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.