Project VELAIA

My Iran visa was only valid for 30 days, so I had to get an extension to be able to get my

Turkmenistan visa. I checked the LonelyPlanet guide where to get the visa easiest and took a bus back to

Esfahan. Hassan Hademi, a relative of Saber, lives here with his family and so I had a good place to stay for some days.

Esfahan itself is the center of cycling in

Iran – so it was not too hard to connect to some cyclists. I met one of them, Saeed, at

Kajoo Bridge in the city center and together we spent a nice morning and noon cycling about 60km through

Esfahan on a Cannondale Chasy and an Eddie Merkx racing bike. We stopped at an ice shop and fast food restaurant and later spent some time on

Immam Khomeini Square

and in the parks along the river.With Hassans family I also spent some time at the river and improving my Persian while teaching them some English phrases

  

One evening I went to a fast food restaurant and met a Malaysian guy working for Ericsson here in

Iran.I also met a retired high currency expert and technical German-Persian translater, Ali Andalib, and we walked together along the river while he was telling me stories about his student and working time in

Germany during the 1960s and 1970s. He still speaks German nearly failure free and fluent after 30 years!

 

And again I met the Italian cyclist from the Iran embassy in

Erzurum at the ministry for foreign affairs – we also spent a day together in town.I also got some insights in the secret dating/rendezvous culture of the Iranian teenagers and unmerried – the people often seem to suffer under the restrictions of their government but more often than not they find a way to do what they want anyway – be it watching to western television channels by satellite, passing around the political and religious internet filters or secret dates  As a conclusion I have to say that I am happy not to have spent the time on the internet or in Tehran – the visa extension process was quite easy even though it took a day, the cyclists and people I met here in Esfahan were just great and the walks along the river in the evening were so relaxed and atmospheric – a wonderful time!