Area of north Iran - south coast of Caspian Sea - is one endless town around the main road, between Sea and jungle. People here are quiet crazy or at least those I have met, that suits me well. And so I stayed for 3 nights. Many thanks to my other Iranian mother Ann for whom I have become a son who was lucky trying to get an answer to several no easy questions. It is always great feeling to meet such real people who are not afraid to talk about anything...
From Tonekabon I started to move quiet late(after very healthy breakfast - Iranian usual - bread with cheese and vegetables, of course cup of black tea must not be missed either, leaving at around 11am) like it already was a habit, hmm, yes I am not in a rush, it is still 'a holiday'. Everything seem to be so easy and ready for me that I have to make it at least little bit more difficult. Easy = boring.
Caught few cars to Chalus, few cars including a nice taxi driver who gave a free ride. From this town I was picked up by 3 boys returning to Tehran, glad to help them getting away with no penalty (when overtaking where it was forbidden to) - policeman wanted to show to me=tourist how considerate they were or maybe he just needed little help pushing their vehicle forwards (as it would not start otherwise) which he would not get if we were penalised.
Tehran is a mass and so far biggest city I have entered, can not wait to visit Delhi. And even though it took me only under 2 hours to leave city of course thanks to massive support by curious Iranians. It is very useful to look like foreigner here, believe me. And I seem to have a special talent to act even stranger they would have ever expected. You guess correctly if you think that I enjoy it a lot.
Although after some time I made my audience understand that I usually do not take bus or taxi, one who spoken English fluently convinced me to pay 1500 Tuman - little more than a 1 USD - (all I had in this currency anyway) for a bus to city called Qum. Here I arrived around 8pm and because of my disorientation it took me almost 2 hours to get back on the correct road. Again lucky enough after one hour of standing behind highway tolls, elder gentleman approached me and asked whether I needed assistance and because I did not mind the company of his family in the car I had a direct ride to Esfahan. So happy that I managed to travel almost 700km in 15 hours for little more than 1 dollar, food and entertainment included, I also had a place to stay over short night, provided by this family who felt honored when I accepted their invitation.
Esfahan is beautiful city with the most beautiful mosque in the world - so they say - but it is indeed (from those two I have seen so far;). Here I meet many friendly local people and also Misko, whom I made friend earlier in Tabriz. I presented my famous vegetable soup which has been success I believe, I had to cook it twice.
People of Esfahan and events along my and Misko's stay brought us at least one step closer to understanding how the life is for (young) people in Iran. Once experienced in real it cleared up our blurred ideas after all those stories we heard or read.
I am now very tired and can not see the keybosdf anymrrreeeee ndjskadnffffff........
Hey, nice ride Rado! Recently I found out some Europeans drivers can be also very helpful/fun and hospitable. Prague - Amsterdam, something over 1000kms in 11 hours!! 3 lifts and last driver had even kettle to boil water in the cabin as he drove his van, then let me sleep in the cargo space with the load. Thumbs up for these kind people!
ReplyDeleteSure there are, lets make them more!
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