbil’s old centre.  We were waylaid when E saw a nice suit in a shop that looked good on him, that would also fit his nephew with whom he was staying with, in Abu Dhabi.

With that purchase in hand, we found our way to the base of the Citadel, the bazaars and the Shar Park.  Unfortunately access to the Citadel was prohibited this time but when I could enter on a previous visit, there wasn’t so much that of interest, in good repair or open.

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Including the suit and other shopping, a good wander with stops, a kebab lunch, we were out for about 4h and returned to the hotel around 1700.

Throwing money at my problem to solve it

My means of getting from Erbil to Delhi once again became a problem.  The standby flights on Turkish Airlines which I had been counting on suddenly filled up.

Having worked out all the options weeks before and reviewed the prices a couple of days ago, I knew the solution I had to take.  It would be Air Arabia from Erbil to Sharjah with an overnight connection to Delhi, staying with E in Sharjah on his own layover.

It would be expensive but the other options would be super-risky (with costs involve when they go wrong) or highly-inconvenient.  In situations like this, I try not to think of the high price but focus on the price difference with the next option and what that difference buys me (eg. convenience, time, risk etc).

One thing I had learned about Air Arabia on these routes is that their fares are not highly variable and do not go crazy in the last few days.  The prices had been about the same since I looked many weeks ago.

Once I had this itinerary booked, my mind suddenly became clear and there was a huge sense of relief.

We wandered out for dinner afterwards, in search of some Indian food.  The Konkani place we had saw on Google Maps didn’t exist so we tried looking for a Nepali place which was also non-existent.  We eventually settled on a simple falafel sandwich after 2100.