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‹ Previous (24/05/2008) MONTH Next (2008-07-23)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-26 - Iran) COUNTRY Next (2009-11-18 - Romania)› Turkey Cappadocia (see on map) 24/06/2008:
After collecting the visa of India we go out of Ankara towards southeast with the intention of stopping in any moment to spend the night. But we had luck of arriving to an impressive salt lake, which had some magical colours under the light of the sunset. And the day after, we have just done the last part of the road that separated us from the magnificent Cappadocia. Since about four months ago, after visiting the marvelous Petra in Jordan, i had the sensation that Cappadocia, in Turkey would not strike me. i knew that the Cappadocia had homes and churches built in the rocks, as Petra, and thought that Cappadocia would completely be eclipsed by the memory of the splendour of the Jordanian ruins. But it was not like this, the Cappadocia also enchanted me, and proof of that, is the milestone obtained in this pretty region: 10.000 photos carried out in the second stage of the journey (Africa and Asia). That means an average of 20 photos per day, although in the Cappadocia I have made many more. Cappadocia was inhabited by the first communities of Christians, who built cities excavated under the rock due to the persecution initiated by the Roman empire. Despite being accepted by the Romans, centuries later, these Christian communities had to return in the underground cities (some of which could accommodate more than 3000 people) due to the first Arab attacks. Finally, the conquest of the castles excavated on stony massifs and built on stony massifs, allowed annexing the Cappadocia to the Otoman empire, the first conversions to the Islam following one another. In spite of everything, until the beginning of the 20th century Christian Greek communities, which definitely were expelled during the treaty of exchange of population between Greece and Turkey, kept living in the Cappadocia. In any case, in spite of the interesting history, the main appeal of Cappadocia is the landscape, composed of numerous valleys in which crowd of svelte rocks that seem to grow as if they were magical mushrooms. The lateral ones of the valleys and the mountains are also of rock eroded by the rain creating surprising forms and new magical mushrooms (or magical chimneys, as they are called in a local way). The fact that many of these rocks are is added to the natural appeal excavated and lived or with exhibitions of having been lived formerly. In some cases, the on digging or the erosion they show the collapse on behalf of the mountains, leaving the overdraft, rooms and former churches. Many natural places of the world that have an unusual beauty have always been considered by the religions of the moment as important, in the case of Cappadoccia by the Christian religion, numerous monasteries were excavated in the rocks, and are considered as sacred with gripping paints preserved in the ceilings of stone. And since we are - Christians -, in my land it is tradition to celebrate the Saint Juan ( the shortest night of the year), who coincides with my name (double holiday). Today it should be this special day and yesterday the celebration. But although these celebrations lose feeling when you are so far of home, of the friends and the family, in a certain way I celebrated it. Yesterday afternoon we parked in the town of Ortahisar and as i went down visiting the imposing castle, I found that Alexandra had met with Crazy Ali, a poet who delayed us with a good recitation of his poems in English. When finishing the evening party, we went towards a levelled area on the valleys of Cappadocia from where we enjoyed an impressive sunset, accompanied by many other tourists. And little later, when the tourists had already left and the vendors were collecting the shops, a boy called Jem approached me and gave a half full bottle of a very good wine, which we drank up while the sky became dark. And today in the morning i had continued the celebration. I have woken up very early to observe a nice morning show: thirty hot-air balloons floated over the valleys of Capadoccia , newly illuminated by the sun. And tired of so much celebration, and some answer of the visa of Iran after confirming for telephone that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow we would have it, we have started to do path towards Erzurum, where we had to collect this visa. Erzurum (see on map) 27/06/2008:
The landscape of east Anatolia is fascinating. The good road towards Erzurum passed between mountains of more than 3000 meters of altitude and ports of more than 2000 meters of altitude. The valleys and plateaus were green, treeless but covered with flowers of multiple colours. In one of these meadows we stopped to eat, the second day. Near there, were some workers who called me so that I approached. At first they started to question me suspiciously but they invited me afterwards to eat with them while they explained to me that they were working to an oil pipeline that originated from Azerbaijan. I apologised for Alexandra was already preparing the food, but without being able to refuse, in a minute they prepared me and they made me take two dishes of plastic with a salad, delicious Kebab meat and bread. In spite of the elapsed time, the Turkish hospitality and of the Islamic countries continues to surprise me in general. Immediately after we arrived to Erzurum we put ourselves in contact with the agency that carried out the letters of invitation to be able to ask for the visa of Iran, but they informed us that they would not have it in less than 5 days (after almost one month). In any case, I directed myself to the consulate of Iran in Erzurum to ask for information on the negotiation of the visa and he commented me that the same day i could have it, after taking bringing two photos and the forms. Holding back the impulses of jumping of joy I asked: - My “wife” should wear the veil in the photos ? - Of course - they answered me. But this was an "of course" not so evident for Alexandra, for at first she refused to have some photo with a veil. It was her way of protesting against this religious imposition, but I understood it as a sabotage to the possibility to obtain the visa, initiating again a rough discussion. There are people who tell us that we are too much time together, 24 hours per day, and perhaps it is true although it is the only way that we can travel. In any case, later, when she has expressed the thoughts that the Iranians are terrorists, Alexandra has made the photo with veil and afterwards when entering the consulted she also covered up with veil. And in the end, after obtaining the visas, she even has asked me to go and buy a "standard" veil in order not to have problems when entering Iran. At night we met three boys that we had contacted through Couchsurfing, that invited us to dine and afterwards to see the match of the semifinal of the European football cup (Spain 3 - Russia 0) at the house of one of them. Before the match we had quite a lot of time to talk about the life in Erzurum, which is very traditional in comparison to other areas of Turkey. For example: most of the women wear veil, it is difficult to find alcohol, there is not a lot of amusement... however, they kept commenting that they were Muslim and not Islamic, as in Iran, and that we kept watch a lot in Iran, because it was a very dangerous country. Despite having read that Erzurum had been one of the main centres of deportation during the Armenian genocide I did not want to take the subject, then i already had experience that this was a too sensitive subject for the Turkish identity and besides, later we had seen an exhibition in a mosque where it was tried to ridicule the Armenian genocide at the same time as informing about the killings of Turks in the hands of the Armenians. Today in the morning we have visited a big hotel at the foot of some gigantic tracks of skiing (at present without snow) where Erhan - one of the boys from yesterday - was the technical director. mid-morning, we have started to do path towards Kars, one of the last Turkish touristic destinations before entering Iran. Kars (see on map) 30/06/2008:
It is not Kars but the ruins of Ani that deserve all the attention. In any case, Kars is also interesting, surprising for being little conservative - in comparison to Erzurum -, or at least like this it seemed to us, because many girls dressed modern and without being covered up with veil . In Kars we did not met anybody and I kept the desires of tasting the nearness with Armenia, although in theory the borders with Armenia are closed and there are no Armenians living in Turkey. Maybe this tolerant atmosphere was due also to the continuous conquest and reconquest and repopulation of the city in the hands of Turks and Armenians and Russians, finalised it after the second world war. Anyway, despite seeming little traditional, yesterday at night it was difficult to find a bar or hotel with television to be able to see the end of the Eurocup (Spain 1 - Germany 0) and to celebrate it briefly with the present Turks. (The crowd congratulated me for this victory). In any case, as I have already written, Kars remains completely eclipsed by the marvelous ruins of Ani, which set up a magnificent reason of war in the Turkish hands, for Ani had been the capital of the old and powerful kingdom of Armenia, and at present its ruins are found separated from Armenia only by a river and a wall and naturally the entry is forbidden to the inhabitants of this country. During its splendour, at the beginning of the 19th century, the city sheltered about 100.000 inhabitants, but successive wars and, especially, the conquest of Ani by the Mongolians two centuries later, precipitated its decay. At present the ruins are only scattered on a levelled area, a few churches, a mosque, and other buildings half destroyed still ascend from some imposing walls that, together with two rivers, isolate the whole area. The state of the ruins give a melancholic air, when you realise that the time will follow its process of destruction, but the Armenian authorities are accusing the Turks for this decay, although at present a big road is being built up to the ruins and maybe the next step will be its rehabilitation. Today we have left Kars with desires of entering Armenia, to compare the visions of the conflict that have lived both countries, but i am lazy to turn round through Georgia (the borders between Turkey and Armenia are closed) and to pay taxes of entry and insurance for the car. On the other hand, it seems to be that the current situation in Armenia is not too good, with recent demonstrations for what is considered an electoral fraud in the country. And finally I also feel that Iran calls me, we already have the visa and the entry was delayed for about two or three months. Dogubayazit (see on map) 01/07/2008:
Last night we slept in the lap of the mount Ararat, the highest mountain of Turkey, of 5137 meters, on which they think that Noé landed with its ark full of animals after the 40 days of flood. Today we have woken up delighted by the magnificent vision of the snowed peak, on the contrary to yesterday, when the mountain was covered with clouds and completely illuminated by the sun. Without losing of sight the arrogant mountain we have followed the road up to Dogubayazit, the last important town before crossing over in Iran, although here it waited for us for another marvel to visit, the palace of Ishak Pasa, that despite being found in works dominates a valley with elegance and a view to the town. After eating with sights on the palace and the Mount Ararat we have gone towards the border of Turkey with Iran. Right before passing the last formalities of the border of Turkey, Alexandra has put on the veil and we have crossed on the Iranian side, where a very nice girl who has presented herself as touristic guide has fixed all the necessary papers for the car in exchange of 10 euro. Next we have entered Iran, not too different at the moment from Turkey, except in the price of the diesel. If Turkey is the country with the most expensive fuel of the world, Iran, its neighbour, is the country with the most economic fuel of the world, with its inhabitants paying only 1 cent of euro per litre of diesel ( to load 100 litres of diesel one pays 1 euro). Anyway, the first litres we have had to pay them 10 times more expensive, for as they are near Turkey it seems the gasstation people have to be bribed so that they fill the tank. In any case, we have entered Iran troublefree and to celebrate it we have drunk up a glass of whiskey from the bottle that we had hidden (if they discovered it on the border we would not be here). Iran Qareh Kalisa (see on map) 05/07/2008:
We thought to go to Qareh Kalisa, settled in a remote valley in Iran, close to the Turkish border, a fast visit to the church before following the journey up to Tabriz; but finally we have been there almost 4 days. We had read that every year, for San Tadeo, date close to the solstice of summer, Qareh Kalisa becomes a point of pilgrimage for the Armenia community living in Iran, but we did not think that we would have so much luck of running into this important holiday. It is believed that the church of Qareh Kalisa was founded by san Tadeo pupil of Jesus, in the year 43DC, in spite of the contemporary Armenian king, that in 66 DC killed the saint and 3000 of his followers. In spite of this fatality, in 301, Armenia was converted in the first Christian nation of the history and san Tadeo in its mentor. In the thirteenth century, after a fateful earthquake, the church was reconstructed almost in its whole with black stones brought from the mount Ararat, being called popularly since then, Qareh Kalisa (black church). Later, the enlargements with clear stone changed its physiognomy, although they increased the beauty of the church with magnificent engravings. We arrived on Wednesday in the morning and,they identified us as simply tourists and not Islamic (they explained afterwards that the Muslims have the entry vetoed during these three days of peregrination). Tents of the organisation were being set up on the surroundings of the church, at the same time as the first pilgrims, some of which they set up their own tents, started to arrive. In the mountains of the surroundings they were raising two tents of green, yellows and orange colours, that I identified as the Rasta flag of Ethiopia. Thinking that some pilgrims were smokers of marihuana I headed towards there, but when arriving I discovered that they were welded. Afterwards, some friends that we met there explained to us that they were from the army to protect them from the Turks or Iranians who want to get to to the holiday to observe good-looking and uncovered girls, and i am not surprised. As the Armenian pilgrims kept entering the enclosure of the camp around the church, they kept being released from the Islamic prohibitions of the country ; the women took the veil off, the men showed their crucifixes, the girls went out of the shops dressing attractive European models and the boys were exhibiting T-shirts without sleeves and short trousers. The families of different cities and regions were refound and celebrated it killing lambs supplied by the Kurds from the village next to the church, but also drinking home vodka and eating pig introduced illegally in the country by some pilgrims coming from Armenia. At night, the holiday was cheered up with improvised shows of music, songs and popular dances. Also although there was time for the religious ceremonies, this time, with the women wearing a scarf inside the church (how it demands the orthodox tradition) and passing under the portraits of Khomeini and of the current president Ahmadinejad hanged especially for the occasion on the door of the church. Predictions that we had heard about the Iranians in general have been complied, we immediately made numerous friends and during these days we were invited to different coffees, tea and food. One of these friends was Hahk, a man that gives lessons of Bible clandestinely, that explained with sad look "Here we have three days of freedom, but during the rest of the year, the women that do weare the veil are flagellated, the men that eat in the light of the sun during the ramadan are punished 30 days without eating, or if they surprise you looking a television channel of another country, they confiscate the television and the satellite dish from you. Afterwards, Hahk remembered that during the Shah, before the Islamic revolution people lived much better: "at present, the majority of families in Iran have home, car and money, but without freedom, that is not at all valid". It does not surprise then, that as it explained another family to me, many Iranian Armenians look for emigrating to United States, where, if they manage to enter, they are helped with 500 dollars monthly for two years. Others choose to emigrate to Armenia, where the economic conditions are worse, although in exchange they gain the freedom. In any case, more of half of the Iranian Armenians have emigrated the last years, remaining only about 200.000, and remaining obvious to the annual peregrination, where in spite of being about 3000 this year, are less than in the previous years. Tabriz (see on map) 06/07/2008:
Yesterday in the night, when reaching Tabriz we met with Hadi, a son of carpet vendors in the bazar, and this morning he has taken us to his shop where he had shown the magnificent works of art that they owned, I mean that for the love of the art but also with the concealed desire of selling us some carpet. In any case, while we were in his shop a couple from Germany entered who have ended up buying a carpet after Hadi showed his great skills as a salesman. Next, Hadi has led us to walk through the bazaar, where Alexandra has bought herself a new long and fine shirt and a light veil not to pass so much heat. During the walk, Hadi has explained to us that the bazaar of Tabriz, is the second oldest of the world, after the one in Damask in Syria, for where the caravans passed on the silk route more than a thousand years ago. At present the bazaar still preserves about 35 kilometres of passages covered with vaults of bricks and about 7000 shops, with many of these - according to Hadi - related to the business of carpets. While we ate in a simple restaurant in the Bazaar, I have tried to take different times political or religious subjects of the country, although it was evident that it inconvenienced him and he immediately tried to change subject. In any case, Hadi has known how to explain something positive about the Islamic law that is applied in Iran, as the absence of addictions to the alcohol and the nonexistence of the problems of safety derived from these. On the other hand, he has also explained that during the Islamic revolution the people wanted the current country, even if at present there are people who do not feel comfortable. When finishing eating, Hadi has commented that the Armenians in Iran had the same laws as the Iranians, but at night, has had to admit me that the Armenians also had the same duties as the Iranians, some duties based on the Islamic laws that in a cultural way should not correspond (option of not wearing veil, to be able to eat during the ramadan...). This second part of the discussion, has passed off taking an ice cream in a luxurious hotel in the presence of his girlfriend, an inventor girl (she has invented a device to guide the blind people) who has been invited to different international exhibitions. In a moment that Hadi was attending to a call, Mariane (like this was called the girl), has confessed to Alexandra that she would be pleased to live abroad, because in Iran she does not feel relaxed, especially for the question of the veil (all the while was touching it not to show too much nor too few hair). At nine in the night, Hadi has gotten up at once and commented that they had to leave, for Mariane had already expressed before that the family obliged her to not arriving later than 10 pm at home (despite being 23 years old). So, we have said goodbye and returned where we have the car parked, in the park Elgoli, a great urban open space where there are many tents planted, next to our autocaravan, on the asphalt. Hadi had commented to us that many people of the south come to pass the holidays in Tabriz for the mild climate, but so many people are around and the noise at night inconvenienced us a little and we have decided to leave tomorrow in the morning towards the following destinations. 07/07/2008: This morning, when I have woken Alexandra up to start us off towards the south of Tabriz, she has commented me with a sad face: "I have to return to Romania, my grandmother is very ill and my mother needs me". Even if it was an unexpected decision, it has not surprised me in a complete way, for in Istambul she had commented that the next time that she wanted to leave home she announced it to me the same day and that did not expand the decision more than 24 hours. On the other hand, she had also been connected yesterday to Internet and logically had talked with her mother, who - as always - had asked her to return remembering her that Iran and Pakistan were dangerous. This seemed another reason for her decision, for it is evident that Alexandra does not feel at all comfortable in Iran, obliged to wear the veil in a country that every time will be hotter. Besides, it is also true that between the two of us, some small conflicts had appeared, I believe that again caused by the tension that Alexandra felt approaching Iran and going into the country. I have asked whether she was sure of wanting to leave and crying she has said to me that yes. between weeps she has explained me that she had to choose between the happiness of her family or her own, between being an unhappy altruist or an egotistical happy, because she loved me a lot, in fact, I hardly would find again anybody that loved me as she loved me. I have heard it and not wanted to take part in her decision: she did not want to stay because of my requests, but, in the near future, the same problem or need to leave would appear again. On the other hand, if I left, we would probably not be together again and I already started to get used to this new situation in the idea about how to adapt. Alexandra has started to do the suitcases and later, at noon, we have went towards the centre with the car. We have found an agency of buses, and after doubting a little more, Alexandra has decided to buy the thicket (40 $ Tabriz - Istambul). Afterwards we have returned to the autocaravan, where we have passed all the afternoon embraced. But as the preliminary hour was approached, Alexandra was more undecided and among weeping said to me that she did not wanted to leave, although at the same time she explained to me that she could not stop seeing her mother because she would become upset if she backed out another time. At the same time, Alexandra begged me that i asked her to stay, although I kept not wanting to be influential in her decision. Finally, the hour of leaving has arrived. I have suggested to Alexandra to go outside so that i passed her the suitcases, but she did not want to go out. Afterwards she has gone out and have taken a suitcase, but has made me to go up again to the autocaravan continuing to declare that she had to leave. The minutes passed and if we did not hurry up she would lose the bus, but was more undecided than ever, crying that she would throw herself under a car instead of having to decide between me and her family. And finally i ordered: " Alex stay" and with a radiant face of spontaneous happiness she has exclaimed: "Sí?","sí", and next we have gone to take some delicious melon juice that is prepared in Iran. Takht-e Soleiman (see on map) 09/07/2008:
Have passed two days going over the south of Tabriz and visiting a few touristic attractions. Yesterday we visited Kandovan,a village with the homes excavated, since about 700 years ago, in a careen of rocks similar to Capadoccia. And today we have visited Takht-and Soleiman (the pitch of Solomon, in Persian), some Zoroastrian ruins that have impressed us a little more than Kandovan. The Zoroastrisme is a religion founded by Zoroastre, born ten centuries before Jesus in the lands where at present is found Iran. This monotheistic religion had many followers during the first centuries, but, the pressure of the Islam made later decrease the number of believers up to the approximately 200.000 that are spread by Iran and India. In Takht- part of the walls of a former citadel and the ruins of a former Zoroastrian shrine are raised by Soleiman, on a hill. Right in the middle of the hill and in front of the ruins, there is a dark gap of about 140 meters of depth, with the water springing up from its interior and going over on two ends of the gap. 3 more kilometres in the east there is the prison of Soleiman, a quite higher conical hill, from the summit of which the sights are terrifying, then to the centre of the hill there is a vertical crater of about thirty meters of diameter and more than a hundred of depth, which formerly was full of water that also sprouted. In the summit of the prison of Soleiman I ran into a group of five men who were resting taking tea. They offered me one, and afterwards, while we went down conversing in poor English and my null Farsi (or Persian) they invited me to go to dine with them in the next village. I suggested it to Alexandra and, despite not being very enthusiastic, we accepted the invitation. While we dined some simple spaghetti Bolognese world politicians started to be listed to me with opinions: mentioning for example Ahmadinejat (the current president) followed by a "very good" (very good) or "I love you" (I love you). They also mentioned Bush "very bad", together with Berlusconi, Zarcozy, Sharon, Blair, however they probably answered for Zapatero (Spanish president) because I was there, but also because the governments of left seem less critical with the policies of Iran. Later we commented to them on our plans of journey and as they always told us that the adjacent country was very dangerous, that Pakistan was full of Terrorists (in Turkey they also told us that Iran was very dangerous). Surprisingly also they commented that the following city that we wanted to visit, Hamadan, was very dangerous and that there we should not accept the invitation of anybody. Hamadan (see on map) 12/07/2008:
In fact, Hamadan was away from our planned itinerary about 300 kilometres, but it was worth to divert ourselves, in exchange for visiting some friends, David and Maria, the two Spanish who had passed some days in company of Alexandra while I fixed the papers to recover the car in Aswan, Egypt. On the other hand, now that we were already further from the border, we already obtained the diesel troublefree to the normal price: 0,01euros/litro, so that about 300 kilometres with the air-conditioning on only cost us about 25 cents of euro. We met with David and the Maria the day before yesterday late and we started to explain our adventures of the last months. They described us the marvelous experience of Sudan and the disastrous one of Ethiopia, because of the children and of the people that tried to trick them continuously. As I, they also received a very negative message on their Internet blog for describing so badly the Ethiopians, but when remembering our adventures again solved that we had still been affable. Afterwards, they followed Arab Emirates , Djibouti, Yemen (they loved it), Oman, Qatar, highlighting the great hospitality with which they had always been received in the Islamic countries. Yesterday we met with David and Maria, together with a German who was travelling with a van through the middle east. Joint we visited an interesting mosque and later, the mausoleum of Esther and her uncle Mordecai, both of an important role about 2500 years ago to avoid that the Jews were exterminated while living in Persia and could live here until nowadays. It was a Jew who opened us the door of solid stone of the mausoleum and once inside he explained us the history of Esther and Mordecai (a film has been made recently: "one night with the king"). Afterwards he commented us that there are about 25.000 Jews living in Iran, but when asking if these had problems with the Islamist government answered us very dryly that not. In the afternoon we went towards a park threaded in the mountain where in no moment became full of and Iran with floor mats, tents, bags, pots, ... picnic in the night, with an atmosphere similar to the park of Tabriz where we had been parked. This morning, we have been a good while connected to Internet (in Iran there are no wireless networks to connect freely) and after saying goodbye effusively to David and Maria, we have started to go towards Tehran. Mid-afternoon we have stopped near some fields moved away from the road and stayed there until the night. But about eleven, two big mowers have approached and they have stayed next to the autocaravan with the crazy engines on. the drivers seemed apprehensive of us and as the machines did not stop doing noise, we have decided to start the car and to go to park far from them and nearer to the road. We have started to sleep, but near of the one in the morning, somebody knocking very strongly the autocaravan has woken us up. I have put on a T-shirt and I have opened the window. outside, a group of armed men, one of them in uniform in front of a police car, have required me to go out. Of the way how they caught with tension the weapons I have deduced that i should not entertain them a lot, so, I have opened the door naked from the waist down, proving them at the same time that we were sleeping and we were not spies. But one of them has pulled me with force out of the autocaravan and asked me how many people we were in the autocaravan - without speaking anything of English -. I have indicated him that there was my wife and after requiring me of putting on the trousers has entered in game Alexandra. The officer has asked me that i go and make Alexandra go out, but I have said to him that i wont, for she was hysterical and screaming as a madwoman. The officer has gone up to the car and after some minutes of holding the threats and the shouts of "out go" (he goes out) of Alexandra he has been assured simply that we were tourists that we were passing the night in a maybe wrong place (maybe near one of the secret nuclear facilities). In any case, they have let us keep passing the night there and left while they let some dull laugh escape. Afterwards i had been due to calm down Alexandra explaining that control was normal, for we found ourselves in a country continuously threatened to be attacked by the United States and had to try to detect the possible spies that had infiltrated. Alamut (see on map) 14/07/2008:
The day after our fright with the police, we followed our path towards Tehran, where a very friendly and nice couple waited for us. Before however, we diverted ourselves a hundred kilometres to visit an interesting castle. During the stretch, we kept circulating through the good roads of Iran, each village had a poster in the entrance with all the photographs of the martyrs of the previous war against Iraq. The towns had simple homes and many people seemed poor, although nobody asked for charity or seemed to be hungry. In any case, it seemed strange that such a rich country with oil resources and offering good education and free health it was so little prosperous economically. On the other hand, when observing rubbish poured by the outskirts of the village and the almost null take-up, it made us think perhaps the Iranian were mentality not very far away to the Africans, with the people living day by day and without having to have more than the neighbour. Another aspect that we observed was the minor presence of the Islam in Iran in comparison to other countries of tradition Suní. Even if all the women go covered, there are less mosques and the edges of the muecines are much duller. Hadi from Tabriz had explained to us that in Iran, most of the Muslims were Chiítas (the real Muslims) and the muezzins only need to sing three times a day, instead of five. At noon we stopped in the city of Qazvin, where we visited an interesting mosque, as many of the old constructions in Iran, done of bricks and decorated with colourful ceramics, and walked afterwards through an interesting bazaar. Next, after eating kebab (meat on the hot coal) and connecting to Internet we thread the steep road between the mountains up to the castle of Alamut or also called castle of the murderers. The murderers or Hashshashins were a shiíta sect created by them, to defend and to press the enemies and so they were dedicated during some centuries to murder the main suni leaders of the Islamic world. Different legends think that the murderers were drugged with Hashish until they thought that they lived in the paradise, they were expelled afterwards from the gardens of the castle and they were informed that they could return to the paradise if they complied with the mission, which normally consisted in murdering somebody or leaving a threat of murder. We arrived in the afternoon at the foot of a big rock on the summit of it there was the castle of Alamut concealed. I went up snorting and although, I was not impressed by how photogenicwas i was really surprised by the inaccessibility, in fact, it was never conquered. Anyway, in 1256, the commander of the castle yielded it during the Mongolian offensive of Hulagu Kan with the expectation that this was pious, but, Hulagu destroyed the fortress at the time of the truth. Teheran (see on map) 23/07/2008:
On Monday the 14th we arrive to karaj, at about 30 kilometres of Tehran, and there we found the friendly couple of Couchsurfing, Azade and Amir. We parked in the calm street in front of their home and the day after in the morning we directed towards the embassy of Pakistan, taking a shared taxi for the 500 metres that separated us from the station (10 cents of euro), going up to the efficient train and later metro up to the centre of Tehran (15 cents of euro), and two more shared taxis (12 cents of euro each). The total stretch had us occupied an hour and a half, but it was worth not to go by car, because the traffic of Tehran is terrible and because, although we could have found some hosts in the centre of Tehran, Azade and Amir were formidable. Once in the embassy, and about twenty minutes after waiting in a chaotic queue, they informed us that we would need a card of recommendation from our embassies (those that we had in Ankara were not valid). the same day we went to the embassy of Spain where they could make us the letter and also to the embassy of Romania, where they commented that they would have the letter ready the day after. But on Wednesday, the Romanian consul was about not to deliver the letter to Alexandra arguing that it was very dangerous to go to Pakistan. And likewise presented it to us different Iranians and even a Pakistani that we found on Saturday in the embassy of Pakistan (on Wednesday they had holiday, added to the weekend: Thursday and Friday). Unfortunately, on Saturday we arrived at 11 at the embassy of Pakistan, and arguing with us that they only attend from 9:30 to 10:30 they made us return the day after. For the third time we returned to the embassy to deliver the forms. In the fourth, yesterday Monday, we payed the cost of the visa (only 50 $ between both) and in the fifth, today, we have collected finally the visa. We did not think that we would be so much late to carry out the visa of Pakistan, but in a certain way it went well, because yesterday David and Maria arrived from their tour through the North of Iran and we could find each other again, although in Hamadan we had said goodbye as if we did not have to see ourselves again for two or three years until we arrived Spain. On the other hand, it was also good to make use of the great hospitality of Azade and Amir, with which we feel very at ease and maintain very interesting conversations, which helped us understand better the country where we were. Azade is an engineer and works in a thermoelectric station and Amir is a computer scientist who works from home modelling objects in 3D. the home is small, but decorated with a lot of taste, in which we spent quite a lot of hours connected to Internet, looking the television (mainly Alexandra) and conversing. Azade told us that the economic situation of Iran is not so good, with much inflation,reason for which recently they had selled their horse and buyed two good bicycles for which they also appeared very keen in exchange. In the train, a businessman that we had met, also explained to us that the average class in Iran had lost economic power because of the current president, who does not apply the correct economic policies. On the contrary to all the information arrived from Iran, Azade also commented that in Iran there is good political in favour of the woman, for example there is full equality between the salaries of the men and women. Even so, Azade detested the norms of dressing and the duty to use the veil, especially in summer. And even if the men had some norms of dressing more relaxed, Amir also considered unfair some of the Islamic norms, as that of not being able to swim in the pool beside his wife or to sit together in an urban bus. Anyway, Amir was not too predisposed to criticise the Iranian government, arguing that it was dangerous, because in Iran the political power and the religious power are joined, and if you criticise they can accuse you of criticising the religious leaders, that it is the same to criticise the Islamic religion or to question the same Allah. Due to the duty to take the veil and only to show the face, Azade told us that the nose is operated by many girls of the city to be more attractive (the visible part), and, apart indeed from crossing some admirable noses, we also saw perfect noses, and some with the signs of the recent operations. In the embassy of Romania we met a boy, Mihai, that was studying in Iran. He told us that he has a girlfriend, but that he will not get married because he does not want to convert to Islam. On the other hand, he also told us that the foreign media do not want to publish positive news about Iran. For example, he explained us that there are regions in Iran where the women do not take veil (Kurds, afghanis and others). Anyway, that is an exception, because two days later met Maryam, a 19 years old girl born after the revolution, that explained us that since two years ago there are numerous police of the dress in the street, that censures the women if they paint too much the face, show too much the hair under the veil or dress too tight clothes or show more skin than the rule. the police of the dress can even put a girl in prison and not leave her go out until the day after, that the parents have taken a more decent dress to her. That's why, Maryam explained to us that in the street all the world takes a mask, even if the social reality is very different. For example, in the north of the city, where Maryam lives and the middle and rich classes in general reside, there are streets supervised by individuals where the girls can walk without veil. In any case, they always have to be pending of the presence of "basijis", normal people who do not doubt to report you to the police for any critical comment or behaviour out of the rule. In the meeting with Maryam there was also a German traveller that was going to Asia on bicycle, Markus, and with which we maintained a discussion about whether the people supported the Islamic government or not, then the majority of people that we had found (basically members of couchsurfing) seemed very critical, although in the last election the Iranians chose the most Islamic and most radical party. Apart from maintaining interesting conversations about the political and social situation of Iran, a day Azade explained a very interesting curiosity of the Iranian calendar, which is different to the occidental one and to the Islámic. The Iranian calendar of 12 months starts the first day of the spring, and surprisingly, the Iranians celebrate the change of year in the same astronomical minute of entry in spring, so much are 12 in the midday as the 4 of the dawn. On the other hand, the Iranian calendar has the years from the Hijra or migration of Mahoma from Mecca to Medina, the same beginning as the Islamic calendar, with the difference that the Islamic calendar is lunar, about 11 days shorter than the Persian calendar, which is to tile; therefore, at present they are in the year 1387 and 1429 for the rest of the Islamic countries. Finally, we had a little more time in Tehran to visit some of the relics of Iran, standing out above all, the biggest treasure of the world, the museum of the Jewellery of Iran or of the jewels of the crown, which contains the most important collection of jewels of the world, that they were compiled by the Shahs of Iran during the 2500 years of monarchy. The collection, strongly protected, contains tens of objects (swords, crowns, thrones, jugs...) diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires... Among these, there is a magnificent globe of the world that contains 35 kilos of gold and 51000 precious stones, representing the oceans with emeralds and the continents with rubies and diamonds. We also visited yesterday accompanied by David and Maria, the old embassy of the United States, that was occupied by iranies students later in the revolution, and retained 52 people for 444 days with the excuse to be spies or to work for the big Satan, expression that we have seen in numerous graffiti in the exterior wall of the old embassy. We have also visited the museum of the martyrs, which is in front of the old embassy, which exposes information about different martyrs that fought against the bloody war against Iraq, in which were obliged to cross mine fields to find safe crossings towards the enemy positions. The museum also had a section dedicated to some martyrs who had fought against Israel (with suicidal attacks) and another showing numerous Islamic leaders murdered by the terrorist group MKO. This movement, also called People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) had fought against the Shah, but, its Marxist ideology was confronted later with the Islamic ones, that killed thousands of its members in reply to two terrorist attacks of this group. --- When i interviewed Azade opined that the main problem of the world is the lack of energy and the waste of it, all together provoking wars. We should show to the people how to use less energy and to look for new alternatives to the polluting energies. as engineer she can help personally investigating about new alternatives. Azade did not want to be on the camera while asserting that the main problem of Iran is the waste of the energy because of how economy is. Azade feels happy, although she tries to worry for the happiness of the others trying to help them, if she could help them would be happier. The secret of happiness is satisfaction. ‹ Previous (24/05/2008) MONTH Next (2008-07-23)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-26 - Iran) COUNTRY Next (2009-11-18 - Romania)› |
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