Day 2: in Tehran, no brother

This morning I have to receive our domestic flight tickets from the travel agency I had contacted from Europe (you can't buy domestic flight tickets from outside Iran - how unconvenient!). My brother & I are supposed to fly to Shiraz at 13:15. Obviously, he won't be there on time, so I have to see if rescheduling is possible.

The woman at the agency speaks great English and is very kind. Unfortunately, all flights are fully booked tomorrow. In the meantime, I call Shiraz hotel to cancel our first night... Maybe we'll have to cancel the whole Shiraz/Persepolis part of the trip :-(
The travel agency woman suggests to go to Kashan if we cannot make it to Shiraz. It's not too far and it's beautiful at this season. Why not, we'll see... I call Alain. He's still in Paris, at a hotel in CDG! Still no clear message about his flights (DO NOT EVER TRAVEL WITH GULF AIR)...


As the rest of the trip cannot be fixed for the moment, I decide to go explore a bit of Tehran with Anna, instead of staying at the hotel and worrying for nothing. We decide to go to the Jewels Museum, supposed to be something worth seeing.
I get out in the streets for the 1st time. I realize (how ironic) that the hotel is located in the "automotive" quarter of the city. Spare car parts everywhere :-) Spare tires are transported in huge piles and small carriages pulled by strong men. There is stuff everywhere, from every brand...



Further down the street, we arrive at Khomeini Square. A big, ugly square with lots of cars. We have trouble finding the museum (walk by it by mistake) but in any case, it's not supposed to open before 14:00 (and closes at 16:30!) so we decide to find some lunch.
We follow a Lonely Planet recommendation and start our quest for the lunch place. We walk though the suitcase district, then the shoes district, to finally arrive at a not-that-easy-to-find little eating place. Mostly filled with men. The window in the front of the store doesn't really advertise for food. It's really non-touristy (then again, there's nothing very touristy in general in the country). As there is no menu (not to say no English menu), I opt for the safe chicken & rice option. We're also offered some sort of delicious "purée" of tomatoes & aubergines. Sooooo good. Near then end of our meal, a couple joins our table. As a newly arrived tourist full of pre-conceived ideas, I am surprised that the man sits next to Anna (men & women are not supposed to sit next to each other if there are not related or married - which makes sitting in a bus a whole seating game). .. then again, the tiny eatery is crammed with people, so this man doesn't really have a choice.
So we head back to the museum, and Anna notices these green fruits being sold in the street. We're not sure what they are, and ask. We're shown that they should be eaten as is, with salt. We try, and discover theay are actually fresh almonds. The inside is yummy, but the Iranian seem to also eat the bitter green shell.
The museum is impressive with security measures. We are not allowed to take ANYTHING inside. Bags & purses must be given at the entrances (as well as weapons - it's mentionned on the entrance ticket). There are beautiful pieces of jewlery. And there's a group of Japanese tourists, guided by an Iranian man speaking perfect Japanese. I am in total admiration (of the language skills).
Teheran is a very beige city. Sand colour. Sometimes grey. I don't feel the pollution as much as I expected, yet it is definitely there. As for the cars and the legendary impossibility to cross a road without being ran over... well, it's true, yet living in Paris is a good training and it's possible to zig zag through the cars and every time barely making it to the other side :-) I apply the technique Anna has developped in Cairo: always cross with some local in between you & the cars, & follow their steps. Basically, you're using a wise local person as a human shield. And it works.
Story of the day: in the middle of a 4 lane road, a man asks us where we come from. He lists many countries but not including france... so I keep talking to him... during that time, a possibility to safely cross the street appears, and Anna goes away. I catch up, running a little. A few minutes later, a young woman stops us and tries to explain to Anna that the man wanted just to make some small talk and that she shouldn't take it negatively, etc. At first, we don't know what she's talking about, then we realise that she probably thought we were running away from that conversation-making man! How nice of her to come and talk to us! Wow! She introduces herself, a student in architecture at Tehran university. She gives us her phone number, if we need a guide in the city. She's all moved and trembling. (it must take courage to go and talk to strangers in a foreign language). We're moved too actually. Such kindness...
After the museum, Anna needs a rooposh (a "manteau", a coat thing, that'll cover more "reasonably" her body the way the locals do, as she is now wearing her "butterfly" outfit - very colourful piece of clothe - the good size but maybe a bit too bright I guess). She has a tip on where to go for shopping, and - hey! shopping! - I'm all for it. I wouldn't mind finding an alternative to my brown tunique. So we head for "Haft-e-tir". Based on yet another book I had read ("Les Pintades à Teheran") where this area is recommended, I am expecting quite a fashionable district. Well... it could be, if it wasn't located around a huge square, with no shade, quite ugly, and surrounded - again - by hundreds of cars in traffic. The sidewalks are packed, though. We try out three stores. Everything looks the same. Manteaus, manteaus, manteaus, headscarves. I do buy a light manteau, I kind of like it, but it's a bit big (no body-hugging clothes here!). I'm very impressed by the staff. The girls looked at me and handed me the perfect (based on local rules) size (that's like 2 sizes too big). When it's time to pay, both Anna and I get confused and - unintentionally - try to pay 10 times less the announced price. Because in Iran, the currency is Rials, but people speak in "Tomans".
Let me quote wikipedia for the explanation:
"In 1932, the rial replaced the toman at a rate of 1 toman = 10 rials (i.e., 1 rial = 1 qiran). Although the rial is the official currency of Iran, many Iranians employ the term toman in everyday transactions for an amount of 10 rials. In unofficial circumstances, a toman may also refer to either 1,000 tomans or 1,000,000 tomans. The order of the magnitude of the amount would be considered to be apparent from the context."
...so I tried to buy my coat for 2 euros, instead of 20. Very funny.
Didn't try to haggle, I'm just absolutely no good at that.
Anna & I return by subway. The Tehran subway is excellent. Clean, fast, cheap, much nicer than the one in Brussels, and much cleaner than the one in Paris, and much prettier than the one in London. It's a little like to one in Athens. (OK I'm done with the metros-I've-visited name dropping).
In the metro on the way to Haft-e-tir, we had actually met Photography students (with their very impressive digital cameras) who had asked us if they could take pictures of us. Very friendly girls, speaking english AND french.



In the evening, I offer Anna to go out in the area for a small snack. I just don't feel staying in my room all evening. Mr Mousavi (the hotel manager) recommends us a snack place further down the road. It's actually a restaurant. As we are standing on the side of the road trying to cross (it's very dark already and not many people are around to use as "human shields") we create a traffic jam, as every taxis comes up to us to ask where we are going! We just want to cross! Finally, we get to the restaurant and my light snacks turns into a very good kabab. The rice itself is delicious!
Back in my room, I hear from Alain that he'll be in Tehran tomorrow around 15:00. He's in Bahrain, in an Indian hotel. So now, all I have to do is: cancel the hotel in Shiraz, find a hotel in Kashan, find a way to go to Kashan (a bus)...
Yeah. In the meantime, I plan my visits for the next day: if I have time & energy tomorrow, I think I'll visit the Golestan Palace...
About the hotel: it's cheap & friendly, with a bunch of young & not so young backpackers and I have a good time. The only thing with having the toilets outside the room is that everytime I want to visit that place, I feel I have to dress for winter: put back pants, coat, and headscarf... it sometimes makes me too lazy to get out of my room :-)