Journey to Iraqi Kurdistan : August 2013

The 15 hour 35 minute flight from SFO to Dubai over the north pole was very, very long. Emirates was fantastic and the descent into Dubai was beautiful. The setting sun and lights illuminated the sand colored buildings. The city appeared neat and tidy. I did not see any modern architecture until arriving at the airport, but that could have been because of my view from the plane. Everyone is friendly, the women are beautiful, and there were few people at the airport, which was clean, modern, oozed new money and had very cool architecture.…and then there was terminal 2. After a 20 minute tram ride , I arrived at terminal 2 where I knew I was a foreigner from the moment I stepped through the doors. Men were dressed in white and most wore some type of head covering. The women of all sizes and shapes were dressed in clothing to cover themselves and most wore scarves or had their hair pulled back. …. so I quickly went to the restroom and pulled my hair back. The bathrooms….oh my. Thinking I should have gone to the restrooms in terminal 1. The duty free shop was fun to browse. Arrived in northern Iraq after a couple more hours... I’m not in Carmel any more…that’s for sure.