Iran
Amjadīyeh

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    • Day 1

      Culture-Clash geglückt

      November 10, 2017 in Iran ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      1. Tag in Teheran - auf dem Plan stand eigentlich eine Palastbesichtigung und was ist daraus geworden? Eine Wanderung über Stock und Stein mit 1.000 anderen Iranern "on top of Teheran" 😁. Insbesondere die jungen Iraner scheinen gern ihren freien Tag gechillt bei Picknick und Musik in den Bergen zu verbringen. Abends hat sich Iran von seiner kulinarischen Seite gezeigt, etwas über meinen Budget, aber verdammt lecker. Ich habe selten so zartes Lammfleisch gegessen.Read more

    • Day 2

      Und plötzlich im Diamantenladen

      November 11, 2017 in Iran ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

      Heute ist zwar erst der 2. Tag, aber ich habe das Gefühl ich bin schon total in den Genuss der Iranischen Gastfreundschaft gekommen. Heute hat mich der Weg über den Basar direkt in einen kleinen Diamantenladen geführt, wo auf mich köstlicher Reis mit Hünchen bei einer iranischen Grossfamilie erwartet hat. Danach hat mich eine andere Hostelgruppe freundlicherweise beim Golestan-Palace in ihre Runde aufgenommen und schwupps ging das muntere Treiben im turbulenten Teheran weiter. Und zum gröhnenden Abschluss hat uns ein Franzose in ein tolles kleines Restaurant geführt - ein Hoch auf kulinarischen Fähigkeiten der Franzosen!Read more

    • Day 166

      First walk around Tehran

      March 23, 2018 in Iran ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      We had a nice first day in Tehran. After enjoying breakfast, we headed out by foot to take in some impressions of the city.

      Our first target were two museums around the government, museum and university district. We first stopped at the massive entrance gate to these quarters. Due to the fact that the gate is dedicated to an army commander, painted machine guns features heavily on the decoration of the gate, which was a bit out of place for us...
      Anyway, we then went to the Islamic Museum, which was very interesting. It features the artistic history of Iran since after the Muslim conquest of Persia (Iran) in 633-654 AD. We saw decorated paintings, scripture, glassware and pottery as well as carpets and clothing from all the ages of the Iranian Muslim past.

      We then went to the special exhibition, which featured loaned exhibits from the Louvre and also an interesting photo exhibition from an artist who took pictures of people looking at art in the Louvre. It was fun to see :-)
      Finally, because it was right around the corner, we went to the National Museum of Iran which features pre-Islamic (i.e. pre-633 AD) artefacts. This did not grab our attention that much, maybe because we were tired but maybe also because looking at arrow-heads and flint-stones isn’t really that exciting (they kind of look the same all over the world to us...).

      We then wandered on through some bazars and sat down for coffee and tea. The bazaars were not really all that busy today due to it being Friday (the Muslim equivalent to “our” Sunday). Most shops were closed, but it was still nice to walk along the paths and see the buildings :-)

      In the evening we went to a great place in the north of central Tehran. The Tabi’at bridge is a three-storey foot bridge, designed to allow pedestrians to cross a major city highway. But it really is an outdoor-park for many Tehranis. It has food-stalls on one floor and a viewing area and promenade on the top level. We gad a great view over Tehran as the sun was setting. There were loads of people, some of whom chatted us up (wanting to know where we are from, how long we would visit Tehran and so on) and took pictures with us :-)
      After that it was dinner in a very nice traditional restaurant and then back home with the metro :-)

      PS: While walking through Tehran today and also during the conversations with the locals we both noticed how the preconceptions we had about Iran are mostly wrong or perhaps exaggerated. This is most noticeable in the female dress-code. While we read that it’s not all too strict here (you can show some hair), we noticed that most women actually have their hair about 2/3 uncovered. Many young Iranians also briefly remove their headscarfs before they take pictures of themselves and then put it back on.

      We also had a longer conversation with the owner of our hotel (Fatima) who told us how she is regularly surprised that Westerners believe couples would have to be married to be allowed to sleep in the same room together. As she sees it, that’s just not the case and she doesn’t really care if people are married or not. We, too, thought that this was the case and apparently we were wrong. In the end, it seems (unsurprisingly) that Iranians are much like other people: they want to get on with their lives and not let politics or religion interfere too much with it. Let’s see how our journey will continue :-)
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    • Day 167

      Cinema, mosque and bazaar in Tehran

      March 24, 2018 in Iran ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

      The plan for today was quite straightforward: mosque, cinema museum and laundry. It turned out to be more than that :-)

      We started day two in Tehran with a visit to the northernmost prt of town (even closer to Mount Tochal). The fact that it’s up on the hillside already makes it a more upmarket part of Tehran. Many embassies are also located here.

      We decided to make our first visit to a mosque 🕌 While we stood outside, looking quite uncertain whether our dress code was good enough a and where to enter and all that, we were approached by a friendly gentleman who saw we were lost and explained to us how to proceed (where to get a loaner-chador for Anna, where to place our shoes, where the entrance is for males/females, etc.). He explained that he ran a carpet shop in the nearby bazaar and that he has many Austrian and German friends (and buyers) due to the fact that their embassies are close by. We were impressed that he knew the former (deceased) Austrian President and head of the chamber of commerce. Well, he invited us to come by which we said we would after our visit to the cinema museum...

      Iran (and Tehran in particular) was an early leader in cinematography and there were hundreds of cinemas in Tehran before the Islamic revolution. (Now, there are still many cinemas, but the selection of films is much more limited, reducing the number of cinemas as a result).

      After the museum, we went back to the bazaar, looking for our new friend. We asked someone for directions. It turned out, that someone was his son, and he took us to the carpet shop. :-) We then spent two hours learning all about his story as a carpet seller (he’s been doing it for 30 years) and how he came to have so many connections to Germany. Mahmud, the father, showed us pictures of himself with the head of the Austrian chamber of commerce, taken when they visited Iran some 15 years ago. We learnt a lot about carpet manufacturing and how he buys his carpets. (In case you’re wondering: yes, we did buy some quite cool carpets in the end :-)).

      It was 5pm when we returned to the hostel. After laundry, we went out to a great restaurant/Cafe which was recommended to us. Great tasting, open-air dinner for two in a picturesque city garden for about 7 EUR - we loved it :-) Interesting side note: the waitress was much more comfortable speaking French with us than English. A nice reminder of where we started or trip 6 months ago :-) 🇫🇷
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Amjadīyeh, Amjadiyeh, امجدیه

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