Iranian intensity...

Hello everybody from Tehran! If we had to define our first days in Iran in just one word, this one would be intense! It is a country of contrasts, so many, and reflected on the people. Depending on who you meet, the conversation might be openly liberal while discussing delicate topics like politics or might be kind of religious-conservative. One thing for sure, you need energy here! It is not a laid-back place! Anyway that is not surprising, specially considering the social unrest the country is living and the last events.
Iran is famous for its hospitality, and welcoming-friendly people, and we have really experienced this but as well, we have seen the other side, not everybody receives you with a smile or nicely which is normal. We think that we have heard so many nice things about Iran from other travellers that mentally we set very high standards, and this might not be good, sometimes is better to enter a country without knowing or expecting many things.
Having said that, really touching-surprising things happened in just 4 days. We got a couple of invitations to stay with people at their homes, one from a family with whom we shared the cabin in the train last night and the other from a clever university student with whom we travelled from Maku to Tabriz. Both are on the agenda for the future.
Imagine a normal day in a 2 million people city like Tabriz, on a hot afternoon you go for a walk under the shade, you enter a cake shop, order some biscuits and the guy does not want to charge you as you are his guest, you think ok, cool. Then you feel like drinking chay (tea), so you go into a tea house and order two teas which end up being four and two watermelons accompanied all the time with the owner and his wife while chatting away. Then, no way they will let you pay...Later on, you have to make an international call, and again, please please let me pay and the guy goes no, you are my guest... Finally you decide cooking your dinner so you go to buy some bread and again, free of charge; no way they would let you pay...This is Iran!
Days here are intense since you hit the streets until you go to sleep. The cultural shock is big, is not easy to understand some things and restrictions they live under, the language barrier is important, even the numbers are different! The heat is starting to be diabolic and Nuria gets the worst as she has to be under the head-scarf all day long and with long sleeves and loose clothes. During the day you meet many people, twice we tried to get lost in the Tabriz's bazaar and always got someone talking and guiding us through, and sometimes you just do not need that. Sometimes they come with the most genuine-pure intentions and it is great, but sometimes there is some business interest behind as well. This is the intensity we are talking about lads! Iran can not leave indifferent anyone...
But feels good being here, the country is so interesting, culturally unique, the people endlessly curious, amazing landscapes, huge mountains, deserts, nomad people... We just hope we will be able to enjoy all this under this heat! We might have to re-adjust our itinerary and skip some places South like Kerman in the desert where the temperatures can hit 65 degrees at the peak of the day, just a bit too much for us...Definitely we made it here a bit late, but no regrets as what we lived in Turkey was well worth it! We decided to leave the North for later on and head off straight South hoping we could still bear the heat. So we pressed up and travelled overnight to Tehran where we spent the day today, uff a long one lads! We arrived at 5 in the morning and our train South is leaving at 11PM, so many hours to spare in a massive city, with more than 15 million people, one of the most polluted in the world, chaotic with terrible traffic and so crowded. We went straight up to the Alborz mountains, sitting majestically above the city and where the locals spend their days off. A great getaway for them with impressive views. The capital reflects the identity of the country; rich and poor, modern and traditional-conservative, religious-secular, but is where things happen and is worth a visit, but in better conditions than the ones we arrived here!! So we will come back! Tonight we are taking the train to Esfahan, tagged as one of the most beautiful Islamic cities in the world.
Tehran city has been calmed for the last days after the big demonstrations against the government-induced manipulation of the polls. Again the fierce repression with brutal murders and threats to the population from the government has silenced the voices of freedom, but without doubt and with loads of hopes, they will come back even stronger one day to topple off this corrupt-evil bunch of assassins that currently have the power. It is outrageous what is going on here and frustrating after talking to the people and reading the news (not the locals for sure...)
Kisses and hugs to all of you!