Leaving behind the staring eyes from the Armenian border police and crossing it through a maze of trucks with different goods, we managed to cross over to Iran by foot, again.
"Welcome" was the first word that we heard as we were showing our passports to the immigration officer and after the usual formalities we were already catching a taxi ride towards the next significant city.
We arrived to Tabriz after enjoying a stunning sunset in the mountains that literally separate Iran and Azerbaijan.
50 euros make you feel like Donald Trump when you exchange them and you get something close to a million of the Iranian rials and your wallet it is just not big enough to carry them and walk normally.
We also did find out that the traffic lights and the traffic police are just simply decoration in the roads of Tabriz, just to find out afterwards that it was nothing to be compared with the "crazy" traffic, as they say, from Teheran.... just scary to cross the road!
Our "lovely" guidebook is a bit old, and even being the last edition, we realized sadly that everything is going to be at least twice the price suggested on it...
So after tighten up our belts we walked some of the city streets where the face of the Ayatollah and the black veils are to bee seen everywhere. A young local trio studying tourism approached us and after a nice talk they invited us over for lunch the next day where we learned a lot about how hard is living in Iran nowadays, specially for them because freedom to go anywhere or just to speak freely are something hard to imagine.
Two more days visiting the bazaar and learning a bit more of the making of the world famous carpets from Tabriz and after rejecting some really good special prices as they say, we headed south to Zanjan.
In the bus ride we met Naser, a young computing student who offered us a place to stay.
Moslem and Yosef are his flatmates and being excellent hosts they introduced us to their friends, showed us the local wonders and helped us to remember the good times about the student life and the pleasure of not having to worry about waking early.
We celebrated Jorge`s birthday with some folklore about this part of Iran, named East Azerbaijan, which they speak so proudly about.
Willing to stay with them for a few more days as they ask us for, we say goodbye to them hoping to have gained three more new friends for life. Qazvin awaits for us just two hours ahead in the highway towards Teheran.
"Welcome" was the first word that we heard as we were showing our passports to the immigration officer and after the usual formalities we were already catching a taxi ride towards the next significant city.
We arrived to Tabriz after enjoying a stunning sunset in the mountains that literally separate Iran and Azerbaijan.
50 euros make you feel like Donald Trump when you exchange them and you get something close to a million of the Iranian rials and your wallet it is just not big enough to carry them and walk normally.
We also did find out that the traffic lights and the traffic police are just simply decoration in the roads of Tabriz, just to find out afterwards that it was nothing to be compared with the "crazy" traffic, as they say, from Teheran.... just scary to cross the road!
Our "lovely" guidebook is a bit old, and even being the last edition, we realized sadly that everything is going to be at least twice the price suggested on it...
So after tighten up our belts we walked some of the city streets where the face of the Ayatollah and the black veils are to bee seen everywhere. A young local trio studying tourism approached us and after a nice talk they invited us over for lunch the next day where we learned a lot about how hard is living in Iran nowadays, specially for them because freedom to go anywhere or just to speak freely are something hard to imagine.
Two more days visiting the bazaar and learning a bit more of the making of the world famous carpets from Tabriz and after rejecting some really good special prices as they say, we headed south to Zanjan.
In the bus ride we met Naser, a young computing student who offered us a place to stay.
Moslem and Yosef are his flatmates and being excellent hosts they introduced us to their friends, showed us the local wonders and helped us to remember the good times about the student life and the pleasure of not having to worry about waking early.
We celebrated Jorge`s birthday with some folklore about this part of Iran, named East Azerbaijan, which they speak so proudly about.
Willing to stay with them for a few more days as they ask us for, we say goodbye to them hoping to have gained three more new friends for life. Qazvin awaits for us just two hours ahead in the highway towards Teheran.
1 comment:
G!
This is soething we must DefO talk over a couple pints of Guinness. I would love to head East.
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