2023-06-01. Erbil - Soran

Iran - Iraqi Kurdistan - Turkey - Greece - Albania

In the middle of breakfast the light goes out for a couple of minutes, I don't know why there are power cuts but when the light comes back on I don't know if it comes from the mains or is produced by the petrol generators.

Today route to the mountains.
Shortly after leaving Erbil I stop at the Khanzad (or Babanan) castle which is not of much interest and after a short while I find the first control of the fishmongers and have my first tea.

I continue the route, I put petrol and from there it's all problems.
The motorcycle seems to stop and start again, sometimes the engine stops and it is difficult to start again.
At a checkpoint they tell me that it's because the "normal" petrol is very bad and to take it out and put in "super" and they give me drums to remove it with a tube, then I hitchhike to the nearest petrol station with an empty can and I take the good one, it seems to be better but it fails again from time to time and I stop at a gas station to fill the tank with "super" but it doesn't improve.

It's very hot and at another fishing checkpoint I sit with them and they give me fresh water and hot tea while we talk with Google Translate and one of the soldiers calls his friend who knows a lot about mechanics and speaks English, Zana, who after a while he comes to where i am and says the spark plugs will be dirty due to bad combustion and takes me to a mechanic shop to remove them and clean them.
He explains to me that there are 3 types of petrol, the "normal", the average or "muhassan" and the good or "super" and that they differ in price: roughly 750, 1,000 and 1,250 dinars.
But according to Zana, each petrol station (there are many different brands) has different qualities and that you can tell that the ones with the best petrol are the ones with the most cars.

To get to the spark plugs, you need to disassemble the plastic and remove the tank, by the way we empty it completely. With the mechanic (Arsalan) we have a good time there (preventing the apprentice from disassembling more parts of the account), right in front there is a "good" petrol station and the guy goes to get 5 litres. We put in the petrol, I start it and drive a couple of kms to go to the gas station and back and by the way I try to see if the bike is doing better, at the moment the engine is fine but maybe it's cold and it's already dark, we'll have to see tomorrow how will it go
The mechanic says he doesn't want to charge anything but I insist and he tells me 25,000 dinars including the 5 liters of petrol.

In the shop next door there is Sahand who speaks English, I ask him if he knows of any nearby hotels with a good price, he calls a big hotel, they have room and it costs 35,000 (€20), I tell him ok but he He thinks again and tells me that he has a house and that he is inviting me, perfect!

We arrive at the house, no one lives there but it is very well, he lives with his parents and a brother in the house next door.
I settle in, take a shower and he comes back saying that his parents insist that he go to dinner with them, then we go out on the terrace to make tea and chat, we have a very nice evening.