The Road to the Capital

The natural border between Ramsar and Tehran was created by a big mountain range, known az Alborz. Even if our distance to the capital seemed short by looking on the map, Ilaria and me had to start our trip quite early in order to reach our final destination. As the car which we stopped didn't go straight to the capital, we got a chance to say goodbye to the Caspian sea by making a small town Chalus, as our last stop before inhaling dirty air of Tehran. A quiet beach was perfect place for meditation, but as we were not meditating type of people, we managed to find a small wooden coffee shop. Hehe, coffee magic... and the Caspian see... and some random hungry ducks asking us for food on their own language. Perfect combination. Our calmness was interrupted by a car trying to drive on the sand. As I mentioned before, Iranians would even drive into the sea, if it would be possible. So... the car got stuck, and my small muscles used their power to push the car out of the sand. Miracle happened – I succeed.

After an hour on the beach, we went back to the road trying to find a ride, by explaining that we don't pay for the rides (pul nadaram). An old man, with strange expression on his face stopped, and gave us a ride. He might've been old, but his reflexes were still good. That's because he worked as a freelance taxi driver, which we didn't realize at the beginning. We reached the curvy road going through the mountains, and the old man turned into a manic racer. He liked overtaking other cars even on the full line, so we didn't enjoy properly the incredible view over the big canyons. Half an hour later, we realized that he actually charges for driving... so we had to go out from the car, and find another ride from the gas station where he planned to fill the tank with our money. Luckily, we found an elderly couple who were driving to Karaj, the big city just across the Alborz mountains, which we crossed after 3 hours. After we said goodbye to them, there was only 20km between us and the capital. We found the crossroad to Tehran, but due to misunderstanding with a woman who picked us from there, we realized quite late that she already drove us into Karaj. The rain started, and it made it difficult to find a way out. Finally, one guy told us that he will drive us there, but instead of it, he put us into some car, and after we left, the mysterious driver said that the man from the street, to whom we talked for 20 seconds, paid for our ride to Tehran.

The evening fell, we were still in the car. The streets were becoming wider every minute. I realized that we arrived. Shortly after we made our first steps on the capital's ground, I remember a small tornado of papers. The first reason was the wind. The second reason was election. Apparently, the campaign for election was so big, so there was not enough space for all the material printed. That's why the presidential candidates were flying around the city.

From that moment, my experience of Iran changed. Like I was not in the same country anymore. The traffic became crazy, the streets dirty, air polluted... but people were still the same: nice, friendly, hospitable, intelligent, informed and ready to help to anyone. Not even 5 minutes after we made our first steps on Tehran's streets, a random old man approached to us, telling us that he would be honored if we can be his guests. However, our host Mohammad, appeared few minutes later and brought us to his house. Now when I remember, I think I met at least one Mohammad each day, and four Ahmeds each week. So, Mohammad was a natural choice for the first experience of the Iranian capital.