Längerer Beitrag – schneller Überblick:
Iran is the first truly exotic country for us. And by exotic we mean: Everything is somehow different here. We can't stop being amazed. We smile, laugh, are irritated and sometimes even desperate. But the best thing is that no matter what, there is always someone there to ask if we need help or just a cup of tea.
Iran - Shopping
First of all, we don't have to do that much shopping. Because we are constantly being invited out. Not that that was or is our plan, but it's hard to resist so many invitations. And to be honest, we don't really want to. Gerd said rather casually on our walk today: "I'm a bit scared of the next countries. I'll miss the warmth!" And he's right, I feel the same way.
So what do we buy?
First of all: there is everything your heart desires. The shopping trolley (okay, we've never seen it here before) would fill up just like in the western world, so you really don't need to take anything extra with you.
Bread
First of all, we love Iranian bread. It comes in bubble wrap, in A3 size (Sorry, occupational disease, everything in paper sizes)as metre-long thin loaves that you throw over your shoulder, or as the Nânbrot we know. And yes, there are many other types and shapes of bread. The nice and funny thing about buying bread is that you can never be sure if you will get anything at all. There are patisseries with all kinds of sweet things, but they don't have any bread. And there are bakeries that sometimes, but not always, bake bread. So you have to go there. The locals probably know when the baker starts baking, we are sometimes lucky and sometimes not. So if the smell of freshly baked bread wafts through the alleyways, we go and buy some. But there are also days when we come up empty-handed. That happens.
Incidentally, the bread is sold warm from the oven, but of course tastes best fresh. In the restaurants it is (unfortunately) served in plastic bags. Otherwise it would harden immediately. We have already produced a lot of crispbread at Felix. But we don't mind, we like to eat it too.
Fruit & vegetables
You can buy vegetables in greengrocer's shops or at stalls. Fresh, of course. There are fruit and vegetable stalls on the main roads, as well as in every little street in the villages and towns. We tend to shop less on the roads, particulate matter, exhaust fumes and all that. But more about that in the article when I write something about the traffic here.
We watch the Iranians. They always buy huge sacks of onions, cucumbers, aubergines and so on. We can't even store these quantities, so we pick 4 or 6 potatoes out of these big sacks, 2 or 3 onions and 4 tomatoes and so on. That's all we can usually fit in our Felix. The vendors smile mildly at our mini quantities. But they are amazed every time we pull out our card and pay with it. They're not used to that. We only buy melons if we know that we're about to eat half of them. Because only half melons fit in our fridge. The Iranian bananas are much smaller and wonderfully sweet. Apparently they come from the Balochistan region, which is very sunny but which we won't be travelling to.
Pre-packed
You could talk about supermarkets now. Or not. Gerd would rather say shops. Because that's exactly the right term. You can buy everything here, from coal for the oven to nappies, instant noodles and cleaning products. Half of the products are packaged, the other half mostly unpackaged: Noodles, rice, lentils, herbs, sugar, saffron sugar, sweets and sometimes biscuits or waffles. Depending on the region, there is also packaged candy floss or other regional specialities.
There is also a lot in tins and jars, tomatoes or pickled cucumbers. Garlic etc. (and lots of things we don't know and can't decipher.) Then there's oil, butter, yoghurt and all sorts of cheeses. Pretty much all the cheeses here taste like some kind of solid milk mass. Except for the goat's cheese, which is similar to feta in Greece. But let's be honest: we are very picky, even in Switzerland we only have a handful of mountain cheeses that we really like.
Sweets
Oh yes, there is a lot of it and often. And everywhere. Sometimes it's funny how the names of the products remind us of familiar things from home in terms of design and product. We have photographed a few things. You can see if you can recognise what we've found.
There are sweets, biscuits, pastries, cakes and pies and ice cream. Which, to be honest, we haven't tried yet, somehow we're chasing winter or it's chasing us. (It wasn't planned that way, but the day will come when we start to sweat!)
All the sweet things here are much sweeter than in Germany or Switzerland. Sometimes we think that's great, sometimes not. Depending on our mood. But all in all: a country to our taste.
Otherwise:
Tempo wipes are bought individually, we had to look for toilet paper. Everything you buy is packed in plastic bags. Every single cucumber. I'm super quick when it comes to getting out my own used bags. And 50 per cent of the time, I win the plastic bag race. I've become a pro at it. If there's too much food in the restaurant, it's easily packed away. And we fry the rice (it's actually always rice!) the next day with an egg or some vegetables in the pan.
Eggs
Speaking of eggs. As in Tunisia, we buy them individually and get them in a plastic bag. We're also very organised here and have brought our green organic egg cartons from German supermarkets. Of course we get a funny look here, but then people smile and tell us that we are really well prepared. They probably think: "Oh, these tourists!" But the best thing is that the eggs we bring home are still intact.
There is so much more to say about shopping. But for today it's enough for a brief overview.
A little tip in passing
These are all just our own experiences. A very personal note and possibly different and perhaps even incomplete than other travellers may have experienced. So: experience it for yourself is the best recommendation!
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
Do you think our travel experiences might be of interest to others? Then you can share the Share post quietly. By e-mail or however you want to do it.
In addition, if you haven't already done so, you can use our Newsletter subscribe. Here you will receive all our experiences in your mailbox whenever we publish something new or once a week on Fridays: live-pur.ch/newsletter
We are also very happy to hear your views, your tips or your questions. Just comment on the post!
