{"id":615,"date":"2009-11-21T09:31:11","date_gmt":"2009-11-21T16:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615"},"modified":"2009-12-08T16:42:11","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T23:42:11","slug":"homeward-bound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615","title":{"rendered":"Homeward Bound"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"First

From Greece to Iraq-via Turkey: From West to East.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abu Dhabi, UAE-<\/strong> Well it’s that time again. The end of the road. I’ve been going non stop for almost four months. The timeline goes something like this: Depart NYC<\/strong> July 30th-Arrive Abu Dhabi<\/strong>, Six nights at my friend Arif’s in climate controlled villa, bus to Dubai<\/strong>, fly Dubai<\/strong> to Kabul<\/strong> and arrive in Afghanistan<\/strong> on the 8th of August-Depart Kabul<\/strong> on the 2nd of September to Dubai<\/strong>, take a taxi from Dubai<\/strong> to Sharjah<\/strong> (neighboring emirate), stay one night at Sharjah youth hostel, next day fly one way to Athens, Greece<\/strong>, immediately take bus to Piraeus<\/strong> port upon landing, play brickbreaker on my Blackberry on steps of massive Greek cathedral to pass the time, then try to sleep hiding on chairs on deck of coffee shop until I get woken up by ouzo-smelling cleaning crew, take 7:15am ferry to Ios<\/strong> island, 10 days of whooping it up on Ios<\/strong> and finishing up writing from Kabul, then overnight ferry trip to Turkey<\/strong> via Paros<\/strong> and Samos<\/strong> (spot group of African and other assorted migrants being dragged out of the Aegean and marched to Samos’s detention center and get asked by Greek policeman not to pay attention to them),<\/p>\n

\"Greek

Greek Island Zigzag.<\/p><\/div>\n

Arrive in Kusadasi, Turkey<\/strong> the following morning of September, 15th, two nights there, then bus to Fethiye<\/strong>, 2 nights there, bus to Antalya<\/strong>, 4 nights there, bus to Adana<\/strong>, 1 night there, overnight bus to Cizre<\/strong> near Iraq border, cross Turkey-Iraq<\/strong> border on foot\/taxi, Kurdish guy I’m ordered by Turkish soldier to get in taxi with gets in fisticuffs on zero line at border, take taxi from Zakho<\/strong> on Iraq side 3 hours to Erbil<\/strong> on September 25th, travel to Qandil<\/strong> mountains on Iraq-Iran<\/strong> border, cross back to Turkey<\/strong> on October 7th, take bus to Mardin<\/strong>, 2 nights there, take bus to Erzurum<\/strong>, 1 night there, over night bus to Turkey-Georgia<\/strong> border, arrive in Tbilisi<\/strong> following morning on October 11th, 17 days in Georgia<\/strong>, travel to Chechen border for book research, fly Tbilisi-Dubai<\/strong>, arrive Dubai <\/strong>on October 28th, one night at Dubai youth hostel, get another Afghan visa the next day, buy 3:30 am ticket to Kabul<\/strong>, arrive back in Afghanistan<\/strong> on October 30th, fly back to Dubai<\/strong> on November 9th, paid random Keralite guy at airport to drive me to Arif’s in Abu Dhabi<\/strong>, spent the last 2 weeks here doing the better part of nothing, flying to Dublin<\/strong> tomorrow, 2 nights there, then arriving back in NYC<\/strong> on November 24th. Phew! It’s been a long one.<\/p>\n

\"Second

From Iraq to Georgia- via Turkey: From South to North.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abu Dhabi, UAE- Well it’s that time again. The end of the road. I’ve been going non stop for almost four months. The timeline goes something like this: Depart NYC July 30th-Arrive Abu Dhabi, Six nights at my friend Arif’s…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,70,16,41,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-georgia","category-iraq","category-turkey","category-u-a-e"],"yoast_head":"\nHomeward Bound - The War Diaries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homeward Bound - The War Diaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Abu Dhabi, UAE- Well it’s that time again. The end of the road. I’ve been going non stop for almost four months. The timeline goes something like this: Depart NYC July 30th-Arrive Abu Dhabi, Six nights at my friend Arif’s…Read more →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The War Diaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-21T16:31:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-12-08T23:42:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"derekhenryflood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"derekhenryflood\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"derekhenryflood\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8\"},\"headline\":\"Homeward Bound\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-21T16:31:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-12-08T23:42:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615\"},\"wordCount\":461,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Afghanistan\",\"Georgia\",\"Iraq\",\"Turkey\",\"U.A.E.\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615\",\"name\":\"Homeward Bound - The War Diaries\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-21T16:31:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-12-08T23:42:11+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png\",\"width\":949,\"height\":402,\"caption\":\"First pan-Turkey route: From West to East.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Homeward Bound\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/\",\"name\":\"The War Diaries\",\"description\":\"The Work of Derek Henry Flood\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8\",\"name\":\"derekhenryflood\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd5233938d6cd11e25d3af3fd8d33ae549c53333d1f91d73a2820cb46179cf37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd5233938d6cd11e25d3af3fd8d33ae549c53333d1f91d73a2820cb46179cf37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"derekhenryflood\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Homeward Bound - The War Diaries","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Homeward Bound - The War Diaries","og_description":"Abu Dhabi, UAE- Well it’s that time again. The end of the road. I’ve been going non stop for almost four months. The timeline goes something like this: Depart NYC July 30th-Arrive Abu Dhabi, Six nights at my friend Arif’s…Read more →","og_url":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615","og_site_name":"The War Diaries","article_published_time":"2009-11-21T16:31:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2009-12-08T23:42:11+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"derekhenryflood","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"derekhenryflood","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615"},"author":{"name":"derekhenryflood","@id":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8"},"headline":"Homeward Bound","datePublished":"2009-11-21T16:31:11+00:00","dateModified":"2009-12-08T23:42:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615"},"wordCount":461,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png","articleSection":["Afghanistan","Georgia","Iraq","Turkey","U.A.E."],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615","url":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615","name":"Homeward Bound - The War Diaries","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png","datePublished":"2009-11-21T16:31:11+00:00","dateModified":"2009-12-08T23:42:11+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Picture-22.png","width":949,"height":402,"caption":"First pan-Turkey route: From West to East."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?p=615#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Homeward Bound"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/","name":"The War Diaries","description":"The Work of Derek Henry Flood","publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/df810a7fcaa4910f9fc2513a3de68ff8","name":"derekhenryflood","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd5233938d6cd11e25d3af3fd8d33ae549c53333d1f91d73a2820cb46179cf37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd5233938d6cd11e25d3af3fd8d33ae549c53333d1f91d73a2820cb46179cf37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"derekhenryflood"},"logo":{"@id":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":633,"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions\/633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the-war-diaries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}