Blogs from Tabriz, North, Iran, Middle East

At Friday, 26.8., I started from the airport of Antalya. Rebeccas flight was already at 6 am so that I started riding already at 5.30. I had 5kg less of package because R ebecca took much of my stuff with her. To get my pepper spray back was no problem. I enjoyed the riding towards the rising sun, it was amazing! I followed the road next to the south coast. The first day I planned to come to Manavgat where a family I met near Antalya lives and invited me for having a break there. At 11am I was already there, I had already done 97km at this time. It was a pity that the family wasnt there at the moment, but a colleague of the husband offered me some food. After that nice lunchbreak it ... read more

Did i tell you i threw my ticket to Istanbul in the bin? Yup, just like that, scrunched it up and threw it in the bin. I vividly remember it as well, i had just arrived in Shiraz, i was sitting on my bed in the hotel, going threw all the shit you seem to accumulate when traveling. Scrunch and BAM, in the bin! I thought i threw the empty stump of my ticket from my Tehran to Shiraz flight i just got off. But instead i threw my future ticket out of Iran, my ticket from Tabriz to Istanbul! Lucky i realised somewhere along the way (and not at the airport before i would board my flight) I organised another ticket to be issued when i arrived back in Tehran from Abyaneh. But, this is ... read more

A moment after I'd finished the sweet cups of tea that a local street vendor gave me, I suddenly realized they were definitely stashed with something. Panic struck me, although the corners of my lips couldn't get out of this ridiculously cheesy grin. Despite my horror, everything began to look like a joke. I laughed at the watermelons, the hysterically funny minarets (???), even the cops in front of me...COPS? I'd heard that the police occasionally do their rounds and give trouble to both locals and tourists for inappropriate behavior/dress etc. Even recently, a fellow female traveller told me that she had been dragged into a police station for harsh questioning regarding her risque clothes - the loose tunic over her baggy pants had been an inch too short, revealing an inkling of curves of ... read more

I knew nothing about the Islamic Republic of Iran before this trip, and although Robin knew a little more the country was largely a mystery for both of us. It was also something of an enigma - we knew one story about the country based on news, history and political impressions from the west. We had already learnt from our experience in Syria and other countries not to trust these however. The stories from other travellers and Iranian people themselves, i.e. people who had actually been there and didn’t have a political axe to grind, painted a very different picture. This was partly what made us so keen to visit the place, to find out what the real Iran was actually like. We had been given a 1997 guide book and I was a little apprehensive ... read more