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!!!
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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