Iran - A guest with friends

It's one of those things. The thing with the Friends. Until now, we had our own definition of friends. For us, they are people with whom we spend a long time together. We can trust them, we have a lot of shared memories. This "I can call and cry at night" is not really our thing, but we can always ask for help. We can listen, we can talk. We can share especially private, personal things with friends.

And then there are the Travelling friends. These are people we meet on the road, with whom we spend a few hours, a few days or maybe even weeks. For a short time, they are people we spend a lot of time with. When we go our separate ways, we sometimes stay in touch. Sometimes we lose each other. And sometimes we become real friends. Then our hearts are especially happy.

And we have recently learnt that we become friends very quickly in Iran. A whole new definition for us. Because up until now we have been between Friends and acquaintances differentiated. We are fast friends here. At least that's what they say. Is it perhaps due to the language, which simply has no other words for this typically German distinction? We don't know. But somehow we don't care either.

Our mobile phones are filled with the phone numbers of new friends. "You can call any time if you need help or just because!" And we believe that these are all serious offers. We are asked via messengers of all kinds where we are, whether we need anything, how we are and whether we can come back, we are cordially invited.

So we are sitting in the parlour of Erfan's family in Khoy. The table, which is not a table, is set festively and, above all, lavishly. We have a great time, enjoy a cosy meal and make friends. I knit with my mum and can even show her a few little patterns that she doesn't know yet. The French family we met in the car park at the roundabout, along with Erfan's family, are a great addition to this lovely evening. We have wonderful conversations about the meaning of life, about possible visions of the future and also learn a lot about the peculiarities that need to be observed in Iran (blowing your nose, tipping, road traffic, negotiating and so on).

We want to fill up with gas a few days later. We have clearly overestimated the temperatures here and want to see if we can fill up before we run out of heating. The petrol station operator doesn't really want to, but another customer makes a friendly impression. I show him my mobile phone display with "Can you help us?", he nods and everything goes smoothly. Half an hour later, we have our gas bottles full again and an invitation to tea at Ali's.

So we follow him and a few minutes later we are both standing in the courtyard with Ali and his family. Mum is beaming and takes me in her arms. She hugs me warmly, kisses me left and right (and then politely says hello to Gerd too) and we are sitting in a cosy living room full of beautiful, soft and cuddly Persian carpets. The tea tastes wonderful, as do the oranges and pomegranates. (We also learn how to open and eat pomegranates without making a big mess).

Ali translates for his mum, we show photos of our children as usual. And as always, they don't quite believe us that we already have such big children. Ali's mum almost doesn't want to let us go, the app on her smartphone translates: "Thank you for being here, you've brightened my mood today and made me so happy!"

We are thrilled. And touched. Have we ever told our friends that being with them has lifted our spirits? Yes, maybe once or twice. But certainly not at the first meeting. We are very happy about the friendly and also very polite formulations here.

One last small example?
We are standing in front of the metro in Tabriz. But it's closed because of a public holiday that we completely overlooked. So we take the bus. Fatemeh, who is also standing in front of the closed metro, joins us and asks if she can help us. She pays for our bus tickets (we just don't get round to buying one ourselves that quickly), shows us how to get on (Gerd has to get on at the front, we women at the back) and asks us what we want to see when we get off at the bazaar. Actually, we just wanted to stroll around and look at everything.

Then I remember that I saw in some video that there is a typical cream cheese and honey snack in Tabriz. Does she know it? No, but she and her friend ask around. And we are already standing with her in a small bistro eating sarshir & asal. Here too: we are invited, they are so happy that we are visiting their country, it is a pleasure and an honour for them to invite us to this little snack. We are speechless and grateful.

Later, however, we sneak back into the shop on our own and buy some mountain honey for ourselves, which is very popular here. Finally, we want to pay for something ourselves and have to go through the bazaar again. But we are happy to do so, because there is nothing better than wandering through the alleyways of the Tabriz bazaar.

We have received permission from the parents to show the photos, especially those of the children. We always ask beforehand.

---

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!