Approaching the insanity

It was obvious that we were getting closer to Tehran: The challenge to ride slalom between the cars became more and more intense, we passed several power plants and industrial areas and the smog became a beige grey wall hiding everything further than a few hundred meters around us - insane!

We realized the incredible dimensions of this monster city when we reached Karaj, a suburb of Tehran 40km from the center which has more habitants than Berlin. It is said that more than 20 million people live in the metropolitan region of Tehran - again insane!

We stayed with Abbas, Molud and Siabash in Karaj and they took care of our bikes the next day when we went to Tehran by
metro. Abbas even gave us insight into a bakery he owns. The Iranian bread culture is ubiquitous, no meal happens without any of the various types of it, queues in front of the bakeries at rush hours make them easy to find. Other than the bread we're used to, the Iranian bread is only tasty when still warm - our favorite is definitely Sangak which is baked on small stones and thicker than Lavash.

Some other aspect of our interaction with the people who treat us with an unlimited kindness, hospitality and readiness to help: We did not expect that the people would pay us that much attention and feel that some of them take us too fast into their hearts or express their love, especially when the communication is difficult or we did only spend a few hours together. It usually feels weird and we don't know what to say. And makes it even more difficult to explain ourselves if we can only stay one or two nights :)Read more