On an autumn day in 2017, I found myself in the lobby of a hotel in Sulaymaniyah. A city in the east of Iraq. The owner handed me a gun, which at first I didn’t believe was real. Turned out it was. Let me tell you the story of how I ended up here, and why, despite being handed a gun, I felt extremely welcome and at ease during my stay in Iraq.

First, we have to back up a few weeks. In the weeks prior I had between traveling in Iran. This was my first time traveling in the Middle East. I think everyone who grew up in the 90s, like myself, can relate that we have seen very few images of the Middle East in a positive light. The mere sight of an old mosque with a call to prayer in the background would give many of them a sense of impending doom.  Being naturally skeptical I decided to travel to Iran, where many of my prejudices about the region had been all but completely shattered. At some point in Iran, I met someone who had traveled to Iraq before, mainly the Kurdistan region in the north. I decided I would make the journey to Iraq.

You have to remember that for many of us in Gen Y the first time we heard of Iraq was in 2003, when the USA invaded Iraq. This was the start of the second Gulf War. For the next eight years, we saw nothing, but horrible images coming from the region. I still vividly remember images from the first days of the invasion, where Iraqi cities were bombed for days on end. Then it was quiet for a few years until ISIS entered the scene in 2014. Unfortunately, we all know how that went.

To get to Iraq I took a bus to the city of Erbil, which crossed the breathtaking Zagros mountain range. It was on this bus ride that I was first introduced to the incredible hospitality of the Iraqi people. I spoke to a lot of welcoming people and some even invited me to come over for dinner during my stay in Iraq. Truly incredible that despite many years of being invaded and abandoned by Western powers people were still so welcoming to visitors.

When I arrived in the city of Erbil in 2017 the fight against ISIS was in full force. More specifically the Battle of Mosul was raging. The city was only 75 kilometers away from Erbil, and yet, on the surface, the city felt quiet and peaceful. This shows that despite ongoing conflicts life must go on. The resilience of people living in or close to conflict zones will never cease to amaze me. The only reminder of the war was the occasional truck filled with Peshmerga fighters. Peshmerga is Kurdish for ‘Those Who Face Death’ and they are the military of the Kurdistan Region. The ins and outs of this region are really interesting, but that is a story for another time.

I met a few guys my age and they showed me around the city. The city of Erbil is quite amazing with many different parks and loads of historical places dating back thousands of years. It is often referred to as the cradle of civilization. Hanging around with these guys I couldn’t help but be amazed by the fact that we were so similar in many ways. We were all studying at university, had big plans for the future, and were trying to enjoy ourselves. This is one of the things that traveling teaches you and I believe it unites us.

The war felt very distant until one of them explained he had to flee his hometown, because of ISIS attacks. Suddenly I felt very grateful to have grown up in a peaceful country.

And now comes the part where I hold a gun in a hotel lobby! From Erbil, I traveled to Sulaymaniyah, a beautiful city in the east of Kurdistan. The owner of a hotel had invited me to stay at his hotel for free. Being a student I accepted, of course. As I waited in the lobby for a room to be made ready the owner started to boast about owning a Glock handgun. He was quite the joker, so I figured he was joking and challenged him to show it. Thinking it must be a fake – how naïve, I know – he handed it to me, and that’s how I ended up holding a Glock in a hotel lobby filled with guests.

Despite this, the hotel owner turned out to be a great guy and showed me all around the city. This included a visit to one of Saddam’s prisons, which had been turned into a museum. To this day this is the most impressive museum I have ever been to. A huge number of people had died here and had carved messages into the wall before being executed. One of them read ‘My name is Karim, I am 15 years old, the guards wrote down I am 18 years old so that I am eligible for execution’. This shook me to my core, and I noticed my Iraqi friend wiping away a tear. While I am still a staunch opponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, at least this prison is no longer operational. Just goes to show the complexity and many different views on this conflict.

As I boarded the plane to fly back home I reflected on the trip. I learned a lot about the region and made many new friends. Most importantly many of my prejudices about the region had been shattered completely. As the plane set off the plane banked right and it seemed like we spiraled up until we reached a certain altitude. At that time there were conflicts in nearly every direction, so pilots gained altitude first to avoid accidentally being hit by a missile. Yet another gentle reminder of the extreme political, historical and cultural complexity of this region.