„Good morning! We are in Iran…please switch to offline mode”. The communicate at the airport (or on the board as in our case) should tells as above. The fact is that Internet connection is really poor here. Even sim cards that we bought here were not a good solution. Reception was available almost anywhere.
When it comes to people it is a really wide topic… Actually, the whole Iran is a broad topic since there is a lot of important and interesting things! Going back to the subject of people in Iran – they are just amazing! It is so surprising how ubiquitous is happiness, hospitality, openness and hard working. Often even adults and elderly make jokes about their reality. Iranians are very curious about world. When the government tries to isolate them, they are more and more thirsty for talks with foreigners. They want to know the truth how people live somewhere else, how their country is perceived all around the world. A lot of young people is quite well educated and they study a few faculties at the universities. They know at least 3 languages: Farsi, English and Arabic or Kurdish/Turkish depending on a region where they come from. They are interested in history, culture and art of their country. They are really helpful. When on the street we ask some passerby immediately the whole group of people gathers to help us. So many virtues? Yes, that’s true! We are not going to write about all the stories that proved that. You need to believe us or come here to experience that!
The law is based on Koran. From the reports comes out that in small towns sometimes lynches are conducted in form of stoning. For meetings between men and women (who are not related or married) or alcohol drinking people can go to jail. We do not know what is the truth and we hope that such things do not happen and won’t happen…. We attended a meeting in Iran were alcohol was drunk, we also met couples of peers in front of policemen. Many times we talked with people about the situation in their country and they all admitted that theoretically it looks really restrictive but in reality it looks totally different. It probably means that the society should be in some way in constant control of authorities. If some “small” offence there are different forms of punishment then cutting a hand. We, as tourists, felt totally safe and even except the faux pas that we made (for example Maciek get in the bus with me to the female part), no one even looked at us in a bad way. People reacted with smile and understanding.
On many portals people write or even threaten with the problems connected with currency. But calm down, it is not so bad! We will try to explain it a bit. Going to Iran you should take with you cash for all your stay. ATMs do not operate any cards except Iranians. In exchange office they operate with collars, euro and pounds. You need to bargain a bit, tell them that in the next exchange office thay have cheaper rate ect. And never accept the first offer. Iranian rial is a currency here. 100 zloty equals about 800 000 rials. Exchanging eg. 1000 PLN you become owner of about 8 000 000 rials! Paying with such nominals is problematic, that is why they thought how to make it easier and they invented tomans. So 1000 rials equals 100 tomans (we cross out one 0 and we have the amount in tomans ;p)
Talking about any prices, in a shop, in a taxi, at the entrance to the mosque you need to make sure that you use the same nomenclatures (it is like in Poland we would say that something costs 1 000 000 zlotych or one “bańka”) because both work on the territory of the whole country. That is the only difficulty but also charm of it. Nowhere before we met such rareness. After the second day we got used to that 🙂
In Poland carpets are not in fashion anymore but in Iran they play a really important in life of the society. In bigger cities, shops with carpets are everywhere. Loom and different weave tools are visible in many places and in villages weave workshops you can find in houses but also outside them. Sometimes someone puts a carpet on the street and cleans it with a brush. Also on a crowded pavement or in a park, during the lunch break people put a carpet somewhere and eat in a calm atmosphere. Carpets are ubiquitous. You walk barefoot on it of course. Even in trucks there are carpets. We needed to take of our shoes every time we go into a truck. It is worth mentioning that to the toilet you need to get in with flip flops that you necessary need to take of when you leave a toilet. A big “crime” is a walk with flip flops on a carpet 😉 we forgot about it many times which caused almost a heart attack for our hosts 🙂
Meals are eaten on a floor (on a carpet with an oilcloth on it 😉 But we are used to sitting by the tables and chairs 🙂 We were not able to sit like that for a longer time so we were eating quickly to straighten our legs. During the meal Iranians stayed in one position and we were moving all the time. Eating together is a really important part of spending time. Drinking tea is almost sacred. So if you hate tea, your stay in Iran will be difficult 🙂 Thermoses with tea are inseparable accessory of almost every inhabitant. We were treated with tea almost every 10 minutes and I would like to mention that if you refuse you make your host feel bad so it is better to avoid it.
In Iran I missed coffee! I did not expect that finding a regular coffee will be so difficult! There are two reason: first of all, people here simply drink tea, secondly, if someone drinks coffee it’s instant Nescafe that I do not like so much but here it is treated as a luxury stuff 🙂
In every bigger city you can find bazaars. Huge markets full of tasty delicacies, fresh and dried fruit, herbs, nuts, figs, and raisins, carpets, colorful materials, jewelry, pieces of art, handicrafts and much much more. You can find here almost everything. The whole variety of colors, smells and nice sounds stimulate all senses and every short walk becomes a few-hours wandering through twisting streets between market stands.
Popular car brand produced in Iran is SAIPA, and SAIPA Saba model necessarily in white color rules on the Iranian streets. Number 2 is ZAMYAD 24 – which is a blue delivery truck that is fully packed and often plays a role of mobile fruit and vegetable market. Next to domestic brands, French cars are really popular eg. Peugot, Renault and Citroen. Cars produced in Iran are not taxed on the contrary to foreign brands. As a result only rich inhabitants can afford western cars.
In Iran hitchhiking does not exist. It is not practiced by the locals 🙂 Many people were surprised that we manage to travel this way. We did not have any problem to stop any car with friendly people onboard ;). We recommend such a way of travelling. It give the opportunity to meet local people. What is more, roads in Iran are in great condition and driving there is simply pleasure!
Paper tissues are everywhere except toilet! You can find them in car, on the shop counter, by the office window, in a kitchen, in a living room but FOR SURE you won’t find them in a toilet. You need to deal with a hole in the ground and sink with cold water. The question is – how do they do that? This question stays still without the answer 😀 Maybe in the future we will manage to solve that mystery?
Underground in Teheran impressed us as well! For such a big society, it is clean, well-smelling, and nicely-designed. It is hardly possible to get lost here and walks in those corridors are simply pleasure since the walls are decorated by the art of local artists. You can find here modern paintings and posters based on traditional forms and embellishments. We admire that! In the underground there are separate places for men and women but there is also space where they can travel together. Time in the underground is made pleasant by the mobile trade. If you forget to buy socks, comb, sweets or something else you can always buy it on the underground.
Very popular is face surgery. Accordingly to statistics, in Iran the biggest in the world amount of nose surgeries is done in Iran. Women are proud to walk with bandages on their noses. They Follow western beauty cannons and they want to appeal to their men. Face is the most important part for them since it is the only visible part from under chador – classic, traditional Iranian women cloth.
With this detail I finish my note about Iran. If you want to find out more, check out our FILTERS.