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!
At the evening we left for the train station. Leila had in several not so positive terms told us her view of the night train. But they weren't true. The train left exact at 22:50 and the compartments where similar to European night trains. I fact it was an Old Spanish train.

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