We are leaving central Iran on the motorway, the news is coming thick and fast, various embassies are spontaneously flying their employees and their families home. It is 12 April 2024 and, looking back, we know that Iran will attack Israel the night after next.
And yes, we know that we have been late in writing our reports. We want to take the time to reflect on our wonderful journey through this incredibly rich country.
So we drive quickly northwards, our destination for today is Zanjan. There, or rather near Zanjan, we want to spend the night in a nice hostel. Erfan has assured us that we can sleep in peace and quiet in the courtyard and that the landlady is also a talented cook.
We only realise on arrival that we will be sleeping next to a historic UNESCO World Heritage Site. But on the way there, we can already feel that it's getting much cooler, so we unpack our woollen jumpers and have a picnic on one of the passes with Soodeh and Majid's leftover tomato and rice. It's a good thing we always use up all the leftovers!
When we arrive in Soltaniyeh, we are warmly welcomed and spoilt with culinary delights. But we can't really enjoy the evening as we are constantly looking at our smartphones with the latest news and thinking about what to do.
And we are planning: we are travelling towards Turkey, we know the border. We love the country. And then we'll have our own bed, our own kitchen and our own office at home in Switzerland: our Felix. For two or three months at home, a hotel or a permanent stay on the sofa with friends would be too exhausting for us. And to be honest, we don't know whether we want to spend the next winter in the Arab world.
So first get a good night's sleep! That means going to bed very early and getting up just before 8am. Our booked breakfast doesn't await us until 9am. This means: sightseeing right outside the door: Gonbad Solaniyeh, the mausoleum of Sultan Oldschaitu, one of the most magnificent tombs. The sultan himself must have had quite an eventful life. He converted from one religion to the next, then to the next, and in the end he simply had his own huge three-storey mausoleum built, in which he was buried in 1316.
The peace and quiet of the morning, our well-rested minds and the solitude here do us good. At breakfast we are still thinking about our route, Gerd says rather casually: "Let's leave today, I have a feeling it would be good". "It's a deal, let's go!"
Because one of our travelling rules is: if one of us has "that feeling", we listen to it. Always. Whether it's about pitches, money exchange or travel routes. Whether it's about political or interpersonal matters: such feelings, we also call them intuitions, are always accepted without question.
So we have breakfast after our last cultural and historical highlight and are on the motorway by 10 a.m. (after I have had my IDs, Carnet de Passage, visas and vehicle documents copied for the border in the copy-washing machine(?) shop). Because: we have another journey ahead of us today. But there is already a contributionwhich I am linking here and placing at the end of the page in chronological order, even though it was published over four weeks ago.
And so our journey through Iran ends with a long journey and many wonderful memories, which we have tried to capture here. In little daily anecdotes and in even smaller, curious, remarkable, enchanting mini-stories.
Thank you Iran, thank you for allowing us to immerse ourselves in this marvellous country. And thank you to all the people who, without exception, were wonderful, courteous and hospitable to us! Thank you, Merci, Kheili mamnoun!
Merci for "travelling with us
Here you can find our future lectures:
Date: 24 November 2024 4 pm (doors open at 3 pm)
Location: Germany, Landgasthof zum Mühlenteich 15345 Eggersdorf near Berlin
Registration: https://forms.gle/5XFgSz31NKzmCzmT8
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