Blogs from North, Iran, Middle East - page 17

Tehran! Immensa e sterminata capitale dell'Iran. Qui vivono oltre 13 milioni di persone (registrate); la cosa si puo' facilmente intuire dall' onnipresente traffico che opprime ogni singola via, dalla piu' piccola alla piu' grande, della sterminata citta'. Anche soltanto camminare lungo le strade puo' rappresentare un rischio visto che macchine, autobus e motorini possono arrivare da qualunque direzione!!! Ogni sortita al di fuori dell'hotel, di un museo o di uno dei numerosi parchi e' un po' un terno al lotto. In molti ci avevano addirittura suggerito di evitare Tehran dicendoci che se ne poteva anche fare a meno. Ciononostante abbiamo voluto passare un paio di giorni nella capitale per "tastare il polso"" di come sia effettivamente la vita qui. E siamo contenti di averlo fatto anche se un paio di giorni sono piu' che sufficienti. Prima ... read more

We decided to take a bus to Tehran to see our friend Majid, who we had met in Hamedan, and to try to climb Damavand, Iran’s highest mountain. Buying a bus ticket in Yazd was a bit of an effort as everyone assumed we wanted the luxury coach. No, I want to go on the retro-chic Mercedes bus and when we came to board it I was not disappointed. On the side of the 1960’s style coach emblazoned in big letters it said “Beautiful Bus”, I could not agree more. The big ugly and air-conditioned modern coaches pulled away from the terminal and we clambered aboard the beautiful bus and happily opened the windows for a night of wind swept motoring. The Mercedes bus was about 1/3 less expensive than an air conditioned coach and since ... read more

From the bus station we went by taxi to Ali and Mahshid's home in eastern Tehran where I passed out on the couch. Around 4pm Ali returned from work and we loaded the car and off we went straight into a 3 hour traffic jam, its the aniversary of Khomeini's death and everyone has a five day holiday. I still thing the traffic is insane but it doesnt bother me so much now, we stopped in a restaurant on the side of the road and were joined by nine other people, apparently this was the meeting spot, I didnt eat though, I am eating much more than I am used to as it. Ali, Mahshid and Mozghan are members of a hiking group as were the others, except for the Doctor who got roped into coming ... 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

El ultimo mensaje quedo incompleto por un fallo del ordenador asi que proseguire con el relato: Como decia, eramos los unicos "catolicos" y extranjeros, pero a nadie le importaba, eramos unos peregrinos mas. Durante el viaje a Qom cantaron las desgracias del Hussein, que murio en la batalla de Kerbala junto con sus seguidores y familiares. El es un heroe para el chiismo y los iranis lloran cada anyo su muerte, durante la celebracion del Moharram, que este anyo se celebra desde el 31 de enero hasta el 9 de febrero. Una vez en Qom nos dejan 30 minutos, para ir a rezar, o en nuestro caso para deambular por el patio de la mezquita. Para entrar en el recinto ( en principio la entrada esta prohibida a los infieles!) me dejan un chador, esa especie ... read more