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Finally the pix are online! :-)

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Diary - 2008 May (Turkey, Iran)

2008-05-30 to 2008-05-31

Persepolis

The expectations when you arrive in Persepolis are not going to be fulfilled! After reading so much about it, maybe watched a stupid movie about Alexander the Great the city which you make up in your mind is too big. What is left are some columns, some arches and some tombs... No, that's not true, but it's the first impression - after a while you like it and the fact that you indeed need three hours to walk around and see all of it makes you aware of how big it is and how it could have been.
And in the end everybody says, it’s fantastic!

To sleep we had to arrange the cars like a fort, because the people became such gaffers that we felt like in a zoo!

2008-05-27 to 2008-05-29

In the mountains near Yazd

Michelle and Roy did join in and that was wonderful!!
We found the perfect place up in the mountains on an altitude of 3000m with our own swimming pool!! It was just fantastic - the three cars in a triangle, tarp in the middle, table beyond, men in the pool - perfect camp side! As it was that high we had the chance to put on our beloved pull-over - because it got real cold! :-)
After a nice hike - not as high as we wanted - we enjoyed the luxury of Roy's warm shower - sometimes I think my car is not well enough equipped! :-)

First evening Roy cooked his famous Spaghetti Aglio Olio (with two thousand cloves of garlic) and the highlight was on the second evening when the girls produced crepes with chocolate sauce for desert - it was heaven on earth!!
When looking for some disinfection spray (Roy had a small cut) I was lucky to find the small bottle of Whiskey Stephi gave me for my birthday - I didn't even know anymore, that I put it in my pharmacy - we all enjoyed it very much! Imagine five people drinking a bottle of about 5cl and feeling happy! :-)

2008-05-19 to 2008-05-26

Yazd

Finally I feel like coming home!!
Here I will take some time to relax, read, programme, organize and read my guide book. That's what I thought! :-)
The first three days I was just chattin the whole day! I met Daniel and Mike from Stockdorf, Mike and Anne Christine (

www.picmik.com) from Tübingen, again David and Cecile from Milano, Gustavo joining in again, Roy and Michelle from Brazil (

www.mundoporterra.com.br), and and and... - it's great not to be alone, to hang around, relaxe and chill... but not doing anything was not the plan... :-)
Well, the next days I took some time to programme and fullfilled my sightseeing duties (now the mosques all seam to be the same) and by now (after one week in the best chilly guest house in Iran - the Silk Road Hotel) I allready planed my next days:
Anchristine, Mike and me plan to hike Mount Shir (4075). We'll drive there tomorrow, check if there is a good trail and plan to take the tent with us to do a two-day trip. Maybe Roy and Michelle join in...

2008-05-14 to 2008-05-18

Qom, Kashan, Esfahan

Leaving Tehran was easy. Passing by the holy complex of Qom where non-Muslim are not permitted Gustavo and me were lucky to sneak in. It was f...... amazing to see all the decoration and of course the behaviour of the people! Marvellouse!

Next stop was Kashan where some old houses of the rich merchandice are open to visit - they knew how to live! :-)

Getting back to my car the high buzzing of my water pump changed into a very noisy squeaking - time to search for a garage. Not the easiest trick at seven in the evening in a small village. Well, I was lucky to find the right guy givin' me some directions and the next day after a lot of talk to a lot of people I finally handed over my car to a garage. Six hours later I headed to Esfahan - not very happy, because even I (the super expert) could see, that this repair was not the best by far - well, the next hundrets of km it should hold. I was lucky that it was quite cheap... Fuck it anyway! :-(

Esfahan was good for my soul! Nice people - I met Johannes again - good Teahouses, nice place to stay, superbe parks around the river and the famouse Imam Square! Fabulouse!!

2008-05-11 to 2008-05-13

Theran

Tehran is famous for its smog and crazy traffic - there is none of it! :-) The National Jewels Museum is definitely the best sight, Golestan Palace is nice to walk through, but nothing special but the 'US Den of Espionage' has some funny critical pictures on its wall! One of the best things is that we could again buy fresh fruit juices - next to Kebab the whole time this is very good for my soul! :-)

2008-05-08 to 2008-05-10

Masuleh, Rasht

By far the best three days of my trip so far!!!
After a cool trip over the mountains we arrived late evening in Masuleh - a picturesque village on a hillside that steep that the roof of one house is the floor of the next one. It was clear for us to make at least a tiny hick next morning to explore the nice surrounding. We would do different!
The next morning we met the cutest people of Iran: Kamran, Shaian, Bahieh and Amin. They told us they would go rock-climbing and asked us if we are fancy in - well, of course we were in! :-) We spend the whole day with them learning about rock-climbing and were invited to very good food prepared right at the wall. Proposing to stay overnight and joining in the next day hiking we didn't need much time to decide. Sleeping was easy: There was a mosque near by and we were allowed to sleep in the anteroom. To wake up the next morning at 7 o' clock was easy when our new friends prepared breakfast: eggs, sausages, tea, etc. Know we understood why Amin's backpack had about 30kg! :-)

The day we were hiking for 9 hours nearly to the top of Lazezar (or alike) - 2700m. The best thing during the whole time were the people! Singing more or less all the time, making jokes around the clock and being just super nice to one another.
In the evening we went to Rasht - not without an invitation for going fishing to the Caspian Sea the next day. We spend a nice time with Amins mother having tea and fruits and then went to Bandar-e Anzali. We caught about 6 fishes, but just one of them was good - so we went home without a barbecue. The evening we spend with Bahiehs family (her father spoke very good German) having dinner wine and nargile.

2008-05-06 to 2008-05-07

Ardabil

Ardabil wasn't any special but the mausoleum of Sheihk Safi Od-Din is definitely worth to go there!
And they have several cheap internet cafes, which is not a given in Iran! :-)

2008-05-03 to 2008-05-05

Kandovan and Kaleybar

Leaving Tabriz meant I gotta need petrol, in my case diesel! At the border I was told it's super easy and I won't get problems finding it. Well, I learnt different! But of course the Iranian people were again fantastic in helping us: At the second petrol station we ask for diesel a clerk said he will drive with us to the next petrol station where we learnt that diesel is called Gaz-Oil which was very helpful. As the second petrol station hasn't had diesel as well and we were discussing around another man appeared from the box of helping people and offered us to drive with us to a petrol station with diesel. He was a business man and it took him about 20 mins to drive with us to the next one. Of course this was no problem at all for him and he immediately had someone who drove him back to his direction! :-) Well, this all took us about one hour, but the feeling of having enough petrol - or diesel - for the next 1500 km is quite a good one! ;-)
The tuff village of Kandovan is not that impressive than the tuff buildings in Göreme in Turkey, but the main difference is, that there are still people living in!!
Driving to Kaleybar (about 300 km to the East) was ok but quite exhausting again because of all the serpentines and - the rain! Again not my temperature! :-)

But in Kaleybar we were lucky. The rain stopped and we could drive up into the hills to about 2200m to try to find the famous castle of Babak. Well, it was more than disappointing because it looked like refuges for stockmen and not like a cool castle but we took the opportunity to make a small hike towards the summit, which was super nice and good for my heart after just spending time in restaurants, sleeping and driving!
We checked into a hotel where we met Johannes from Hamburg donning his 4.5 month trip after finishing his studies. He told us that he can not believe that what we saw can be the remaining of the castle of Babak and showed us a poster of the real one! :-) Well, there was quite a difference and so we decided to go there again tomorrow and look for it. Well, Johannes can speak a lot of languages and so he could translate the last sign indicating 'our' castle of Babak that it means 'in the direction of babaks' castle'. So we did another nice small hike and found the real one! :-) After the castle we made a nice tour to the river Asar the border to Azerbaijan and Armenia. Because of a detour through the mountains and super cloudy passes where we just could go with about 20 km/h we arrived back in Kaleybar quite late. Next morning we went to Ardabil.

2008-05-02

Tabriz

Driving around all day with the car is quite exhausting so we decided to stay in Tabriz for at least two nights.
Tabriz is nice, but as it is Friday the next day (Weekend for the Moslems), not all stores are open and so the bazaar is all but a show. We do some Sightseeing and have a walk through the city. Finding a restaurant in the evening is quite a challenge, but when we ask some guys at the street they immediately stop their conversation and split up for going with us helping to find a restaurant. As there is non they stop a taxi and go with us some kilometre to a place they know - and pay the taxi!! - and wish us a pleasant evening! Unbelievable again!!
Well, the place was closed for us due to a celebration going on... Well, we found a Pizza place around and a little bit tired of kebab this seamed a good alternation. Gustavo was quite hungry so he ate his one but I refused after my first piece - this was not a Pizza for me! :-) The next day we found a wonderful kebab place and stayed with food they can do! :-)

2008-05-01

Iran is great!!

With Gustavo I had a lot of fun at the border to Iran - it took us about 2 hours to do everything from visa control, carnet de passage, car insurance, changing money, letter for number plates, car control, etc. BUT: It was all super easy! We had our personal assistant who could speak perfectly English and she was super polite and when we didn't understand something she took her time to describe everything again and gave us tips what to do and whatever - she was just brilliant - and so is the first impression of Iran!!

Two hours later we visited our first sight when we were already invited for having dinner with a family in Maku! A father and mainly a nice girl (Simin) asked us, where we are from and what we do and then they invited us. The father let her translate twice to asked if we are really not afraid of coming - later he asked us if we think all the Moslems are terrorists - and they were all happy to have us there! We got a nice drink - where Simin told me that there is no alcohol in after I smelled it! :-) - melon and cucumber and then a very good soup and then chicken with rice and salad! It was so much that Gustavo couldn't finish it! During dinner they told us that they are invited to another family and so we had to go soon but it was an absolute perfect beginning! I don't have to mention here that Simin was absolutely good looking - but unfortunately absolutely married, as well - what she told us very late! :-)

After this pleasant dinner we stayed in Maku and met again at 8 o' clock for breakfast next morning: Bread with a mixture of butter and honey and of course tea! They all drink tea the whole day! If we would accept every invitation for tea we would have to go to the toilette every ten minutes and wouldn't see any sight! :-)

With new strength we did a 430km trip visiting two sights (Qareh Kalisa, which is an old Armenian church and St. Stephanos monastery). But again - like Turkey - the best sight is the landscape itself! Astonishing all the time and surprisingly with every corner you drive and every new view you have! Absolutely fantastic!!!

End of the day is Tabriz - a very big city (1,4 M people) super chaotic, thousands of cars and at least the same amount of people - all on the street - not paying attention to one another! Crazy! :-)

This day I do sleep in a hotel because I first didn't believe that I would find a proper place to park the car in the city and taking a real shower after ten days was a good option as well. The hotel costs about Euro 2,80 - so I can afford it! :-) btw the lunch we had was at the same price - funny country! :-)

2008-05-01

Meeting Gustavo again

Leaving my last night place after a great breakfast and visiting the Ishak Pasha Palace, to go to Iran I saw Gustavo walking on the street again! Giving him a lift and telling him that I will go to Iran right now he changed his plan and decided to come with me! :-)


	Start: 2008-04-10					Oli on his way from Munich to Hong Kong				End: 2010-05-12