After a few days with "our" new family, we want to move on. Mum, sisters and brothers don't want to know, but we have to and want to keep going. We try to explain that travelling on is part of the concept of a journey. Yes, they know that, but you don't have to go along with every concept.
Somehow they're right, but somehow they're not. We want to get going again, we long for the sea, the sun and the turquoise waves of the Persian Gulf.
So we decide to continue tomorrow. Okay, the family pulls out all the stops and the evening is great again: after dinner, we drive to the next town in several cars. When we ask what we're doing there: Eating ice cream and chilling out! Okay, we can do that. There's a little scuffle in the ice cream parlour, I try to pay for everyone, but no go, the owner of the ice cream parlour is in cahoots with the men. There is laughter and I am simply pushed away from the payment machine with a friendly laugh. "That's how far our guests have to pay!"
After eating ice cream, we drive up a romantic mountain illuminated in all colours. This is where people meet on Fridays to chill out, picnic and sing. It's empty today, but our family alone is big enough to fill the place with life.
We continue to the shrine, by now it is the middle of the night, but even here you can feel all the family energy in the shrine. Baby in arms, grandma and everyone in between marvel at the shrine with us. Once again, it is colourfully illuminated.
We say goodbye once again to Fatemeh, who had actually wanted to leave for Shiraz long ago. And later realise that she has stayed.
We stop off at the family restaurant, which opens its doors again especially for us. We drink tea, nibble on something like kitkats and listen to loud, I would almost say very loud, Iranian music. There is singing, clapping and, of course, talking. All in a jumble.
We give ourselves over to the music, are simply immersed in the family, in the music, in the culture. And we're excited to see what's to come.
In the morning, over breakfast together, we seriously declare that we will be travelling on. We are stocked up with all sorts of essentials: our thermos flask is filled with tea, Iranian tea, rose petals, sweets, homemade gherkins go into our storage cellar (we have a false bottom that we use for our supplies) and as a gift we receive a necklace with all the important things you bring with you: a few grains of rice, some salt, a few spices, some flour. A very magical gift, a symbol that all these things must never run out.
We pack up the last of the dry laundry (of course we were allowed to use the washing machine) and are about to roll out of the courtyard when the cook from the restaurant arrives with two large packed plates: "It's dinnertime, if you don't want to eat here, take this with you for the road!" "There are only two of us, who's going to eat all this?" "You'll manage," he assures us.
To say goodbye, but now for real, they want to accompany us for a few more kilometres. And whether the women are allowed to join us in the Felix? Sure, they get in and thank goodness I remember an Iranian song from last night (thank Shazam!), play it loud on the radio and the party can begin. As soon as two bars are played, the people here are in the mood. And infect us immediately.
After 5 kilometres, a stop at a supermarket (we still have to take a few cold drinks, a few Iranian kitkats, 6 large bottles of water and selfies with the supermarket owner) we stop in the middle of the road. Now, it seems to us, it's really time to say goodbye. We hug each other (the men hug the men, the women hug the women) and have to promise to really, really come back and never forget this family.
How could we ever forget this family? How could we?
Regarding the photos: As always, I didn't take many photos and we don't have an OK from everyone for publication.
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.
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