We arrived in Tabriz at 07:50. Actually, we wanted to buy the tickets for the return trip directly upon arrival, but then Hamid, our guide for today, was already there. Melanie had read about him on TripAdvisor and also found his phone number there. While Melanie was looking for Andreas outside the station, he was sitting inside with Hamid. Abruptly change the location, that distinguished Hamid, which should bring Melanie in the course of the day still quite to the white heat.
Hamid had organized a car with driver for us and so we first drove to the city park to have breakfast there. Finally a different breakfast – there were potatoes and egg in a flatbread and of course coffee or tea. Then we went for a walk around the lake, which was in the park. Due to the heat, Mel ignored the headscarf rule. However, Hamid admonished her to put the headscarf back on because of possible “problems”. While we were walking around the city park, Hamid told us that he had invested $50,000 in stocks, which he then lost (due to the government).
Once again we recognized the parallels to the former GDR – he was already waiting 7 months for his fully paid car – probably another Samand. After the leisurely walk we drove to the Colorful Mountains. There we hiked 1.5 hours through the colorful mountains – a wonderful landscape and wonderfully quiet. Hamid had a picnic basket in the car, but unfortunately only water and glasses were stowed there for him and the driver. Good preparation for a tour.
During the car ride, Hamid told us about an “academy” dedicated to spirituality. Welcome to the Iranian offshoot of Scientology. Melanie quickly lapsed into sleep mode, while Andreas was allowed to deal with the “academic” program. After an hour’s drive we arrived in Kandovan – the so-called rock village. Due to the holiday, the traffic was jammed, so we had to walk a bit into the village. In fact, there were still a few people living in the rock houses. Up and down stairs we explored the village.
There were also numerous souvenirs for sale. And so Hamid also took us to a carpet store to drink tea and buy a carpet, which of course could have been used as a tablecloth. We once again declined with thanks – so slowly we could not see any more carpets.
After an hour of exploring, Mel, addicted, went in search of coffee – unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, Andreas went up a few more floors with Hamid and promptly landed in the next sales show – for a handbag. He declined again with thanks. Afterwards, we steered haphazardly along the promenade with Hamid. Actually we wanted to have lunch, but Hamid suddenly thought about going to a water fountain, from which “special”, holy, purifying and ice-cold water was gushing. Andreas tried the water, while Hamid snatched Andreas belongings and first dropped the sunglasses – fortunately the camera remained unharmed.
All restaurants were now fully occupied. So we went up and down the street until we found a place somewhere, in a storeroom. Melanie was not hungry at all, as her toothache had returned, but she was “force-fed” bread and kebab by Hamid and our driver. To combat her toothache Hamid suggested she use his “master’s” method – close her eyes for 5 minutes and think the pain into nirvana. Not to be rude, Mel closed her eyes for 5 minutes and you won’t believe it – the toothache was still there. Our driver, who was very nice, still blessed Mel’s drink. Mh – maybe that helped a bit to stop the pain. Andreas meanwhile moved closer and closer to our seat neighbors, 2 obese policemen to flee in case of an “attack” of the sect disciples in safety.
After the meal we drove to Tabriz. Not far from the rock village we made a short stop at another village. Here no one lived anymore, in the underground dwellings, which had been built earlier for protection against attacks. The last inhabitants had left the underground stone buildings after the Iran-Iraq war.
During the further drive Hamid asked us if we still wanted to visit the bazaar in Tabriz. When we said “yes”, he suddenly remembered that the bazaar was already closed. So we ended up in a café next to the blue mosque…. Mel’s last coffee was meanwhile about 8h back and so slowly her look became more and more “insane” – Andreas now had the free choice of whom he would be attacked.
Once again we steered haphazardly from table to table, to finally sit down after 5 minutes, after this table did not hurt Hamid’s esoteric feelings. Apparently, the café was the meeting place of all guides in Tabriz, because more and more small tour groups joined us. Among these guides was also a young man. A student, who then showed us some highlights of the closed bazaar and could tell us some more about Tabriz and its interesting history. There was a building that could have been built in Germany – the city hall of Tabriz looked like a typical city hall in Germany.
Hamid and our driver then took us to the bus station. As soon as we arrived, Hamid once again ran away without telling us what his plan was. Although we had told him umpteen times that Pegah had already taken care of our bus tickets by phone, he organized more tickets (for probably the worst bus in all of Iran). He still waited until the bus came, although Mel was already visibly annoyed and needed rest. She went to get another coffee and when she came back, Hamid wanted to run off with her open backpack and luggage to change locations again. Mel exploded. While Andreas was already jumping for cover, Hamid only perceived this explosion as negative vibrations. Fortunately, the bus finally arrived. Hook on and off to Tehran.
Recent Comments