Street

Along Abu Nawas street, carps are clubbed to death with the back of an axe before being pegged up around a wood burning fire and served as Masgouf, a Baghdad specialty. The Palestine and Ishtar hotels formerly owned by Meridian and Sheraton flank the Firdouuz square mosque at the beginning of the affluent Karada area. As the week comes to an end, musicians congregate outside the hotels in the hope that some of the many wedding guests will spare a few dinars  for the cacophony they produce once a bride and groom emerge out of a festively decorated car. The late night sound from the traditional hollers is replaced in the early hours by the howling of packs of dogs roaming back from the city to the sandy Tigris shore.