Masuleh and the way to Qazvin, or: how I prematurely arrived in Teheran

With half a day delay I arrived in Masuleh, a small mountain village and another UNESCO world heritage site for its mud and brick houses built on the slope of the mountain in the form of terraces and with one house built on the roof of the house below. When you walk through the village, you basically most of the times walk on the roof of someone's house. The weather was however not so nice: I could hardly see the upper part of the village because of the fog and soon after my arrival, it started raining. Despite it being a weekday and despite the bad weather, hords of Iranian tourists were running around the village, many carried here in buses. But almost all of them leave in the evening, which might also be due to the fact that there are no really good guesthouses. The one I found had a room with a balcony and a nice view, but was not the nicest not the cleanest. Fortunately, I had my sleeping bag with me and so I did not really touch the bedsheets, which had been washed, but for too many times at a too low temperature so that they were still somehow "greasy" (I do not want to go into further details...;-) ). Without the masses of tourist (I know that I am one myself! but I am just on my own, so that does not count... ;-) ), the evening and the morning were therefore wonderfully quiet and the atmosphere completely different as the locals seems to be more relaxed. Apart from the beauty of the village itself, I had two more memorable experiences here: I ate fantastic pastries made in a women only bakery, which could already smell from several hundred meters away and I met Aref, a young potter from Hamadan (several hundred kilometres from Masuleh,) who had just opened a shop here to sell his family's pottery at this touristic place. It was his idea to come here as he thought he would have more freedom here where nobody knew him. He spoke extremely good English even if he had never learned it in school and never spoke to anyone. He learned it from downloaded movies, series and music. We discussed for two hours in the afternoon, sitting in his pottery shop. While he knew a lot already, he also had lots of questions. He loves music (he actually plays the electric guitar, something not really appreciated in this country) and movies. He was extremely disillusioned about his country and the lack of freedom to live the life he wants and hoped to be able to emigrate at some point. I was quite impressed about how openly and frankly he talked about everything and surprised about his complete lack of fear to get into any trouble. I was afraid that I kept him from working, but he was very cool about this and, actually, wit the Iranians' attraction to foreigners, the fact that I was sitting in his shop seemed to attract quite some customers and some also bought stuff. I returned in the evening after closure of the shop with some "Islamic beer" (as they call a malt beverage without alcohol, often with fruit flavour...) and some of the delicious pastry of the ladies and we continued our chat and listened to music from each other's phones. As most of my conversations so far have been quite superficial, I really enjoyed the quite meaningful discussion we had and Aref was really happy as well to practice his English and to get answers to some of his questions.

The next day, I returned to Rasht and from there took a bus to Qazvin, which I wanted to visit and from where I wanted to make some excursions.

On the way between Rasht and Qazvin, there was a huge hydro power plant with a quite considerable wind farm with about 30 large turbines. I read that Iran actually produces wind turbines itself. I was also surprised to see (with the issue of car labelling quite problematic in the EU, I will say no more, some of you understand what I mean, the others can ask me in private.. ;-) ) that newer cars all had stickers on the front window, indicating their fuel consumption (and consequently CO2 emissions), even using the colour and letter code we use in the EU for electrical appliances... The government also tries to encourage fuel efficiency through increased fuel prices, but this probably rather motivated by revenue raising purposes than for environmental reasons. As they have been used for decades to artificially low (as heavily subsidised) fuel prices and salaries / pensions do not increase at a similar rate, Iranians are quite concerned by these particular price increases (which come on top of an already high inflation).

As the landscape got less interesting I started to lists to music and was all in my thoughts and did not really pay attention to where we were going. About an hour and half later, I wondered why we still have not arrived at Qazvin and all of a sudden realised that the signs on the motorway did not indicate Qazvin anymore. But it could not possibly be that I had missed the stop, or?? I started to look at my map, but none of the places we passed by was indicated. But soon after, the sign indicated Teheran at a distance of 100km, which meant that we indeed had not stopped in Qazvin. I tried to figure out whether it was worth while complaining and asking to let me out of the bus, but we were in the middle of nowhere and closer to Tehran than to Qazvin. So I decided to call Luca, a friend of friends (yes, some of you guys know him... ) who currently is the Italian Ambassador in Iran and who had offered to host me in his residence, to see whether I could arrive 3 weeks earlier (!!!) at his place than foreseen (actually not only that, but also within the next 3 hours!!!) and fortunately, he was very flexible and told me not to worry. We sorted out the logistics and two hours later, there I was - slightly prematurely - in Tehran, in that amazingly beautiful Ambassador's residence (of which you will hear more in the next post...)Photos

Ardabil (to, in and from), or: the most impressive expression of Iranian hospitality

From Kaleybar, I had to make my way to Ardabil in three stages as there is no direct connection. First by bus from Kaleybar to Ahar, then from there to Meshkhinshar by collective taxi and the same from there to Ardabil. During the first stretch in the bus, I was joined by the Argentinian couple and a French couple they had met and I thought that we could organise transport together as they had the same destination, but that did not last long. As soon as we got off the bus and we had to find the stop for collective taxis, the French guy ran off in one direction, whereas the Argentinians waited as they were looking for something in their luggage. So I waited with them, but profited from the fact that a man was walking by to ask him where the "terminal" (as they call it) for the taxis was. He send me in the opposite direction of where the French guy had gone and so I tried to indicate this to my travel companions but they said I should not wait for them. Abandoned by my New Argentinian and French "friends", the nice guy who had tried to explain to me where the shared taxis to Ardabil leave from, stopped a taxi for me, but in the end saw a friend of his driving by and told him to drive me there - for free... Very nice indeed! At the terminal, they tried to sell me a trip "dar baste", meaning a private taxi, but this is of course not only much more expensive, but also much less fun as shared taxis (just like trains and buses) are great places to meet people, especially for longer distances. After negotiating a shared taxi, I had to wait until the car filled up (they only leave once there are 4 passengers). An older women was already waiting in front and very soon, a young guy arrived and were were thus missing only mine other passenger. After a few minutes, two teenage girls arrived but at first did not want to separate... So I waited about half an hour, chatted with the drivers who had the usual questions,but also very much wanted to talk politics, which everyone advises to be extremely careful about..  So I stayed with generalities and tried to avoid answering mots of the questions.. Finally, the girls could be convinced to separate and we left. The young guy sitting next to me spoke quite good English and started to become very frank and direct about what he thinks of his country and had not much hope for his own future except to try to leave the country. That is why he is studying technical engineering. He invited me to come to his house in Meskhinshar to meet his family, but I still needed to arrive in Ardabil that day and preferred to keep moving so I kindly declined the offer, which seems to be a difficult thing to do here in Iran. When arriving at the terminal, he accompanied me by taxi to the terminal for Ardabil. Here things were much smoother as I was the last one to fill the taxi: there were already three waiting: a women in her early fifties and two young women in their early twenties. With the train experience, I was quite surprised that his was not a problem, me and three Iranian women in a taxi, but taxis are not under state control in he same way than trains, it seems. According to my sense of the rules, I ought I had to sit in front, but not even... Still they took care that I was not sitting next to one of the younger women. This taxi drive, which lasted about 2 hours I think will certainly remain one of the memorable moments of my trip. Nobody in the taxi spoke English, but we somehow managed to communicate, notably with the help of a word by word translator one of he women had on her phone. But as we all know, these have their limits and so sometimes we laughed a lot because some of the translations did not seem to fit the situation...Also, until the very end of our trip, I thought the older lady was the mother and the others were her daughters and I soon got an invitation by he young women in the front to be her guest at her house, I was not sure whether it was appropriate for me to accept such an invitation and said that I will go to the hotel. Then the older lady insisted that I spend the night at her house rather than going to the hotel. As the "mother" insisted I finally accepted. The taxi driver, a man in his late fifties, was really cool about everything and joked and laughed a lot. So we really had a great time (despite the extremely basic communication via translator) and shortly before Ardabil I realised that somehow she could not be the mother of the two others as the young women in the front kept insisting that she accompanies me to my hotel and eats a Kebap with me. So some kind of competition between the two started to see whose hospitality I would accept. While the kindness of both of them was of course very impressive, the situation was still quite awkward. In the end, I preferred to stay in the hotel in order to be more independent and the younger women, her name was Nahid, accompanied me there by taxi and insisted that she would show me her city. In order to still honour the offered hospitality in some way, the other lady insisted to pay my taxi fare, which I tried to refuse - in vain. Once arrived at the hotel, when I came back to the reception after having put my luggage in my room, Nahid had disappeared. I sent an SMS but she did not reply, so I went for a walk and then for dinner. I was still hesitating about the appropriateness of being guided around by Nahid, but she then sent a message that she would wait at the hotel with her brother Saïd. While still having doubts whether I would create any hopes by accepting this offer, I accepted to meet them after dinner (which I have taken in a nice restaurant established in a restored former hammam).

I learned that Nahid studies psychology and her brother studies to become an emergency medical staff. They showed me around town, took my out for an ice cream (or rather freshly squeezed orange juice with very sugary milk ice cream in it, they drove with me to the close by Shorabil lake, which is like El Goli Park in Tabriz,  like a local amusement park. Even at around 10 pm on a weekday, there were still plenty of people around, including families with their kids. There were also young guys in the beginning of their twenties on the parking lot, playing. Loud music from the radio of their car and dancing. There might be no discos here, but the young people find their ways to have fun anyway. Like that I also learned something about heir musical tastes: Nahid likes Lady Gaga and Rihanna, while Saïd prefers Enrique Iglesias and Chris de Burgh. ;-)

The next day, they guided me around the city and visited with me the main attraction of Ardabil and the reason why I came here: the first Sufi monastery with the mausoleum of its founder Sheikh Safi al-Din (end of 13th and beginning of the 14th century). This beautiful complex with a very nice garden is also a UNESCO world heritage. Particular is the "Allah " Tower (which got its name from the repeated decorative geometrical inscription of the world Allah) and the tombs of the Sheikh as well as of his great grandson Ismail, who later became the first Shah of the Safawid dynasty.

As part of their hospitality, Nahid and Saïd insisted on paying everything: the taxis to and from the park, the ice cream, the "halva sia" - a local speciality made out of honey, wheat, spices -, the entry fee for the Sheik Saifi Mausoleum (very smartly, they negotiated a local entry fee for me,  instead of the tourist rate which is about ten times higher than the one for locals, but still..!!!).

After the visits, they invited me for lunch at their place, which was a very nice and modern apartment in the city centre. To at least partly compensate for their hospitality, I bought a big and representative box of chocolates for their mother, who was busy cooking when we arrived. She prepared "Dizi" (see post on Tabriz) and a soup, which both were delicious. The nice and large living room carpet quickly became the table. The mother is weaving carpets from home and they showed me her work and explained how to do the knots. I even pretended trying myself, but somehow could not really get to it... It takes her one month to finish a carpet. After lunch they accompanied me to the bus station - as I wanted to go to the mountain village of Masuleh that day, but since the lunch was longer, I had to put it an extra night on the way in Rasht. Their hospitality went even so far that they paid my bus ticket to Rasht!!! I need to find a nice way to thank them again and send them something once I am back in Brussels. They still keep asking me via SMS whether everything is fine. really nice!

The way to Rasht again, along the border with Azerbaijan, the road steeply descends through a beautiful scenery but again with barbed wire and border posts to Astara, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, which you can already see several kilometres ahead. But before reaching Astara, we pass a military checkpoint. Whereas many cars are stopped and searched by the heavily armed soldiers, our bus is allowed through without any further problems. Now the landscape has suddenly changed and we are in a tropical climate with rice fields under water everywhere. Having started my bus trip much later than initially thought (due to the wonderful hospitality of Nahib's family), I did not make it anymore to the mountain village of Masuleh the same day and had to stay overnight at Rasht, where the bus arrived really late, only at midnight, as the drivers made too many and too long breaks (people on the bus were complaining all the time) and because we had a problem with the tyre that needed fixing. But despite taking 8 hours instead of the planned five (plus a one hour delay from the start), he bus drive was worth while, as again, I had a great time with the people on the bus....mainly a group of 4 students. To make sure that I arrive, another passenger (thanks Seyed!!!! ;-) ) who got off the bus in Rasht was tasked with taking me by taxi to the hotel to make sure I do not get lost and - off course (why even mention it...) - insisted on paying for that taxi. In the end, that day, I did not spend any money, except for the hotel... Iranian hospitality is really just amazing!!!

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Jolfa / Aras Valley and Kaleybar (Babak Castle), or: close to the borderline

I left Tabriz after two nights in order to take the train to Jolfa, in the North, right of the border with Azerbaijan, leaving already at 7:00 am, which meant I had to leave the hotel at 6.15 (imagine!!! me!!!;-) ) I got a bit stressed as formalities at the hotel check out took longer and I feared to miss the only train per day... Once at the train station and having still 15 minutes left, there was quite some confusion how it all works. To buy the train tickets, there were two long queues for one single ticket counter: one for women and one for men, men being served with priority...Seeing the length of the queues, I had almost lost any hope to catch that train (and if that queue was at Brussels Central station, I would definitely have missed my train!!) But the lady was pretty efficient, which was perhaps also easy as almost everyone else (they all seemed to be students) wanted to get a ticket for the train to the university, which was supposed to leave shortly before mine and everyone had the exact amount ready and the tickets had been printed beforehand. However, when it was my turn, she said something to me and continued serving the students behind me in line. I started to get worried because there also seemed to be a security check before getting on the train and time was starting to get short. But a women who was also asked to wait and wanted to take the same train than myself (from what I understood as nobody spoke English..) then started complaining. She asked me to give her the money for the ticket and my passport (which they always want to see when buying a train ticket..) and then she took care of everything and we got our tickets some minus later. I arrived at the security control 5 minutes before departure and the students all tried to get through as well and were pushing from behind, but one student made signs telling me that I should just go through the next gate where there was nobody (also no officer..) and that is what I did and nobody complained ... I saw other people walking through and nobody seemed to care so i could only wonder why they had this control at all..  But never mind.. ;-) People pointed me towards was an old German train (with the symbols of the German railways still on it), but with the indication Van (meaning the Turkish city I came from two days ago... ), which was clearly not the same line than the one to Jolfa. After having asked a conductor and two other people and everyone confirming that this was the train to Jolfa, I borded. We left on time and I had just made it! Oufff! Once on the train, I was clearly exotic to the other passengers. They were all looking at me, whispering among themselves, some teenage girls were giggling.. Very soon, the man opposite asked THE question: "where do you come from?" And when I said "Almaniye", everybody seemed to be happy, was smiling and the word quickly spread to all other passengers in the same coach (which I realised because I continued to hear the word "Almaniye" or "alman, but unfortunately, I did nit understand the many other questions they asked me...until an older man put his mobile phone to my ear and I heard someone speaking English. It turned out that it was his son, who asked me all the questions the people in the train were wondering about: why I came to Iran, where I am going, for how long, about my job, etc. the son then apologised for disturbing me and wished me best of luck. I passed the phone back to the older man, he got all the information and Then, again, the word quickly spread all over the coach and soon everyone's curiosity seemed to have been satisfied. At the following stops, the train started to get fuller and the conductor made me change my seat 4 times in a row in order to redistribute people in a way that I was only sitting next to men (which put the conductor into some trouble organising this the fact that there were much more women on the train and he did not seem to be the smartest. Other passengers realised this (there were always other - more logical - ways of doing it, but well...) and they complained on my behalf (at least this is what I understood ..), but the conductor was very stubborn and did not accept any kind of putting into question of his authority and so people started to smile in the end, making signs of apologies to me.

Once in Jolfa, I had to arrange a driver/Taxi for the day as I not only wanted to visit the St Stephanos Armenian church (one of the earliest Christian churches and UNESCO world heritage) but also go to a place about 150 km further along the river Aras, where there is no public transport and it is hopeless to wait for a collective taxi to fill up. This was quite a challenge. After finding someone who would do it, I had to negotiate the price very hard as they were trying to initially charge me about triple the usual price (which I had asked about before leaving Tabriz). I finally managed and off we went.

I enjoyed the beautiful landscapes of the Aras river valley, the  biblical river of Gilon, which - it seems - was right at the border of paradise. Imagine, I ALMOST made it to paradise !!! It's certainly beautiful here, but unfortunately, paradise seems to have gone from here since a long time. This is even clearer when you see the border posts and barbed wire on both sides of the river: the river is the border between Iran and Azerbaijan, and a bit further also with Armenia. And 20 years ago (from 1989 to 1994) was one of the places of fighting in the Armenia / Azerbaijan war. I was told that between their direct borders, there are still minefields as both countries still consider themselves as enemies.

The church's position is amazing and there was nobody else around when I arrived, except two bored guys from the border police who - more out of curiosity than for real inspection purposes it seemed - wanted to see my passport. They were happy to see me here and we exchanged some very basic polite words, mentioned a few German football clubs and players and then said goodbye. After my visit, another car arrived and it was a young Argentinian couple who was also on the Trans-Asia Express. And this is really a permanent feature of this trip: I keep meeting people from the train all over the place, which is still surprising even if we of course all want to see more or less the same things, but to be at the same time at the same place all the time is still amazing...

Unfortunately, I did not really see much of the (admittedly few) places of interest in the Aras valley as the communication was very difficult and he was not very keen to honour the agreement I thought I had with him to stop in certain places on the way. When I tried to tell him to stop, mentioning the name of the place, he just said "yes, yes" and drive on. He was in a bad mood because his back was hurting and he kept pointing to his back and complaining, because the many curves on the mountain road made it hurt even more. At some point he stopped the car, was loudly complaining and trying to make me understand that he cannot drive anymore and that I should drive the car (about 80km were still left...) quite a strange thing to do for a driver. I felt pity for him and was actually quite intrigued by the idea of driving myself in Iran, but thought in the end that it was not really a good idea and refused... The driver did not hide his dissatisfaction and the mood got really bad.. He started speeding to arrive as early as possible at our destination, the city of Kaleybar, where I wanted to hike the next day up to Babak castle. And so we did at around 15.30, while I thought we would arrive only in the evening. There I was stuck in a not so nice place, in an ugly and not so clean "guesthouse" (according to the Lonely Planet the best option there...). Quite depressing as there was not even a nice place to sit down and have a tea or some snack and it was too late to start the hiking tour... But I survived ! ;-) (so far - and I write this almost 2 weeks later and after a total of already one month travelling - this was the worst moment during this trip...) the next day, The hike up to Babak castle was very steep and tiring (many many steps, which was not good at all for my knees), but really worth the effort: the mountain views were just great and I was almost alone throughout the hike... Beautiful! But for the Azari people (meaning the Azari/Turkish speaking population of the Iranian province of Azerbaijan), the castle from the 9th century is a pilgrimage place as Babak fought against the anti-Shiite rulers of the time and is - as the Lonely Planet puts it - considered as someone between Robin Hood, King Arthur and Yasser Arafat (!!! ;-) ) On top of the castle I met the Spanish couple again.. And on the way back two groups of Iranian young guys. They had warm words of welcome to their country and we had the usual small talk and then they wanted to take pictures with me (yes, I really sometimes feel like a rock star here: everyone notices you, welcomes you and often they want to take pictures and exchange email addresses or phone numbers...)

Photos

Info

Dear friends,

More posts will follow hopefully soon, but I now seem to have solved the photo problem... On all the posts, I have now at the end added a photo link .. So, pls go there again... ;-)

Now in Kashan. Everything is perfect!!!

J.

Tabriz - Welcome to Iran, or: so many friendly encounters

Tabriz - Welcome to Iran, or: so many friendly encounters

Tabriz, a 1.5 million inhabitant city in the North-West of Iran, is famous for its old and very big bazaar, the oldest parts of which are over 1000 years old (but most of it dates from the 15th century) and covers an area of 7 square km. It is built entirely in brick and has kilometres of vaulted alleys, with shops selling virtually everything (the most unusual being a shop exclusively selling sugar in all shapes and forms and the owner being busy producing small cubes from a huge block of sugar with hammer and a knife...). It also has more than 20 caravanserais (sheltering the caravans bringing all the goods to the bazaar) and more than 20 beautiful domed halls. It is pointless to try to follow a specific path as orientation is virtually impossible, so I just let myself be guided by the next interesting thing to see and there were plenty, especially the activities going on in there and the people... Unfortunately, I could not take too many pictures there as it was quite dark (the vaulted ceilings only have very few small openings which let in only little light). But I got many smiles and "welcome" from the people working there or walking through. Iranians generally seem to be very happy to see foreigners and try to do their best to help. The nicest encounters in the bazaar was an Iranian family living in the Netherlands and visiting their family, who had a spice shop in the bazaar, and two older men, Ali and Habib. While my Dutch is extremely limited, I managed to carry a decent conversation with the family, but the daughter spoke excellent English as well. Ali and Habib asked where I come from (as many people do when you walk by as a tourist and they all seem to like it when you say "from Germany"), many mentioning football and German football players (different ones depending on the generation, but it is interesting that each generation seems to have liked the German players of their time...). My name as well as the city close to which I grew up (Stuttgart) were also always known due to football references: VfB STUTTGART, JÜRGEN Klinsmann and Thomas MÜLLER...

After about 3 hours, Ali and Habib chatted me up in one of the many alleys with the typical "welcome, where do you come from?" They both spoke German (Ali quite good, actually..) The intention of the chat was to convince me to buy a carpet, but when I clearly told them that I would not buy any, they nevertheless insisted to go to drink a tea together... And so I accepted. We went to one of the many tea houses in the bazaar, situated in the basement. A pity I did not dare to ask to take a photo: it was super small, packed with older men, all smoking the water pipe (called qalyan here and banned until 2011 in public places, but due to lack of enforcement the ban was lifted again .. The power of the people of Iran...(!!!)) and drinking tea. The others just sat there, smoked and drank and barely talked to each other, while Ali and Habib did not stop asking me questions. And I was impressed how well hey were informed about what is going on in the world. They asked about my family (Ali specifically wondering why I was still not married and did not have kids at my age (!!) but it later turned out that Habib was also single (which is a much more unusual thing in Iran than in Europe..),  my job, my studies, about Germany and Belgium, about prices of various things (cars, houses, salaries), my opinions about Chancellor Merkel and President Obama, about Iran and Iranian people etc.. After about an hour, or 3 teas each and a water pipe later, I ended the conversation and invited them, which they accepted after some initial haggling and were finally very happy about.

Out of the bazaar, I went to a very nice courtyard / garden restaurant which I discovered by coincidence in a little side street and had "Dizi" or also called "abgusht", a typical Iranian dish consisting of mutton meat, potatoes, chick peas, tomatoes and spices and is eaten in a very particular way (which fortunately is explained in my lonely planet guidebook: you tear in parts the huge Iranian bread (my colleagues know it as I served it during my "see you soon drink" before leaving, you put it in so that the liquid soaks in, you eat the soaked bread and then take a spatula and mash all the other ingredients together and eat it.. It was really tasty!!

As son as I had left the restaurant, I ran into another Ali, an 18-year old high-school student, who insisted on showing me around, which I accepted after some discussions (iran does not seem to be like many other countries I have visited before, where such situations inevitably lead to paying (too much) money for (mostly poor) tour guide services...). He just wanted to practice his English (as many other young Iranians I have met during these few days here). He even tried to get me into a closed government compound where there was one interesting historic building (a museum that was closed as it was Holy Friday), as he knew one of the soldiers working there. He first convinced the guard to let us on the compound (I just had to leave my camera at the reception) and then one of the soldiers took us to the room where the other soldiers were sleeping to find Ali's friend and we did. He put on his very impressive representative uniform and showed us around. Unfortunately, he did not manage to open the interesting building for us, but still.... Ali finally insisted on inviting me for a tea and then gave me Iranian Rials so that I send him one of the new 5 Euro bills (he is a collector and the many money changers here do not have such low denominations....). He even accepted that he would only receive the bill in September when I am back to Europe, but I might perhaps find among my readers a volunteer who would like to send the bill to Ali??? (Please tell me... ;-) )

Other interesting things to report in brief:

- I took the bus on the way back, which was quite a challenge, despite Ali giving me some explanations beforehand (for example indicating where the bus leaves, explaining the Farsi / Persian numbers (here it was easy as number 101 in Farsi looks pretty much the same). He also told me about the price, which I found very impressively low (5 euro cents), especially I comparison with other prices  and whereas a taxi for the same distance costs 2 Euros). If in Brussels a taxi also 40 times the price of public transport, nobody would take it.... ;-)  another thing I had read before leaving but in the meanwhile had forgotten about was that local buses are split in two parts: in front for men and behind for women. After a while there were however too many women and they started getting into the male section, which the conductor allowed, but some older / more conservative men did not seem to be too happy about, but could not do much about...  ;-) it seems to be rather unusual for foreigners to ride a bus here and very quickly the whole bus knew that I was from Germany and many started "talking" to me, mentioning all the German football clubs and cities they know...

- much to my surprise and deep shock, Hitler is not only very often mentioned in the conversation when you say you are from Germany, but often positively or at least with some fascination!! As one actually very nice and friendly shopkeeper in Ardabil told me (who was so happy to have a Foreign customer buying something in his shop that he offered me some saffron as a gift! - antönet example of wonderful Iranian hospitality to which I will come back in a later post...), it it is because all the other bigger nations (including the Brits and the Russians) just came to Iran to plunder, but Hitler did not and met them with respect. It might perhaps also be because of the fact that Persians are part of the Aryan race and because of the relations between Iran and Israel (even if most of the normal Iranian people do not seem to consider Israelis as enemies...).

- in Tabriz, El Goli park a bit outside town is a place to relax and have fun. Not only on Fridays, when everyone is off, but also on normal weekdays, people come here in crowds, not least to visit the local amusement park, with everything a "fair" has to offer in Europe... This did not at all correspond to the image of the strict and "no fun" society most people in Europe (including myself until that experience) have about Iran and many young people were sitting there and playing music with heir guitars and singing songs and families were enjoying heir picknicks, playing volleyball etc... Just as in any park anywhere in Europe...

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Trans-Asia Express to Iran, or: the party train

On Wednesday 30th April, 17.33, I boarded the Trans-Asia "Express" (which departs from Ankara and goes all the way to Teheran) in Kayseri, in which I would spend 2 nights and one entire day, in total more than 36 hours, before getting off in Tabriz in Northern Iran.

Susanne waved me good bye as soon as the train slowly started to move and here the REAL adventure starts. I am now on my own!! My ticket says coach no. 2, seat / bed no. 28. When entering the coach, I hear some fellow Germans talking... But the vast majority are Iranians, often entire families, with a huge amount of luggage. Once in my compartment, I meet Helen from New Zealand.. She just woke up as she had to recover from her ride on the night bus from Istanbul to Ankara. Therefore she was not very talkative at first, but that did not last long. She told me that we are three in a four bed compartment, the other one being a French-speaking Swiss guy from Lausanne. We thought we were lucky to be only three as we altogether have quite a lot of luggage, but then Amir, an Iranian guy from Isphahan (who has an import-export business for Turkish and Iranian pottery) enters and asked whether the last seat was taken and brought in another big suitcase...When Yann, the Swiss, came in from the restaurant coach, it took a while to sort things out so that we could travel with the best possible comfort.

Soon I am introduced to the other passengers which Yann and Helen had already got acquainted to during the 7 hour journey from Ankara, among others Florian, a German working at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate Research (imagine!!!!), with whom I started a long conversation on German and EU climate policies (yes, I know, but I just could not help it!! ;-)) and it turns out that we know two people in common: a German colleague for the Legal Service (a colleague of his sister who is currently a national expert in the Commission's Legal Service, but which he actually had not yet met in person) and an assistant of a German MEP from the ENVI committee (incredible... the world is really a small place!)

After a while, we went to the restaurant coach, the social center of this train, where I quickly meet a lot of other passengers: An Iranian lady who returns from her daughter's wedding in Kayseri, three sisters who went to visit Cappadocia (all three of them quite colourful to say the least... guess who they are on the video below... ;-) ), Kevin, a Dutch student in medicine ... Mehdi, a shop assistant from Shiraz, Franck and Mariam, a French couple, another older French couple (Anne and Noël) visiting the parents of their son's Iranian fiancé and two retired American brothers who are already tired to travel together after not even one week and are arguing all the time.. etc. The atmosphere in this train is indeed very special as most Iranians still try to profit from the freedoms they will lose as soon as they will enter the Iranian train in Van, even before the Iranian border (the train being an extraterritorial space where Iranian laws already somehow apply...): they drink lots of beer, women do not wear any headscarves, they listen to loud music, they sing songs all the Iranians seem to know and start singing along, they dance (the men starting but some of the women soon joining in....) and of course the Westerners very quickly get inspired as well and finally the whole restaurant coach, including the somehow grumpy waiter (his favourite song and dance is "Gangnam style"!!! ;)) , is singing and dancing... A real party train!!

But this train ride is not only about partying... The landscapes are just amazing and change all the time... Amazing canyons, snow-covered mountains, small villages with plenty of kids waving at us, green valleys, green plains with grazing sheep, cows and goats and the tracks often following rivers and no road to be seen anywhere.. However, they started to ruin one of the valleys with hugs construction works for a road ....

The first night was ok, I got perhaps 5 hours of sleep.... During the day I watched the changing landscapes, caught up on writing my blog, talked to all kinds of people, danced with the others... The highlight of the day was however the crossing of Lake Van on the ferry: everybody gets out of the train and onto a very old, rusty and thus not really confidence-inspiring ferry in Tatvan and the Turkish train stays behind, except the sealed coach with the huge  amount of luggage. The crossing takes around 5 hours and the landscapes are beautiful (and on top of it, I love being on the water...). Singing and dancing continued on the ferry, but beer was only sold in a very secretive way and - like in some states in the US - they gave us plastic bags to hide it in while drinking and we were told to only drink it outside (this was still Turkey!!). After arrival on the other side of the lake in Van, the Iranian train coming from Teheran (which goes back from here) was 2 hours late, so we had to kill time, which was not too difficult as there were a number of youngsters in the ferry dock "café", who tried to teach us their local dance... Quite entertaining. Then a "bachelor's party" (if I might call it like this) arrived at the lake side promenade in a parade of hunking cars, made a small firework and started playing music and dancing... So the two hours went by quite quickly. The Iranian train arrived, which turned out to be much more comfortable (and clean) than the Turkish one. We changed composition of compartments. I was now with Mariam, an older Iranian lady called Goli (a musician) and a Chinese lady living in Seattle.

The second night was more tiring as we had to go through rather lengthy border control procedures in the middle of the night, so we did not get much sleep. The train stops at the Turkish side, everyone has to get off and get the exit stamp into their passports. Only 2 boarder guards were present and so it took ages to get all passengers through this. In the meanwhile, the train had been locked and watchdogs were barking in the cold night guarding the train to avoid any illegal exit and other boarder guards were looking underneath the train with flashlights to see whether anyone is hiding... I got goosebumps from this as it reminded me the horrible boarder control I once had on a train back from Berlin through former Communist Germany...  Once everybody had their stamp (which took around 1 hour, we boarded the train again, but it did not move.... It turned out that the two boarder guards came through the train to check passports again in order to ensure that nobody had escaped from the previous procedure and everyone on the train had heir stamp...  This took almost another hour... Then he train started moving... We had hardly fallen asleep when we heard loud voices in the corridor ... We had arrived at the Iranian side of the border. Here he procedure was different and we thought at first swifter and easier... Boarder guards came on the train and checked passports / visas there, but in the end took them with them... After about half an hour, we were asked to leave the train with all our belongings. The border police decided to do a luggage inspection (which - according to some of our Iranian friends - was not systematic... Given the huge amount of luggage most Iranians carried along, his took ages... (I think about two hours...but I was too tired to fully realise ...)

All of this meant we arrived in Tabriz at 12.30, instead of 6:15.... And after arrival and before leaving the station, we got stopped again by the police and they took again our passports to register us.... (Make sure we really left the train in Tabriz...). So in the end it took us 43 instead of 36 hours, but despite all the hassle at the border and the duration of the trip, I really enjoyed it a lot. The atmosphere was just amazing!!!

Photos

What it takes to be able to capture beautiful moments, or: a Swabian facing camera incidents

As a passionate photographer, I just adore to take pictures notably while travelling, to capture all the great places, nice or funny or weird moments. So, before leaving, I got my camera  (with a nice 18-200mm lense) repaired , as there was a problem with the lense. It was quite difficult to find a place which still actually repairs a lense of a digital camera rather than just sending it to Canon directly, but eventually it worked and the lense came back - working just fine.

After three days in Istanbul, the same problem started again and in order not to aggravate the situation, we asked around to find a camera repair shop and eventually found a kind of shopping centre with dozens of camera shops only... After initially being sent around from one shop to the next - from ground floor to first floor, from left to right (just like in Asterix, where they have to get some forms in an administrative building), we found a place that promised to repair it in one hour for quite a good price (half of what I had paid in Brussels). After an hour, we returned and they asked us for more time as it was "complicated"... (They did not speak English by the way, but we communicated  - including about technical details of my lense - by each of us typing things into google translation !!!). The next day, we returned and they told me that the lense could not be repaired, but at least that had removed a non-essential part which was broken and which blocked the zoom, so that I could continue to use it... As I got scared that the lense would break completely somewhere of my trip, I bought a standard lense, just in case to have a lense at all in case of a total break down... Which later on turned out to be a mistake...

A week later, having arrived in Kayseri, the lense blocked completely and part of the inner case came loose... So, this was it.... I now had the choice to continue my trip with only a standard 50mm lense or to buy another one... I went for the latter option, but in the one million city of Kayseri, while there are lots of hospitals (see the tooth-story...), there are basically no camera shops... We asked around and were finally pointed to a MediaMarkt in a brand new shopping centre a bit outside the centre, but unfortunately, they had no choice in Canon lenses.... By coincidence we saw an advertisement in the street for a shop not too far and this is where we found a decent choice of lenses, but more expensive than I thought... But I really wanted to continue to take decent pictures throughout my trip, so I decided to make another investment in a 18-135mm lense. Of course, now I regretted that I had spent all this money for the 50mm lense and, on top of it, that I did not directly buy the 18-135 I was offered in Istanbul for a much lower price (but, as a Swabian (for those not familiar with Swabians (Southern Germans from Württemberg): we are told to be the Scottish people of Germany... ;-) ), I did not want to make an unnecessary purchase as the other lense still functioned... Regrets... Regrets... But what could I do... There I was and I had to spend even more money!! The only consolation for my poor Swabian soul was that I could negotiate quite a discount for paying cash and another one for my broken lense, parts of which they could still use as spare parts when repairing other cameras... Anyway, there was no point in carrying a heavy lense with me that could not be repaired anymore...

Now I really hope that this "investment" pays off and that the lense will stay alive for many years, but in any case at least until the end of this trip... Not only because I am photo-enthusiastic Swabian, but also in your interest so that you can see beautiful photos! :-) This is is my well-known altruistic side, which at least sometimes compensates for being Swabian. ;-) so, please, once the photos are uploaded (hopefully soon), please enjoy them FULLY!!!!

Photos Kayseri

An "extraordinary" dinner with consequences, or: dentist Ahmet fixing my tooth

An "extraordinary" dinner with consequences, or: dentist Ahmet fixing my tooth

As some of you know, I had to undergo a major dental treatment before leaving in order to be sure that I would not have any trouble during my trip. Despite all the planning, somehow one of the crowns I got could not be finished before I left (don't ask me why....) and I got a provisional one, receiving however the reassurance by my dentist that it would hold for the entire trip if I am careful when chewing hard food. So far so good!

On the second last day in Cappadocia, after our great hike through the Ihlara valley, we went for dinner to a small "Lokanta" on the Meydani (main square) in the calm village of Güzelyurt. It was basically one out of four options there to get anything to eat and having been to the other more or less nice looking place the day before, we thought we should try something different...  We ordered two typical regional Kebap dishes with different names. After ordering, the owner asked us whether we like aubergines and we thought they would be part of one of the dishes. What we received was actually twice the same dish with exactly the same ingredients...  The only difference we could figure out was the pot in which it was served...we also received a separate plate with 4 (!!) entire aubergines, just baked in the stone oven, without any seasoning (see photo below). The looks of the aubergines and the way it was served made us laugh so hard we had to cry..... It turned out that their fridge was full of aubergines, which they had bought the same morning on the villages' weekly market and they desperately tried to get rid of... They did not have much taste but we mixed them with the Kebap and it turned out ok...  While the family was extremely friendly, hygiene was not their priority. The beer glasses they gave us had already been used and the owner just turned round, wiped them out with his wool sweater, and then put them on our table...

After this "exceptional" dinner, when I tried to remove a small piece of meet stuck between my teeth, all of a sudden I had a strange feeling that one of my teeth was moving and - after a short while - realised that the provisional crown had come loose. There was no other solution than removing it. Utterly frustrated that this "solution" lasted less than 3 weeks, I remembered my dentist's advice that - should the crown came off - it could easily be glued back in and carefully packed the crown in some cotton and in a small glass (which my friend and travel companion Susanne had readily available - she always comes prepared for any emergency - not surprising though as she works for the German civil protection and disaster relief organisation THW....;-) ) to protect it. We then investigated about dentists in Kayseri, a one million inhabitants city about 150km away and from where my train to Iran would leave two days later and actually found addresses of recommended dentists. Once arrived in Kayseri, around 20.30, we went for a stroll to look for a place to have dinner and passed by the dentists. We realised that on Atatürk Bulvari, there were loads of hospitals, clinics, polyclinics and medical practices. We later read that Kayseri was one of the first places in the world with a medical school. The first dental clinic we passed by was still open (www.uzmandent.com) and we got I to ask whether I could get treated the next morning by an English speaking dentist. It turned out that I did not even have to wait for the next day as there was an English speaking dentist right there. His name was Ahmet Çalışkan (see photo). He briefly looked into my mouth and confirmed that within 5-10 minutes, he could glue in the crown. Unfortunately, I had left the glass with the crown in the hotel, so we had to walk back and forth for about 40 minutes but were back at the clinic still well in time before the clinic closed. Ahmet was extremely nice and said that the cement my Brussels dentist had used is supposed to only lasts for about a week or two, while my dentist was well aware that I would be away for over 4 months ..(grrrr!!!) I explained to Ahmet my travel plans and that I hoped he could fix the crown so that it holds until I am back in Brussels. He said that he could not promise anything, but used a stronger glue and - in order to allow for easier removal afterwards - put some Vaseline underneath... (interesting...) He told me that he loves travelling and reading travel blogs.. When I told him that I am writing one too and that I intend to include a chapter on my tooth, the asked me to give him the link... After about 10 minutes, when everything was fixed and I wanted to pay, Ahmet did not want to charge anything.. He said the payment was the address to my blog...  Isn't that great?? So: if you read this, Ahmet, thanks again so much for your help and your friendly gesture!! For now, everything seems to be just fine and I sincerely hope it will last for the next 4 months... :-) please do not hesitate to keep in touch.. You will find my email address here on my profile...

Photos at: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A6GY8gBY75Wd0

Finally!!!!

Dear friends!

First of all apologies that it has taken so much time to publish the first post, but as I had indicated to some of you, I travelled with friends to Istanbul and Cappadocia and actually did not find time to write, then I was in a train for 43 hours (separate post on this to follow...) and then I had some internet access issues here in Iran. Now that I am alone and I have sorted out those issues, the blogging can finally start. From now on, I promise to make a special effort to write regularly, but publishing might take longer as it will depend on wifi-access which will probably be difficult when travelling through rural areas (as I will do quite a bit...). Also, uploading photos requires a good internet access, which I hope to have from time to time. At the time of publishing this, I am already in Ardabil.

As I had a backlog with the writing, I will not write much on Istanbul and Cappadocia, there will therefore only be two "stories", one concerning my camera and the other one my tooth ... Yes, my tooth!! Be patient, the story will follow shortly... ;-)

The only thing to say about Istanbul is that I had a really great time there, also thanks to my friends Martina and Susanne (and to Marc, Dirk and Jon who were there at the same time and with whom I went out as well... ). Istanbul was definitely a great start for this trip as it makes the link between the Western Christian culture and the Islamic world. The magnificent Aya Sofiya (Hagia Sofia as we say in German), which was first a church, then a mosque and now a museum, with its Christian architecture but Islamic art decoration is emblematic for this. I was also quite impressed by the geographical position at the Bosphorus, which gives it a particular flair, especially because you take boats from one areas of the city to others and can easily travel to the Asian shore. The area of Kadiköy on the Asian side was indeed the starting point for many caravans at the time when the Silk Road still functioned as a major trade route between East and West.

Concerning the week in Cappadocia (for which only as Susanne was still around) , this was also perfect to relax, forget about my daily routines in Brussels and start opening my mind for the challenge ahead. We hiked a lot through its beautiful valleys with the "fairy chimneys", stone cones, in which people thousands of years ago carved houses and churches ("kilesis") - often with amazing frescoes of between the 9th and 10th centuries. Just amazing!!!! Our Panorama Cave Suite in Arif Cave Hotel was a great example of how early Christians lived in the times in which they had to hide, as are the many underground cities, such as Derinkuyu, which has 7 levels under the ground!!! One of the highlights was as well the balloon flight over he valleys and fairy chimneys, which gives an entirely different perspective and is a beautiful way of "travelling". Unfortunately, it lasted only an hour, but to see all these balloons around was just magic! More linked to the theme of my travel are the Caravanserais, which offered shelter and protection to the many caravans, of which we visited quite a few and notably Turkey's biggest at Sultanhani. All along the major trade routes taken by caravans, you can find them, usually in a distance of around 50km from each other, just what a caravan could do within one day. They are quite beautiful complexes, with a wall around, an inner courtyard with a vaulted gallery on the left (used during summer), with a mosque in the middle, a huge hall (used during winter) and rooms to the left.

I know I could not do any justice to these 2 wonderful first weeks of my trip (and to amazing Istanbul and beautiful Cappadocia) but this is just how it is... I will try to upload some photos to a website and will include a link in a later post.. ;-)