30 October 2011

It's hard to kill us! Part 2/2

Our driver drifted 180 degrees at the end of the road. Some middle age woman was putting wet clothes on the string. She was surprised when we stop next to her. Our friend asked her in farsi how can we leave the village, which road we have to take? We all understand her answer when she pointed her finger to the direction we just came. Tony wanted to run to the mountains and left car there. I was screaming "Yes and guys on motorbikes will catch us in 5 minutes." Actually everyone in the car was screaming all ideas and thoughts. I was ready to went in the car same way back, even rub through our attackers. Our friend who was driving got the same insane idea. There wasn't any other way how to get through.

Now it would be good to tell story of Kamron, thanks to him and his family I'm able to write this post now.
When Max and Georg stopped in the village, no one would started hunt on them. They arrived in well known car with well known villagers. They didn't do anything suspicious and most important, they wasn't in line of sight of the crowd, because the car stopped in the little street between houses.

They disembarked from the car and were looking around, waiting for us. When we arrived to the village and the whole action was launched, they just stood, unable to move or do anything. It's was so unexpected and violent. After few moments Kamron tried to help. He wasn't able to get close but he called his family and they came to save us. They definitely succeed. When we were stuck in dead end they stopped with their bodies motorbikes and the rest of the crowd who came later. They explained them that we are harmless and will not report anything. This approach works. Kamron's uncle was important figure in the village. I didn't ask what exactly was his position there but you can see the difference. So they came for us in his car, we have to change the car and left the stuff in our car there. We were so scared and shaking so much.
It was so relieving, he was speaking to us without pause: "Everything will be ok, don't worry."

When we passed by all people, who just moments ago wanted to kill us, I wasn't even able to look at their faces.  They didn't look more friendly. Anyway we were in locked car again but this time their intimate presence wasn't so terrified.
This way to Kamron's house was so long and you could easily walk next to the car.
My concept of time has radically changed. Time at the beginning of village run so fast but it was completely opposite near the dead end and on the way to Kamron's house.
When we finally get there and I got out of the car I was still shaking. They took us into house and were reminding us that everything is ok, we're safe there.Kamron's grandmother was using offensive language to the anonymous crowd. She was standing next in the yard and shouting as loud as she could. I still have her picture in my mind as it would happened few seconds ago. There were a lot of people from the house around us. I felt safe.

Our German friends were already in the room, eager to learn all details about situation. Anyone could see that we were still in the shock. Kamron couldn't look into our eyes. He invited us for lunch but circumstances almost caused our lives. He was also shocked by his neighbours. We sat on the floor and got great lunch prepared by Kamron's family. It was hard to ate anything but after some time i could even feel taste of food.


lunch
Kamron was all the time quiet. It was concluded that after the lunch we will not stay in the village longer.
Kamron's cousin drove our car out of the valley and we in the car with his uncle were transported to our car.
When we were leaving the valley I saw that some people on motorbikes left village few minutes before us.
I got the feeling that they could meet us somewhere on the way to Shahrekord. Looking around the road, expecting the worse. Such a lovely journey back to Isfahan. Fortunately nothing happened. We changed for the bus and arrived in Isfahan, where we met our friends.  

We are lucky friends, being on the wrong place in the wrong time and still get over without any physical harm is unbelievable. When I'm telling this story to some of my friends I'm smiling. It's not real smile, it's relieving smile. Being so close to the dead could change person. I knew that it changed me and it will influence some of my actions in the future. I was asked if we will come again to Sarche, do you know what I replied?


28 October 2011

It's hard to kill us! Part 1/2

In the morning we met with Kamron close to Sio-se-pol bridge. It was beautiful morning, we were accompanied by our lovely hosts. We had to wait for Kamron for a while, but before he arrived we had small re-union with our friends from train: Max and Georg. Finally Kamron shows up and told us that we have to take a bus to get to his village.  So we walked along the river, past through crazy traffic in the city and got to the bus. When we wanted to pay, Kamron forbid us. We didn't feel good to let him pay but he was faster.
So sitting in the bus, talking about past few days after one hour we arrived to Shahrekord. From the bus it looks like small provincial city. What we didn't know is that Shahrekord is among highest towns in Iran, it's 2220 m above sea level. Kamron told us that his village is close to Shahrekord. He went to get some transport for us. One thing was sure, place next to bus station didn't look friendly. When we were waiting for him, some taxi drivers approached us with questions in Persian for which we didn't had answers. Everyone passing by looked suspicious and unfriendly. It wasn't so hot as in Esfahan, but the air was full of dust. Some minutes later Kamron came with some of his friends and we got into two cars and headed out of the town into mountains.
 We were driving for two hours. Kamron with his friend and Gorg and Max were in the first car. We three and our excellent formula 1 driver were in the second car. He was driving on these small roads so fast that we had to wait for the second car for 15 minutes until they arrived to our location next to river.
 


Then again racing started. We made another stop in our driver's village. He wanted to show us his family and house and drink "Chai" with them. Chai means tea and sounds exactly as word tea in Slavic languages.
We got a call from Kamron who was wondering where we were. So in a few minutes we were back on the road going as fast as possible to Sarche.


Sarche was located in small valley, looked small. Our driver told us that he had never been there yet and only 2000 people are living there. Such a small village.
First car entered the village smoothly and parked in some near house. Then it's was our move to slowly get down to the valley. Tony in the front filming interesting view on right side and me with Barbara in the back. Then I saw big crowd of people standing next to two small trucks arguing about something.
I immediately took a photo of them. Twice to be sure. I said:" Hey Tony, look at the right side, take them on the video. It would be nice to have them in our trip documentary." "Sure", he responded and looked with camera on the right side, taking approximately few seconds of HD video. Everything happened so fast. One young guy, he could be 17/19 years old, saw us in the car with camera. He was sitting on the top of one truck and he shouted something pointing on us.

That was the moment when all these people stopped arguing and looked at us. Everyone was silent for one or two seconds. I froze in fear of near future, I guess everyone in the car did.



Then all the people started to run towards our car. Everything in the next paragraphs happened in few minutes, not more than 15-30 minutes.
First thing which I did was removing first photo I took. I took my flash card from camera and I hid it in a secret pocket. I didn't think about it much, it was like a reflex. I had them on the photo and they didn't see me taking it. Tony hid his camera under seat and our driver was trying to calm us down. He said: "it will be OK, i will speak with them in farsi."


No it wasn't OK. From the moment we saw them running to our car, we screamed to driver, "turn the car, let's go out of the village". Actually he couldn't do that. There wasn't enough place to turn over the car on the road. He was also afraid but he still thought that it will be OK when he will be speaking with them. 


They didn't let him speak. Later when we share our memories from the event we realize that not all of them started to run to the car. Some of them started to run to the nearest houses. They probably went for some guns or others to help them. When they came to our car some of them already had some stuff which could be used as a weapons and they tried to drag us out. Two front windows were open. I closed our windows in the back and locked out all doors. I guess it saved our lives that time. Quarter second after crowd enclosed the car they started to strangle our driver and tried to drag him out through the window, because doors were locked. I was locking it immediately after they tried to open them. Fortunately our driver stepped on the accelerator pedal and we moved a meter or two. That surprised the guy who was strangling him and he backed off. Our driver realizing that he had a free throat again, stepped on the accelerator pedal again and at maximum speed went deeper into the village. We were screaming at least in the same intensity as our attackers if not more.


We stopped after 60 or 70 metres, because riding car on that kind of road in full speed wasn't easy. I was afraid that we would never get out of this ... village. No more than two minutes lasted our peace (sorry master yoda speaking).
We were screaming to each other our possibilities, then suddenly three motorbikes came next to the car. Two men on each. I was surprise, how they manage to took their motorbikes so fast? It was like from Hollywood movie, we in car trying to get rid of them and these people trying to stop the car, and take us out. It was clear for us that if we would be out of the car, they would kill us without questions and no one could ever know what's happened to us there. They managed to strangled our driver again but when the car run through something on the road and jumped a bit, he stopped. At the same time another motorbikes approached from the left side and the villager tried to drag Tony out through the window, tearing his yellow shirt a bit but wasn't able to take him out. He even tried to open locker on the doors but I immediately locked it again.
It happened at least three times. Then Tony finally managed to close the window. 

Both windows in the front were already closed when arrived to the end of the road. 

Part 2

26 October 2011

the magical city of Esfahan

Some people who heard we're heading for Iran advised us to visit Esfahan, referring to it as "Iranian Krakow". It is also known as the city of artists, famous bridges, rugs and beautiful architecture.


We said good bye to our German friends but only for a while, because we were supposed to meet again the next day. Tony arranged that they'd be hosted by on of our potential hosts, Hassan.
We went to meet our host, Mahtab and her father and went to their house to leave our stuff. There we met Mahtab's sister, Mitra and their mother. Then we went to see the city. The girls showed us Khaju Bridge and Si-o-se Pol, also known as The Bridge of 33 Arches.


The area by the river is charming. Tony got a cigar from a passer-by but had to throw it away, because a policeman reminded him that he couldn't smoke in public during the Ramadan.
Near the Si-o-se Pol we met Mahtab's friend Hamed who told us a lot about the history of the city. We saw UNESCO World Heritage Site - Nash-e Jahan Square
(aka Imam Square) with Ali Qapu Palace. You can see it on 20 000 rial note.


Then we visited Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque, where I had to wear chadora. The Mosque has double cupola and if you make any sound directly under it, it echoes two times.



After we left the Mosque, we were joined by Persian guy Salman aka Awesome Guy and Arthur, a French guy who studied Persian. We went through the Esfahan Grand Bazaar to have some rest in a park. Somehow I fell asleep there, right on the grass ;)


In the late afternoon our friends arranged carpet demonstration for us. We had some tea there and learned about different kinds of carpets, which were the most valuable, what materials were used, how to make carpet look old, ect.


In the evening we went for tea and water pipe with our newly met friends. We all agreed to meet the next day in the evening, for the CS meeting, after our return from Kamron's village.

23 October 2011

Iranian trains

We decided to travel from Teheran to Esfahan by train. It turned out to be quite cheap and it was the night train which saved us some time. But it was not as easy as in Poland or Ukraine, where you just buy a ticket and hop in. Noo.
Since we were foreigners, we had to use our passports on every occasion. First, they needed our names to reserve places on the train. I think it would be much harder for us to arrange without Mohsen, who helped us a lot.
The entrance to the platforms looks like gate entrance at the airport. No ticket - no entry. If you have big luggage, there are men waiting with carts. Additionally, if you're a foreigner, you need to go through passport control with your ticket. That's where we bumped into two German and agreed to meet again on the train.
We shared compartment with two Iranians. One of them was about 50-60 years old and had just had heart surgery. He spoke English very well and told us of his travel to the USA before the revolution.
Then one of the German guys, Max, found us. We talked a bit and he went back to his compartment. When we saw him again, the train crew arranged that Max and his brother would exchange their compartment with our Iranian companions so we spent the rest of the journey in strictly European compartment ;)
When a man with a trolley came, we decided to have some tea. I went away for a while and when I came back, there was another Iranian in our compartment. He told us his name was Kamron and that he was a poet. And he looked like a dreamer. He invited us to his village, only an hour away from Esfahan, in the mountains. We accepted the invitation as all the cities were similar and we believed that villages were the most interesting places to visit.
Then Kamron left and we went to sleep. When we woke up, the train had almost reached its destination.

Since it's not allowed to take photos at the railway station, you can see only inside of the train:


20 October 2011

Visiting 19th largest city in the world



We finally arrived in Tehran. Alive! As soon as we parked the car we exhaled all stress from the journey.
We hurried to the meeting point - Laleh Park - where we were supposed to meet Teheran couchsurfers. 

 The very first person we met was a Polish guy, Dawid. He was there with some German guys and lovely Persian girl (who lived in Vienna) for summer internship as members of IAESTE organization. 

After that we were joined by Tehranians. At the time we had no idea that we'd find a great friend among them. I mean Mohsen aka our Brother aka Master Mike (but we'll get there) and his sister. He was very quiet that time.After the meeting we split up. Tony and Martin were smuggled into dormitory by the IAESTE people and I went to visit Elmira, my CS host.

 If moving from Rzeszów to Kraków changed my perception of distance, visiting Tehran was like revolution. This city is HUGE. 730 sq km makes quite an impression. Luckily I got a ride from one of the couchsurfers.
Elmira's flat was really beautiful, she herself was very nice. I also met her mother who was in Poland sometime ago. We talked a bit about traveling, plans for future, ect. and went to sleep. Listening to Elmira and her mother I really liked the sound of Persian language.

The next day we were supposed to go to the Contemporary Art Museum. I got up, had breakfast, asked Elmira for direction and set out. It was quite complicated for me since I was used to travel by two means of transport within the city. There I had to take a taxi to get to the metro station. Then I went by two metro trains to the center, then I had to take another taxi (and, for the first time in my life, I shared it with total strangers). The journey to the Museum took me two hours.

After visiting the Museum, we met Mohsen for the city tour. We were supposed to meet his sister as well but she couldn't come. He told us he was a tourism student and suggested a trip to Qeshm Island in Persian Gulf. We agreed to go there after visiting Persepolis.
During the walk around the city we saw almost all important places. Then we ate in the park, hiding from police because of Ramadan.
We also visited the bazaar Martin bought a new shirt :)

Then we met Mohsen's friend, Minoo and saw Iranian wrestling training.

When the sun went down, we went to meet our European friends for dinner with water pipe. We were a bit late because of some metro malfunction. We got stuck on a metro station and, after long waiting, decided to take a taxi. Unfortunately, Minoo had to leave us.

Terribly hungry we finally found our friends. The dinner was very nice but it was getting late and we had to go back. Since there was no bus, we had to take taxi. The guys tried to bargain with drivers. In the end, I went to Elmira's with Mohsen, who had to make sure I entered the building safely.

TIP: Monday is a day when all museums in Iran are closed. But on Monday Sept 6th 2010 we decided to visit National Museum of Iran before we left for Esfahan. Tony suggested that we try everything to get inside. We even talked to the manager, very nice lady in chadora (actually, all ladies there were wearing chadoras). We asked for her permission, told her it was our last day in Tehran and how important it was for our cultural studies and she allowed us to enter for 20 minutes. We had whole museum for ourselves. There were many beautiful things there, jewelry, statues, weapons, parts of Persepolis buildings, even the Salt Man - well preserved human body found in salt mine in 1993.




After that we spent some more time with Mohsen who was with us all day long. We bought train tickets, ate dinner and planned to meet in Shiraz.

01 August 2011

From Hospital to Capital city

We went to Masoud's to have some coffee and we talked a bit. He also amazed us playing on dulcimer. We were still thinking of taking a night bus to Teheran when out host suggested we go with him in the morning. So we agreed on going with him.


I went to sleep but didn't enjoy it for long. A loud scream woke me up. I got up really scared and it turned out that our host had something that looked like epilepsy attack. When he finally seemed ok, he couldn't remember us.
We packed our bags instantly and decided to take him to a hospital.
That night we learned a lot about the Iranian hospitals. Imagine our shock when we entered through the smoke of cigarettes.
Tony talked to the staff about Masoud's situation and we just sat nearby.
The room where they put patients was quite big, the beds were separated by curtains. I personally don't like hospitals and this one was no exception. Seeing people after accidents, blood all over them, may be depressing. And two other people died that night and their families cried very loud to express their loss.
When we sat there, a policeman came and asked us if we were married. We didn't understand what he was saying but we had to show him our passports.
When the policeman was told we brought a sick man to the hospital, he left us alone.
We were there for three or four hours. After that the doctors decided that our host was ok and could go home. We wanted to leave him home and continue to Teheran but he insisted on going with us. In the end Tony was driving and we got on the highway leading to the capital.
It took us longer than we thought because of police control on the way. First, there was a problem with a light. Then, the problem was that Tony was driving (because he didn't have international driving licence) and it was not important that the person who in police's opinion could drive had just spent three hours in a hospital bed... Finally, they stopped us, checked our passports and asked me about my father or brother. When I told them that my family is in Poland, they were very surprised but finally let us go.
Then we made a safety stop to sleep a bit and continued to Teheran, where we've already arranged another CS meeting.

Kandovan

On our third day in Iran we visited the village of Kandovan. We went with our friends from couchsurfing by two cars. Our driver was Masoud. The funny thing is, the route was about 45 km but we stopped two or three times to eat or drink something :) When we reached our destination, we met Babak and his friend.


Kandovan is very similar to Cappadocia but still totally inhabited. The people live there in traditional way, they have mules, hens and sell what they make on their own - dried herbs, fruit etc. When you stand in front of the front door of one household, you also stand on a roof of the house below you.
We climbed the hill, got to see some interiors, children hiding from strangers, older people doing the usual things. It's really hard to say how big those houses actually are, I guess they have much more space than they look like. After all, when you're a visitor, you only see what they want you to see.
After seeing the cave houses we went to a market place where people were selling everything they made - herbs, fruit and delicious jelly-like flat things. I don't know how they call it but I think they're quite popular in Iran because later in Teheran a woman was selling it on subway. I liked it because it was sweet but also a bit sour. We also bought some mint tea.
Tony and Martin disappeared for a while and came back with beautiful shots of the whole village:
 


On the way back we saw an abandoned village in the same fashion as Kandovan. The difference was that you couldn't tell it was a village by just looking from the road. It looked like a regular hill. But when we came closer we could see houses dug in the ground and went inside.




We came back to Tabriz in the late afternoon and wanted to get the bus to Teheran but our driver Masoud invited us for coffee and accepting that invitation was the beginning of a series of unexpected events.

26 July 2011

Tabriz - the friendly city

After getting off in the city center we understood that taxi drivers are the same everywhere. We went around one crossroad twice and would go once more if we didn't protest. We were thirsty, so we went to a shop to buy some water. The price didn't seem right, so Tony asked random guys about the price. We found out that we got "tourist rate", higher than normally. What we didn't know yet, was that we'd just met really good friends. There were Babak and Payam. They invited us for tea near the Blue Mosque and we talked a bit. We also decided that it was a good place for Couchsurfing meeting.

That night we slept on a camp site but we didn't want to rent a tent and we just slept on the ground, a girl between two guys.


In the morning, a man watering the grass woke us up and told us to move. Then Payam and his friend showed up and took us for a ride around the city, helped us exchanging money and took us to an Internet cafe, where we send message to local CS community to come for the meeting.
After that we spend some time in a park with our new friends. We were talking and playing chess.
When the night was falling, Payam's mother came with a meal she cooked especially for us. It turned out, they lived nearby.




Before we realized it, we were late for the meeting we organized! We speeded to the Blue Mosque with Payam and his friend and were amazed by a number of people awaiting us.
During the meeting we found out that it was the very first Couchsurfing meeting in Tabriz and some people who joined us didn't even know what was Couchsurfing! They were just random people who wanted to talk.


That night we stayed at Amir's house and we talked till 4am. Funny thing, he was in Poland once :)


For the next day we arranged a trip to Kandovan.

Iran. first impressions. ...This is Tabriz Barbara!

Before our trip we've read a lot about Iran but reading is one thing and experiencing - another.
Our first stop after crossing border was Tabriz. We got there by three rides directly from the border.

If you're passing through border Dogubayazit/Maku you have the opportunity to see Ararat (5,137 m). no wonder people thought of it as the Holy Mountain, it makes quite an impression. except for Small Ararat, it's the only high mountain around with snow on top all the year round. i think one day we'll come back to climb it.
Ararat - view from Iran

One man in Tabriz told us that Iran is black and white. I managed to see more colors though.
People in Iran are mostly good. We experienced their hospitality but learned to be diplomatic in every situation as well. Bigger problem was with sellers and taxi drivers, they thought that we were awfully rich just because we came from Europe. and they tried to take as much money as they could from us. the rules of trade are the same everywhere.

It's almost impossible to see a couple (even married) holding hands. It only happens in big cities and is very rare. And forget about kissing in public!
I was very concerned about my clothes at the beginning and very careful to be dressed properly. I brought some scarfs, tunics and long thin trousers from Poland and bought a mantoo (as they call it in Iran) when we were in Turkey. And it was ok, sometimes i even rolled my sleeves up to elbow and nobody seemed to care. Even the Police is not very harsh on tourists.



We were so delighted after hitchhiking in Turkey that we tried it in Iran as well. First was a couple that showed us a house one boy started to build for a girl he loved, as they told us. It was digged in the rock, there was a beautiful view of Ararat from the entrance, three rooms inside. The house was unfinished though because the boy died before he managed to finish it. Guy was policeman, they were building their new house in mountains.






After stone house they took back on road to the highway. House was just few km from the border. There we met first foreigner in Iran. He was Canadian guy cycling to Switzerland from Turkmenistan. We had small talk and exchanged maps for our fore-coming trips. We left him great camping map of whole Turkey and he gave us special waterproof touristic map of Iran. After saying goodbye we continued.

Our next ride was a man who wanted us to pay. It was the first time that anyone asked money from us. We had no rials though and luckily Tony managed to convince him that it's possible to travel all the way from Istanbul to Iran for free. That's how we learned that hitchhiking is not quite popular in Iran.
After that another man, who couldn't take us further, came and gave us money to pay to greedy drivers. Luckily one taxi driver took us for free to a spot after police control. It is common in Iran that every now and then there's a control spot where police checks the drivers and their vehicles.
Just after that control spot we stopped a driver in an old tiuck who'd seen us earlier on the road and Martin waved to him like 3 times. He spoke a bit English and told us that his age was the same as his car's - 57 years.





























He took us to Tabriz and was so proud of the city. He kept on repeating 'Barbara! This is Tabriz. Tabriz, Tabriz, Taaabriz!' to show me how big it was. He left us in the city but also stopped, took a taxi for us and left us money to pay for it.
That's how we arrived in Tabriz.

Just few steps to the border

Walking around the road. Different smells, lot of trash everywhere. People looking at us, pointing on us.
Good weather with nice looking sky. some kid wanted some change. Some taxi driver stopping for us for same reason. We left Agri. I immediately felt better.

We got ride by a bank clerk who moved to Agri from some city on west coast few months ago because his bank opened new branch office in small city close to Agri. After few weeks his wife and kids moved out to different city because they couldn't stand people living there. Kids were afraid to walk around. They had same feelings as I, which proved my senses. He told us that we were lucky to stay in Teacher's house. We knew that.

He left us next to turning, wished us good and safe trip and went for his daily routine.
Some locals and taxi drivers had been waiting there. They immediately offered us ride.We didn't feel like paying them so we walked slowly away. But just in few seconds some car stopped for us. We didn't hitchhike but it was nothing extraordinary in Turkey. Driver was a man in his late 40s and wanted to take us with him. His car was dirty truck with cabin for two people. There were three of us. He didn't want to let us go by walking. He insisted on taking us even at behind the cabin on the truck. It was too dirty and he acted quite suspicious. The people standing with taxi drivers were also shouting all the time, telling us not to go with him, so we decided to let him go and walk further. He jumped in to the truck and drive slowly next to us, insisting to take us. After while he speeded up and left us on the road.

Then we got another ride to Dogubayazit which was our final destination in Turkey. During the ride Tony told us that these people standing with taxi drivers were telling us that the guy is a terrorist and he wanted to cut our heads. We will probably never know if it was real or they were just trying to persuade us to get some taxi. Anyway he was strange and all of us had mixed feelings about him.


We stayed in Dogubayazit just a while. It was enough for some tourist office managers to invite us for tea and propose us some trips on Arrarat and nearby. We refused and continued out of the city and towards border with Iran. Then we met some traveler passing by us, after few minutes we got acquainted. He was 27yo Czech tourist who was coming from Armenia and went for trek to Arratat for few days. He made some friends from the city and before we went with him to the road, he went to say goodbye to old man from some shop who invited him for tea. It was interesting to see their conversation. They didn't speak the same language but shared the same emotions, like when old friends are saying goodbye to each other.

Just few minutes later we found the road again and when Czech guy continued back home, we were slowly walking to the border. We got ride from Iranian truck driver and he took us few clicks to the border.
There were tens of trucks waiting in line to get through. When we passed Turkish control, we found a bottle of beer which we forgot to drink before. So hidden behind some truck we drank it and went to Iranian border control.

All soldiers with guns were looking at us. It's the place where you are afraid to walk faster or take a photo.

We came into the building which looked like departure hall from airport and were told to wait till someone will come to check our passports. Tony went first, for him as a Turkish national it was easy. Then it was our turn. We had our visas checked, they asked us some questions like "how long are you planing to stay in Iran?" or "which border crossing are you going to use on your way back"? And for some reason we could cross the border only together.


17 May 2011

Kurdistan - new tabu word in my dictionary

From Erzurum we hitchhiked to Agri. Two young man took us there and in a while we realized they were members of The Kurdistan Worker's Party also know as PKK. According to Wikipedia PKK is separatist organization which fights an army struggle against the Turkish state for the creation of an Independent Kurdistan. European Union put them on list of terroristic organizations. They told us a lot about PKK, their ideas and goals.

Accidentally in the middle of talks with them in their car, going to Agri, I got a call. Some unknown angry Turkish guy called me just to say words like bitch, fuck and some others. All the time repeating this is Turkey not Kurdistan. It was hard to understand him, because we were in car, but later he sent us around 10 texts only with swears. All of them addressed to me. Imagine messages like "I will kill you, when i"ll meet you" ending with "Good luck on trip!". We got some idea who is it and later when we saw another message in mailbox which proved it. It was one couchsurfer who got request from me.
The request was something like "we are traveling around Turkey, passing through Kurdistan, going to Agri, can you host us?".. I didn't want to offend anyone and I didn't know that Kurdistan is tabu word in this part of Turkey. People were and they are still dying for this word. Apparently it's not just word.
I have to focus more on cultural than geographical facts for next time. There is not enough preparation for journey and this political correctness is killing free discussion.

In a while we were dropped in Agri and we started to explore the city. When we asked a policeman if he knows about any accommodation for us. He was surprised, asked what we were doing there but he told us about teacher's house (Teachers in Turkey have to spend some time teaching kids in east parts of Turkey and after that they can get well paid job in good schools in the west as ppl told us.
After arriving into teacher's house we managed (read Tony in Turkish with our moral support) to persuade guy working on reception to give us some place for night for free. Looking for hotel or other kind of accommodation would be loss of time. We could use one office next to reception. It was still to early for sleeping so we just left our stuff there and went explore the city. I don't know why but i didn't feel safe there for first time in my life. No tourists, no other foreigners, just locals who were staring at us. We went around, bought some food and after sun went down, we ate in the park and listened to some music from phone and from buildings around. I was suspicious and always looking around but nothing happened. So we went back to Teacher's house and made our office comfortable.

We woke up early bin the morning when someone was knocking at our door. We were locked because we didn't feel safe in this town. It was guy from yesterday, he told us that we have to leave bcs. his boss is coming and he can't found us there. It was ok, we didn't want to stay there longer anyway.
Walking through city till main road took us some time, we saw nice couch which would be great to have at home but too heavy to carry it with ourselves :) so at least we took a picture on it. That's the CS spirit!
There was another surprise when we almost reached main road. Look for yourself...