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:
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