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Published: November 1st 2011
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Chris' sleeping place in TabrizWe started from Tabriz in the morning of the 18. September in direction to Tehran. We were
happy when we were out of the very stinky exhaust gases of the cars. The highway went
through somewhere of nowhere and it was quite seldom, that we crossed a village, or even
town. Even to get a petrol station or little shops to get some water and food was not so
easy.But we have survived 😊 But the scenery was amazing, the dry mountains around us!
One evening we stayed at a truck stop. The cook could speak very bad English but we think
that he was a soldier in the Iran-Irak war. He was quite fanatic. He always made some signs
as to shoot at somebody and made "Rat-tat-tat". We didnt feel very comfortable at him.
He didnt like the US and the NATO. About Chris we were a bit worried, he said that Blair and
Bush were friends. But Angela Clinton is OK. Meint tried to get the conversation in
direction football but it was only successful for a few minutes. However, they were quite
hospitable and we were allowed to sleep
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Meint's sleeping place in the prayer room.
Chris and Meint are often listening to music. I normally do not, but one day I also switched
my MP3 player on. I had a shuffle play on. You could easily find out what is being played
due to my speed: Amon Amarth - 30km/h, ACDC-27 km/h, Bob Marley- 25 km/h, Hindi course - 22
km/h, nothing - 20 km/h 😊
The people here in Iran fancy about Euro and US-Dollars. They give you much better exchange
rates than the official is. You can exchange your money at nearly every shop. In Iran the
credit cards dont work due to the sanctions against Iran, so we have much cash in Euros and
Dollars with us. You feel much more comfortable with credit cards!
We had a new tactic and asked when it was possible at farms if we can sleep there. That was
normally no problem and we got much food for free, often so much we couldnt carry. I
normally dont use a tent, while Chris and Meint are buildung upo their tents every night. I
dont understand, I think it is so much nicer to
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and mine sleep under the free sky and see at last
before you fall asleep the stars. Meint always wanted to see me in my tent. And he had luck!
The nights became cold and there were two nights were I also slept in my tent. I was
recognizing that I havent done this since Antalya. And I was reminded that my bar of the
tent was broken. It became even worse now, see the pictures.
The duck tape from Chris also didnt help...
I was caled the breadmeister because before I met the two guys I lived almost only from
bread. I had to rate the actual bread we were eating. The most were quite poor. Nothing
compared to the nice bread from Turkey. Here is also nice bread, but they are produced in
special bakeries, for every bread there is another bakery. It was always hard to find them.
In the "supermarkets"(proper supermarkets we have seen nearly never even in big cities,
there are many little 5 square metre shops were you find a bit of almost everything) they
only have the newspaper type bread.
There was the hard newspaper
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Marcello, our host in Tabriz - 1, the smooth newspaper - 2, the fresh, warm newspaper
(holding only 5 min.) - 6, the shoe - 4, long shoe - 5, short shoe - 6, round, sweet bread
without salt - 5. Best note is 10, so you see the most bread we had was not very good!
On Saturday, 24.9., we cycled into Tehran. We were quite excited, but it was not very
special. Of course, crazy traffic, but not worse than in Tabriz. Many, many mopeds and very,
very stinky air. The exhaust gases were always bad in Iran, but since two years it is even
much worse as it was explained to me in Esfahan. Iran has much own oil and gas but no proper
petrol raffineries. So a few years ago, they exported the oil and imported the petrol. But
now with the sanctions they dont get much petrol from other countries and they try to make
it their own - without proper raffineries. Nice! There were huge shopping centers in Tehran.
It's quite funny that each area has the same kind of shops. There are streets with only
clothes, streets with only
books, are a huge area with only outdoor shops. Our hotel was in
a lamp street.
Chris and Meint had to do much embassy things. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgistan, China.
Just for fun I went to the Pakistanian embassy and asked for a Visa.I have heard that it is
impossible to get a Visa when I am not in Germany. It was again crazy at the embassy. The
gate was closed and all people were standing outside. One staff was behind the fence and
took and gave paper through the fence. Of course there was no queue and everybody was trying
to push to the front. A guy next to me said to me I just have to speak to the staff and ask
for the forms. So I did and it worked. Its funny how the staff was able to serve all people
at he same time. I am again confused how friendly the staff is. From outside it always looks
as if they are assholes with the closed gates and so on. It was the same as in Erzurum. He
said there are three options for me to get
a Visa:
From my home country, if I had a permanent permission of staying in Iran or if I had an
invitation letter of a friend of Pakistan. He stayed something of my embassy but I didnt
understand this well because he had a bad accent and the next people were pushing in front.
So it seems to be possible to get the Visa, you just have to make a friend in Pakistan
(Facebook, Couchsurfing, ... ?) If I had known this before I maybe would have done some
effort to get such an invitation letter, but now I was too lazy to make such effort. So dont
worry, I wont go to Pakistan!
We got maps of Iran, I also found a German-Farsi dictionary, and a Lonely Planet of Iran.
Its astonishing how cheap that is: about 2 Euro for the dictionary and 6 Euro for the Lonely
planet.
I have searched the Outdoor area to get fixed my tent problem. I was first not successfull
until Rehza helped me. He had a shop of repairing machines. I could let my bike at his shop
and he gave me a ride
on his moped. We rode through whole Tehran. Juhuuu! It was great fun,
better than every roller coaster! We found the outdoor area and also a shop who had the same
type as my bars and could saw it to the right size.Great! I was afraid that the firma freom
BVerlin has to send me a new bar, I havent imagined that it will be so easy. Rehza invited
me to huge portion of ice cream. Back in his shop he asked me if I want to have some special
Russian water. Of course I wanted! A few friends came and we started, but I was appointed
with Chris and Meint and I said I want to bring them here. But the both were quite slow,
they first wanted to rest a bit in the hotel, eat something and so on, so we arrived at the
shop two hours later. Rehza and all his friends were gone. Instead there was the father.
However he phoned to Rehza and he extra came back from home. We felt a bit sheepish about
it. Chris had diarrhoea and was going back to the
hotel. Meint and I stayed. Rehza took out
again the botttle of water and much, much food. We fretted a bit that we just have eaten.
Another friend came and we had much fun. Rehza gave me his mobile phone as I said that my
doesnt work here in Iran. I couldnt reject it I had to take it. He said I can give it back
to a friend in Shiraz. Unbelievable! Chris was very jealous as we told him from the nice
evening, while he had to pass the time shitting.
The next day I was leaving Tehran and also Chris and Meint. They will going North now, while
I was continuing South. Good luck buddies and hopefully see you soon again! It was great
with you!
I was going to Esfahan. The landscape is extremely dry. You see many dried out rivers. Under
the corresponding bridges are great sleeping places😊
After 2 days I also got diarrhoea. Maybe the gherkes we got from one farmer a week ago
werent so good anymore... The diarrhoea was two days. It was not very fun. The next day I
was rewarded
with much headwind and much hills so that on that day I also didnt come far...
At a resting place I was asked for my passport by 2 militaries. They made some pictures of
my passport and I was thinking what I have done wrong the last days? I drank some water in
Tehran, I discussed on my pinboard on Facebook about Iran, ...
Of course they couldnt speak English, but explained to me that I have to come with them in
their Pickup. I slowly got, that they probably only want to drive off the highway, which is
of course not allowed for bicycles... But I wasnt sure... However, that was the only reason.
They drove me some km off the highway. Pooh!
Additionally to my momentarily luck the holding of my famous spoke and the neighbour spoke
was completely gone. Great! So a next fixing problem for the next town! Luckily the other
spokes havent broken as in Turkey.
The whole trip I had email contact to Saeid from Esfahan who is a friend of a friend of me.
He was living for 7 years and Germany and therefore could
speak well German.
He and his family hosted me one week in Esfahan. They showed me the city, the mother cooked
much nice Iranian food for me😊 One colleague of Saeid who has to do all the handcraft stuff
could fix my spoke problem. See pictures. Hopefully that holds!
A young couple I met on the road to Esfahan invited me to their home for dinner. They met
each other quite traditional. Their parents arranged a meeting with the whole families.
They liked each other and there were arranged more meetings. Always with the whole families!
I think after one or a few month they have married. It was a very nice evening and they
drove me back to Saeids home.
Saeidf has explained to me that there is a street, where the young persons just cruise with
their cars up and down to meet other people, especially from the other gender. They exchange
their phone numbers and meet at a fast food restaurant. So that are they doing instead of
going to a club, bar or disco. Is of course everything forbidden. Concerts-forbidden. Even
the movies in the cinema are
since 5 years very boring. Of course only local movies are
shown and every interestiung theme is forbidden. It is forbidden to have satellite TV, but
everybody has satellites. There are 6 Iranian and for every big city (about 30) one channel,
but they are not often watched. Sometimes the police is making a razzia and they take all
the satellites in one area. The people have to pay a little fee, but on the next day they go
to the bazaar and buy a new one. There are many TV channels in abroad but about Iran and in
Farsi. These channels are mostly watched. And they get real information not the Propaganda
of their government. So the Iranians are quite well informed.
I thought I have lost Rehzas mobile. But luckily Saeids brother found it in his car. Pooh!
One day I have made a bus trip to Yazd. Something new, not riding the bike. After that I
thought it would be much nicer to have riden with bike, but okay. In Yazd there are very
many tourists. I never saw many tourists. Now I know why: They are all
in Yazd. And its
really nice! Although there are many tourists there many people dont speak English. From one
guy I wanted to know where I am, I asked which street this was. He said, "no street, no
street!" and showed in some direction. Hmm, I dont know his definition of a street, but I
was pretty sure that we were on a street... Although it was a nice town, one day was enough
for me and I was going back to Esfahan.
Saeid helped me to extend my Visa. Maybe that was a fault. As they saw us together and we
told them that I stay at him, they asked many, many question why we know each other and why
I am not staying at a hotel as it is right for a proper tourist. Saeid had to write a letter
where he had to answer these questions. He also signed that I will continue as soon as
possible to Shiraz. Esfahan is near to the nuclear program and a German mathematician and a
local physician... Normally it would take 4 days to get the Visa extension but I
got in on
the same day. It seemed that they wanted to get rid of me from Esfahan.
I was not thinking about this matter longer and I was invited by the young couple to a
birthday party. I was quite curious and excited and definitely wanted to go there. But Saeid
was worried about the police matter and said that he would feel more comfortable if I would
go to Shiraz. So I did. But it was a pity!
I sent some postcards to Germany. That was not so easy as it sounds. First the staff said I
have to go to the main post office they cant do postcards. Then I was going again there with
Saeid. He said to me that in Iran postcards are not known. We were back at the post office
and put the cards into envelopes. Wrote the addresses on it and so on. It was quite hard
work because the envelopes were weird. Then the price: About 4 Euros for each postcard!
Aehhh? Saeid asked again if its not possible to send only the cards without the useless
envelopes. Suddenly it was
possible and it costed only a bit more than 1 Euro. Better! But a
bit crazy the whole thing. In Shiraz it was much more topped, but I will tell this story the
next time 😊
I am sorry that it are so many fotos, but I hope you will enjoy them nevertheless 😊
It also seems that my text has lost its formatting but I hope it is still readable
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RAFIQ AL BALUSHI
non-member comment
NICE
HI I MEET MR FRITZ IN MUSCAT SULTANATE OF OMAN HE IS NICE MAN IHE WANTS TO GO ARAOUND OMAN NEXT TIME