Arrival - First impressions and preparing of the first day:
Introduction Photo:
One thing i want to mention: I was not in 5 Star hotels....when I was in hotel, i was in low class hotels for backpackers and people who can arrange with low comfort. I met the real people. I meet the people wich are working very hard every day, i met the ordinary people, students, rich people but made also experiences with drug dealers and talked to those people. be shure this will be travel report with a big variety.
Today we will talk about the arrival in Tehran and and my first impressions. Although my roots are Iranian, it was my first tme i traveled to iran. May whole travel took 4 weeks and I visited many cities, including isfahan, Mashad, Shiraz, Shomal and other areas. At first stayed only one night in Tehran when I arrived, after this we travelled to other cities. in Tehran and Isfahan I stayed with my family. The rest of th time i stayed in hotels.
Flight and Arrival:
We flew with an ran Air Airbus A330 from Hamburg Airport to Tehran International Airport.
At this time Iran was hardly under sanctions and the aircraft was really old. Also we were not allowed to get fuel from Hamburg Airport. We landed in vienna to get aircraft fuen, and than we could continue our travel.
Aircraft landed in Vienna:
Here a flight photo when we overflow lake urumiyeh in Iran. His leght was more than 140km and in width it was 55km.
Its salty like the dead sea and one of the most important biosphere reserves in the region. Flamingos and pelicans are living there. But there existance in threatened cause of the beginning of the high industrialisation of the country wich will lead in a fully dry out of the lake. There are projects to save the lake. So lets hope they will be sucsessful.
With time we arived Tehran. We arrived in the evening. 15 minutes before the flight, the amazing and endless light`s of the city began to shine in the dark. Tehran is a huge city with oficially 12 Million people living in it. During the day Tehran have more than 17 Million inhabitans cause lot of people rush into the city for work.
The first I recognised when I left the plane was the dry and warm weather wich infolded my whole body.
The Personal at the airport was very friendly. Also people with no iranian roots will have no problem to enter the country as a tourist.
From the Airport we went to the house of our family.
One other thing wich will get your attention is the iranian drivind style wich is honestly very unsafe. Today lots of things became better but there are still 11.000 death`s per year due to car accidents.
On the way from the Airport wich is south of the city i recognised the huge building activity. Not only in Tehran but in whole Iran you will recognise that there are a lot and alot of infrastructure projects.
IAlthough the country is/was isolated .....lot of people who traveled to iran a decade ago told me that when they returned....lot of things has changed. Whole new city districts are created and some areas are transformed in a way that it was impossible to recognise it again.
Tehran from the jamshidiyeh Park in the north of the country
Iranians are maybe the most hospitable persons in the world. Whenever they recognise that you are a foreigner they get very intersted n you. They want to invite you in everythig....to be honest......you even dont need to rent a hotel when you arrive in Iran. As soon as they recognise that you are a foreigner they will offer you their home, their food and their help.
Mellat park:
Iranian Culture "Taroof"
Maybe you dont now this...but in Iran there is a culture called "Taroof". That means that you offer something out of politeness, even if you dont want to give it away. Normally the opponent will not accept if because they know that its just "Taroof".
For example when you go and buy something from a shop......and you want to pay ....the shopowner can say "no dont pay......its yours" .... please dont go out without payment.....its only taroof from the shop owner. Normaly you should reject the taroof 3 times before recognising if the offer is for real or not.
But lot of Iranians know that foreigners dont now "Taroof" and so its possible that you will not be confronted with taroof like iranians.
When we arrived in Tehran (later you will hear great stories from Tehran) we really begun to explore the country. We stayed not for long in Tehran...we just travelled to Mashad by train.
Tehran Jamshidiyeh Park
Iranian trains are very comfortable , we could choose between first, second and third class.
First class was a 4 seat cabin with 4 integrated beds and a TV. The second class was the same but without a TV. And the 3rd class was normal seats.
Today its possible to travel threw whole Iran by train. The Iranian Train network is expanding very fast.
By the way there are always interesting encounters in trains in iran. I dont now why its like this...but whenever i traveled by train it was like a great travel in a travel. By the way a great and funny train story:
In Iranian train you will get water and the meals for free. For an 800 kilometer travel we payed under 20 € per person.
traveling inside Iran is generally very cheap for foreigners.
In the next episode i will talk more about the experiences i made with interesting people during the travel with train...and i will talk about the experiences i made in mashad.
Iranas railway network: Red = under construction (today mostly finished) , Black = constructed
I met a person who was selling prayers to others in front of a holy shrine, about the tea houses and iranian shisha style, iranian resturants and the holy shrine itself. About traditional bathhouses on wich you will get traditional massage. About that during travel the train`s or busses make stop for prayer.
We talked with many people.
So stay online and dont miss the stories.
If you missed the introduction read this here:
https://steemit.com/travel/@arash91/iran-trip-introduction-and-trailer