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Michael Spies
Michael Spies

Michael Spies

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    Endless dust!
    Clothing and food being sold in the midst of dust and rubbishEach hut with its individual electric cableCows looking for some grass and accepting empty packaging insteadThis makes the shanties near cape Town South Africa look mildEverywhere truckloads of building ruble dating from the Gulf war in 1991 that wiped out IrakImagine living and shopping hereWater Buffalo looking for waterPeace at last where the two rivers come togetherView down the Euphrates

    Tigris and Euphrates rivers

    1 december 2022, Irak ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    .So here we are, in Irak, at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This area between the two rivers, called Mesopotamia, is where civilisation (cities and agriculture) began 10.000 years ago. It is the place described in the old testament, it is where Babylon was.
    WOW!
    But on a more basic level
    It took the whole day to get across the border. Everything was dust, huge trucks, destroyed roads, and endless plastic rubbish.
    WOW!
    And today, we drove through Basra!
    What a shock!
    We have never seen so much dust, mixed with so much rubbish, broken buildings, broken roads, and millions of wires hanging overhead. Cows looking for something to eat amongst the rubbish, children playing on the street, fish being sold in the hot sun as trucks driving by in huge clouds of dust. It was "Armageddon," and we were gasping again and again at this scenery.
    But there was also beauty when people sat at the river in the evening smoking Shisha pipe or fishing from canoes or from the Ponton of a nearby bridge.    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    Smugglers racing past the police check-point in the fields. Like in a James Bond filmAnd back onto the highway!

    Crossing the border to Irak

    30 november 2022, Irak ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    So here we are at the Border to Irak. Getting out of Iran went smoothly, but getting into Irak, I am told will take 8 hours. Step 1 is to get our Visa and we have now been sitting in this very basic hall for two hours while our hand written application is being processed. Then follow the papers for the vehicles and then there is still the actual process of crossing into Irak.
    Allah will take care of us!

    Driving here was fascinating. As we drove along, groups of 3-5 pick-up's all driving very close and loaded in the same way, came roaring past us at high speed. Suddenly they all veered off the highway heading off at high speed into the fields. A few hundred meters later a police check-point appeared. Having passed this we continued on the highway to suddenly notice that the same pick-ups were racing alongside us a few hundred meters into the fields coming closer and closer and then veering back onto the highway to race on as before.
    Don't ask what that was but it looked intensely like the local smugglers ring.    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies

    Anecdotes

    30 november 2022, Irak ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    Incredible Friendliness:
    Throughout our stay in Iran, it is the friendliness of the Iranians that has burnt a way into our hearts. First of all، it is their absolute joy that we are here and that they can meet us resulting in them waving to us as we drive past، cheering "welcome to Iran"، cars hoot، people lean out of their windows to photograph us. If we are parked، within minutes 10 people around our car، cheering، asking questions and photographing. When we are outside the car they want a photo with us and very often have gone to great lengths to invite us to their homes.
    They are hungry to try out their english or German and feel very connected to Germany often referring to a relative who lives there.
    The other side of this is that you never have a moment of peace, there is always someone wanting to take up contact, knocking on the car to say "welcome to Iran".
    There have been moments where we quickly closed the curtains and locked the car just to be alone.
    And yet, this great joy and friendliness are going to be missing as we enter the Arab culture. Probably we will be longing for it back.    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    Namad winter campFirst signs of plastic recycling. Irrigation tubes after useA wonderful encounter with three generations of the same family from Shi. The youngest spoke endlishSitting in our car in the evening together with Bea, and this guy knocks on the window and asks to jWe set the alarm at 6:30 to get an early start up the mountain. The Iranis were faster!I opened the door to let sunrise in, and there was this group happy to greet usBefore we knew anything, the small group had swelled into this, all wanting a fotoBy the time we got to the cave we had a following of 100. All wanting a fotoBeaAmazing statue carved out of a stalactiteView from the topMargot's school girls fan club, waiting to be picked up at the main street crossing in a village

    Sasani cave with Shahpur statue

    23 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Sasani cave is 600meters above the plains in a mountain range. Here in a huge cave, someone, 1000 years ago chisseled an 8 meter high statue of the ruler Shapur the first out of a stalactite that has joined up with a stalagmite and collapsed during an earthquake.
    More interesting, however, is the excitement that we two caused by our presence. Already at sunrise, the first group of hikers was standing in front of our door asking for a photo with us. Within minutes the gathering had grown and continued to do so all the way up to the cave where we then had the whole local hiking club gathering around , each wanting an individual photo with the stars.
    Now, I love being a star (for 5 minutes!) but being a star all day is REALLY strenuous. We now know what its like to be in the skin of Julia Roberts and Clooney.    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    Picture drawn by a child before it died together with its parents. Moved me deeply

    Shiraz- Mausoleum of Shah Cheraq

    20 november 2022, Iran ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    This absolutely huge mausoleum housing the grave of Seyyed Mir Ahmad a brother of of the 8th Imam (8th of 16 prophets including Allah) is absolutely flabberghasting and beats everything I have ever seen in glitter beauty and grandeur. It is one of the major places of pilgrimage for Shiite Islam.
    Our visit at night was overshadowed by a massacre that had happened 25 days previous where a soldier of the "IS" entered with a machine gun, killing 23 and seriously wounding 40.
    The whole shrine was covered with huge photographs of the corpses covered in blood (now celebrated as martyrs) with bullet holes in the walls.
    Here, someone had entered the absolute center of the Shiite religion and created sacrilege of a highest order. This could be felt everywhere.
    One picture moved me particularly deeply, a child had obviously just painted its family visiting the shrine on a piece of paper. This child had been killed, blood was all over the painting.
    I'll let the pictures speak.    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    Entering Shiraz the City of poetry, nightingales, plants and romanticism
    This picture symbolises Shiraz so nicelyCarpet sellers discussingBeautiful SOUK, as in every city, but with a multitude of ethnic backgrounds and modes of dressEverywhere selers pushing their wares through narrow corridorsColours eveywhereNot for animal lovers, from nightingails through pheasants to rabbits, locked in tiny cagesThe canary shopPorters transporting goods into and out of the SoukThroughout the day I kept on bumping into this old old man selling his melons.You want some beans, how many boxes???What a cute child!

    Shiraz, city of the poets and love

    20 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Shiraz, full of colours, faces and smells. Our favourite so far.
    And yet, one notices many are battling to somehow make a living by selling anything they can get their hands on, even chewing gum.
    One really old man pushed a ton heavy cart loaded with melons around the market all day, selling two melons an hour. He looked way above 80!
    Many beggars looking really bad and unhealthy with many Iranis donating from the little they have.    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies

    Persepolis

    19 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    In 600 BC king Kyros the great conquered/ united huge regions ranging from Turkey, through Greece, Egypt to India and central Asia and created an empire that lasted many centuries. His greatest tool in this was a "carta of human rights" for humans and animals which was engraved in a stone cylinder called tje Kyros cylinder! Women had equal rights to men, conquered regions were encouraged to keep their language and religion while one language was used for administration purposes throughout the kingdom. This incredible wisdom was present in 600BC. What jas happened to our world since then?
    Kyros's successor was Darius who established the most incredible palace in Persepolis.
    While earthquakes and 2,5 thousand years have not left much some traces show the incredible skills of architects and craftsmen.    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    This is how one deals with what was in a dustbin, it is burnt in nature.
    Among the hundreds of springs, plastic bottles and bagsRubbish neatly packed in a plastic bal and then left lying on the rockPlastic bottles floating in the clearest mountain river I have ever seenBottles and bags from long gone picnics stuck in the reedsPlastic lying on the bank of the streamNeatly packed,and left lyingZoom in and enjoy the plastic

    Another blog about rubbish

    19 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    For a month now I have managed to suppress my indignation about plastic in nature, today I couldn't hold back anymore. This pristine place Tanghe Boragh, had plastic bottles and bags everywhere, not visible in the photographs but very visible in real life. And unfortunately it has been like this throughout our time in Iran, and here I have to add, not just here and there but literally everywhere there is plastic. Thousands of Plastic bags blowing across vast expanses of land in the most remote places. It makes my heart bleed! While I try to focus on the beautiful things we encounter, this topic of plastic and rubbish is always present at every moment and every Kilometer. And all this plastic, at some stage, ends up in rivers and finally in the sea.
    Iran, and our world have a huge plastic problem!    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    Toilets in Turkey and Iran takes some training!
    One of the better looking diesel pumps (only trucks have diesel)

    Anecdotes on travelling

    17 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    As we travel, we bump into various quirks of the countries we cross,
    One of them is TOILETS in Turkey and Iran!
    For our European minds and hygiene they seem terrible, but strangely, in reality are probably the most hygienic way to "do your thing".
    A hole in the floor and a hose to clean the most delicate parts. Nothing more! No messed up toilet seats or soiled floors. (However for Europeans a bit of yoga is needed to be able to crouch low).
    After the toilet visit, nearly 90% of public toilets have soap in dispensers at the basins, which I have never found in Europe! No matter how terrible the toilet you are nearly guaranteed to find soap in the dispenser when you wash your hands!.
    In the meantime we have not only become accustomed to this type of toilet but have become greatest fans of it. It gives you a clean feeling for the rest of the day!
    So, don't be surprised if you find a hose next to our toilet in Icking in future!!!!!

    TANKING DIESEL in Iran is something you can write a book about!
    Diesel costs about 3 cents per liter, which is great, but how to get it?
    First, the station has to have a yellow pump which reduces the relevant set to about 75%.
    Then there needs to be diesel in the tank. Another 25% gone! Just like that!
    Then the station needs to have a chip card with a budget of diesel on it that they can sell, well that reduces the stations by another 50%.
    And then there is the issue of how to find out if a station has a card, because not everyone knows this, and besides, the question is where the card is. Who had it last? !!!!!!
    So! That reduces your chance to about 5%.
    Great! So let's celebrate those three cents diesel price!
    Well, there is one alternative, that is to ask a truck driver who happens to be tanking whether one can use his card, (it seems all trucks are state owned and when they stick their card into the pump the sum is booked directly from an account without further payment).
    Using this way of getting diesel can be an adventure, ranging from them tanking your car full and not wanting anything for it, through to them pressing the huge pistol designed for monster trucks so hard that diesel comes shooting out of the tank spraying over people the car and many liters on ground which doesn't seem to bother anyone, to finally the version where the truck driver insists on one extra monthly salary from you for having tanked 30 liters and having messed up all your clothes and the car in the process!!!
    We have experienced all variants, it is truly traumatic and I start shaking when our tank goes below 50% because I know that it will be the topic of the next 6 hours.

    PERSONAL HYGIENE:
    Quite an issue when fresh water in our van is rare and you have 3 m2 to move while it is 1 degree outside.
    Originally we thought we would be showering outside, but in a country where you shouldn't even show your ankles and where people seem to converge on us in minutes to take a photo with us, this is impossible. So we tried showering indoors in our pull-up shower, however this is a huge action requiring drying of the curtain and the whole car afterwards. So it is only used on christmas, easter and birthdays! So this method has been shelved and we wash in the basin which has been working really well and requires significantly less water.    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    Deserted main shopping street
    Main pedestrian zoneMain SOUK without customersDeserted streetsDeserted SOUK market placeDeserted huge public squareProudly showing their hairHair, hair, hairShopping street in Armenian QuarterDinner in a local restaurant on a Taht cross legged, eating with your handsDocht, a joghurt drink with spices

    Isfahan, a wierd strange atmosphere!

    16 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Today when walking in town we were called to by an Iranian Lady telling us that there was a three day general strike on and that we should not walk on the big boulevards as there would be demonstrations and police action.
    We ended up creeping through back allyways through a dead city. About 95% of shops were actually closed!
    IT WAS ERIE!
    Everywhere we could observe women without their headscarfs showing their gorgeous thick hair.
    Later on we were told that this was not about women's rights, but mainly about the general state of things such as rampant inflation, and corruption which seem to be a huge issue here. Apparently this is the first general strike in Isfahan since the cultural revolution.

    The atmosphere was absolutely erie!, with police groups standing everywhere while others drove around, two to a motorcycle with the back one carrying a rifle.
    So, we crept through the backstreets, had a great dinner in a nearly empty restaurant and made it an early night in our hotel.    Läs mer

  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    Immense square "Meydan-e Imam", 500meters long!
    "Meydan-e Imam", sheer endless!"Meydan-e Imam"Masdjed-e Shah mosheeOne of the domesThe Iwan wallTypical for Iran, people come to you and ask if they can have a photo with you!

    Isfahan

    15 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Arrived this morning in Isfahan and moved into the Abbasi hotel, a previous Caravanserai, for two days of comfort after 6 weeks of Sprinti living. What a pleasure.
    First thing was to wash our washing with warm water in the bath tub, and oh my god, I don't want describe the colour of that water!
    Then we went off to visit the "Meydan-e Imam" Square built by Shah Abbas I in 1598. An immense square with Palace, 2 moshees and an adjoining Souk market.    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    Driving his goats yhrough the middle of a truck parking on the highway
    Tents in the dry lowlandsThe stones and bushes of previous generations have been replaced by tires to pen in their animalsThis family has chosen this harsh location (zoom in)Balancing on rocks, with water 50meters belowWinter hay for the animalsHuge herds of goats coming down from the mountains.Total goat traffic jamThe modern way of moving 100 goats! In two layers!Reversed against a pile of sand used as a rampReady to leave?And off ww go!Household and sheep dogs (with red robbon) at the backCriss cross patterns all over the mountains from the grazing goats

    Nomads coming down from the mountains

    14 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    These last days, as the winter begins and the first rains and snow fall, you see Nomads and their goats/ sheep everywhere, either moving traditionally by foot and donkey or in the modern way by small van for the family, and by double-level trucks for their goats dogs and donkeys to lower levels where they will spend the winter.
    When they arrive they set up housing in tents or put a tarp over an old stone ruin. It is incredible to see how they live and what a hard life they live. And yet they choose this and seem happy in the process.
    Here some impressions    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    This method of flooding fields has been used for 2000 years,This is a bus stop!

    And over the mountains we go!

    13 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    We are slowly moving towards Isfahan over two high mountain chains both reaching over 3000 meters.
    What an unbelievable journey through valleys and peaks with huge hydroelectric dams on the way.
    (Comment: We are paying huge attention to not photograph anything along the way that could be interpreted as strategic or political. We are here to discover the beauty of a country and culture so different to ours!)    Läs mer

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  • Michael SpiesGypsies on the moveMichael Spies
    The tightest parking of my life!A wonderful view out of our windowAndy and Martin doing their morning greetingThe most delightful "coffee and tea parlour"!Leaving the town early in the morning we passed by this guy serving coffee and tea from a cartCoffee thick as syrup served from the most elegant jug I have ever seen.The tea he served tasted far better! To the normal tea he added saffran tea (on left be. Delicious!How's that for a jug?A wonderfully sensitive guy running this modern "coffee and tea shop" with cars stopping constantlyThis guy stopped his car to help margot select the best melon and make sure she is paying a fair pri

    Schush

    11 november 2022, Iran ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Schusch is renowned throughout Iran for the prophet Danial from the old testament whose shrine is here.
    Our group parked slap bang in the middle of the old city and next to the shrine. It was the police that wanted us here. But you try to drive through narrow alleys and around corners into a parking that is maybe 40m x 40m with five huge trucks.! And to make matters worse, two other huge trucks not belonging to our group were already parked here! Even in our relatively small and low sprinter I sweated blood and tears entering this space, probably the narrowest parking in my life!

    We visited the shrine at night, a wonderful calm and respective atmosphere with pilgrims praying and reciting on the floor facing Mecca while children ran around playing.    Läs mer

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