Is This a Bad Decision? | Türkiye | [E31]

Yeah, the visa is pretty simple to get there. You apply online and it takes 50 minutes until you get it. Ready, set, go! Good morning all my beautiful people. Another day, another opportunities. Yeah, so I'm on my way to Syde. I'm just not gonna crash into that car. So I'm gonna go to Syde. So from Mamutlar to Syde, it's around an hour I think to go, so it's not that far. But there I will travel back in time. I will go to the Asian city over there. So yeah, as I said, we're gonna travel back in time. We're gonna go and watch some ruins and some pretty incredible history over there. We're gonna go to the theater, we're gonna go to the hospital, we're gonna go to different kind of ruins. I'm very curious. And the weather is pretty awesome today. Very, very nice. So it's basically a highway, highway, highway. But I have 35 minutes left until Syde. You know that I'll stay in Mamutlar in this apartment and I've been staying here for a little while. It's because I need to prepare myself for Middle East. I have to look up everything, you know, to see. So it's correct because I will go to Iraq. It's the first country in Middle East. Then we go to the Kurdistan area. Yeah, the visa is pretty simple to get there. You apply online and it takes 50 minutes until you get it. But it doesn't include the federal visa. That's the only problem because Iraq is divided in two parts. The Kurdistan Iraq and the federal Iraq. So the Kurdistan visa you get, it's not valid for the federal. So that's the issue. So when I go to the Kurdistan Iraq, I will cross the border to the federal. I have an issue because I can't take the visa on arrival on the border by land. So what people do overlanders is they take a flight from Erbil to Baghdad and they get the visa on arrival with a flight. But yeah, it's like a 50-50 chance that you get it. Some have no success and they get denied the visa and it's just a hassle, you know. So that's what I'm a little bit nervous about. I'm trying to figure out if there are other ways to get into federal Iraq. So one option is to go to a consulate in Ankara and get it there. So if you get the visa, you get it for both Kurdistan and for federal. So you have no issue. And yes, it is a risk I'm taking to go to Iraq because things are happening there. It is. Don't let the fear get away of your dreams. There was ruins starts a little bit, you see over there. Oh, must have been a bridge or something. This is so beautiful. Oh, that's the theater, I guess. Have a look at this. The ancient city. So they were the Greeks who came here and started all this. I mean the buildings, look at them. How old are these things? The Cedar sign. Right here we have the Apollo temple. Pretty amazing. How cool isn't this? Imagine people have been walking here, they have lived here. It's insane. A long time ago, I didn't know Cedar. Right now it's a really like a tourist spot. So they have resorts everywhere. And then you go back in time, it looked like this. So this city dates back in the 8th century BC. That's way, way, way back in time. And I read that the city was named before Cedar, it was named the Prongrenate. They're having a photo session over there. I don't want to go and disturb them. They have this really nice dress and costume on. I had to get rid of my favorite sweater. It was all worn with that fleece. Oh, has some shade here. Great. I need something to drink, so let's go and find that. I found a restaurant, fish restaurant, I want to visit. So I'm planning to go there. And see what they have on the menu, eat a little bit, and then we go to the beach. Oh, that Urfe kebab was very good, even though I didn't get my fish. They didn't have any fish or shrimps. I wanted shrimps. Yeah, yeah, it was delicious anyway. Plan for now, beach. Beach time. Oh, I really wanted to go for a swim, but it was one of the locals stopped me and said like, hey, don't go into the sea right now, because there are some dangerous jellyfishes here. I'm not supposed to go into the water, I think. What do you think? What do you think? So the whole journey from the north of Sweden, the Arctic Circle, Uden, down to the Antalya region has been so much fun, but very intense, intense trip. I've been driving and driving and driving without too many stops. So yeah, in Turkey I took at least, yeah, it's been like three longer stops for me now. When I arrived in Istanbul, it was for a week basically. And then I went to, what's the place called? Yeah, Göreme, Cappadocia. And that place was super, super nice and a stay there for a while. And then I went down to the Antalya, Mamutlar, where I'm now. And I really needed that. I needed to stop a little bit and just reflect and get back my energy a little bit as well. And fix videos, because I'm a beginner at this. I haven't done this before. So it takes a little while for me to get into the routine and everything, but it's slowly getting better. And I know I have problems with my microphone, the audio a lot, and it's been really stressful, but it is what it is. It can only be better. It gets better. But overall, the journey has been fantastic. Now it's getting a little bit colder, so I ordered heated gloves and a heated vest. So I will have that one for probably now here in Turkey. And Iraq, it's going to be cold. And then when I come to the mountains in Pakistan and Nepal and all that, it's India, it's going to be cold. So I have that. It's great. So Iraq, Iraq is the next destination after this. And if I'm scared of going to Iraq, yeah, a little bit. I know I grew up with the pictures in my mind that Iraq is bombs, terror, war, craziness. So of course, all that is glued into my mind. But I'm so curious, because I heard a different story about Iraq as well, which is the one I want to experience. And I talked to a lot of overlanders and travelers who are there right now traveling that country. And they say it's amazing, fantastic people. And that's what I want to explore and see the culture, the food and all that. Not only the bad things, bombs and wars or whatever people say. I mean, it's a risk I take going to Iraq. I know. But I'm willing to do it. Bye bye, beautiful beach. That looks amazing when I'm sitting here. So let's go back to Mamutlar. What a lovely day I had. See, it was so nice to walk around that Asian city and just imagine yourself back in the time. And then go to the beach, hang out there, even though I couldn't swim, but it was nice to sit on the beach and relax a little bit. And a beautiful drive, of course. So a really good day. Thank you so much for joining my adventure from Sweden to Nepal. 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