Food

We have mentioned ‘drinks’ already. Reading travel guides is mouth-watering and one arrives with high expectations. Reality is different. Since 99% of all tourists travel in large groups, it is no surprise that “romantic, cozy and traditional” restaurants are absent. In many cases the restaurant of a major hotel is the only option. There dozens of stainless steel containers are keeping nearly tasteless food warm. In order not to intimidate foreign tourists spices are not used at all. It is almost like British food.

A few times we were able to find delicious Persian food. Lamb kebab is delicious, also the barley soup. Dizi is a cheap soup-stew meal and is considered the food of the poor. It is delicious and filling. There is however, an art of eating it. First, drain the soup into a bowl full of bite-sized pieces of bread – and eat it. Then, using a pestle, grind the ingredients (chickpeas, potatoes, tomatoes and fat mutton) and enjoy it.

The flat bread is a delight, as long as it is fresh from the oven. Otherwise it is a chewy, dried, almost indestructible rubbery pancake.

Tea is excellent, coffee is a torture.

Health

No precautions whatsoever. No vaccinations. We followed our regime: cook it, peel it or leave it. We tolerated the food very well.

Persian Carpets

Is world famous and the best known cultural export. The oldest known carpet is 2500 years old. It is not the purpose of this report to cover this topic in great detail. On our last day I thought that we would return without a Persian carpet however, on the last evening Hertha found something that was “love at first sight”, and not much later we owned it.

Basic Facts

Iran has the size of Alaska and 70 million inhabitants (more than California and Texas combined). The population is very young. They have twice as many youngsters (%) than us, but we have 4 times (%) as many senior citizens as Iran. The country is the 4th largest crude oil producer in the world however; half of the gasoline has to be imported and is rationed.

Economically Iran remains a dwarf. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the US is about 60 times the GDP of Iran. Western media create the impression that Iran is heavily armed up to their teeth. If you look at annual spending for military per year and inhabitant, you will see that the US top the list with $1617, peace-loving Austria spends $337 and Iran, in the middle of hostile and crisis-shaken countries spends just $61 per person and year. Iran’s military budget is less than 4% of the US budget.

Return Flight

Tehran International Airport is not really busy

The flight on Iran Air to Vienna takes less than 5 hours.

Waiting for the plane

Summary
What did we like best? The friendly people? Isfahan, Shiraz or Persepolis?

We still don’t know. In order to find out one would have to make at least one more trip and stay for a month.

Related posts:

1. The memory of a traveler, part 1
2. The memory of a traveler, part 5
3. The memory of a traveler, part 2

Esfahan is Iran’s masterpiece and the jewel of ancient Persia. In the 16th century Persians proudly said that Esfahan is “half of the world”. Today Esfahan has 4 million inhabitants, but no city of this size has more parks and tree-lined alleys. Several sights are “world class” and one can safely say that Esfahan is the most beautiful city of the Islamic world.
The first sight is the Palace of 40 Columns. Well, there are only 20, but Persians count also the ones mirrored in the water of the pond. The inside of the palace is marvelous. A typical painting shows the sultan and his court at a meal, while young ladies are dancing. Our guide keeps explaining that the young ladies are Armenian Christians. Muslim women would not engage in such activity.

Same picture everywhere: Hertha is the center of attention
The heart of the city is the Imam Square. With a length of 1500 ft and a width of 500 ft, it is the second largest square of the world. The Tian-An-Men Square in Beijing ranks at number one. The square is home to three fantastic sights: the Imam Mosque is probably the most beautiful mosque in the world. The dome has a height of 150 ft and the entire complex is a dreamlike symphony in blue. When we stopped exactly in the middle of the room and looked up to the top of the dome I noticed tears in Hertha’s eyes. She was so overwhelmed. A popular tourist activity is testing the echo. Provided that there is no other activity in the room, one can hear even the echo of crinkling a banknote. One can hear up to 12 echos, and one can measure 49 of them.

It is impossible to catch the grandeur of this building

Hair and naked feet!
Totally different is the Lotfollah Mosque. The dome’s color is creamy, and there are no minarets. Most likely it was the mosque for the harem.

The 6-story-high Ali Qapu Palace is a wonderful addition to an otherwise already spectacular square.

Another example of pastime religious tolerance is the quarter of the Armenian Christians. When in 1600 the sultan called for skilled workers from abroad, he wanted to make sure that they feel like at home and he had several churches erected. Even today Isfahan is home to 13 churches, and Vank Cathedral is probably the best of them. From the outside the churches look like mosques, except that there are crosses on the top of the domes. The inside overwhelms. It is full of Christian paintings and contrary to Islam, shows human beings.

Left: the outside, right: the inside of the cathedral

The best place to stay in Esfahan is the Abbasi Hotel, formerly a caravanserai:

What a cute little baby!

At night one last glimpse at the Imam Mosque before we fly next morning back to Tehran, flying over the desert

Related posts:

1. The memory of a traveler, part 3
2. Tehran
3. The memory of a traveler, part 5

Is 7000 years old and one feels well almost immediately in this very traditional town. Yazd was once the center of the ancient Persian religion of Zoroaster. Outside the town one can still visit the Towers of Silence. Until 1960 they put their dead on a gridiron rost. Then the vultures came and cleaned the bones. Zoroastrians believe that burying or burning corpses is pollution of the soil or the air. 1970 the Shaw stopped this practice and forced them to bury their dead in coffins made of concrete. In Yazd there is a temple where a sacred fire is said to burn without interruption for 1500 years.

Zoroastrianism was one of the first religions with an almighty invisible god. According to that religion there is an eternal battle between the Good and the Evil. Man has a choice. If you do well, you enter paradise (…a Persian word!!!), if not, you go to hell. Zoroastrian women are allowed to wear patterned headscarfs and knitted skirts.

Clearly, the Shiite version of Islam is the state religion (98%). Other religions (Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jews) are tolerated as long as they do not engage in missionary activities. There are even guaranteed seats in parliament for them. Iran has the second highest Jewish population in the Middle East. The only forbidden religion is the Muslimic Baha’i religion.

How to cope with the desert:

At first one is surprised how a desert city can feed so many people. The secret is the abundance of water. Since more than 2000 years they use underground water supplies (qanates). They run 300 ft below the surface and use gravity to transport cool water from the far away mountains to the city. There are 80,000 miles of known man-made water canals in Iran. That explains the abundance of trees and parks and it was the priority and a symbol of pride for each ruler to make his city even greener.

Another technical miracle is the wind towers, a kind of ancient air conditioning, of course without electricity. They use wind, even gentle breezes, to cool down the air and you believe it when you stand under a wind tower and enjoy the cool air, when the outside temperature is 30 F higher.

After the 300 miles in the car of the previous day another 300 miles wait for us. This time it is real desert. Barren land, wherever you look. Every 300 ft an overloaded truck is following the asphalt lane, a kind of modern camel. A sudden sandstorm makes driving more challenging, but in the evening we arrive safely in Esfahan.

Related posts:

1. The memory of a traveler, part 5
2. Tehran Continue 2

Further North is the complex of Pasargadae with the impressive grave of King Cyrus, also almost destroyed by the Arabs. Under Cyrus (500 BC) the Persian Empire stretched from Libya to Turkey and India. He freed the Jewish slaves in Babylon and allowed them to return home to Jerusalem. ……Times have changed indeed.

As we continue our trip the landscape becomes more dramatic. Fertile valleys are flanked by impressive rock formations and snow-capped mountains are visible far away. Twice we climb up to 8000 feet. In the evening, after a pleasant drive of 300 miles, we arrive at Yazd, a desert city with 1 million inhabitants. We spend the night in an interesting hotel that once was a caravanserai.

Related posts:

1. The memory of a traveler, part 1
2. The memory of a traveler, part 4
3. The memory of a traveler, part 8

In the morning, before the buses arrived, we had the pleasure and privilege to have Persepolis for ourselves. The complex is, compared to ancient Greek sites, simply overwhelming. It was not even finished, when Alexander the Great destroyed it 2300 years ago. Historians state, that female jealousy triggered this rampage. When the Arabs conquered Iran, they wanted to completely destroy even the ruins. Later Persepolis sunk into the sand was forgotten. Archeologists dug it out before World War II and once again it was almost erazed: the mullahs wanted to eraze all pre-Islamic heritages – as they did in Afghanistan with the giant Buddhas. I am surprised that its Greek name survived the centuries. The town was never mentioned in the bible. Persepolis has been built on a divine scale. Some stones weigh more than 30 tons and were jointed perfectly with each other. The most impressive detail in Persepolis is the stone relief of Apradana, showing 23 different nationalities who lived in the Persian Empire. They are shown in great detail paying tribute to the Persian Emperor, e.g. Egyptians, Armenians, Indians, Ethiopians…are carrying vessels, cloths, furs, young lions, buffalo, rams and camels. There was not a single scene that showed an act of war or violence, except the ritual biting of a bull by a lion.

When I was looking for Hertha in Iran, all I had to do was to look for a crowd of females. This time they were school girls hanging on Hertha’s lips. No matter how vigorously the female teacher used her whistle for a call to order, at this time Hertha got all the attention. By the way, in Iran girls have female teachers, boys have male teachers.

Related posts:

1. The memory of a traveler, part 1
2. The memory of a traveler, part 5
3. The memory of a traveler, part 3

Shiraz has given its name to one of the most famous grapes in the world. Today there is no Shiraz wine in Shiraz. The desert city is 4000 years old and has been called the city of love, gardens, poets, roses and learning. We admit: in no other Persian city people were more open and lovable.

Life in this desert city can be like in a beehive, but between 12 and 6 pm public life comes to a complete stop, even the shops close.

Shiraz has an old citadel, and there Hertha gets the first flavor of what will be her contacts with women throughout the country. She walks slowly towards the entrance gate, when she is all of a sudden surrounded by numerous chador-clad women. It suffices when 2-3 of them speak English to keep the conversation going. All contacts were benevolent.

The citadel with its leaning tower

Inside the citadel

The economic heart of every Iranian city is the bazaar. It has always been pleasant to take a bath in the crowd.

Many of the things offered are unknown to us

In the Friday Mosque we get the first glimpse of Islamic artwork. Since pictures of human beings are not allowed, the Islamic artisans have become masters of ornamental techniques.

Guides

Yes, you need them. First of all, the government wants to know your whereabouts at all times. Secondly you are illiterate, are not allowed to drive and have only crude maps. Unless you like to bargain for 30min with a taxi driver for the price of a trip that lasts only 10min……

Our guides let us travel on a very long leash and whenever we wanted, we were on our own. When strolling alone through the streets, I was never really alone. Very often people asked me for my name, my age, my children and of course “where I am from”. Austria in Farsi is called Autriche (like the French would say). It happened several times that Iranians imitated a fiddler, when I learned that I am coming from the country of waltz (being in a country where dancing is strictly forbidden….).

When I held my “map” for better visibility towards a street lantern, I could be sure that someone would stop and ask me where I wanted to go.

Our guide in Shiraz was “more wide than tall”, was a university professor and in earlier years a wrestler. Because of his enormous weight he was constantly panting and sweating, but he was a bundle of energy. His name was Daryush, the Persian version of Dareios. In the old days there were 3 Persian kings with that name, so he called himself modestly King Daryush IV.  He cannot live on a salary of a university professor, so he works most of the time as a tour guide. He makes sure that by constant eating his shape remains spheric, and since his main food is meat, he suffers from gout.

For the next few days on our trip from Shiraz to Persepolis, Yazd and Isfahan the backseat of a tiny Korean car was our new home.

In general, all our guides were courteous, spoke reasonable English and were knowledgeable. One of them clearly exaggerated and told me that in preparation for his work he had “googled” me.

Shiraz has been the home of two of the most famous Persian poets: Haffiz and Sadi. Their graves are wonderful places and in the evening locals hang out there in high numbers. We are astonished how openly we could discuss sensitive topics and they all seem to be highly educated. This was the one and only time I got a handshake from an Iranian lady. Men and women cannot touch each other in public. Shiraz is known in Iran for their “independent” people. It was the only place in Iran where I detected a young couple on a hidden park bench and the young man had his hand on the shoulder of his fiance.

Tomb of Haffiz at night

The fame of Haffiz and Sadi in Iran is definitely greater than that of Shakespeare in the English speaking world. Here I would like to insert a few words from a travel report by Swiss Nicolas Bouvier, who traveled in the 50’s in a tiny Fiat from Switzerland to India. He had the car door painted with a poem from Haffiz:

No secure roof for the night
Your goal is far away
But believe me, no path is without end
Don’t be sad

Bouvier wrote in his book: for months this poem served as a door opener in all corners of the country, where people have no reasons to love strangers. It is unbelievable, how big the influence of this 500 year old poetry still is and how beloved and well known his verses are everywhere.

On anther occasion Bouvier writes: The purpose of traveling is not that you decorate yourself like a Christmas tree with exotics and anecdotes, but that the road shakes you, flushes you and wrings you, like those towels that have become flimsy due to excessive laundering

Hertha is as usual hopelessly surrounded by young women and she speaks with feministic authority. Her audience is listening with full attention. Later our driver warns Hertha to be more careful. I know that it would be more pleasant to visit Hertha in an Iranian jail than censoring her words.

According to the mullahs’ belief these charming ladies will go to hell for their hair

Related posts:

1. The memory of a traveler, part 1
2. The memory of a traveler, part 4
3. The memory of a traveler, part 8

The best-known politicians are Ahmedinechad, Imam Khomeini and Imam Khameini. From our conversation with people we got the impression that Ahmedinechad is a relatively powerless puppet on a string. Khomeini enjoys a decent reputation. Khameini has the title of “Supreme Leader”, but speaks for more powerful mullahs who are rarely seen in public. Virtually everything in Iran is controlled by mullahs.
Among the people we spoke to there is little love lost to the mullahs. They are generally seen as power hungry, greedy for money, “don’t really work” and have, contrary to ordinary Iranians the luxury (?) of several wives. We had expected that pictures of these three politicians will be seen in high numbers, but to the contrary. Austrian politicians are seen much more frequently, grinning stupidly down on us.

The exiled son of the Shaw is enjoying wide-spread secret admiration and some Iranians are questioning why they have overthrown the Shaw. An elderly taxi driver spontaneously showed us an old banknote with a picture of the Shaw: “…good man”. Several Iranians expressed their dissatisfaction with Ahmedinechad’s provocative statements on the stage of world politics. Iranians want to be respected members of mankind and not the outcasts.

Persians strongly dislike Arabs and they make every effort to say that they are NOT Arabs. One has the feeling that the Arab conquest had taken place just a few years ago and not many centuries ago.

Tehran

Is a gigantic city, located at the foot of the Elburs Mountains (17,000 feet). No one really knows how many people live in Tehran, but no estimate was below 15 million people. Although on any weekday only one half of the cars are allowed to drive and gasoline is rationed, traffic is beyond description and makes it one of the most polluted cities of the world.. The creativity of Tehran’s drivers is most impressive.

E.g. try to make a U-turn on a 6-lanes-expressway where traffic is bumper to bumper, divided by double solid yellow lines. In Iran this is possible and no one would honk his horn. Almost every minute you can see a new creative detail, how Tehrani drivers cope with the challenges. Crossing such a street requires from pedestrians utmost physical and mental fitness. You need to guess which driver would stop and which one would not. Don’t resort to crosswalks, they don’t mean anything. No, Iranians are never aggressive when driving (almost the opposite of Germans). It is very important that, before you start your creative maneuver, you avoid strictly any eye contact, as this can be seen as a sign of weakness or might reveal your intention prematurely. Once you have tricked your “opponent”, put on your most disarming smile, make a few friendly and apologetic hand gestures, and within seconds you are off to another adventure.

And Allah is sitting on a cloud and smiling benevolently down onto the world he has created….

Far less exciting is mingling with the pedestrian world. Black is the most fashionable color for women. Iranians are absolutely not afraid of getting in touch with foreigners. They explain that they are also of Indo-European descent and in order to prove that, they have Iranian words ready that sound very similar in other Western languages. The language sounds pleasantly, almost the opposite of the Czech language. Iranians use the Arabic alphabet, writing from the right to the left. They use “real” Arabic numbers and write them from left to right.

At the airport a 9 year old boy asks me whether I speak German (American tourists are traditionally hard to find….). He would like to practice his German. He speaks without accent, using perfect grammar and has a huge vocabulary. He has learned the language on TV (!). His father, who speaks no foreign language, proudly watches his son “performing”.

Related posts:

1. The memory of a traveler, part 1
2. The memory of a traveler, part 8
3. The memory of a traveler, part 3

Vast deserts, snow capped mountains, dreamlike domes of world-famous cities such as
Esfahan or Shiraz, the ancient ruins of Persepolis and the merciless metropolitan area of Tehran. Only few countries offer so many contrasts as the Iran.

When I was young, I dreamed  about traveling from Austria to Persia and I envied my friends who made it in their small cars to Persia and back. In school we were told that more than 2000 years ago the Persians were the bad guys because they attacked “our” highly civilized Greeks. So it was mere justice, when Alexander the Great totally destroyed their capital Persepolis.

The Shaw and his wives greatly influenced my imagination of Persia. The boulevard press was full of praise for that ruler, who resided in pompous palaces, almost like in a fairytale. For me it was then hard do understand why Persian students in my hometown burned effigies of the Shaw.

The revolution in 1979 surprised everyone. One religious zealot named Khomeini managed to topple the Shaw and his powerful army. All of a sudden the fairytale were gone, and the country with the new name Iran lost attractiveness as a travel destination.

Iraq, then a “good state” (according to US-ratings) attacked Iran, hoping for an easy prey. The war was long and furious and millions of lives were lost. Iraq even used the later infamous weapons of mass destruction, obtained from the US. Taking hostages from the US embassy in Tehran further diminished Iran’s reputation.

In the meantime Iraq has been “liberated”, but Iran continues to be rated as one of the three rogue states. Even last year I thought it to be too risky to travel to Iran. I did not want to die from US or Israeli fighter jets. In 2009 the situation got more relaxed and we decided to travel.

Iran or Persia?

Both is correct. Iran is related to the word “Arian”. Persia got its name from the ancient region of “Pars”. When Arabs (who have no ‘p’ in their alphabet) conquered Persia, the Parsi language was now called ‘Farsi’.

Prejudices and Our Impressions

Iran is definitely not loved by the media. It has a theocratic regime that allegedly sponsors worldwide terrorism and secretly works on an atomic bomb in order to destroy the US and Israel. Thieves get their hands amputated, and the mullahs wrap the Iranian women into black cloth so that they look like ugly crows.

We have found the Iranians to be warm-hearted, good looking, elegant, highly educated, charming, peace-loving and pleasantly curious. Despite the law that their heads have to be covered in public, it is easy to find out that Iranian women are very pretty. Traditionally the first question is “where are you from?”.  Austria in Farsi is like the French “Autriche”, and there were several Iranians who spontaneously mimicked a fiddler when hearing that we come from the country of waltz.

Our Tour

When reading a travel guide one is tempted to spend a month in Iran. When you travel for a week – as we did – you need to limit yourself to the absolute highlights and make some use of domestic flights. We visited Tehran, Shiraz and nearby Persepolis, Jazd (Yazd) and Isfahan.

Iranian Peculiarities

The most striking peculiarities are the dress code for ALL women and ……alcohol. “Women who show their hair will go to hell” and therefore women have to wrap themselves into black cloth, called chador. The more rebellious women soften that dress code by wearing a headscarf in “very decent” colors in combination with a very un-elegant coat. The very bold women show some hair, and even dye some blond strand of hair, use heavy makeup and choose brighter colors for their headscarf. Headscarf is a must, there are no exceptions, not even for female tourists, and I have not seen a single exception. It starts with the stewardess of Iran Air at the airport of Vienna. Needless to say that Hertha’s generous interpretation of dress code had been corrected several times by Iranians. She always wanted to test the waters.

When we crossed the desert, our car driver allowed Hertha to take off her headscarf. When driving through villages or approaching police checkpoints, the headscarf had to go back onto the head. Given these circumstances I graciously gave Hertha permission to remove her headscarf while we were in our hotel room. Naked feet are also an absolute “no no”. Men should not wear short pants.

Iran Air flight attendant Progressive Iranian Ladies

In the old days the minimum wedding age for girls was 9 years. Under the Shaw it was increased to 18, now it is back to 9.

The shortest chapter of this report deals with alcohol: “don’t!!!” You cannot even import liquor-filled chocolate Christmas tree decoration. One can see this from a positive angle: it is a good detoxification that starts at Vienna airport and ends there.

Related posts:

1. The memory of a traveler, part 4
2. How Iranians Wear
3. The memory of a traveler, part 3

How do I afford all of this?

One of the most frequently asked questions is: I’d love to go traveling, but how do I afford all of this? This question most often comes from young first time travelers – here are ten things they should consider:

1. Live frugally, forget home cinema systems, save the money for travel. Be stingy at Christmas – get people small presents and ask for small ones in return (or even donations to the travel fund!). Keep an eye on all the bills, record how much you spend on things that aren’t necessary, and save save save !!.

2. Don’t own a car unless you really need it. If you’re living in a city do you really need the car ? Road-taxes are high; yearly servicing and legal requirements add up. Plus if you’re concerned about the environment – the CO2 from long haul flights will be offset by not driving for a year.

3. Give up SMOKING - what an incredible waste of money! If you don’t smoke, give up something else that costs money, and which you really don’t need, but do on a daily basis.

4. Avoid debt. Pay off any credit cards; if you have existing debts, transfer your balance to a new credit card which offers discounts on transferred debt and pay it off as quickly as possible.

5. Material possessions – whenever you want to buy something – think about – “what will I do with this when I’m away on my travels?” – if you can’t take it with you, then you can’t use it, so don’t buy it.

6. Don’t get caught in negative equity - having a disproportionate mortgage to your income or value of your home will be the biggest tie that binds you to your current job and stops you travelling for an extended period.

7. Have a monthly budget, and stick to it; include putting away some money as savings every month.

8. Get a second job - if you need to, try bar work or something completely different from your day job, use this money solely for your travel fund.

9. Be prepared to work during your travels. If you are under 30 and from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, or Europe, there are reciprocal agreements enabling you to work.

10. Visit places that are cheap, stay in budget accommodation and be careful how you spend. Some people go travelling and even come back with money from their initial backpacking budget. Location will have the largest impact on the overall cost of your travel. Think about it – a month in Europe will cost you three times as much as a month in South East Asia, so set your itinerary for a whirlwind tour of Europe and a longer spell in South East Asia.

This text is obtained from the following link as I found it interesting for those who want to travel but encounters the budget problem.

http://www.travelblog.org/Travel-Guide/preparation-1.html

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