Out on a Friday I

The saddest part of winter was that there ware no possibilities to go to a walk outside Kabul on Fridays. How you can walk if you can’t see even the signs that indicate mines. Two weeks ago there was another reason: there were demonstrations organized by mudjahedins. The so-called “white city” was declared, which means that international staff was prohibited from movement outside of their compounds. Last Friday was a beautiful clear day and we decided to spend it in a sporty way.
First we go to wander in British Cemetery. It is a nice garden on foot of Bibi Mahro hill, founded in 1839. Cemetery is hidden behind a high mud brick wall and it is well maintained by an old guard named Rahman.
It is quite interesting to read texts on tombstones. There are buried some famous explorers like Hungarian-born sir Mark Aurel Stein or dane Henning Haslund-Christensen. There are also graves of French archaeologists and of lots of children. There are tombs of Henley’s family, killed in a car accident on Salang pass in 1969. American engineer, employee of Chinese embassy, Jesuit from India.
One wall is covered with names of ISAF soldiers who have been recently killed in Afghanistan. And there is another wall with names of British military officers who fell in battles during British-Afghan wars. But the most popular place seems to be Bettina’s grave. This young lady was killed some years ago in Ghazni.