#AzadiBus #CrossBorderBus stop #5 : the 🇹🇷 #Habur / 🇮🇶 #IbrahimKhalil corder crossing. #AzadiRail

After 7 travel days, finally crossing the border to 🇮🇶 Iraq 🚍 !

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#AzadiRail day 7 was : 🇹🇷 #Diyarbakır -  #Hewlêr / #Erbil - 12h45 by bus.

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#AzadiRail day 8 was : enjoying the flaire of  #Hewlêr / #Erbil and recovering from an exhausting travel day - served with vegan food in the bazar and a cursed #GadgetBahn .

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After 3 hours, I arrived in #Zaxo / #Zakho, right at the border to 🇹🇷 Habur and 20 km from the border of 🇸🇾 Feyesh Khabur.

Zaxo is a fascinating city : it had around 30.000 inhabitants 50 years ago. With the de-facto autonomy of  #Kurdistan in the Seventies, it suddenly attracted Kurds from all over the region and grew to the 200.000 inhabitants. Nowadays it's an economically important hub for trade between  Kurdistan, 🇮🇶 Iraq, the 🇸🇾 Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria /  #Rojava and 🇹🇷 Turkey.

I was highly surprised, I expected an ugly, transportation and cargo industry hub but what I got was a beautiful, clean, green and prosperous city which rather looks like in wealthy parts of Spain or Italy.

Despite its economic importance, from an international tourism perspective, Zaxo is pretty irrelevant. From a local tourism perspective, Zaxo in opposite is a major cultural attraction for Kurds from the region. Right now, Zaxo prepares for the Seluserik Festival next week. The only internationally known tourist attraction seems to be the #DelalBridge - now with a brand new, beautiful museum next to it. #AzadiRail

#AzadiRail day 9 was : #AzadiBus with flaws from  #Hewlêr / #Erbil to  #Zaxo / #Zakho, a relaxed afternoon and travel preparations for tomorrow.

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#AzadiRail day 10 : first failed attempt at the #Semalki border crossing in  #Pêşabûr / #FayshKhabur. The 🇮🇶 Iraqi  Kurdish officer at the border told me the border was closed on Saturdays, so here I am, back in  #Zaxo / #Zakho spending another day on the bazar waiting for the border to open tomorrow morning.

But so far, this is already some progress : I now know In fact I can cross the border to 🇸🇾 #Syria /  #Rojava by foot.

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After the frustrating outcome of this morning, I decided to stay in  #Zaxo / #Zakho for one more day.

I took the time to visit the citadel, an ancient fortress from Roman and Byzantine times. It was beautifully renovated in past years and a pleasure to visit. The rest of the day, I was walking around on the bazar, enjoying snacks and Çay 🥰.

So far, #AzadiRail day 10 : to the border of 🇸🇾 Syria /  #Rojava but sadly back to 🇮🇶 Iraqi  #Kurdistan from there on. Next attempt tomorrow morning.

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#AzadiRail day 11 was a boring day : I stumbled into the city of  #Dihok / #Duhok, capital of a local province. The city does not convince me at all : the much  #Zaxo / #Zakho was a positive and outstanding surprise, the sad and boring Dihok feels to me. There are no sights, no historic building, no modern city center, no parks. Not even a good bazar, nor cafés.

Anyways, this is sadly already my last night in  #Kurdistan. Tomorrow I'll start my trip back home 😥.

#AzadiRail day 11 : Sadly vacation is ending soon so slowly time to get back to France. Homebound day 1 : My #AzadiBus from  #Dihok / #Duhok sadly was canceled. After asking each and every ticket counter in the International Bus Terminal, the conclusion seemed to be : not just my bus was canceled, but pretty every bus. Seemingly in at 5 p.m. there will be the next bus bringing me to  #Êlih / 🇹🇷 Batman. That means yet another boring day doing nothing and waiting at the bus terminal since that so far is the most comfortable spot I found in this weird city.

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Anyways, now that I have internet, some pictures from the #AzadiBus trip :

The International Terminal of  #Dihok / #Duhok is a bit of a joke : there's a giant terminal with gates to the bus platforms but since going there would mean a détour, the busses in fact stop on the sideway of the highway close by.

Some minutes prior to departure, a taxi drives over and picks up all passengers (at the end we were 3) and drives them for the 2 km to the bus's actual stop.

With 3½ h delay, our bus arrived. It's a comfortable mainline bus and the landscape of mesopotamia was yet beautiful.

#AzadiRail

Almost 12 a.m. border crossed. Welcome back to Turkish Kurdistan ✊ !

#AzadiRail homeward day & night #1 :

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After one more hours, I was now taken to *another* #AzadiBus. They say my bus won't stop in  #Êlih / 🇹🇷 Batman today so I should take that other one. It's not getting better, is it ?

Anyways, I'm now sitting in a bus and we're about to depart. ETA : 4 a.m. - heck, I'm tired. #AzadiRail

Finally back on track ! After a week of bus travels, my first #AzadiRail train back home : I'm in  #Êlih / 🇹🇷 Batman waiting for the famous  #GüneyEkspresi / Southern Express #SleeperAndEater bringing my to 🇹🇷 #Ankara for the next 25 hours.

Êlih is a cute station, a couple of cargo carriages in the cargo terminal, a cute maintenance vehicle for display, three tracks but sadly no catenary.

The station has three train pairs per day : twice the regional link to the Kurdish capital  #Amed / 🇹🇷 #Diyarbakır and six days per week a pair of my Güney Ekspresi linking  #Misircê / 🇹🇷 #Kurtalan, Êlih, Amed and 🇹🇷 #Malatya with #Ankara over night.

Shortly after the arrival of the local train from  #Amed / 🇹🇷 #Diyarbakır, my  #SleeperAndEater #GüneyEkspresi arrived. It features most comfortable and spacious wagon-lits compartments with a desk, two proper beds, a sink and even a mini-bar - a comfortable hotel room for the next 25 hours.

The steward was already waiting for me and didn't even wanna see my ticket since I was the only passenger boarding the wagon-lits carriage.

#AzadiRail #TeamNightTrain