- What's up guys, Drew Binsky here.
And before I jump into my very first video from Iraq,
which I'm super excited to share with you,
I want to let you know that my summer Just Go launch
is hitting this Friday, June 25th.
We have this brand new design.
Here's the front, here is the back.
It is super awesome.
We also have passport covers, stickers,
and key chains, and more.
Hit the link in the description to be the first in line,
because we only have a limited amount of each.
And with that being said, let's hit the streets of Baghdad.
We have to be low-key about being here.
We can't let everybody know.
One person posts on Instagram that we're here,
everybody finds out, it's a problem.
Yeah, there's good guys, and bad guys.
- Exactly
- Behind me is on of the oldest buildings
here in Baghdad, look at the architecture.
(foreign language over loud speaker)
You can see how fortified some buildings are in the city.
Look at this fence.
Ringing the bell here in the Catholic quarter
of Baghdad, Iraq.
(bell tolls) In the church.
(bell tolls)
What's up everyone, Drew Binsky here
in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan,
a place I've already been four times now,
but this time I have a different trip for you.
Look who I'm with.
- Hey. Hey guys. - This is Alvaro.
He's one of the youngest people ever to visit
every single country in the world.
You might remember, last year we did a road trip
across west Africa. - Very wild trip.
- But this trip is going to top that trip because
we are heading to Iraq, Iraq.
- Yeah, it's Iraq proper, federal Iraq.
Luckily we both got our visas.
Well, I got the Iraq visa just now,
and that was the single most difficult,
slash pain-in-the-(beep) visa I've ever had to get.
Ugh, I got the (beep) Visa.
Oh my god.
So we are now going to be heading down south for 11 days.
I'm really excited, man.
- I'm super stoked.
Baghdad is a legendary city.
We're going to start there tonight.
There's not that many people that have been to
Iraq proper-- - Right.
- In the last few years,
so it's really one of a kind this trip.
- True, and I'm actually really nervous.
I know I have all this energy right now talking
to the camera, but it's gonna be pretty intense.
- Yeah, we're building excitement already.
- And we're going alone, we're going solo.
so first stop, we are heading to Baghdad tonight.
We got it, dude.
- Let's do this.
- Let's do it.
(plane engine roaring)
- Uh, excuse me.
- Yes? - Do you have bags?
- Uh, no bags to check.
(dreamy instrumental music)
- Just looking at the boarding pass that says
Erbil to Baghdad.
Doesn't that get you excited? - Yes.
(dreamy instrumental music continues)
- It's the moment of truth, bro.
- Let's go.
- Boarding the flight right now.
(dreamy instrumental music continues)
This trip is about to be absolutely insane.
(heavy breath)
(lively instrumental music)
Dude.
- Just touched down in Baghdad.
- Let's go!
Smell the air?
Let's (beep) go, baby!
(chuckles)
So we're here at the airport in Baghdad.
We made it.
We tried to go through immigration, and they stopped us,
and they took our passports, and told us to sit back down.
So we're just here waiting to see what happens.
Fun times.
Moment of truth, immigration.
You're good, they're not looking.
(speaking foreign language)
All right, going through.
Got the stamp.
(speaking foreign language)
We made it dude.
First hurdle, crossed.
Welcome to the Baghdad.
- Welcome Baghdad, My friend.
Enjoy Baghdad, okay?
- Thank you, bro.
You sure this taxis safe?
- Yeah.
- Wait, really? You're joking right?
- No, I'm not joking.
- Talk about the taxi, what's going on?
- Uh, I mean it's minutes after midnight, so,
the only option we have in a picking point
for any other kind of transportation is
outside of the airport.
So we need to go with them.
- It's a little bit sketchy.
There's like five guys taking us to the taxi.
(ominous instrumental music)
(ominous instrumental music ends)
- Just woke up here, and there's a little view
outside the window.
Wow. Look at that.
This is the Tigris river.
Learned all about that in my history class
in elementary school.
It's so cool to be here already to see the views of,
of Baghdad from up high.
And, uh, all I know is it's going to be an awesome day.
(speaking foreign language)
- I got you a scarf.
- What is it?
- This is a special, traditional Shia from Iraq.
- A head scarf.
- Why don't we want a Sunni one?
- Iraq majority is Shia,
so that's why for most of the trips--
- This is straight black, dude.
- Yeah, it's very scary, like,
we've seen many head scarfs throughout the Middle East,
but like, full black?
- In Afghanistan, we were wearing, like,
colors like yellow, and blue, whatever.
But this is like-- - This looks
I don't know, I don't wanna say it out loud.
- Yeah, something just-- - Very scary.
- Something feels a little bit more intimidating.
(percussive instrumental music)
The whole process of this trip came together
kind of last minute. - Yeah.
- We were invited by someone who gave us
a really good letter of invitation,
but he kind of screwed us because he's not been
responding to our messages, and we're like,
"hey, can you help us at the embassy?",
and he's like, "Sorry, I'm busy.
I'll get back to you later."
- Yeah.
- So he kind of left this on a whim
- And most people, when we say we have our Iraqi visa,
they're like, are you for real?
Like this is really, really hard.
- And we know the risks.
- We're very experienced,
and we don't really recommend anybody to just
go by themselves. - A hundred percent.
- A hundred percent, no.
- Don't. - A hundred percent, no.
- Don't do this at home
- Don't do this at home.
But it's going a trip for the lifetime,
and I'm pretty nervous.
- We're doing this solo. - Yeah
- So us deciding not to go with our initial fixer,
and prepare this trip by ourselves.
Um, yeah.
It feels like more of an adventure.
(dramatic instrumental music)
- [Drew] Let's back up a little bit for some more context.
At this point, I've been to 194 of the world's
197 countries.
While I'm waiting for my final three to reopen,
Jamaica, Palau, and Saudi Arabia,
I decided to go on this trip because Iraq has been so high
on my bucket list for so many years.
As many of you guys probably already know,
the Middle East is my favorite region in the world
for its hospitality, it's food and it's ancient wonders,
and it's truly a pleasure to be able to bring you guys
along for the ride.
This is my very first of 10 episodes in Iraq,
and my blood is pumping hotter than I can ever remember.
I ended up hiring a local camera guy named Haidar
last minute to join Alvaro, and myself for the adventure,
and holy hell it doesn't get any better than this.
(speaking foreign language)
- He's gonna be our driver the next 10 days.
- Awesome.
Let's go see Baghdad.
Just me and you bro.
Getting in the car, going to explore the city.
- Baghdad! - Baghdad!
What's up, man.
- How are you?
- What's your name?
- Haidar. - Haidar.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Okay, this is Alvaro.
- Hello. How are you?
- All right, so now there's three of us.
(lively instrumental music)
- I don't know, it's just very different, no?
- A little bit like Kabul, right?
- A little bit run-down, a little bit like Kabul,
a little bit.
Yeah, full of life like Cairo maybe.
- Yeah, and if you think about it on the map, right,
we're right in between Afghanistan, and Syria, and Egypt,
like all these countries are surrounding us.
So you really have those elements of those cities.
So awesome to have a gimbal walking around
the streets of Baghdad.
It's going to be awesome shooting.
First impressions.
Whenever you visit a new place, you have to visit a market.
I've said it time and time again,
and I will continue saying it time and time again.
Markets are the best places where you can see
the life of the city.
(pulsating instrumental music)
First moments here on the streets of Baghdad.
- Show the square.
- Yeah, look at this place.
So when you travel to any country, or any place like Baghdad
there's always some precautions you have to take.
- Yeah
- How do you, how are you feeling about that right now?
- I guess it depends on the destination, right?
Here, the main risk we have is kidnapping.
- And that's why we're dressed like this.
We just got straight-up dark colored sweaters, pants.
- Two Euro each.
- Yeah, just blending in with the crowd,
and just going with the flow.
(pulsating instrumental music continues)
It's a really beautiful blue domed mosque behind us.
Just incredible.
Getting the feels of the streets here,
and excited to go explore.
(prayer over loud speaker)
So you can hear their calls of prayer.
Illuminating the city.
How lively are these streets?
- Bustling, man.
It's just a normal weekday.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's insane.
- Exactly, man.
(percussive instrumental music)
This white car behind me is all the money.
Money moving through the city.
This place is so busy, people everywhere.
Selling all kinds of stuff.
My kind of place.
(soft instrumental music)
- Surprised to see so many women in the bazaar, so far.
- Yeah.
- Tea shop. - Yeah, Yeah.
- More here. - Yeah, it's good.
- Some wearing hijab, some not wearing hijab.
- It's a great thing, man. - Yeah.
- Really cool, this market.
I knew Baghdad would be filled with markets,
but I didn't realize it would be this spectacular
of shopping on the street.
Show me where we are.
Right there, center of the world.
- Barcelona! Barcelona!
(laughing)
- It's a fine line between talking the (beep)
about football, and getting someone very angry.
(chuckles)
(motorcycle engine whines)
- All the time, all the day.
- Yeah
- It's crowd
- All the time crowded? - Yes.
- It's really cool, man.
It kind of reminds me of Kabul.
It's similar, the street, but in Afghanistan
the people wear the different clothing.
Here they wear the street clothes,
like normal street clothes. - That's true.
- But the oldness, the way the buildings are made,
and the way, just kind of the layout of the land is,
and the cars, and everything are very similar to--
Speaking of cars, look at this.
(laughing)
It's so random.
Do you realize how much we stand out right now?
Look at, I got cameras in our hands,
we've got a gimbal, but--
- I think the camera guy shooting us, that's what makes it--
- But, I mean nobody has said anything so far.
- Yeah, so far it's been good.
- So far, it's been fine.
- People have actually been very, very friendly.
It's wonderful. - Yeah, yeah.
This place feels (beep) old, man.
Literally feels like it hasn't really changed
all throughout history.
It's just crazy to be here knowing the history
of what's happened here,
and through the wars and everything.
Whoa, whoa dude.
- (beep), that's uh, taking your Uber Eats.
- (chuckles) That was fun.
- Dude, I got you the perfect gift here in Baghdad.
I'm going to get you these sandals.
- They're YouTube sandals.
So, never in my life have I seen those before.
I think we should pick them up.
- Very unique, let's do it.
- Are you enjoying so far?
- Yeah, so far its great.
- Baghdad is super cool, like we're having a great time.
Onwards!
- [Drew] We ended up meeting a friend of a friend,
who was kind enough to join us
in exploring his beloved Baghdad.
If I've realized anything so far
from the few hours I've spent here,
it's that everyone I've met is extremely kind,
and hospitable.
I'm telling you guys from the bottom of my heart,
that this is the truth.
- We're currently at the cultural heart of Baghdad.
You can find all things related to books,
all things related to literature on so on.
- Is this like, a really busy marketplace?
- Well, it is super busy.
Especially on Friday, because most people come here
on holidays, on Fridays, and Saturdays.
So it might be as busy as Friday today,
but it still is a busy place to come to visit
to see the buildings, to see the artwork.
Some people to see books and literature, and so on.
- And where are we going now?
- We're going to (foreign).
Were going look at the (foreign) statue over there,
at Tigris river.
(speaking foreign language)
- Let's go.
(acoustic instrumental music)
- Walking in some secret doorways.
- Wow. - Wow, dude.
We've been to this beautiful courtyard,
which is supposed to be closed today, but we
the guys that we met, they are engineers here.
So they gave us the keys to the gate,
and it's just really quiet, very peaceful place here.
Right on the Tigris river.
It's just right outside the hustle and bustle of the market.
This carriage is for the first king of Iraq.
He went around the city in this,
it's over a hundred years old.
Starting to really feel the vibes of Baghdad.
Feel the ancient city here.
And you know, it's a place I've always wanted to go,
and the fact that I'm here, and breathing the air,
and meeting the people, it's just so cool,
and so special to be here.
Really happy right now.
- That guy was like, "Give me your Instagram.".
- You can't. - Yeah.
You have to be careful, right? - Yeah, exactly.
- Your guard goes down for a little bit,
and then they ask for your Instagram,
because you're friendly, and then they just post something
on live, and they know you're here.
It's a huge problem.
- We have to be low-key about being here.
We can't let everybody know.
One person posts on Instagram that we're here,
everybody finds out, it's a problem.
Yeah, there's good guys and bad guys.
- Exactly.
- It's really cool, this guy carved out of a tree.
Literally here's the tree, and he carved this man.
Incredible.
We are now entering a church here
in the old city of Baghdad.
Because surprisingly, there were a lot of Christians here
once upon a time.
And Jews, there's also a Jewish quarter.
Right now, we're visiting the church,
as you can see in front of me.
Wow. This is like some secret backdoor stuff.
Whoa.
(dramatic orchestral music)
A lot of trash everywhere, it's like partly destroyed.
Ringing the bell here in the Catholic quarter
of Baghdad, Iraq.
(bell tolls)
- Banging the bells!
- Your hands burning?
- I burned it.
I jumped on the wrong side. Ow!
- I'm sorry.
- I came up to the top of this church to get
the views of Baghdad.
Woo.
Always try to get above if you can.
Especially in places where you can't drone.
(soft instrumental music)
If you guys remember the bird market
that I visited in Kabul?
Here's a similar one, a bunch of birds and other animals
here being sold on the streets of Baghdad, literally.
This is weird in a good way.
I like weird things.
(soft instrumental music continues)
- [Drew] To wrap up an unforgettable day, we decided to head
to one of the most spiritual places in the country.
A place where thousands of people gather
on a nightly basis to eat, to pray, and to spend time
with their friends and loved ones.
- Bro, it's been such an unexpectedly
awesome day in Baghdad.
- Classic, perfect day.
We got bazaars, we got locals, we got sweet food.
- Heading up right now, where are we going?
Some Shia mosque?
- It's the most representative Shia mosque in the city.
- Right.
So we're really, really stoked, because this is
a majority Shia country.
- Right.
- And you don't have many of these.
- Right.
- Only two countries in the world are majority Shia,
Iran and Iraq.
- Right.
- So it's a really, really special, unique place
that we're visiting right now.
- I'm really excited, this city really is blowing my mind.
It's like, you hear so much about it
for all the wrong reasons.
And when you come here, and you see how vibrant these
streets are, and the market, it's incredible.
- You see all the history,
how hospitable all the locals are.
It's just really really interesting.
- Absolutely. So we we're heading right now
into the biggest Shia mosque here in Baghdad.
- Let's go!
- All right, what just happened?
- Oh, they just took us through the women's entry,
and I've been telling them this is just girls.
- It's all women here, we accidentally
went through the women's entry.
This place is really cool.
It reminds me of somewhere I've been in Iran.
Um, I don't know, the feeling of the streets
is very, very similar.
It's interesting everybody's wearing black,
for the religion.
We're now entering (foreign),
this really special site here with the golden domes.
Yo, doesn't it look Central Asian, this architecture?
- Lot of Central Asian, very Persian.
- Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to film inside of there,
but that was such a spectacular place.
It was golden domes everywhere, really spiritual.
When we went inside the actual room,
there were people weeping and crying on the floor,
and praying everywhere.
And it was just a really, really cool place to see,
and I'm so happy that I went in there.
Once again, I wish I could show you guys,
but it's all right.
Some things you just have to see with your own eyes,
and then move on.
To cap off a great day, we're going to get some sweets,
some Iraqi sweets.
What kind of should we get?
(speaking foreign language)
No idea what this is, it looks like a miniature hot dog
with, dipped in pistachios.
Oh man.
It's like a cream inside, flaky on the outside.
Kind of like a baklava, but it's own,
it's own variation.
Really, really good.
I love the sweets all over the middle east.
One of the best parts about traveling here,
is the delicious sweets.
I'm trying to pay him.
It would only be less than a dollar
but he gave it for free.
(speaking foreign language)
That was an unbelievable first day in Baghdad.
We had a lot of nerves coming in here, it was a bit scary,
but it turned out to be a wonderful place so far.
I'm so excited to explore more of Baghdad,
and all over Iraq over the next 11 days.
It's going to be a really, really special trip,
and there's a lot more coming your way soon.
So if you guys want to follow my trip live,
hit me up on Instagram at Drew Binsky.
I'll be posting live updates from there,
and stay tuned.
Are you ready to see more of Iraq dude?
- Of course, dude.
This is gonna be the best trip ever.
- This is gonna, it may the best trip ever.
- Maybe.
Stay tuned guys. - Stay tuned guys.
(chuckles) Oh! Same time.
(speaking foreign language)
You know, I've spent most of the last 6 months
traveling in Muslim majority countries,
and I've really enjoyed it.
Islam, it's a very peaceful religion actually,
despite what many of you guys may think.
It's a religion that I've come to love to be honest,
even as a Jewish person, believe it or not.
And uh, yeah.
But this place in Baghdad is just, just something else.
All right guys, this is just bonus material now,
I'm just rambling before it gets too dark.
Before I gotta turn my camera off,
and head to the hotel for the night.
Just wanted to share a couple more words from this place,
spiritual, and magical.
I'm Drew Binsky, and if you like my travel videos,
please click subscribe, and ring that little bell
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as I take you to every single country in the world.