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Travel Guide
Travelling to Iran Part Two
12 October We arrived in Tehran and
meet Leila. We were installed in her friend's apartment.
13 October Since we didn't get to bed
before 03:30 we got a late start on the day. We wanted to visit the Friday
prayer at Tehran University. Leila isn't a very religious girl, so she was not
so happy about our request, but wanted to follow the wishes of her guests. We
must have looked like tourist on a safari, that has waited a week to see a lion
and finally get one in visual contact. Five westerns dressed tourist, cameras
sticking out and a cowboy hat on top, in the middle of an ocean of black
sheets. Man they weren't happy about that, off course we where angrily told to
leave. How unprofessional of us. Right after this we went to a park in the
northern part of the city, which is made on the slope of a mountain. There
where a relaxed atmosphere, men and where walking hand in hand. Already in this
early phase of the trip we found out that the Persian was an outmost friendly
people. Walking around the park, we shook hands with several and random people
yelling, "I love you". This was the to very opposite experience we
got on 2 hours of our stay in Tehran. In the park we joined with a burger house
and by pointing to the other tables, we managed to order 5 cheeseburgers and
some orange stuff to drink. We returned to our apartment. When the hunger was
wakening us up, we went to the nearest restaurant. It soon became clear that
there was something different with this place. Not only did the soup taste of
sheep wool, the pieces of meat in the soup could be identified either. But when
the main disk arrived, everything became clear. It was sheep brain and sheep
tongue… Ups.
14 October It was Saturday and we
wanted to visit the Bazaar. On the way to the bazaar, we found out that our
chauffeur had lived in Sweden for almost 13 years. Soon we taxi was full of
Scandinavian languages. We will especial remember Claus's superb swe-nish, we
where crying of laughter. Mehdi became our regular driver. Mehdi helped us with
changing our dollars to a good rate. The problem was more that we had to count
162 lousy 10.000 rials. And off course we where missing on note. We split in a
boy and a girl group. And on a three-hour trip we went through kilometres of
bazaar, crawling with people and busy wagons. After that visit we went to the
former American embassy. The Espionage museum wasn't open, so we strolled down
the street with all the anti American slogans written on the wall. By
coincident we discovered the martyr museum, further down the street. This was a
wonderful experience. There was off cource all the official attitude of a regime
museum and the stories told were heartbreaking. But the guide was a very wise
man. We got a thorough tour and answers to all our questions. Laila came with
our train tickets, for our next destination. We where invited on a walk in the
mountains. On the way back we stopped and tried a bier with 0% alcohol. Well
calling it a bier would be going to far. It was a malt beverage and where close
to a waste of money.
15 October It was a rainy day, so it
where obvious that we should visit some museums. We where kind of slow
starters, definitely because of the bad weather. We decided to start with a
grand tour in the Bookshop Street. Mehdi took us there; actually he dropped the
taxi driving and went with us. We visited at least 10 bookshops and Claus did
as usual buy a huge stack of book's this time primarily about Islam, books that
isn't available in western countries. Mehdi found a good place to eat. And we
went right away to the National museum of Iran. There where many interesting
item on show, but there where only a few texts in English. The items where
placed out of context and to be honest, it was bloody boring. The Islam museum
was next door and we had tickets for that too. Contrary it was a much bigger
building, but not more interesting. The day this country get more seculized,
the to museums will change buildings!
16 October At 8:00 we arrived in
Esfahan, not completely "udsovet", but sharp enough to catch a taxi
to the Aria hotel. We could get two rooms, one for the girls and one for the
boys. After a small rest and a shower we went to see the famous city. Esfahan
is known for its wonderful mosques and Emam Khomeini Square, which is one of
the biggest in the world. The Square are absolute magnificent. Too the south
Masjed-e Emam's are shining in the sun. In the inside of buildings on the
square the bazaar are allocated. A palace and a small mosque also and some
quality to the square. Today the girls had to find themselves a more
traditional woman dress. We went together with them. Our "English
teacher" helped us finding an appropriate mantur. Our "English
teacher" showed us the most marvellous teahouse, in the northern end of
the square. With a seat on the roof, we enjoyed a water pipe and tea. Gustav,
Claus and I tried to send and email from a small carpet shop. Claiming to be an
Internet cafe! Only Claus, who had a hotmail account, had success in sending.
We rested our selves until 20 o'clock. We went to Saleh restaurant, where we
got chicken and some pizza, for a total price of 60.000 rials. Under the Bridge
Pol-é Si o Se, which view we had enjoyed during our meal, had a great teahouse.
This place was only assessable from the riverbed!
17 October After breakfast, we had a
meeting to make an outline of the rest of our trip. We decide to go for Yazd on
Thursday by bus. Gustav and I were chosen to get us some bus tickets. We had an
older Esfahan tourist map. On that map the bus station was in walking distance,
but unfortunate that wasn't the truth anymore. We took a cab. At the bus station
there where many private companies offering trips to Yazd, we just found the
most appropriate departure time and took that bus company. It was impossible to
make any other judgement, souge as quality of the bus etc. Back in the bazaar,
we got our selves a nice sandwich with a coke at the same joint as yesterday,
2500 Rials. While we where waiting for the Mosque to open after prayer. Gustav
and I went to send another email at the "café". Masjed-e Emam was
fantastic, an unbelievable collection of mosaic pieces. We meet Steven from
London, and we took him with us to dinner a water pipe later that evening. In
the Mosque we did also establish contact with two architect students, Abi and
Reza. They invited us on a tour in the university the next day 2 o'clock. Gustav
and I went to the street from our hotel, to find a mailbox. For the first time,
we where approached by to Iranian girls. We asked if the yellow thing where the
right place to dump our letters. Even though they had an unbelievable bad
English they wanted to help us. They where very pretty and we soon felt that we
had the total attention of all male Iranian guys on the street, it wasn't to
comphstable, so we did soon abandon.
18 October We went to the Masjed-e Jäme
in the northern part of Esfahan. Personal I liked this mosque more than the
Emam. It wasn't quiet so big, but I thought it was a better architect and
artist decorated it. We weren't tired of the bazaar yet so we walked through it
back to the Emam Square. We bought tree water pipes on way. We had lunch on a
western look alike eating joint - Camel pizza bar. At 2 o'clock we meet Reza at
the palace, we where allowed access to the university bye showing one of our
student cards. It was an art university, there where approximately 700
students. After at brief tour everybody came to talk with us. That lasted for
more than 2 hours and we couldn't almost get away. They gave Claus a picture
that he particular had fancied. After this Agnete, Laila and I went to see the
women's mosques. This was also a marvellous view, it was completely closed,
there was only a small window. Also here the mosaic's was fantastic. Reza had
invited us to the movies in the evening. We should see "the colour of
God" an Iranian movie, which had received prizes in Europe. The special
thing about this wasn't the movie it selves, it was more the loose attitude,
boys meeting girls, girls wearing lots of makeup. In the movie, boys and girls
could sit together in the dark a sparkling fantasy. The movie was good, but it
was all in Farsi - so a bit difficult at certain times. The movie projector and
the audio were so bad. But what the hell, boys touches girl..
19. October this was day that we are
going to Yazd, it's a busride on 5 hours. We used the time before noon in
Esfahan. Claus and I were first out in the town looking for a special horn. The
special sound from the horn are impossible to describe on text, but the horn
was only mounted on the busses, so we needed a special store. We didn't find
it.
http://karstenfilsoe.dk/IranDK/Iran.htm
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