The day began early and with a misunderstanding. Yesterday we had been talking about hiking in the mountains, about some religious event (and about breakfast at the grandparent’s house). And Arash had said he will get up at 5 to go to Kalleh-Pacheh. I should have known the word (see day 060) but instead at first I saw to other options: It might be a opening ceremony for this religious event (I would not join the Kalleh-Pacheh praying), or it would be a hike to Kalleh-Pacheh mountain (I would overcome my laziness to see sunrise with Arash on Kalleh-Pacheh peak). Later in that conversation (but without asking directly I got it right, because I remembered that Kalleh-Pacheh had been sold out in Zanjan in one place and we had to find another one and so it became clear why Arash wanted to buy it early to be on the safe side. It was meant for breakfast. So, in the morning I tried to wake up to accompany Arash, but he had been even earlier than 5a.m.!
Writing time for me…
Now I know more about the meaning of his name, because in a rush Arash made the family leave the house, having a pack of sleepy or sleeping minors on the backseats if his car a few minutes later.
Breakfast was again with Hamed, Felor, Mohammad and Ali, and for a short time, Felor’s brother Nima also was there. (but not to see here)
After breakfast, Arash left to visit a place and I started a discussion with Hamed with Negin as third party and translator. Hamed is a believer, an army man and has historical knowledge and I wanted to know about the word martyr (instead of war victim) for those who died in Iraq war (1980-88). Hamed apparently knows most of the arguments from previous discussions and his answers are clear, but in the end for me the word “holy war” was the same abuse of religion than before and a mother feeling good or at least comforted when she loses her child in such a war, because it is holy and now he is in paradise, is too strange for me to accept.
Arash fetched me for sightseeing. On the way, like yesterday I saw a car with a yellow ADAC sign and again Arash tried to catch up so I could make a photo of this strange phenomenon, but the “ADAC-cars” seem to drive (too) fast in general.
We went to Nasir-ol-Molk Mosque (~1870), called the pink mosque because of the light reflections in the coloured glass.
On some walls in the yard you can see motives from European sites (are there any churches in Austria with motives from Islamic countries?)
and I like the delicate ornaments going up to the roofs where they can only be seen when you have a zoom.
you cannot see it
can you see it?
in cow’s well. Arash remembers times with much more water
You could find the Quran in several languages and we compared translations.
We went on to Naranjestan Museum.
It once was a private house and shows a lot of beautiful details like the painted roofs (again with alpine subjects).
We went back to the car. I was surprised how far it was and said something and Arash replied that he remembered that it was near a bank, I replied that I remembered it was near a ice cream shop. We came to bank, shop and car and minutes later, Arash made a stop at another ice cream shop (see day 081!) and I wonder:
If I mention remembering an ice cream shop (and thus Arash buys ice-cream) and he mentions remembering a bank – what could I have done in return?
On the way, walking and going by car, we had been talking about different things and Arash who is a believer on his own, once more showed that belief (not religion) can also expand your horizons. For me, in general, the world would be a better place if mankind would develop ethics instead of religion. Caring for each other needs nothing more than experience someone who cared for you when you were in deepest need for it, as a helpless baby. Then you need no religion, no fear of hell, no longing for paradise for doing the good while religions struggle to teach and force the same and only result in religious wars and countless ridiculous schisms.
But this are my thoughts and meanwhile we are back at the grandparent’s house. Arash told me to take a picture of the side of his car and first I thought maybe there is some scratch or so, but:
He said he had been tired of chasing cars and now I can take my photo unhurriedly.
The sign says “Members safe money here -Road service on behalf of the general German automobile club” and you can see the limits of fake as the word Straße (Street) with futile effort is altered to StraBbe, but still you get the feeling ADAC is everywhere.
In the house, we had been talking about food in Austria (using a lot of pork), some weird subjects Negin has to study (and everyone else at any university) like Islamic history and literature (not weird in itself, only if you study something completely different), something called similar to “Khomeini’s testimony” (kind of collected wisdom…) and: the way of living. First of all, I was surprised that after 18years of living someway you are taught the right way, but Negin explained that it is focussed on marriage and in contrast to other subjects, here the women and man are separated by sex. I didn’t want to know more details about the curriculum (By the way: google suggested “empty fabrics” for the German word Lehrstoff!), my phantasy was enough.
Later, Amir wanted to taste the liquid…
I was tired and invited to take a nap. My brain switched to free-wheel mode and digested words (see bold prints). And during this kind of sleep I saw myself thinking the sentence “Being a pig in Austria equals to being a woman in Paradise” and was not sure if this is wisdom or nonsense or both but I woke up to write it down and judge later.
After a while I heard the word Martin and after a few repetitions I knew that this is my name and woke up. It was lunch time. After lunch (and, you know, tea and fruits) we went home and next on Arash’s list was the pool. Normally, aspects of body exercise and health help me to overcome my weakness, but I was glad that Arash was motivated enough to go alone.
Meanwhile I tried to sort photos for the blog (trying to limit them is not easy) and the like.
It was a nice evening of talking and laughing and learning important things like:
Why can deer be so fast when they have such a poor diet of grass and how fast flies a fly?
I can tell you that it is slow as ~10km/h and now new questions arise, because during cycling, some flies are bothersome, and I cannot get rid of them when I go with 20km/h. I know that when I jump vertically in a moving metro, I land in the same place because I am part of the system, but how long can a fly stay part of the system (me and my bike!) when I try to get rid of them?
I went to bed a bit earlier that evening.