Alborz

Today was a great day :-)
We travelled from Qazvin to Karaj to reunite with Ali and his family here. We met him, his daughter and his wife in Natanz in our first week in Iran.
Ali actually lives in Mehrshahr - a beautiful suburb of Karaj (which is itself a satellite city to the nearby Tehran). We first had tea and some self-made kashk-e bademjan (smoked eggplant) and then we went for a walk around the neighbourhood. It is really very different to most parts of Iran we have seen so far. Many tree-lined streets, nice cafes with outdoor seating, and we even stopped at a pomegranate juice shop :-)
We then sat down at a very fancy cafe that had little booths set on top of a giant aquarium with fish in it. Really very cool :-) The group got progressively larger with more relatives dropping in and finally we returned to Ali’s apartment for dinner and lively discussions and storytelling about our experiences in Iran. A big part of the discussion was about what we thought of Iran and the image the country has abroad. Recounting our travels (not just in Iran but also in all the other countries we visited on our journey) made us realise the privilege we enjoy to be able to travel so much (both that we can afford it financially but also that our German and Austrian passports allow us to travel most everywhere without restrictions).
Visiting Ali and his family is certainly a highlight of our Iranian travels. Having seen many mosques and traditional houses and ancient Persian ruins, it is now really nice to spend some time with an Iranian family and get to know them better. We were treated with enormous hospitality. Anna was given a beautiful ring as a gift and - but only to borrow - a nightdress to wear for sleeping :-)
Tomorrow we will drive north towards the Caspian Sea to spend a day there, before finally returning to Tehran and heading home to Germany.Okumaya devam et