06-30-2010

Hey everyone,

Today is 7-12 and I'm on an hour and half train ride to Heidelberg so I have some time to update my blog. I kind of understand what Jeremy was saying about having a book to read on the road. I don't know if I'll be in the mood to update my blog on all these train rides but for now I am. It is soo freaken hot and it's only 10am. The weather is weird here in Germany, it's humid hot so even though it is only probably about 75 degrees you sweat and feel way hotter. Oh well, everyone just has a glow about them is all. Hah. This entry is a pretty good one. It is about the first day of my trip to esfehan, a really beautiful city in the middle of a dessert built solely around a river that is fed from a nearby mountain range. 

On June 30th we went to the airport to head off to Esfehan. If you've ever been to an airport for the first time you know how hard it is to find anything. You need to look at hundreds of signs and sometimes drastically change lanes at the last minute trying to get to where you want to go. That's all good and well. It's part of being in an unfimiliar place and signs help you get there. Now imagine that airport you were just at with NO SIGNS. That's what you have going on in Iran. The airport we went to had essentially no signs. If you didn't know where you were going you would be lost for hours.

This leads me onto a little wierd side rant I noticed while traveling throughout Iran. People here ask eachother directions alllll the time. It is both cool and weird to see. Without the widespread use of GPS and Internet, everyone has come to accept the fact that they don't need to know how to get somewhere. Rather just know general direction toward their destinaion and ask when you get close. You can ask taxi drivers, store owners, and pedestrians. Anyone near an area you are visiting is fair game. It's like a wikipedia project where everyone knows their hometown streets (even the tiny ones) reaaallllly well and contributes in the overall transport of the foreigners. Wikipedia is similar that the idea is you know the topic you contribute toward ideally and then people that want to know more come to the site and sort of ask you. 

Anywho, back to my story. So we get to the airport and like many other things in this coutry, security is both disfinctional and also seperated by gender. The latter is pretty self explanatory, men go one way and women another for going through security. Pat downs ar really frequent so it kiiiind of makes sense. But let me tell you about the former. Firstly there is little to no limit to what you can bring on. People brought on bags of all sizes and shapes and I got on with a razor and nailclippers. And whatever the limit is to what can be brought on, the chances of the airport security actually catching you and confescating it is slim to none. 

On multiple occassions while picking up my bag on the other side of the machine I saw the two guards sitting behind the x-Ray monitor screen and completely turned and talking to eachother. Paying no attention at all to what was passing them and out the other side. They were seriously facing eachother rather than the screen. There is an interesting thing to note here though, it seems they never have a problem. I mean in America we would be irate an terrified if our airport secuity was like that but in Iran it is how its done and nothing happens. But then again Westeners do not bomb Iranian planes but SOME FEW middle easterners would bomb and abuse such a lacks system if it where implemented in America so it would not happen. 

So now onto the 45minute flight to esfehan. Here I leaned that Iranian airlines take infinitely better care of their passanger nutritionally but infinately worst care temperaturely (although nt completely there fault as you'll see below). In this 45 minute flight we got a full sandwich, juice, and a piece of choclate, but no airconditionng.  

In this 45 minute flight we got roasted. Iranian airlines face harsh limits on jet-fule because of all the sanctions and to save fuel the airlines do not turn on their a/c. btw neither do taxi drivers because of the same reason. Everyone receives a quota of gas, tracked through a personal gas card, and taxi drivers can't afford to use up their gas on anything but driving because that is how they make their living. Some even leave off their headlights off at night because they don't want their alternator to be turnig an charging the battery which soends gas. 

Seeing the affect of sanctions on the people of Iran is a bit troubling because the government does not seem to give a rat's ass about how its people feel and live. So eventhough the sanctions are working and pressuring the citizens, the government, and rich people, are unaffected because their are always more expensive black-market options. For example in the case of gas, if you run out of your quota you can buy from someone else for a high price or buy uneubsidized gas at 8x the price. Te taxi drivers can't afford to pay 8x the gas price and not change his rates. 

Anyho, so we got to Esfehan and boy is it beautiful. On the plane ride there, after about 25 minutes the land becomes a sandy dessert below. However, about 5 minutes before getting to esfehan everything changes and you see literally a strip of oasis in this dessert which surrounds a flowing river coming from the mountain range nearby. Really cool to see and totally shows how this city was created and survived because of that river hundreds of years ago. You don't need a book to tell you it, it's all right in front of you. 

Anywho, we got to our hotel which was magneficent. For some reason my aunt had decided to literally treat us like royalty. We stayed at hotel Abbasi which was used as a guest house for visitors of the king a couple hundred years ago when esfehan used to be the capital of the Persian empire. Of course it was renevated and the rooms where not actually really crazy king nice or anything but still cool. 

Anywho, after checking in and chilling a bit we decided to hit the main square, imam square. There wa a giiiiiant bazar surrounding the square and we walked through about half of it. Bazars are reallly awesome and barganing is part of the price since there is a 100% chance a nearby store will have the exact same thing. Also no price is marked which makes things more interesting and cofusing. Tourists and outta-towners get an automatic surcharge that they have to bargain and shop around a bit to try to best avoid.

After the bazar we went to a restaurant in a little catholic part of Esfehan. After dinner while walking around for the first time I noticed something for I think the first time, the girls in Iran have really found a way to look "good" even with all the hejab restrictions. I use the quotes because a looot of the people have taken this attempt too far and it has backfired. They wear a ton of make-up, are for some weird reason all into being blonde, and act a bit too prissy for my taste. But all in all some have found a happy medium and really do look good. Even though it is technically illegal they all wear their headdress half off their hair, have painted nails, and the coat thing you must wear over your shirt has now morphed into a long sleeve shirt that is a bit long lenght-wise. When I left 12 years ago this was significantly different and people would not dare wear what is now commonplace. 

After walking around a bit more we then took a taxi ride to the river to walk around and look all the old and awesome bridges built 400years ago when the town started. The neat thing about seeing such old structures is that they are still being used to this day and that is really a positive thing I think.

Another cool thing was the huuuuge number of people and families having a picnic around the river on the grass. Because of the heat, people flea their homes and come by the river where the flowing water keeps the temperature a bit more moderate.  

Through the day my aunt had noticed the water level of the bridge being lower than she remembered so on our next taxi ride she brought it up. The taxi driver then told us a little tale that is depressing. Recently the government had allowed the construction of a tunnel that diverted water from the mountain to another town in order to help with pistacheu production which takes a lot of water. There was a person who had a huge stake in these farms that also knew the right people in the government and was abke to pass the bill without Esfehanians really knowing what was going on. It was really a sad tale and it reminded me of the importance of enviornmentalist groups in the us that watch out for things like this and try to bring it to the attention of the people affectected. Although these groups are not always best funded in America, it is a marke comparison with their role in Iran. In Iran enviornmental groups are small if not nonexistent and as I said the government really does not care what the people think so even if they had more funding laws could be passed one way or another. 

That was really all on that day. We retuned to our hotel and enjoyed expensive (relatively as it was still only $1.60) ice cream and then went to asleep. 
-NZ