Kurdistan... day 2

 Day 2 we headed the opposite direction, and soon after leaving Erbil we stopped for one of my favorite travel experiences, especially in the middle east: the road-side snack stop! Piles of nuts, dried fruit and sweets took center stage, while the processed crap stayed in the back (I was un-amazed at the presence of Pringles. We have decided they can be found anywhere in the world. Perhaps this is because of their cleverly designed container that protects against chip breakage. I digress....).  One unique product they had here was fruit leather: made-with-real-fruit,  sweetener-free, dried-in-the-sun fruit leather. Tart and delicious!  Sweet and sticky turkish delight, colorful piles of marshmallow sweets, wonderful nut-and-nougat concoctions.... mmmm.....

Occasional groves of golden aspens gave me that much longed-for sense of autumn, and I could almost smell the crisp scent of a Minnesota September day.....


Heading towards (but staying far away from!) the border with Iran, we entered into some stark and stunning scenery.  Rocky hills led us into a deep and shady gorge complete with waterfalls and rivers.

We stopped at the Gali Ali Beg waterfall,  which is pictured on the 5000 Dinar note, where we passed under rusty awnings while some guys played pool, clearly bored in the off-season, with no-one paying to take the inflatable rowboats close to the falls. In the spring and summer, however, this place is apparently alive with families visiting and picnicking away from the heat, renting out the gazebos that line the river.

The road along the river has been remade, widened, and repaved, but the original road along this river, the Hamilton Road, was a feat of engineering designed to connect Iraq and Iran through the mountains. We wound our way up to the town of Rawanduz and into the only resort in Kurdistan, Pank.

Pank provided one of those wonderfully and bizarrely random experiences that make one go "I can't believe I'm here"..... at a deserted Kurdistan resort on a mountainside with canyon views, Iran (a difficult country for those with a US passport) right over the mountains,  still and silent amusement park rides gleaming in the sunshine, a restaurant staff serving only us, a personal roller-coaster/alpine slide thrill in the fresh air.... .

.....and our tour guide, Balin, telling us his story. How he decided to escape his war-torn home, over mountains, through rivers and oceans, facing hunger and thirst and obstacles and border patrols, being sent back a stage time and time again in a game of "Chutes and Ladders" with way more than bragging rights at stake.

Descending, we encountered a herd of sheep and more breathtaking views. 

We stopped in the town of Shaqlawa, where we wandered through the bustling bazaar, full of residents preparing for the upcoming Eid celebrations. We also made a stop to buy some of the local wine... which was terrible. 

Locally brewed and sold in a recycled vodka bottle, we should have known.... but now we really do know. Don't buy wine from Kurdistan.