Tehran and the North

After a nice week in Esfahan, we ended up in Tehran, after a short stop in Kashan on the way. Iran's capital really is something else: very busy, lots of people, lots and lots of cars, lots and lots and lots of pollution - but quite impressive and not uninviting as such.

 

We stayed in a very nice small hotel in the south of town (near Imam Khomeini square), the more conservative and most busy and most polluted part of the city. The hotel manager was a true beacon of light in the all-engulfing clouds of toxic fumes, and arranged everything from taxis to train tickets.

 

The only true amazing sight was the "US Den of Espionage", the former US Embassy in Iran, which was stormed by fanatical students after the Islamic Revolution and where US diplomats were held hostage for more than 400 days. Floris took some nice pictures of the predictable murals and slogans on the walls: "Down with USA", "We will make the US face a severe defeat (Imam Khomeini)",... (picture of that later). Because Floris was a bit overzealous and took some pictures of the inside of the premises through a spy hole (the site now houses a few radical groups), we were invited in the security office. The young guards were very nervous, very gentle and polite and even invited us for tea, but made sure all pictures showing the buildings inside and the security cameras were deleted. A polite request if we could have a tour of the site was politely denied ("No, no, no!"), but it was worth the try.

 

From Tehran, we took a night train to far away Tabriz in Iran's Azerbaijan province. A big jump, but we decided to make sure we had enough time left to get an idea about Armenia and Georgia as well. And well, a month in Iran gave us already quite enough of chadors, kebabs and fruit juices to be fine on those fronts for a while.

Tabriz was very refreshing, not just because the thermometer dropped another 5 degrees, but it really had a very different feel to it. It has all the vibes of a big border city near a cultural boundary: this is where the Persian culture has a heavy influence of Turkey and Azerbaijan. A lot of inhabitants of the city have very different facial featues than the "Persians" down South, and clothing and headcovers were quite different as well.

The most important battle fact of Tabriz was the raiding of the Bazaar for some all important winter gear. Floris bought a Chinese made jacket (labelled "new style mens asylum wear original style super taste the fashion is best multiple genial charm") for 21 EUR, Hanna did even (much) better with an amazing 6 EUR. Woolen socks (1 EUR) and long thermal underwear completed the spoils of war.

 

From Tabriz, a taxi brought us to Noordoz at the Iranian side of the border, from where we went onwards to Armenia.