A Bridge, an Opera House, and 2 ODs in 24 Hours...

To all of my faithful readers, I have safely made it to Sydney Australia and my first reaction is: this place is beautiful. Not only beautiful, but remarkably clean. I was chatting with a native (in a pub of course) and he indicated that it was a result of the 2000 Olympics - I say DC should win the bid for the next games!

So far I have taken it pretty easy here. The time difference from the states (DC) is 15 hours and 8 for Baghdad so I am completely jet-lagged. I am wide awake at 4 am and dead asleep at 4 pm; which in the bigger picture is no big deal. As a matter of fact it has made for some interesting adventures. As the title would indicate, I have seen the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the AMAZING Botanic Garden and 2 over doses - all in 24 hours. Ya see, I'm staying in Kings Cross which I did not know WAS the equivalent of Skid Row in LA. It is a lot different now, so they say, but still rather sketchy. The bars go here til 5 am and if you walk around long enough you can see a couple needle pushes, pills popped, and CPR. Fortunately there were no casualties, but it was a bizarre experience nonetheless.

Plenty of pictures to come...

One of the more Bizarre Moments...

Picture this: Steph and I am completely blowing off work this one afternoon last week and we decide to head to the Green Bean inside the old US Embassy Compound inside the International Zone. As a notable point for those unfamiliar with the compound the US Embassy is currently being housed in Saddam's Presidential Palace while a new one is being constructed. So we are just walking into the compound and we come across this guy with a bunch of rifles strapped over both shoulders. Being in a light-hearted mood we start joking loud enough so that he can hear "hey, did you just get fired today" then I'd respond (as him), "leave me alone, I'm in a hurry to get to the clock tower" - well, we thought it was funny. But appreciates the humor and stops to chat for a minute. It turns out that the guys that he is carrying are "props" owned by the US State Department and are used for training and education purposes. He goes on to inform us that one of the guns he is carrying was once owned by Uday Hussein.

First reaction: How fricking cool is this. I'm holding one of Uday Hussein's guns. Just the historical aspect alone is significant - let alone I'm about about to walk into his dad's house.

Second reaction: Holy crap, how many people did he murder with this thing?

Erbil, Kurdistan Region...

I'm being drug out the door so that I don't miss my PSD for R&R. Oh yeah, in case I didn't mention yet, I'm headed to Sydney Australia. I'm pretty excited and franklyI need it. Baghdad is nice right now and relatively quiet, but I need to see green grass, normal people (no M9s or M14s) and have a beer that doesn't taste like it has been on a shelf for 30 years...not that I'm complaining of course; beer is beer!

Trip to Erbil

This picture above was taken at an antique shop which sits in the Citadel. We visited this historical site during a visit to Erbil which is the capital city of the Kurdistan Region. The Citadel is this massive compound that was built in layers over archaelogical ruins of several consecutive settlements which rises out of the center of the city. Even though the Citadel lays in ruins compared to the rest of the city, it has been continuously inhabited for more than 6000 years. The goverment is working to restore or at least put it to some use, but as a rule there is always one family living inside.

For those interested in learning a little bit, do yourself a favor and google Erbil (Arbil) and the Kurdistan Region. It was during the mid-late 1980s that Saddam began an aggressive genocide campaign, called al-Anfal Campaign, on the Kurdish people. This 3 year campaign saw the elimination of 4000 villages and an estimated 170,000 deaths. As a result of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Saddam retreated but instituted very strict embargos against the north with the intent of starving the people to death. And because Kurdistan is technically part of Iraq, they were also impacted by the UN's embargo against Iraq. But, as I learned this week, these are a very strong people. Even after 3 decades of domination by Saddam, the UN and its own parliment, the region is the most progressive in all of Iraq. One can ride around freely and enjoy the shops, restaurants, and even a stroll down the street.

Oh yeah, I couldn't resist. I bought the sword.