Planalto Cycles

We prepared leaving aunt and cousins around 8 and for me it was funny to see that even ironing boards are ajusted to a life at the floor (Ramin irons his uniform several times a week. Ah, and he explained to me his idea of world citizenship where it is not important to say you are from Iran or Iraq or other countries)

One of my bags was locked in a basement and aunt was very ambarressed that she couldn’t give it to me as the key was at a neighbour’s and the neighbour not at home. So, Ramin would bring it to Tehran the other day.

When Nader and I arrived, only Fanid (10) was at home. She opened the door, invited us and brought something to drink, like a real host. Then Shabnam came home and prepared lunch.

In the afternoon, I was so tired, because of the last exhausting day and short night that I feel asleep and also Fanid slept for a while. Meanwhile Nader met a friend. When he came back, Shabnam, Fanid and I went to Goftegou park. The name means Dialogue and is related to the different design of the park (Chinese, Italian, etc), but for me, it has a ouble meaning because of many young couples sitting there. Shabnam explained to me that these boyfriend-girlfriend couples meet there, although this is very dangerous as forbidden, because their parents would not allow that at home…

I tried also to pose….

We saw the statue of Mary, what surprised me a bit, to find a full grown “mother of god” in Tehran.

The park is full of cats, they get food and no dogs are allowed in the park. Some of them have problems, no tail, cut ears, injuries from fighting, some are fat and we saw also very young and small cats.

While we walked, some men wanted to speak with us. They were retired and meet to play ping pong and talking. It was interesting to hear their opinion about government, but not surprising. One of them had been educated in India and had been teaching Economy at university.

We could have talked for hours, but we met Nader who meanwhile had had another meeting. On the way back, we went to the library situated in the park (and btw, open at 20:00) where I had another surprise, seeing books there that I would have forbidden if I were a conservative clergy, like Simon de Beauvoir “the other sex”

When we came home, Javad was there and his brother Ramin (see day 063) who works in Tehran, came for a short hello before going back to Karaj. Fanid helped me with this text and with cutting and improving photos, so, this time, the quality could be a bit better.

Today we got breakfast at the hotel, a mixture of Iranian (Lavash) and “continental” (Jam and butter). We managed to leave at 7:15 and made good kilometres most of the time, as it was flat and again not (too) hot.

At a resort, Nader bought something to eat and a souvenir for his aunt and I waited outside with the bikes and did some window shopping, wondering only less about the games I saw there, because it was not the first surprise of this kind.

blond uncovered woman advertising western toys (supoosedly made in China)

We missed a meeting with a friend of Nader as we didn’t take the right crossing, so we went directly to his aunt, Sakineh. Shortly before arriving, Nader again got Ahsoura food donation at the street from a man on a car, who still hat maybe another hundred of those boxes. At home we also met Sakineh’s daughters Zahra (with her sons Arash (6) and Artin (2)) and Manijeh and the son Ramin. It was an interesting and also exhausting afternoon as Zahra wanted to talk and by that practise English, but her sons also kept her busy. Sakineh is a classical Iranian host as she nearly was worried, especially I could starve what even without lunch would not have been possible as it started with fruits and cookies, then a typical soup from Tabriz, a typ of Ash,

and after that rice with different “side-dishes”. The evening before, because of Ashoura she had invited many people and still there was a lot of food. In the evening the father of Arash and Artin arrived. Arash has talent for playing the guitar, he moves along the fretboard like a real player.
Before dinner we got Safran ice, what is extremely tasty.
And after dinner, we (and the Sofas, tables and carpets) got cake as Zahra had birthday celebration.

We were ready to leave at 7 something but Nader had to realize that his tire was flat. We prepared for fixing as a car stopped and two men invited us for breakfast. They had the special Ashoura-soup in big buckets and said they would also help us fixing the tube. We knew that this offer was very kind, and we knew that it will cost us more time than just repairing the tube, so we had to decide and that was going with them. They put Nader’s bike and luggage and him in the car and I followed by bike to the home of one of them.

nice to see that play today and far from home, in Abhar

The men helped us with the tube and it was interesting to see difference in attitude and technique of bike repair.

We got from the Ashoura-soup, Halim/haleem, they had made last night in a village

outside and the host wanted to talk about emigration. Nader and I tried our best to explain all disadvantages, but I am not sure what of all that had been talked arrived them.
We left them after 9am,

one friend by car showing us the way back to the mainroad.
On the highway, we had not such good conditions like on the way to Abhar, but still most of the time it was only warm, not hot and sometimes the wind didn’t come from the front…

speckgürtel (german)=commuters belt in Iranian interpretation between Abhar and Qazvin

wind energy near Qazvin

When we after 6 hours arrived in Qazvin, again a car stopped and a man gave us Ashoura food – a nice thing as we were looking forward to lunch. So, two atheist guys got “holy food” two times on the last day of Ashoura ?

Nader and I prepared for leaving at 8 but Hadi tried to convince us to stay more days or at least until breakfast, which made departure harder…
The weather today was strange. First just cloudy, which was very pleasant, then it looked as if a terrible thunderstorm would rise, but in the end it were a few raindrops and thunder and lightning.
Today, a car stopped and a man came to us with to bottles of Coca Cola, just giving them to us, wishing us a good trip and leaving. Some minutes later another car stopped, but this time we knew the driver – it was Hadi! He brought out a melon, made coffee and gave us some cookies, such an incredible and funny man!

When we left again, he followed us in the car for a while before he drove away to visit Soltaniyeh, where you can see the biggest clay dome of the world, also quite old

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_Soltaniyeh

Everywher you find photos to commemorate the fallen soldiers of Iran-Irac-War 1980-88

We drove on, not a single climb to do, no heat to suffer under and only sometimes windy from the front. So it is no big surprise that 6,5h after leaving Zanjan, we arrived in Abhar. Here, we stay in a room, called “suite”, but not exactly deserving that name. However, we can work and write and except for eating breaks this it what we do.

We got up „late”, that means after 7 and started to work. I try to keep my diary updated, at least on the PC. Some days, I only made keyword notes on my phone and now try to make a text and select the photos for upload. Nader wanted to stay one day longer, partly for recovering after that longest day of our common trip, partly I guess for making progress in translations as he got new jobs although he had announced to be on holidays.

Hadi came to invite us for “heavy breakfast”, that means goats head and feet, called Kalleh-Pacheh. You get all the muscles of the head and the brain and the feet that are surprisingly fat with nearly no meat.

Hadi has a home with garage and three cars but he wanted to go with us by bike. He showed us the way homem making a stop at a bike shop for Nader, where I was surprised to see a Harry Potter bike

but then left for an invitation for lunch. So, another writing/working session could start. Later, Hadi came with food and drinks for our lunch.

But soon after lunch, Hadi came in a certain hurry. We should leave to garden.

On the way, we came into a traffic jam of all those white cars and all those black clothed people who were about to mourn another day for that recently killed relative of the prophet… (=Ashoura).
“Of course”, we got melon and tea again, and Hadi took something else, let’s call it medicine… Jamshid, who yesternight had transported our bikes was there and because of Ashoura we started a discussion about religion, especially Christianity and Islam. Jamshid told us that he lost his belief, aged 32 on his Hajj! He saw there too many hypocrites, liars etc.

It became dark and Hadi again had something in mind. After a ride that was a bit too fast for my taste, we arrived at the zinc factory.

He showed us around and at the porter’s we drank tea.
Then he brought us to a restaurant were we ate fried liver and guts (the guts will have to try harder to become my favourites!)
Hadi drove home to introduce his freshly married daughter to us. She was about to relocate to Istanbul and quite nervous.
After all of this I was too tired to do something with blog or photos and fell into “my” bed.

We left Meyaneh at 7 as we knew that we had to make nearly 140km. It was fresh and sometimes with wind we felt pretty cold. But I tried to enjoy this with the fact in mind that a few hours later we would suffer under the heat. We had to make 55km to get to the highway and along the street you could find some places with fountains, normally with drinking water, but two times we had been told that the water is salty, so we gave up asking.

Today we had no interview but when we reached a “recreation station”, there came a father with his maybe 2y old boy to make pictures with us. The boy was shy but still he trusted his father enough to stand between Nader and me for a picture. Again, a situation where minutes later I regretted not having taken a photo, too.

We finally found a place with drinkable water, but the day was hot enough to be in need soon again. We asked a man who had stopped his car, where to get water and he not only told us that it is far, he gave us from his water, “normal” water to refill the bottles and extra cool water for the moment.

Maybe he had forgotten the place that only a few kilometres later was to find. There was a farmer selling melons, and a sparkling well in front. I suggested to buy a smaller melon but had no cash at hand. And to my surprise Nader could pay a melon (price 70000IRR) out in the nowhere with his bank card.

The remaining 40km were not hard by elevation but it was hot, and we had done nearly 100km before. But we made steady progress and finally met Hadi who waited for us in his car. First, we came to his “garden”, actually a farm with hundreds of apple trees and some vegetables and fruits. My first challenge was the traditional toilette, “operated” by a watering can and, of course without paper. But I hade to cope with it, urgency left no other option

Then, as an additional challenge for my gut, we had an extended cucumber degustation. First, we got some of the small ones, directly from the soil, next was melon in youth stadium, looking like bigger cucumbers and tasting similar. In between, we had a ripe melon, a musk melon. Then, at the same size, a green musk melon, again with some cucumber taste. All was accompanied by tea and fresh tomatoes. In the end our body for sure were not endangered by dehydration.

We made a walk through the farm

and met a cousin of Hadi. Ahad also prepared tea, this time on open fire. We saw the 500m3 basin that is filled 2x/day and again emptied for watering the plants.

With dawn it also became a bit fresh again (don’t forget, we are 1600m upon sea level in a dry area). We came back to the hut, getting dinner someone had brought, named Khoresh ghormeh accompanied by some more tea and Ayran. (At this point, I had to give up, no space left for Ayran!)

Going to Hadis home was managed by a pickup truck for the bike and Hadis car for us and the luggage.

On the way, within 5min., we saw two women going on bikes. I would have liked to know what this means to them!
We made a stop at an ice-cream shop

and came to Hadi’s home. This is a big house with 3 floors, one reserved for guests and big as two classrooms.

We sat down to drink another cup of tea (with saffron sugar cubes!)

and had water melon.

Maybe in the end I should mention that after midnight we fell in our beds and slept like stones…

It was hard to leave that warm-hearted family and when I saw the sad face of Sevginaz I also had tears in my eyes. Sameneh left with her parents and Sahand to Turkey, Adel brought Nader and me to the bus station to get back to Tabriz.
In the bus, in front of us, two girls where sitting, maybe between 16 and 20. All along the way to Tabriz the offered an interesting play with their scarves. Sometimes they let them slip down to their shoulders, thus their hair being completely uncovered, then again pulling the scarf half of the head, sometimes one began re-adjusting the position and the other followed sometimes the other way around. And this up and down changed every few minutes, as if they sometimes got the feeling, it would be too much boldness. But I wonder if this was in itself a statement against the rules or they just did something like also wiping around on their smartphones. Those girls apparently were dealing a lot with their appearance but could they at the same time consciously participate in that movement that questions boundaries?
We arrived in Tabriz, took a taxi, took the bikes from Maliheh’s home, went to grandparents to say good-bye. To our surprise we met Fatimeh and Parastoo there, too. The family car had been breaking down on their way to Arak and they had to return. The smaller surprise was, that we could not simply say good-bye but were invited to lunch. But we had to go as 65km were waiting for us! Grandma not only gave us some wafers and cookies for the trip, she saved us from all kinds of adversity by a Quran-ritual. Nader may be more used to it what does not mean he likes it more than me, but we both saw the good will and some worries behind it.
At 14:30, we started our common bike trip. It was “only” 65km, but this was more than Nader ever had gone and we had only the afternoon and it was hot, and it was enough elevation to be exhausted.

But after struggling with these circumstances for 6h, we arrived in Bostanabad. Iraj, a friend of Nader, who makes his living by driving his own truck, came to a meeting point on his bike and guided us home. There, his mother prepared dinner and his nephew, Mohammad Reza, served all the time, be it fruits or tea or melon or dinner. And she didn’t eat with us, sitting separately on the kitchen floor.
Later, she and Mohammad Reza slept in a sperate room and Iraj with us in the living room. For me the evening ended with a challenge as for the first time the was no “European” toilet as alternative and there even was no toilet paper. But also here, the motto is “do what has to be done!”

In the morning it was a big departure of Adel’s family, his sisters’ families, Nader’s family and me. At the first stop, Aitan, the cousin sang her own song for us. The lyrics are sad, the melody is sad, only the girl is funny. Then the other cousin, Araz, also sang, this time a folksong (youtube link should follow, but only in November!)
After the first eating section we went uphill, first all, then a smaller group and finally only Adel with me.

He told me that that Turkish border is in walking distance and he also told me that in this area, Kurds, Azeri and some other are living in good neighbourhood. When Adel and I came back we arrived a bit late to see Araz now dancing. He is a shy 6y old, but you could see that this was not the first time.
For part II of picnic, the kebab section, we left to Chichest.

Sevginaz and Aitan (with cap)

It is a resort many people visit for picnic and you can rent bungalows, too. In the time of preparation, especially the girls wanted to play all the time, Badminton, football or hide&seek and their parents were worried that it would be too much for me. But to be honest, it is easier to play in the heat with children who can talk English than to sit in a group of adults speaking Turkish or Farsi (for Sameneh who cannot speak Turkish) and not giving them the feeling to be bored although I cannot do much besides guessing what they are talking about (Nader sometimes translates). I also like this, because you see how they interact, but when I sit for a while I get very sleepy.

In the evening, Sahand’s grandparents from Mashhad came to stay overnight. The plan is, that they go to Turkey with Samaneh and Sahand so that they are back to Mashad not much before Nader is back from our road trip to Tehran.
We came from the picnic but Parisa prepared dinner all the way ?. This time, the grandparents slept in Sevginaz’ room, she in the parents’ room and I in the living room. All families seem to be prepared for all that as always mats and blankets are at hand. For me it is a bit strange that you share those things with people coming before or after you but as I am in the travelling mode I don’t care too much.

We left von Maliheh to Naser to get a haircut for Araz, Nader and Sahand (who resisted). Naser had above that organized a SIM-card for me but there were some problems, so we went to the shop and there without anyone doing anything the card had begun to work. We went on to the grandparents to say good bye but first not only the grandparents were there, but also Fatimeh with Parastoo and Maliheh with Araz and second, we got a big lunch.

Later in the afternoon we left to Urmia/Urumieh/Urmu/Urumiye (etc, even on the road signs the spelling varied). We crossed totally flat aera

and came to the desiccating lake Urmia that showed an incredible light show in the evening sun (pics from the driving car through window…)

We arrived in the dark at Adel’s house, where Parisa prepared tea and sweets and lunch

and their daughter Sevginaz started to talk in very good English although she is not even 10 end attends English (private) classes for 3 years. She showed me her new school bag for the new school she will go to after holidays,

explaining every piece with a rich vocabulary. And she also played a piece on her violin for a family she had not seen for years and for a complete stranger. After dinner Adel, Nader + Sahand, me, and Sevginaz on her bike made a late evening walk to the river, where still people enjoyed there picinics.
At home, Parisa prepared a mat for me in Sevginaz’ room and took her blanket to the parent’s bedroom but came back soon as Sevginaz wanted to stay in the room where I should sleep, too. I take it as a big sign of trust of the parents and a sign of friendship and also trust of Sevginaz that this was ok. It finally was later than 1a.m. when everyone was in his/her bed or sleeping place and Sevginaz started reading in one of her books (she had introduced some of her favourites to me) The next morning she explained that she cannot fall asleep without reading before.

Iraj left around 4 in the morning. At 7 we prepared for leaving but his mama prepared breakfast (and also gave us some bread and fruits for the trip). Iraj’s nephew, Mohammad Reza, accompanied us to find our road the E32.
In the morning it was fresh but after half an hour it was pleasant and later in the day it became hot. But only on the first 15km it went up and that not too steep, so all in all it was ok. Sometimes the frontwind reduced our speed but in the end we did those 107km in 7,5 hours, including some small breaks.

One of these breaks was a strange encounter. A man, about parking on the other side of the street, near a well, waved and shouted we should stop and come over. So, we came. He wanted to make an interview and Nader had his phone for filming that. Quite soon he asked about me being religious and my answer was too shocking. He tried to convince me, he said he felt sorry for me, but it was not enough. While the place at first had seemed to be lonely, after a few minutes 5 other man were around, and he shared his disbelief about my unbelief with them. But we could leave them.

Only 5min later, a car stopped, and a family asked for the interview. In this case it was a shy boy aged 13, looking 1-2y younger, who asked some questions and afterwards we had a photo shooting.

Around 3 0’clock, it was finally so hot that the water in the bottles tasted like liquid plastics and in the last hour the mouth was chronically dry despite drinking.

But we had done it and found a hotel in Meyaneh, the one btw, that god’s advocate had recommended. In the evening, we went out to buy a new bike lock for me, dried fruits for us and sunscreen for Nader who today had experienced a sun-burn.