Better late than never, right?!
Finally my last blogstory! Not many photos, but a lot of reflection....
After Iran, six long and intense weeks, I was five days in amazing and pulsing Istanbul. Somehow it felt to me like my short stay in London before flying to Moscow in August 2011: Both are (at least in parts) in Europe; London was the starting point of my trip, and Istanbul was the finishing point of it. In London I had I met my Austrian friend Jan, and in Istanbul my very dear Austrian friend Leo came to visit me for the remaining three days. Together we had an amazing weekend, like we are used to, with a lot of chatting over coffee or rather heaps of wine. And eating and partying of course! It was a great weekend, which made my way back to Europe, back over this very bridge, back home, easier and smoother...
These fifteen months have passed like a few seconds. And it feels as if they were only a dream right now... And the nearly two months since my return home on 11th November 2012 have passed even faster.
So how is it to come home after such a long time, after so many countries travelled to and passed through?
After so many accumulated impressions?
What would you tell people who have never ever been on such a trip?
Can they really understand you?
Instead of a slow return by meeting friends one by one, I had decided to make a welcome-back-party just one day after my return to my beloved Vienna. It was a great night, and I was happy for everybody who showed up! It is good to see old friends again!
And I was really happy that the three girls I was each travelling with longest were all at the party:
The french but at that time Austria-based Alice, with whom I had been travelling all over Burma - she was just about to leave Vienna to France for a new life after her own long trip (all the best for you my dear!!)
Niku, with whom I was travelling in China in 2011 and in Iran one year later, came for the weekend; like Lise, with whom I had been discovering the magic of Central Asia.
So, how about meeting friends and people back in Vienna?!
Generally, I was suprised first of all about the amount of people, who had been following my blog thouroughly over the whole time.
Because many of the people who did I wouldn't call close friends. Their interest really touched and honoured me! (And whoever has read my blog at least a bit, knows that I do have a tendency to really long stories... )
So: thank you guys! You make me convinced now that all these hours spent writing and editing this blog have not been worthless at all!
Furthermore it was really surprising to observe, who was
really interested in hearing stories of my trip and my views on
different countries and people, and who was already satisfied after a few sentences. Don't get me wrong: it is completely fine for me, if some friends did not want to spend hours just talking about every single detail of my trip. One of the reasons I wrote my blog is to avoid telling the same stories over and over again anyways... But it was simply interesting to see which questions had been asked and by whom. And who in the end did not ask any questions or showed any interest in how I have spend my last 15 months...
In fact, I can understand that many people
simply didn't know, what to ask. I was quite happy that many were aware of the fact that the
question "Where did you like it best?" was not really appropriate (however, still many were not aware of this fact, so after two month this
question definitely is on place 1 in the ranking of "questions asked").
But no wonder that I felt best understood by people, who had already been travelling for a longer period by themselves. And for those few moments, when I feel really not understood at all, I now have all the many friends spread around the world I could talk to!
But you still don't know, how it was for me to come back, right?!
After all, I must say that I was quite well prepared for
the coming-back-shock. It turned out not to be a shock at all... I never
ever expected Vienna to have changed at all, and surprise surprise:
good old Vienna is still good old Vienna :)
I was going through different phases since my return. First I felt as if I had never been away. I was back to reality amazingly fast:
I came back to my parents place and stayed there for a few days - it was as if I had just come home for one of the usual few-days-visits. And back in Vienna my life was even more like it had been before; changes occurred only in its details: I used to study, and beside it I was working in a pub as a waitress; I lived in a flat together with a flatmate and tried to meet up with my friends as often as possible in my freetime.
Immediately after my return I had to study for a big exam; since then I am working as a waitress - in another bar though; I am living in the flat of and together with my aunt, and I am still meeting up with my friends as often as possible in my freetime.
Same same, but different, right?!
No surprise then that it felt to me as if my whole trip had been just a dream. This feeling was reinforced by the fact that I had packed away all my worldtrip-souvenirs, all the traveldiaries and photos, in a big box. Before moving into another flat there is no sense in unpacking too many things, right?! Only Idefix is looking at me from my bookshelve reminding me of my trip...
What?! You never heard of Idefix??? Oh dear - here you can see and enjoy his trip!
First I was quite happy about that. Too big had been my fear of falling into a deep black hole after my trip; questioning myself of the sense of being here or wanting to travel again immediately. I am quite happy that this didn't occur.
But with the time I started to feel rather empty regarding my trip. It was the questions people asked that made me more and more aware of this. Whereas in the beginning they had asked about the trip itself, they asked me later on, if it wasn't weird for me to be back after such a long time. And even me I found myself amazingly boring when answering them: "Well, nope. I do feel completely fine being back and no, at the moment I don't have the immediate need of travelling for such a long time again. One day for sure I want to travel again, and definitely for a few months. But right now, I do feel fine being back home."
But the more I got asked this question the more I asked myself, if this trip had changed anything within me and with my life-style at all?! I mean, it can't be that I am comig back after fifteen amazing months and am living exactly the same life I used to live before, right?
A quite important question at the moment - also asked by many people - is of course: what comes next?! And even those who ask are not suprised
when I tell them that I don't know it yet.
Luckily enough I am not freaking out completely by the fact
that I do not know at all what is coming next. And that I don't have any
goals I am working for at the moment. I used to feel really depressed when
lacking a goal or a sense in what I am doing - do you know that feeling?
But right now, I am
really confident that whatever comes will be fine. There is always
something worth working for, and sooner or later I will find out what it shall be in my case at this very period of my
life.
So, hooray, definitely a change in my mentality thanks to my trip!!
When travelling, you don't have these doubts. Everything is really easy: the goal is the journey itself. In terms of justification (mainly before yourself) I therefore find it much more difficult to have a stable and settled life, than to travel. So, surely I am thinking about travelling. Or even about starting a
new life somewhere else but Vienna, or Austria, or Europe as a whole...
Shortly after my return Rindo has sent me a link to a really great story on reddit about the thrill of "getting out". The story itself reflects
the deep wish of escaping the "boring" reality of house, job and wife.
Of all these "boring" responsibilities.
But what is even more
interesting is the first comment to this story, and the mentionned
"curse of a traveller", which can be shortly explained as: the
more different places you've seen and enjoyed, the least you are happy
in one place. Because no place is perfect, there is always something,
which was better in another place you've already been to. Which is why
in the end travellers will always continue to search for "the perfect place", and will be less likely to find it the more they
travel...
A dear friend of mine, who has been away from home - travelling and working abroad - for more than two years, wrote me in a really touching email about her feelings to be back home:
"I look at my return home as my attempt to break it [the curse of the traveler, author's note], to get over it and take steps towards making a more settled life for myself, but I am finding it exceptionally hard. I cant help thinking that I dont want to break it either. My heart is not really in this. I think it is worse because I live in a place which is so quiet, my friends and life I had here years ago is gone (moved to cities or settled down mostly) so I have no social life and I absolutely hate my job. I get paid to do nothing really but sit in a cubicle for 8 hours and check a few boxes of pills. It isn't permanent I am planning to move to London or another city to find a job that interests and challenges me. But I haven't done this yet because there is a part of me which doesn't want to commit to it. I don't want to settle down and tie myself to financial responsibilities. I don't want to confirm that I am not going travelling again."
Of course I have moments, where I still have the feeling of just packing my stuff and leaving again. (There wouldn't be too much packing involved, as nearly everything is still in the boxes anyways). Just take my colourful backpack and start for another trip. It's not that I don't have ideas. I have a long list of trips I want to do in the future, countries I want to discover and how I want to travel through them. I have a list of things I want to improve the next time I am travelling, what I would change in my way of travelling...
But right now these moments pass rather fast. I will be travelling
again, for sure, but not straight away. And of course my financial situation doesn't allow me to travel immediately.
translation into English
below **
Interestingly enough there was a really short article in the newspaper die Zeit I had bought the first week of my return in Vienna, which talked about an Austrian woman. On a trip in South-East-Asia she met her partner. She gave up her life in Austria and is since then living and travelling with him. They work six to eight month per year, in order to be able to travel (and live) the rest of the year...
Her story remembered me a lot about the story of an English woman I got to know on Fiji: she moved to New Zealand when she was quite young and by the time I met her she had been living on a sailing boat since twelve years, with her husband and two kids (who were younger than twelve, which means that they had been living their entire life on the boat). They did not have any "home" other than their boat, which could go anywhere the sea would let them.
But the story of this Austrian woman also remembered me of the book "Weltreise" (worldtrip) by Dieter Kreutzkamp. I have read this book last year in China, where I had found it on a book-swapping-shelve. His book had inspired me to a lot and added a few destinations and types of travelling to my list.
However, one thing that both have in common: they point out how important their partner is in their life-concept as nomads. I could imagine living a life like them, always on the road, not staying anywhere for too long. But like them, I wouldn't want to do it alone.
I really enjoyed my trip alone, I met many interesting and inspiring people. I can easily imagine travelling again for such a long period of time by myself. But there is a difference between travelling for a period of time, even if it is a long time like my trip was, and between living on the road. Because one thing I was sure about at all times during my trip: that I'd return home...
**Trendy rock-climbing trousers An Austrian Woman in New Zealand - Dagmar Lindner, 41, Nomad I don't define myself through my job. Ask an Austrian person, what he's doing, and he will talk about his job. A New Zealander would answer this question by talking about his passions. In my case these are mountains and the water. Rock climbing. Ski-touring. Sailing. As I am continiously trying to reduce my belongings, I like things, which are useful in many situations. Rock-climbing trousers, for instance, which do look good in a disco too. This reduces the amount of things, which one has to carry around all the time. I got to know my partner on a 4-month trip through South-East-Asia ten years ago. Eight months later I resigned from my job, moved out of my flat and left my my Viennese life, thouroughly packed into twelve boxes, behind myself. With a one-way-ticket I flew to India. In some places we are staying for longer periods of time. But it is always planned to move on. We are working six to eight months per year, the rest of the time we are living. Not owning too much is my richness. One day, on a visit back to Vienna, I got my boxes from the cellar: concerning three boxes I could say, what was inside. The content of the remaining boxes had become unfamiliar to me, so I gave it away. In the beginning the letting-go had been difficult for me. Now, I do feel relieved about it. I am convinced that you don't need much for a good life. Now we are planning to buy a sailing boat. Let's see where the wind will blow us to. Dagmar Lindner from Vienna lives in Lyttelton. Always in movement is the motto of her life.
In some countries I was immediately overwhelmed by the culture, the people and all the new impressions. Iran is one of them. One thing that makes Iran so interesting are the huge contrasts and the ambivalence. First of all of course the contrast between the views people in the West have about Iran, - after the 99% negative news coverage of the country; – and the reality. Many of my friends were shocked and wondered, why I was going to this country – as if it was a war-zone. (I admit that Lise and me had been thinking about travelling to Afghanistan - but finally didn't. Well, in that case I could understand that people worried, because Afghanistan is at war... but Iran?!)
There are a lot of stereotypes about Iran, about life in Iran and about the people in Iran... I am really happy that many of the people I met there were really open-minded and critically thinking, and gave me such an interesting insight into the ambiguities of this big country. I have learned so much about the daily life in Iran and understand this country much better now. And I am doing my best, to give you an honest picture of what I learned and of what I think. These great people deserve it to have something positive and honest written about them and their country. And they definitely have the right to be proud of it!
But before I start MY story about Iran, I will give you to read what one Iranian Couchsurfer wrote on his profile; it's an interesting summary of stereotypes, or simply non-knowledge about Iran. And just think by yourself for a second: what do you REALLY know about Iran?!
"I'm proud to say "I'm Iranian!" No, I am not a terrorist, I don't live in a tent on a desert. I speak Farsi/persian, not arabic!!. Iran is pronounced "EERAUN" and not "I-ran" ( It's not track & field) News flash Iran and Iraq are TWO!!different countries, Middle East is a region and NOT a continent, And camels are not our way of transportation. Belly dancers are NOT strippers (no sex in the Champagne room ;) . Belly dancing is an Arabic dance (go figure), it never came from Iran. Each time you play a game of chess to improve your intellect, keep in mind that it was Persians who gave you your game. (sic!) Iranian women are just as out spoken (if not more) and liberal as European women, And what the hell is "soccer"?? We also call it FOOTball. (...)"
ad sic!: chess is NOT from Persia, but from India. However, Backgammon - the oldest boardgame for two persons - is from Persia.
My (really long) story includs impressions of Iran from the very first days, but also from my last days. Some cultural differences I only saw in the beginning and became used to; others, which I didn’t see in the very beginning, became evident to me only after having been in the country for longer.
I am not able to give you a proper introduction into this country's history, which would be so important to understand them even better. But if you want to have a good, funny, interesting and thoughtful introduction, – although also quite negative and from a Western point of view – into the country's recent history (mainly since the Islamic Revolution of 1979) and it's impacts on today’s society, you should do like I did: watch the great comic-movie "Persepolis") by the French-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi.
Talking about films, I also highly suggest you to watch the film “A separation” by Asghar Farhadi, which won the Oscar for the best foreign film this year. It is not only an excellent film but also shows everyday life in Iran really well: you can see how people dress in public, how they behave between each other, you can see the separation of men and women, what tabous exist in their culture, ... well, all the typical everyday scenes of Iranian life. The only thing which is wrong, is that women usually would not wear their hejab and manteaus inside houses (unless they are really religious and there is an unrelated man in the same room). But to comply with the Iranian law, women had to wear the same clothes in the film like they are obliged to wear in public.
Lise and me crossed the border to Iran coming from Turkmenistan. In the last borderpost of Turkmenistan, we put on our "disguise": a manteau that had to cover our figure (most important: cover our butt), and of course a headscarf (hejab), which had to cover all our hair, décolltage and neck. We had bought these things at a market in Ashgabad a day before - and not knowing how strict it would be, we were prepared for the worse, hence our clothes were all but sexy: our manteaus looked like big sacks and are completely black, as are our hejabs. (On this photo you can see two Iranian friends and me from the back - and yes it's me who has the horrible sack...)
Anyhow. Once across the border I realised that Iranian women dress completely different and far less strict: their hejab is just somehow loosely on the head, showing a lot of hair and the manteaus they wear show quite some taille and are really beautiful! Of course many women (I'd say something between one quarter and half of the women, depending on the city, you'd see on the streets during the day) wear chadors, which are simply entirely black cloths put around the head and held together with hands or teeth.
Our lovely host showed us a great boutique on the first day, where Lise and me bought some beautiful manteaus, and our hosts mother insisted in buying us matching scarfs - so up from that time we were as Iranian as can be!
Many of you had asked me: "So how is it for to wear a hejab all the time?!" Well, I admit that especially when we were in the South, at the Persian Gulf, me and Niku were endlessly swearing about the clothes. It was hot and humid there and we were really sweating a lot under our hejabs and in our long-sleve-manteaus. I am really lucky to have been in Iran in autumn - because everywhere else it was not really a hassle to obey these clothing rules.
I found Iranian women really beautiful (Small comment apart: Iranian men are also among the most beautiful men I've ever seen: all have black hair and most of them have green or light-brown eyes and long eye-lashes... I'm melting away...).
Even though there are rules about clothing the women know exactly how to point out, eventually overpaint, their beauty: they put on a lot (and I mean A LOT) of make-up. And I was also surprised to see so many nose-jobs. Guash, I should have counted the amount of people - women and men - I saw in the streets with a plaster on their noses..
So like my guidebook said: the headscarf is the smallest of their problems. Wherever I saw women on the street, I felt, how emancipated they were and that wearing a headscarf was really not a big deal for them. Many women I met and who hosted me, were really interesting persons and of energy sprouting young women. After two months in Central Asia, where we had mainly been speaking to men, and mostly not educated ones, it was so refreshing to be among such great, educated, emancipated young women, who were really reflecting a lot about their country, their people and the future. So whoever thinks that Iranian women are submissive and repressed and wouldn't dare to speak out, I can only tell you that your view is completely, COMPLETELY wrong!
One main reason, why I had so much contact with Iranian women, after not having contact with hardly any women all over Central Asia, was for sure also the separation between men and women. Unmarried men wouldn't really come to talk to me (or us when I was only with girls) and the separation between men and women is really enforced: in busses women and men are separated; in the metro there are women-only compartments (women can also go into the men compartments though); and in inter-city- busses they would always put me next to another women when I was travelling alone,...
That the people didn't talk to us girls doesn't mean that they are not open to foreigners. I could experience the complete opposite later when I was only with Matthias: I can't count how often people would talk to us, asked us where we came from - and no, it was not only carpet-sellers, who were interested in chatting with us! After the obligatory first question: "Where you're from?" the most popular question was: "What do you think about Iran?"
When talking with us I could see that they were unhappy about the picture people from abroad have about their country and they really tried to show and teach us about their real lives and the thoughts of the people. These are indeed contrary to the government and to the picture we gain only through Media coverage in the West.
People really struggle under the restrictive regime and laws, which go back to the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. The funny thing is: we hear a lot about president Ahmedinejad in the West, who suggested to move Isreal to Europe. However, I don't know how often I exerienced exactly the same situation: when Ahmedinejad appeared on TV the people just started to laugh about him. He's not taken seriously in Iran. People inside Iran know that the real leader of the country is Khomeinis follower Khamenei, the Supreme Leader. Both - Khomeini (even though dead since 1989) and Khameinei - are omnipresent: you can see many posters everywhere, Khomeini is on each Rial-bill (except the biggest) and many shops have pictures of the two Supreme Leaders.
Religion was - being in an Islamic Republic - of course a big topic for me too. Not only because of the clothes I had to wear during my whole stay, but because of the strong impact of religion on everyday life.
I was surprised, how different mosques are to churches. With Matthias I once spent quite some time in a mosque: in the big middle people were praying, but on the sides it kids were running around and playing with the water-pools (provided for the religious cleanings), and in the edges people would sit in cercles and chat, or even eat a picknick. All of this behaviour doesn't come even close to my memories when I was a small kid in the church: I was forbidden to talk in the church, I had to concentrate, to walk slowly and god-fearingly...
When we were in Mashhad, me and Lise had been to the holiest site in Iran: the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza. He was the eight out of 12 Imams(descendants of prophet Mohammad) in the Shi'a believes (and no, even though he got the saint-title "Imam", Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is NOT one of them). Imam Reza is the only one to be burried within Iran, making this place the holiest site within the country. When we were there it was more our Iranian friends than us, who behaved in catholic terms "inappropriate": giggling and laughing all the time because of the chadors we all had to wear.
So yes, we were having fun, while most of the people around us were in the mosque to prey and to touch the golden barriers around the holy shrine. It was simply madness in the room with the shrine:
people were pushing and squeezing each other only to touch the golden barrier to the shrine. I do respect peoples believes and religions. But it does not hinder me from openly thinking that touching or kissing a golden shrine will make you healthy, is highly supersticious, and complete bullshit! I am against anything dogmatical, and this practise of religion is what I call dogmatical...
Many things are forbidden in Iran. Officially even music, unless it's religious music, is forbidden. But, well, in reality there is music everywhere. The same is the case with satellite-TV - it is forbidden but it is everywhere: in each Iranian household I have been to the huge LCD-TVs would be constantly on with TV-shows from abroad. And of course Iranians are as facebook-addicted as we are in the West. Facebook is of course forbidden and blocked.
That nearly everything, which is fun or pleasure, is forbidden in this country leads to a kind of biedermaieresque or vormärzesque situation: there is the strict public life (where woman have hejabs and men long trousers; where boys and girls should not be seen together; where it is forbidden to listen to music; where…), and there is a completely opposite life within the homes of people.
Parties, and even weddings (or at least wedding afterparties) would therefore take place inside private homes.
Iranian parties are completely different from parties back home. I was at a few ones, which were all quite similar: after most of the guests arrived, people would start to dance to loud music. Please tell me: who back in Europe would start dancing in bright roomlight, inside a family home, without alcohol?!?
But hey, it was great fun! And after all the parties I've been to I now know a bit how to dance persian-stye.
Beside the repression of cultural life, they also have big economical problems: the devaluation of their currency. The Rial lost half of it's value in the last two months, making everyday life really expensive (and travelling in the country really, really cheap!). This devaluation is due to the sanctions of the US against the regime: the country, even though Iran is ranked on the fourth place of oil reserves in the world, struggles a lot. Even fuel is relatively expensive as they don't have enough refineries in the country, so they have to export and reimport their own oil after it got refined abroad. Iran is importing a lot of other products too, however they don't have the foreign money to pay for it. Iran is not connected to the international banking network (which meant for me that I had to bring all the money I thought I gonna spend into the country - like it was the case in Myanmar).
The currencys value is constantly changing (a lot) and people get daily updates about the black-market value of the USD. When I arrived I exchanged my first USD against 23.000 Rial. The next time I got 28.000 per USD, and again the next time 31.000. But in between the USD had even reached the mark of 45.000 Rial (man, I should have exchanged at this point of time!!). At the moment of writing the USD is worth around 31.500 Rial. (Short exkurs: at least the money has more intelligent bank-notes than the Uzbek Soms, which are worth as few as the Iranian Rial. The highest Iranian Rial bill is worth 500.00, whereas the highest Uzbek Som banknote is worth 1.000,-. On this picture you can see the equivalent of 300USD: three simple 100-USD-bills turned into 960 bills of 1.000UZS).
There is a big gap between the people and it's government. People do less and less agree with their government and don't feel represented by them at all. Most people understood that the government is showering them with wrong propaganda. When talking to them, I felt that they are just waiting for real change and till a new revolution breaks out. One friend once wrote me in a text-message: “This country has future too. We fight for the children of this land. Maybe they can face the freedom, what we missed it…” On the other hand: Many of the Couchsurfers, most of them in my age or a bit younger, only want one thing: LeaveIran - for good. I helped one friend to prepare for his interview at the Canadian embassy, others I met were preparing to go studying in Europe, and again others were focussing on Australia or the US. After having met people, who were so enthousiasticly waiting for a change, I was a bit sad to see that especially the people from the next generation just want to escape, and don't see a future WITHIN this country.
But it would be so worth fighting for: you can see and feel that this country has a long history of developed culture and education. So even though the regime at the moment is highly repressive, they can't change the people. People here are used to education, to critical thinking, and you feel that they are by no means accepting to be disposessed of it. The regime is limiting the access to various sites and forbids satellite TV - even more after the web 2.0- driven "Green Revolution" of 2009. They have satellite TV, even though they are not allowed and risk the punishment. And they will always find a way to bypass these limitations (like in China people simply use proxies or VPNs to access forbidden sites) - technology is so much faster than any goverment can be...
One of the reasons, why I was enjoying the encounters with Iranian people so much and why they were often much deeper than the encounters with all the lovely people in Central Asia is that the people I met in Iran were mostly really educated. After so many shared-taxi rides in Central Asia I was sick of talking to people, repeating the same questions over and over and over again (Are you married? Do you have kids? Why not? How much do people earn in your country?...). In Iran on the contrary I had many really interesting discussions about politics, religion and society.
Don't get me wrong, I really loved Central Asia and it's people. But when it comes to education and cultural development, they are still far behind, or at least completely different. What we saw were countries, which were still highly agricultural. The people on the countryside had hardly or no education and their lives were straight forward: getting married, getting kids, working on the fields. The ruling system on the other hand is highly corrupt; educational diplomas can be bought hence leading to poorly educated and highly corrupt people in higher positions. The establishment reproduces itself.
Crossing the border to Iran, the Persian empire, you can see and feel the differences: People in this country are educated, they know what education means, how important it is, and they are craving for it. Me on the other hand, I was craving for real and deep conversations with people, which go above the subject of why I am not married.
I am of course aware of the fact that I reached only a certain layer of society: the educated (upper) middle-class. Through Couchsurfing I of course met people with quite similar views of the world and on cultural differences like myself. So the people I stayed with are of course not representative for the whole country, but I guess for educated, critically thinking and openminded people.
But Iran is so much more than their culturally rich origins. One important characteristicum of Iranian society is their hospitality. And even though I've been to many countries with really hospitable people (Central Asia is among the leaders too!), I felt for the first time entirely embarrassed to have come empty-handed. The more I was happy that Niku and Matthias brought Swedish respectively Austrian souvenirs for our hosts.
Anywhere I stayed with my different travel mates, our hosts did anything to make us happy and adjusted their entire timetable to our visit, overwhelmed us with things we could see and do in and around their hometown, came to get us at any time a the bus-terminal, drove us around wherever we wanted to go and cooked the most amazing food for us.
Oh yes, that's something really Iranian: feeding people to death. My hosts cooked the most delicious food for us (my food-gallery gained another 95 photos just from Iran!), and between the delicious dishes for lunch and dinner they offered us tea with baklava, gaz and other traditional sweets. So, well, in Iran I did not manage to lose weight ;)
Just check this amazingly funny comedy-clip, you'll understand all about food in Iran. I showed it to all my hosts in Iran, and they all bursted out in laughter:
The thing with the endless offered food is all about Ta'arof as well. Ta’arof?! Well, me as well I didn’t really understand it. It is “a mode of social interaction in which everyone knows their place.” (Lonely Planet Iran 2012, 290) Everything clear now?! Well, in theory maybe, but in reality: where the hell is my place in this system?!
So if you think you should react like in Europe, where you feel as if the host is going to be pissed off, if you don’t eat his food, after having offered it more than one time, you will DEFINITELY get really fat in Iran. Because Iranians offer you food, or drinks or whatever at least a few times before accepting a "no". They will eventually accept, but Ta’arof obliges them to offer it many times. Ta’arof also obliges them to offer to invite you and do anything to make guests happy, and you have to insist more than one time till they accept that you do want to pay for yourself, or invite them for a change.
But still, I simply never knew, when is an offer just a Ta’arof and when is it not?! Attack is the best defence, right?! I simply said that I don’t understand Ta’arof and didn’t want more food, or wanted to pay for myself. And in the end I also realised that Iranians often do the same saying مهمون حبیب خداست (Lotfan Ta'arof nakon! - Please stop taarofing! (<-- this link leads you to a "you know you're Iranien when..."-page. I really had to laugh (thinking of Niku and all her luggage when leaving Iran) when I read: "you know you're Iranin when you're standing next to the largest suitcase in the airport." That's so true, thanks to all your relatives giving you 1000 presents before leaving the country...)!
But there is more to Iranian hospitality than ta'arofing:
All over Iran, I was always staying with couchsurfers, and in a few cities I was staying with friends (of friends of friends). Whenever you leave a family, they will try to find somebody they know in your next destination. They really care a lot about their guests, which are considered in a Farsi proverb as a present from god (لطفآ تعارف نکن - mehmon habib khodast). But even though there were sometimes many interims between me and the hosts (as mentionned: friends of friends of friends), the welcome was not less warm.
So hospitality is a lot about taking care of the guests, and worrying about them. I experienced that especially when I was travelling alone: Anywhere I took the bus my hosts were talking to the busdriver, to ensure that I had a good seat in the bus. The hosts of my next destination would then also talk to the busdriver via phone to ensure that everything was ok, and would then of course come coming to pick me up from the terminal.
Niku, Marcel, me and Matthias
But well, I was not travelling alone that much: first Lise, my travelpartner for the seven weeks in Central Asia was still with me. Our ways split after one week, because she had to get home faster. I was then alone for around ten days before Niku came to join me. Remember Niku?! She's the Swedish-Iranian girl I met in China exactly one year ago. We then travelled together for around two weeks, before she went to Tehran to stay with her big family. Exactly at this point of time Matthias, my dear friend from Vienna, joined me to travel for two weeks with me. In Tehran he took a flight back home, and I joined Niku again, who coincidentally had exactly the same flight out of the country like me. And during all these last four weeks my travel-route crossed quite often with Marcel, a Swiss guy I had first met in Khiva, Uzbekistan.
I had a great time travelling in Iran with all of them. And if you want to ask me a question about safety (another stereotype, and question I got asked a few times): "No, I never had the feeling not to be safe".
Iran is a huge country with big differences: I visited Mashhad, with Irans holiest sight (as mentionned). But I also saw many towns and villages around Mashhad with mausolea of famous Persian poets (like Ferdosis mausoleum on this picture).
After that I was at the Kaspian sea in the North,...
...as well as on Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf, where I saw the life of the mainly Arabic people ont he islands.
I was in Kashan and Yazd, both cities close and really adapted to the desert. They are really beautiful with its many windtowers, which are like natural airconditions: through the windtowers breezes of air get into the houses during the unbearably hot summers.
While in Yazd, Niku, Marcel and me went to stay overnight in some sanddunes of the closeby desert. That was an amazing evening: we made a barbeque by ourselves (which was delicious), were sitting together around the fire till we went to bed, and in the morning got up before sunrise to see the sun climbing up behind the beautiful sanddunes. What a really unique experience!
I of course also visited the touristic highlights of the country, like Shiraz.
That the grape Shiraz (Syrah in it's original language - yes, it's a grape from France) is originally from this very city had been proved to be a legend, even though they were growing wine (Shirazi wine) in and around Shiraz too. Still, I did really like and believe this legend, till researching about it right now, and I would have loved to drink a glass of Shiraz while being in Shiraz. That did not happen, so I cannot compare it to all the delicious Shiraz wine I had the chance to taste in Australia. More healthy: we went hiking instead (aka picknicking).
While being in Shiraz we of course visited Persepolis too, or what Alexander the Great has left of it after invading and defeating Persia it in 330BC. These temples are 2500 years old!! Sometimes it's impressive to see how developped societies were that long ago...
Esfahan is not without reason the most important touristical city in Iran:
The Imam-Square - the second largest square (after Tian'anmen Square in Beijing and before the Red Square in Moscow) - is really beautiful.
On one end lies the huge and simply impressive Imam Mosque. Even though I have seen many blue-tiled mosques by now after Uzbekistan and all the other cities in Iran, this one left me with my mouth standing wide open!
Completely different was Hamedan in the mountains, where we took the chance to go hiking. Our Iranian friends gave up quite soon, not beeing used to hiking (Iranian hiking is different: going a few meters and then starting a picknick).
Another highlight after that was Tabriz, which is again completely different:
Tabriz is within Irans region Azerbaijan, which is - you guessed it - close to the country Azerbaijan. People there are from the minority group (which are as many as around 16% within the country) speak Azeri Turkish. And all the people we got to know there were more proud to be Azeri, than Iranian. Or should I even say: they felt Azeri, but not Iranian.
While being in Tabriz I did it!! Yes, I did what many tourists in Iran do: I bought a carpet :)
Matthias had the plan of buying a carpet in Iran, and the huge market of Tabriz is definitely a perfect place for this plan. But don't ask my why it was me too who finally went out of the shop with a carpet under my arm?!? Erm, yes, these carpet sellers definitely know their business well...
And finally Tehran - this huge, smoggy city with it's endless trafficjams.
I didn't visit anything within Tehran, but I saw it all - from above!
In my six weeks in Iran I have done a lot of things, mostly thanks to my hosts: I was swimming in the Persian Gulf, I learned how to dance Iranian-style - and taught Viennese Waltz to others, I stayed overnight in Sanddunes, I smoked shisha in tea-houses (and finally bought one), I went paragliding over Tehran, I learned to read farsi and say a few words and phrases, I got a traditional henna-tattoo from Hengam-island, I bought a carpet in the markets, I went to a Iranian wedding and various different parties, I was at a concert of traditional Iranian music and....
I experienced a lot about Iranian lifestyle, took a lot of pics, met many amazing people, but still have the feeling that there is so much more to experience in this huge country!! So - again - I'll be back!
*I didn’t publish this story before having left the country – simply because I didn’t want to get any problems whatsorever. Because there is nothing I would have needed less, than the regime thinking of me being a non-declared journalist, which I am not. I do not believe that there is any problem with my story, but I don't know enough about this regime. So to be on the safe side, there are no photos of my Iranian hosts and friends, only of my foreign friends or random people... And I was writing this story in a way that none of all the amazing people I got to know during my journey could be harmed. Hence most of my general impressions about Iran in this story are not chronological, mostly without place-indications and names of people.
**Many of the pictures within this story and the gallery are taken by Matthias, Marcel, Lise or Niku. And some are from the internet.
