I was thinking of visiting Iran already some 3 years ago, wanted to go with an organised tour, which was (thinking about that nowadays) of course a complete nonsense. But by the end of the last year i started to read travelblogs and traveljournals written by travelers, who already had been to the Islamic Republic of Iran. These inspired me so much, that i simply decided to make Iran my traveldestination number one for the upcoming year. And so it was. In May i got my iranian visa and in the beginning of June, two days after i finally finished my M.A. Degree in International Business, i was heading towards the Middle East.

Although i had only 3 weeks for this trip i refused to fly directly to Tehran, but chose a combination of various means of transport, because it's firstly cheaper, secondly it's not that simple (i like to solve problems and deal with barriers while travelling) and the third reason was, that one can see much more and meet much more people.

Countries visited: Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran
Travelperiod: 6/2008
Total costs: 400 Euro + 40 Euro for visa
Special thanks to these people:
Azad (helped me at Esendere-Sero border crossing and in Orumiyeh), Javid (help in Meshkin Shahr), Majid (supported me at Mount Sabalan and hosted in Tabriz), Mr. Nasser (for travel advices in Tabriz), Alireza (for explaining various aspects of iranian society), Armin (talk on the long bus ride to Istanbul)

So the diploma thesis is defended, university finished and i'm heading to Iran. Last couple of months of planning is about to become a reality. The last day before leaving i finally managed, thanks to my friend Mirek, who borrowed me his low-volume sleeping bag, to place all the stuff for a 3 week long journey into my 45 litre backpack. So perfect. Last check and next day i'm heading to the Prague Airport, from where i take a plane to the capital of Bulgaria - Sofia.

rainy and cold friday afternoon in Sofia

fishermen on the Galata bridge (Istanbul)

The flight was ok, we landed on time, right after a thunderstorm. It's quite cold and still raining a bit. I have some Levas from the last year, so i don't have to change money in one of the rip-off exchange offices at the airport. I'm buying a ticket for the bus and starting to wait with the crowd. The buses should run in interval of 7 minutes, but the first one came after nearly 40 minutes.
Sofia was experiencing a complex transport chaos on friday afternoon, so the journey from the airport took more than an hour. I'm getting off close to the bridge Orlov Most, heading by foot towards the very downtown and looking for an exchange office. Lot of them were closed, or they didn't show the rates, so it took a little time, but finally i found one with good rate close to the subway station Serdica. After that i go straight to the central bus station, from where the buses to Istanbul depart. There are five companies operating this route, but i chose the turkish company Metro Turizm, which i already know from the last year. They charge the journey 10 Leva more, but their buses are one of the most comfortable i've ever seen. I'm taking a pizza and good bulgarian beer Zagorka at the fast-food inside the busterminal and at half past eight in the evening the bus leaves for Istanbul. It's nearly empty and comfortable, so one could sleep quite good. In the middle of night we are at Kapikule, the border crossing between Bulgaria and Turkey. The turkish customs made it quite a hassle, but after 2 hours we are done and can continue the journey. At six in the morning, so after some 9 and half hours long drive we are arriving to the the giant bus station in Istanbul. It's really cold, cloudy and it even rains a bit.
I'm taking the subway to Aksaray, where i change for a tram and get off at Sultanahmet. The streets are peopleless. The exchange offices are still closed, so i'm taking a short nap on a bench in the park by the Blue Mosque and Haghya Sophia. It's unbelievable to see it without the crowds of tourists. At nine o'clock the exchange office is finally open, so i change my Euros into turkish liras and take a tram over the Galata bridge. Then i take a ship from the Karakoy pier over the Bosporus to the Asian train station Haydarpasa. From here the trains depart all around the Asian part of Turkey, and also to Syria and Iran. Today there's no train to Iran, but one leaves in the late afternoon and heads to the lake Van Golu in the very eastern part of the country. I'm taking a sleeper and paying 73 Turkish liras for a journey which is approximately 1800 kilometres long and according to the timetable should take some 42 hours. I'm leaving my backpack in a locker and then taking a ship back to Europe. I spent the afternoon by walking around the Grand bazaar, eating doner kebabs and shopping some food for the train journey. At half past four i'm back at the train station and at 17:50 our train departs towards the East.

a lot of people - the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul

Vangolu Ekspresi ready for 50 hours long journey

The sleeping car is nearly empty, so i'm alone in the compartment. After a small dinner i'm going to bed. As i woke up the following day early in the morning, we were already somewhere in Central Anatolia. Completely another look of the landscape. Around noon we approach Kayseri, city which lays right in the middle of Turkey and above which a 3 916 metres high volcano Erciyes Dagi rises. Now in June, still a lot of snow lays there. Then our train heads towards northeast to Sivas, where it turns towards southeast. The second night on the train comes. Early in the morning we arrived some small kurdish village. I remember, that we were only some 40 minutes late against the schedule. As i woked up again some 3 hours later and saw the same view from my window, it was clear, that something is going wrong. As i looked out of the window, i saw that nearly half of the train is outside and taking a picnic. I got out, bought some food in one of small shops around the trainstation and went back to bed. After long eight hours of waiting, we finally moved forward. In 15 minutes i see the reason of our delay - the track is damaged and being repaired by the turkish army. Thanks to this we arrived to Tatvan, our final destination, on the western shore of the lake Van at half past eight in the evening. I have to say, that mainly because i took the sleeper, the 50 hours long journey wasn't that bad. At least one sees a lot...
Fortunately yet on the train i started to chat with a turkish couple, who lives already for some 30 years in Germany and also needs to get to city Van, on the eastern shore of the lake. After boarding off the train we go to catch a taxi to the Tatvan harbour. Another guy from Ankara joins us. The taxi driver was a real asshole and wanted 10 lira from each of us for maybe a 5 kilometre long drive.

Kayseri and the volcano Erciyes Dagi (3916m)	we had to wait 8 hours in this Kurdish village
Kurdish women	the lake Van Golu is behind the Nemrut mountain

This made me angry, as well as my turkish friends. We shout on him, they in turkish, me in czech. He gives up and decreases the price to 15 lira for all. At the harbour we found out, that there won't be any ship going to Van today. So we take another taxi to downtown, where we had all the luck present around and catch a dolmus, which leaves in 5 minutes towards Van. After really wild drive (the driver was speeding up to 150 km an hour) we are in our destination somewhen before midnight. I start to look for some acommodation. First i tried the Buyuk Asur Hotel, where it was quite easy to negotiate it from 54 lira down to 35, but not below that. So i move somewhere else. Later i anchored in another hotel. Room was 20 lira. The receptionist was, i bet my months salary, gay and invited me to the shower at least 5 times. I'm sending him to hell in czech and going to sleep.
Next day i woke up very early. The sun here shines already at half past four in the morning. No wonder, since it's the same timezone as in f.e. 2000 km to the west laying Sofia. I stroll around the main street, grab a delicious breakfast and then heading to an office of a bus company, which has buses going to Iran. I pay 20 lira and wait. First comes a dolmus, which takes me to another office and after another hour the iranian bus comes. I'm almost there! We drive along the lake Van. It has wonderful turquoise color. But soon we turn towards south-east and start to climb up the road to the mountains. We pass a saddle at 2740 metres and stop at gas station in the middle of nowhere for a lunch. Then we continue further, but at a crossroad of roads going to Hakkari and the Esendere-Sero border crossing to Iran we have to wait for nearly an hour for a passport at a military checkpoint. That's what i nearly forgot. In whole eastern Turkey, the army is heavily present and here, in the south-eastern part of the country, also thanks to the proximity of border with Iraq, it's even more serious. One could see there heavy military equipment, fully equiped tanks, missiles, big cannons and a lot of soldiers. A real kriegspiel.

some 50 km before the border crossing to Iran

mountains on the Turkey-Iraq border

While waiting for the passport check, a man called Azad started to talk with me. He was iranian, 36 and living in Orumiyeh. And he spoke very good English, so we could discuss various topics. Then a turkish soldier enters our bus, a real kid. He checks all the passports, but doesn't like mine. Shit! I could await that, since really only very few Westerners get to these corners. Iraq is only some 30 kilometres away. He walks away with my passport, but before he gets off the bus, he turns around and asks me, if i go to Iran? Sure, where else would i go here? I got my passport back and we can continue. I continue my talk with Azad, we pass last turkish city Yuksekova a climb up a bad road to the border post. It's a building in a maybe 2200 metres high mountain pass in the middle of nowhere.
We get out, pass a turkish tank and head towards the turkish passport check. They don't work and we have to wait for maybe half an hour before some action goes on. Right before it's my turn, they send us to another counter. The guy who sits there is, already from his look, a dumb head. He takes my passport and that makes him out of control. He lists like crazy in my passport, then walks away. Comes back and says something about a visa. I'm trying to explain to him, that Czechs don't need visa for Turkey, if we needed, then it would have been given to me already on the border Bulgaria-Turkey, or last year on the border Greece-Turkey. He walks away, comes back with another "all i know, all i understand". They are listing is some papers, which were some list of countries or what. Oh yes, that's it - using border crossings, where only very few travellers go and being a citizen of a small country. Then he types a load of information from my passport into the computer. He even typed something from my russian visa. After more than a half an hour i got the desired black exit stamp into my passport and could proceed towards the iranian check. Meanwhile a big queue has grown behind myself. I walk thru a short corridor and end up in front of a locked bars. After few minutes, iranian policeman appears and unlocks it. He checks my visa a let me come in. There, Azad is waiting for me. A stone falls down from my heart. He apologizes for not being able to come back to the turkish side and assures me, that everything will be ok right now. He translates the questions of the border guards and in 5 minutes my passport is stamped and i'm entering the Islamic Republic of Iran. I made it!
Azad "kicks" away the money-changers in front of the border building and we are hurrying up to the bus, because it's waiting only for me. Azad translates me my immigration card and gives me some hints about Orumiyeh. In another 20 minutes we are there. We get off at the bus station and take a taxi to downtown. Azad is very helpful, takes me into an exchange office, where i change some Euros into Iranian Rials. Then he takes me to a 3* hotel Darya, handles a discount for me and gives me his number, that i should call him if i get into trouble. Meeting Azad was such a luck for me, i would be lost the first hours in Orumiyeh without him. Thanks a lot! I was given a nice room with bathroom and TV in the top floor. After taking a shower and wearing clean clothes, i'm heading to the streets. It's right around peak hour, the traffic is crazy and streets are full of people. Of course a lot of people look at me, since this is really not a typical travel destination for the western backpackers. It's interesting to see how some young girls are to trying to wear modern and fashionable clothes and in the same time conform with the rules dictated by the religious fundamentalists. In Iran women are forced to have covered hair and wear that kind of dress, which covers all the sexy curves of their body. Young girls usually wear a color scarf, which is sometimes doesn't cover all their hair. Then kind of a coat (like a women's business coat), which is long above the knees. Then jeans or not too tight trousers and shoes like in Europe (watch this interesting video to this topic). But still, majority of women was in black and completely covered. I walked around the bazaar, ate hot salty potatoe and chello kebab with rice and drank the popular Zam Zam Pipi. By dusk i'm heading back to my hotelroom.
On the next day, the drive to Tabriz was on the plan. But before i could take a taxi, i was approached by guy, who was saying in English: "Hello, how are you? My brother, Germany, come, come...". Don't know why, but i followed him. His brother had small shop in the bazaar and didn't speak German, but English. First he had questions like if my country has soldiers in Iraq, but after that, it was okey. He started to make me a programme. He said, that now his brother will take me around for 1 hour and show me Orumiyeh, then we come back and will go for lunch and then i will go with them to sports centre and do some bodybuilding :-). I'm trying to explain, that i have to be in Tabriz in the afternoon.

Azam Mosque in Orumiyeh	Protestant church in Orumiyeh
the salt Lake Urmia

So he changes the plan and after his brother shows me around, he will take me to the bus terminal and find a bus to Tabriz for me. That sounds better, so we go. His brother showed me church (but he was calling it a mosque all the time), bought me ice cream, nuts and then took me by a city bus (where i caused a big interest of nearly every passenger) to a bus terminal and lead me to the office of a bus company, which was operating buses to Tabriz. Then he disappeared so quickly, that i even couldn't thank him. In the office they offer me either bus, which takes 4 hours or shared taxi, which makes the journey in only 2 and costs 60 000 IRR (app. 4 Euro). I took the shared taxi, because it's quicker and mainly because it goes over the salt lake Urmia, the biggest lake in Iran. In 5 minutes we are on the way. I share the car with two women and one man. Our driver calls me Mr. David all the time and every 3 minutes points on something outside and says that i should take a picture of that (he drove around 150 to 160 km per hour, so it was nearly impossible to take a shot of something). There's a bridge in construction over the lake, so we have to take a ferry. While waiting in the queue, i go to the lake and take pictures of the salt on the stones. The water is so salty (nearly 300 grams of salt per litre), that you can take salt by your hands like a sand in a sea! I stayed for a while alone in the taxi with one of the women and she immediately started to talk with me. She asked me, why i am in Iran, what did i see sofar, how do i like it here and is very pleased, that i want to climb Mount Sabalan, because she is from Meshkin Shahr, a city below the mountain. After taking the boat over the lake, our driver drives over 170, so at half past three we are at the Tabriz main bus terminal. I decide not to take a taxi to downtown, but to walk. It should be around 5 kilometres.
After maybe an hour of walking thru the suburbs of Tabriz i reached the main street of Eman Khomeini, took a short rest in the Golestan park and then headed towards the bazaar.

portrait of the Ayatollah Khomeini in the Golestan Park (Tabriz)

inside of the Tabriz bazaar

As i was strolling around the main entrance, where a really lot of people were, suddenly a man approached me and started to talk to me in Czech (when travelling outside of Europe i always have a CZ sign, which is used for cars, on my backpack). I stared at him and couldn't believe it. He introduced himself as Mr. Nasser from the tourist office and everything was clear then. He is a legend among travellers, i've read about him in couple of travelblogs. He invites me for tea, so we head to his office. This was not like the tourist offices which you know from countries like Egypt, where they only rip you off, this was tourist office for backpackers. Mr. Nasser showed me his guestbook (suprisingly a lot entries from czech and also polish travellers) and gave me full info about Tabriz and surroundings and also about how to get to the Mount Sabalan, where i was heading the following day. He knows nearly everything - buses, trains, prices, where to go, where not to go. He helps you with internet, accommodation, money exchange or arranging a tour around for a very reasonable price. If you will be Tabriz, visit him! He recommended me to stay in hotel Mashad, which is only some 200 metres from his office, so i headed there and got a 3 bed room, where i was alone, for 60 000 IRR a night. It's very simple, showers are outside for 7 000 IRR, but it's clean and absolutely ok, if you take it just as a place to stay over the night. After short rest i headed to see the Ark of Tabriz, which was unfortunately under construction, and to shop some food in the bazaar. The Tabriz bazaar really has the spirit, not affected by tourism and you can buy there nearly whatever you want. It has 35 kilometres of corridors, about 25 entrances and around 7000 shops. It's very easy to get lost there, so happenned to me as well :-). Later in the evening i finally found an internet cafe, so i had a touch with the world after couple of days again, cause my cellphone doesn't work in Iran (Vodafone, company which is among the top 30 largest companies in the world based on market capitalization, doesn't have roaming in Iran...).
Next day in the morning i check out from the hotel and take a taxi to the bus terminal. I needed to get to the eastern one, but the driver took me to the central one:-). Didn't matter since the buses to city Meshkin Shahr, which lays right below the Sabalan mountain, some 150 km to the northeast from Tabriz, leave from here as well. As i get off the taxi, random guy approaches me a asks me, where i want to go. He immediately takes me to the correct bus, i pay 10 000 IRR (70 eurocents) and in half an hour we are on the way to Meshkin Shahr. The drive was without any problems, so in 3 hours we are there. I'm a little bit lost, have to find a Landrovers to the Sabalan Base Camp, but can't find any. I walk along the main street for maybe a kilometer and then i ask one man standing in front of his shop. In less than a minute, there are maybe five people from the nearby shops and disputing what to do with me :-). One of them closes his shop, takes his brother, who speaks a little English, and drive me around the town and look for a landrover for me. What a service, can't believe that. We find some on the eastern suburbs, but there is a problem, because there is noone to share the car with me. It's Thursday and off the high season. One driver asks for 250 000 IRR, but in the end we agree on 180 000 IRR (13 Euro) for drive from Meshkin Shahr to the Base Camp. So i get into the landrover, say good bye to the guys who helped me to negotiate all the stuff here, and we start the journey up to the mountains. Gas smells heavily in the landrover, in the back we even have some open (!) petrol cans. My driver is an old iranian and smokes of course. I hope we won't explode during the drive. Everytime we hit some hole in the road, the driver looses the steering wheel and turns back to check, whether some gasoline didn't spill out :-). In the village called Larood, we turn to the right and start the drive-up to the mountains. The Sabalan mountain rises right in front of us. It looks really majestically and the upper half is still covered with snow. At 2750m we reach place called Shabil, where the road ends and only a dirt road goes further to the Base Camp. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we are there. Altitude 3550 metres.

first view of the mount Sabalan (4814m)	basecamp at 3550m
drinking tea with Azerbaijans	first sunrays hit the mountain

Of course that some gasoline spilled off in the back and one of my bagstraps is wet. Hmmm, nice. Anyway, the journey from Meshkin was far longer than i expected, so i gave the driver some extra money. Some people just descended the mountain so he takes them down to Shabil. Nobody else except of the shelter guard remained there. I walked around the BC, a lot of garbage laid there and inside it didn't look very well - smelly, dirty and only wooden benches. But the hut guard came to me and offered me, that i could sleep in the minor building in separate room on carpets for only 25 000 IRR. So i move to this place, drink and eat something and go for a short acclimatization walk. Sofar i'm ok, only a small headache. I walk slowly, making pauses, taking photos... I made it up to 3900 metres, where i turned it back down, because the evening was coming. As i got back to the shelter, Landrover was there and some people were relaxing around the BC. They were Azerbaijans from Astara on the shore of the Caspian Sea and on the next they wanted to ascend the mountain as well. Perfect, so i won't be alone. Another good thing was, that they spoke Russian, so the communication was far way easier for me, than in Farsi. They immediately take me as one of their team, offering me tea, some snacks and calling me "tovarisch David". In the evening we drunk some tea with the shelter guard, i got hot water for my soup and at 9 i'm my "bed". From the carpets i made me a nice mattress, so the night was quite comfy. Somewhen around 2 AM i woke up because of cold, my sleeping bag is too thin. This was solved by chemical heat pad and at half past five i woke up. The Azerbaijans were already outside, but two of them really don't feel good and are throwing up behind the building. I eat some snacks, drink hot tea and around half past six we start the climb. But some of them are not in a good shape, their acclimatization is very bad and already some 100 height meters above the BC one of them is throwing up. Later another one of them. Of course they continue the climb, but are very slow. I feel quite okey, but if someone is womiting around me, i'm about to throw up as well.

view from around 4250m	at 4400m
plateau on the top (4750m)	with Ali and Majid by the crater lake (4780m)

So i start to walk my own tempo. At 4000 metres i wait for them for quite a long time, but they are not showing up. So i go further up, the weather is perfect - not cold, not warm, light wind, but i start to feel the altitude around 4200 metres. I walk slower and make short breakes reguralry. I pass the sign of 4400 metres, but after that i'm having a crisis. I'm ascending very slowly and even 4 people, who came by landrover in the morning, go ahead of me. At about 4600 metres i see that a guy with GPS around his neck climbs up, so i ask about the altitude. He replies in good English that we are 4647 metres high and we start to talk. His name is Majid, he's from Tabriz and he gives moral support to continue the climb. In 30 minutes we stay together by the crater lake, which is still completely frozen of course, at the height of 4780 metres. My height record! We take videos, photos together, eat and drink something and start the descend because the peak is getting covered by clouds. We walk the major part of the descend in fog. I'm quite exhausted, even walking down the hill is quite hard for me. I was happy when we finally reached the shelter. Majid offers me a drive back to Tabriz by his car, so i pack all my stuff, drink a tea and we take a landrover down to Shabil, from where we drive by car. The journey goes without any problem and in the evening we are in Tabriz. Majid takes me into his office, offers me a tea and something to drink. Then we look on some of his mountain photos and talk about his plan to climb Ama Dablam in the Himalayas. Real dare. After dusk i take a taxi back to downtown and Majid invites me for a lunch on the following day. Iranian hospitality again.

view over Tabriz from the El Goli park

Blue Mosque (Tabriz)

Next day was dedicated to relaxation only. In the morning i walked around Tabriz bazaar and by noon i take a taxi to Majid's office. We go to the restaurant nearby for a delicious chello kebab, rice, soup and yoghurt drink. After that we drive to very popular El Goli park. It's early afternoon, so it's quite empty, but in the evening or on fridays it's full of picnicing iranian families. Taking a picnic with own family is a very popular activity in Iran. Then we have to say goodbye to each other since Majid is heading to his office and i'm taking a taxi to the Blue Mosque (Masjed Kabud). Well, the mosque is not very blue nowadays, because of heavy earthquakes in the past. The blue mosaic can be seen only around the main gate. The rest of the afternoon i spend by strolling around the shops and in an internet cafe and in the evening i'm having a Couchsurfing meeting (www.couchsurfing.com). I've just posted a message in the Iran group, that i'll wait there and there and let's see who shows up. So i'm waiting and suddenly somebody shouts on me from a car stuck in the middle of the traffic jam. It was Alireza. We drove to El Goli, had beer (non-alcoholic of course) and he explained me load of things about Iran, iranian society, relationship between men and women here, about temporary marriages etc. One of the most interesting talks i had in the last couple of years. Another great person i met in this country. Then he drops me off back in downtown, i go for a kebab and fresh melon juice and back to hotel.

in the Kandovan village
Kandovan village	kids in the village

Next day i'm heading to Mr. Nasser's office for advice, because i want to move further to Tehran and Esfahan. I'm told that the best is to go by bus. It should take 9 hours to Tehran. In the same time i'm offered a tour to the Kandovan village, which is near Tabriz and where people live in rock houses (something like Cappadocia in Turkey). There are 2 French people and one Dutch guy, so i would just fit into the car. The price is 4 Euro per person to get there and back, so there's nothing to solve. I run back to hotel, pack my backpack and leave it in Mr. Nasser's office. We leave at noon from the office, the driver is Nasser's brother. In one hour we are in the village, pretty high in the mountains, around 2000 metres. We make a walk thru, take dozens of pictures. Me and the French people walk yet on the other side of the valley to take a panorama photo of the village. Then we drive back to Tabriz. I take my backpack from tourist office and head to bus station from where i leave at half past eight in the evening to Tehran. First the bus is quite empty, but in Zanjan some other people get in and it's nearly full. In the middle of the night we stop somewhere at gas station for eat and drink. Suddenly i see two men shouting at each other. One of them walks away, but the second one is angry and attacks the other one. They fight, few people are trying to separate them, but in the end about five people fight with each other. Then it calms down, but the police comes and they are starting to solve it. Fortunately noone from our bus took part in that, so we can continue. At 5 o'clock, by dawn, we are in Tehran at the bus terminal close to the Azadi monument. I leave my backpack in the leftluggage office and walk by foot to subway. I drive (10 eurocents) to Imam Khomeini square, walk around the yet relatively quiet downtown. Then i decide to take subway to the station Talaqani, where the former U.S. Embassy stands. Nowadays it's called U.S. Den of Espionage. Already when you get out of subway, you will see a big "Down with the U.S.A." painted on the wall. The Embassy was one full block and today the whole wall on the Talaqani street is covered with anti U.S. statements like "The U.S.A. are weak to do anything". Also a Statue of Freedom is painted there and instead of head is a skull. As i walked in one sidestreet close from there a girl started to talk to me. We talked while we walked, but then some people showed up, so she rather said good bye. Half an hour later, in a park, another girl talked with me. She was sitting on a bench opposite to me. This didn't happen to me in Tabriz. Also the clothes of young Iranians in Tehran was much more liberal and very fashionable. The girls sometimes have their hair rather uncovered than covered. Then i headed to the bazaar, which was nice, but overcrowded. The temperature is rising up and in the afternoon it's 36 degrees. I found an internet café, so i could send some emails and also check out the weather forecast for Esfahan. It should be 39 degrees there tomorrow.

Tehran - morning view to the Azadi Monument

Azadi Monument

I can't imagine that, cause i'm having problem to stand the heat already here in Tehran. Back at the bus terminal i decided to turn it back to Tabriz. Anyway i will have to come here at least once more, cause i will still miss Qom, Shiraz, Persian Gulf, Mashad and other interesting places. So this year i explored the western part, next time comes the central and eastern part. I bought a bus ticket and half an hour our later bus left towards the West. Before midnight we are in Tabriz and i'm taking a taxi and check-in to the hotel Mashad again.

mosque close to Tehran's bazaar	old Mercedes trucks
with Farid in Tabriz	sun finds it's way to the alleys of Tabriz's bazaar

The next day was reserved just for relaxation, shopping, eating and drinking fruit juices :-). I was just enjoying Tabriz and it's cool climate with temperature not exceeding 30 degrees. In the evening i had a very interesting talk with young iranian policeman Farid, who was serving his "military" duty after finishing university. On the other day, right in the morning i'm heading to Mr. Nasser's office, because i need to get back to Istanbul. He recommends me a direct bus from Tabriz to Istanbul. But there's a little problem, since the bus journey takes 36 hours and i really can't imagine such a long time spent in a bus. When i was small, i remember a busdrive to Spain, which was 24 hours and it was neverending. He calls to the bus company and asks if there's still a free seat for today. There is, the last one. I have to decide quickly. Ok, i take that. Mr. Nasser reserves me the seat. I will see, if will feel bad, i can get off in Ankara and take a sleeper train from there to Istanbul. And for was also the price, 24 Euro for a journey between Tabriz and Istanbul, which is some 2000 kilometres, is more than a good deal. I change some money by Mr. Nasser and head immediately to buy my ticket. Then i make some last shopping, i buy iranian flag, some of the non-alcoholic fruit beers etc. I pack all my stuff, check-out from hotel Mashad and take my backpack to the bus company's office. I stroll around bazaar for the last time, take the last chello kebab and drink the last melon juice. At 22:30, we are leaving Tabriz. My seat is right in the very back of the bus and next to me sits an iranian guy called Armin, who is the same age as i and studies university in Turkey. We immediately start to talk, so journey goes faster.
Before the border we stop at a gas station and our bus is packed with cheap iranian gas. At 4 o'clock in the morning we are at the border crossing Bazargan. We get out, take our backpacks and head towards the iranian check. Inside the building rules a complex chaos. A really lot of people running around, waiting in queues for this or that. First Armin has to pay some exit tax, which is a duty for every Iranian who leave the country. Thank you very much... Then we proceed to customs check, but nobody wants to see my backpack. And then it comes, the passport check. I've seen a lot in my life, i've survived the border crossing at Shegynij check point between Ukraine and Poland, but this is something what is hard to describe. If you are used to have queues, where each leads to one counter, you come to the counter, hand out your passport to the policeman, your passport is checked, stamped, given back to you and you leave, then forget about it. As we came there, there were maybe 100 people pressing on each other and trying to get to the window and hand their passport to the policemen. They were four there, but everyone did another part of the checking process, so your passport gone thru hands of four policemen. The passport were collected in dozens. So somebody was holding let's say 10 passports, gave them to the first policeman, who throwed them on a big grist and there they were waiting and waiting. And you was waiting and waiting. The chaos was so enormous, that sometimes somebody got back a passport of someone's completely else. Like the guy who got a women's passport with U.S. visa inside. I left my backpack beside and together with Armin we started to make our way to the window. In maybe half an hour, we were there. Another half an hour took before the policeman took our passports from me. After maybe an hour one of them came out with maybe 30 passports and our were there as well. I remember, that he shouted "David Czech". So we have our passports back and are waiting for the bus. We stand only some 10 metres away from the bars, which divide Iran and Turkey.
After another hour, the gate opens and we are entering the secular Turkey. The gate closes, we get out and start to wait the queue for the turkish entry stamp. It's quite cold and cloudy, so i can't see the more than 5000 metres high Ararat Mountain. Iran is behind me, i'm turning my head several times, while waiting for the passport control. A small hill rises above the checkpoint, iranian flag flickering in the wind. I'm trying to recall all the interesting what i've experienced and seen there, trying to recall all the interesting and hospitable people i've met... I've come to Iran to see sights, to do mountain climbing and to find out if Iran and it's people are really the same, as i've read in the travelblogs and reports of other travellers. I had a lot questionmarks about Iran, before i came here. I'm leaving, some questionmarks are solved, some remained, but much more new ones have emerged. The country is wonderful, people are very hospitable to foreigners (i've been to around 40 countries in my life, but never to a country with such a friendly and hospitable people). But Iran also faces serious problems - run away of university educated people (at OECD they calculated the costs of this for the iranian economy to 60 billion USD - something like 15 % of the country's GDP, a year), rising social injustice, speeding up inflation, sharply rising number of drug addicts...

somewhere in central Turkey

morning traffic on the bridge over Bosporus

looking back to Asia

It was interesting for me to see, that after the gate to Iran closed and we were standing maybe only some 50 metres away form the Islamic Republic, how some women already throwed away their scarfes and men we running into the duty-free shop to buy beers or whisky. The control on the turkish side went quite smooth and after an hour we begin our long journey thru big Turkey. Yet some 2 kilometres we go thru military check and then right to city Dogubeyazit for a breakfast. I fell asleep and woke up somewhere in the middle of Turkey, where we stopped for a lunch. I took chicken and rice and Armin some kebabs. In late afternoon we stop somewhere in the middle of nowhere and i have to change bus. Two companies decided to change part of their passangers. In our bus, there were only a few people heading to Istanbul and the rest was going to Ankara. In the bus of the second company it was vice-versa. So our bus becomes a bus going only to Ankara, and the second one will go directly to Istanbul. It's time to say goodbye to Armin, take my stuff and move to the second vehicle. But i meet there with guy from Egypt, who speaks very good English, so we can kill time with an interesting talk. At 8 o'clock in the morning, we drive over the giant bridge over Bosporus and an hour later we are stopping at Aksaray. My Egyptian friend heads to the German embassy, where he wants to try to get a visa and i'm heading to the Big Apple Hostel at Sultanahmet. I've already stayed there last year and it was fairly ok. In the afternoon i'm heading to the Grand Bazaar, buy some clothes, eat some doner kebabs etc. In the evening i'm stopping in the office of Metro Turizm bus company next to the Hagia Sophia and reserving a ticket for next day noon to Sofia. Around 10pm i yet forced myself to go out and take some night photos of the Blue Mosque.
Next day i take the breakfast, pick up my busticket and head to Istanbul's main bus terminal - Otogar. The Metro company again surprised me. The bus completely new, even more comfy, than i was expecting. The journey goes without any problem up to the turkish border. I had to go to the booth to confirm, that i entered Turkey from Iran (don't know why, since it was clear from the stamp in my passport). There was also a guy with israeli passport and he had problems. Big problems, they arrested him. We were waiting for him around one and half hour, but it was useless, so we left. Because of that we arrived Sofia not at half past nine, but at eleven in the night. I immediately started to look up for some accomodation, but everything was full. What's going on?

Nevsky Cathedral in the middle of the night (Sofia)

back home - the golden Prague

Last year in July you didn't see a tourist here. Finally i find a bed in the Red Star hostel, close from the Vitosha Boulevard. It was quite good and for only 9 Euro a night, plus the lady who was keeping up the place was very nice and helpful. I didn't feel very good on the next day (apparently thanks to the airconditioning in the bus), so i quit my plan to climb the Vitosha mountain, which rises right above the city, and just walk around downtown and take photos of the wonderful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. In the evening i go to a big party organised thru Couchsurfing, which took place at one of the flats at General Skobelev street, only some 10 mins walk from my hostel. I was leaving fairly drunk at 3 o'clock in the morning, but still i was able to do some superb night shots of the Nevsky Cathedral.
The last day of my trip was more or less waiting for the plane back to Prague. At 17:30 we are in the air and fly over Belgrade, lake Balaton and Vienna to Prague.

Khoda Hafez Iran...