FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF IRAQ!! (Erbil, Kurdistan Region)

[Music] people are being friendly we're dressed openly jewish all we're getting is people who want to take selfies with us and we have to try to find the right time and not get killed would you believe this is iraq doesn't even make sense good evening it is saturday night mata shabbas i'm at jfk airport terminal 8. we're about to fly off on qatar airways to a very special destination somewhere we wanted to go for a long time but it wasn't my plans to go until yesterday a couple hours before shabbat before shabbas i got a call from a friend i said i want to go to iraq are you in and i said yes so now a little bit more than 24 hours later i'm at the airport we have all this luggage check it out so there's three of us the other two people are probably not going to be in the video at any point because they don't like publicity they just want to be private but we're going to be going to iraq god willing and most of this loggers that you see here most of it is kosher food because we're not sure what kind of kosher food is available there probably not much so we are planning ahead and uh we're ready for any situation god willing see you soon what a day i'm currently in an airplane bathroom on a flight headed to iraq and oh my god i was not used to this basically got on the plane and well we're about to get on the plane and as we're on the ramp on the way into the plane they hand us these face shields which we were told that we need to wear in addition to the masks we were already wearing and i put on this face shield all of a sudden started fogging up there was sweat dripping down the shield and i couldn't see a thing it was boiling hot i felt like i was gonna faint when i got on the plane i readjusted it i moved it up a little bit it got a little bit better but oh boy i probably would not have gotten on this flight of head knowing that the airline would insist that i wear a face shield in addition to a mask i'm trying to be very careful with kobe restrictions and everything but i feel like the face mask and the face shield is just too much okay so i'm in the lounge here in doha qatar on the way uh we had a little stopover next flight is to air bill iraq and we'll see what it's like i don't know what to expect we'll find out so we are about to land in their bill i really don't know what to expect but i'm told it's a wonderful city with a lot of great people at the same time it is iraq and that is a bit worrying to me but hopefully with god's help and the right messengers everything will be wonderful and i cannot wait to take you guys with me on this journey and i know it's going to be great okay so we are here in iraq they allowed us in thank god it was easy and simple and now we're getting our luggage so we are here near bill international airport so exciting to be here the weather is beautiful it's crisp it's cool feels nice it's much warmer than new york but still uh not as hot as the rest of the arab world excited to be here people seem to be very nice they allowed us in very easily and quickly we had to have our cove tests examined they stamped us in they looked at our passports we're us citizens everything's fine and now our bags are being loaded into the van not into the van into the jeep check it out a lot of a lot of stuff and we are off to the hotel in a few minutes so we've just arrived to our hotel look at this it is beautiful would you imagine a hotel in iraq looking like this about to walk into the hotel let's check it out wow very nice would you believe this is iraq doesn't even make sense since i'm a child i've heard so many things about iraq but i didn't think it would look like this okay so now it's time for a room tour i'll show you guys around it's actually very nice i was surprised check it out so it's a little bit it's a little bit of a mess because we already unpacked but the room beds are small but i found the room to be very pretty check out how much food there is here oh my goodness look at this we are three people we have six suitcases of food i don't travel like this i travel very light usually one suitcase in a backpack with everything i need um look more food but the people i'm traveling with they like to travel in style so they went all out and there's we just went up to a restaurant we're gonna be eating dinner there so they brought all these frozen meals you know they brought this frozen food from america and they're gonna have it warmed up over there it's five o'clock in the morning so let's eat dinner and get to bed this was our dinner all kosher and check out this buffet breakfast it's almost uh it's past six o'clock in the morning so we're going to bed now but the breakfast has already been set up obviously not kosher except for the fruits and vegetables but very luxurious and once again quite unexpected for iraq oh there's another side let's see again it totally blows my mind like it's hard to imagine we're in iraqis i know i keep saying this but it's just the world is so so full of unexpected surprises and it's the world is a lot better than we think it is it's important to internalize that okay so we it's almost 6 30 a.m just got back to the room and we had a blackout as soon as we came in it lasted about 30 seconds the light went back on for one second now there's another black hat oh now it's on again this was the third one for the night and we only got here at past four o'clock in the morning so three blackouts in two and a half hours not too bad [Music] we are here in irbil in the bazaar near the citadel and uh we're shopping right now the call to prayer is going out it's time for the afternoon prayers we're going to take you along inside so this is the local garb on little child mannequins i think it's very cute so far we're loving iraq hello people are just walking around enjoying the nice afternoon people are selling balloons they're selling tea all sorts of toys it's a nice situation here once again totally unexpected for iraq but loving it so far [Music] no no i think yes so we're here in the in the bazaar in in irbil and people just want to take pictures with us take a look all right go ahead thanks i'll take a picture okay [Applause] [Music] huh such a beautiful day here of the fact that everybody is just outside relaxing spending time with the friends of families everything is calm feels very safe people are being friendly we're dressed openly jewish all we're getting is people who want to take selfies with us wonderful [Music] so we're here at the citadel which rises at the top of the city supposedly this is a few thousand years old and we're gonna go inside and see uh what they have inside [Music] hello seems to be a little amphitheater which is cute okay so it's about 9 30 at night here in erbil and basically at about 4 30 we were out in the bazaar at the citadel and we all got tired so we came back here to the hotel we took some naps and now hopefully we're gonna go outside and uh see a little more of the city maybe we'll get some of the night vibe okay so we are out here in the streets of our bill we came to go to a pharmacy one of my friends needs a lens solution and this is basically like a highway and there's no way to get across legally there are no traffic lights there are no crosswalks there actually is a traffic light but it's off so people are just flying across and we have to try to find the right time and not get killed we could not find the pharmacy as you can see the cars are flying across here and of course the traffic light doesn't work we're gonna make a run for it and hope that we can uh still be alive on the other side of the street one two three go okay made it thank god okay so i'm here with my new friend firiad and he is a traffic police officer and you make sure there's no accidents amazing amazing very good nice to meet you so i don't know if you can see me we just got back to the hotel we're in the lobby right now oh let me stand next to this tree maybe we'll have some light and we got a blackout um i'm not sure if the elevators are working up there we go back in business okay so we're here at the uh bazaar again to see some of the nightlife and so far we have all sorts of street food and some music there are hookah and our gila bars [Music] just walked into this kind of tea house hookah bar