IRAN Trip - Part 2

Hello,
in the last episode you heard about my flight to Tehran, arrival to Tehran and alot about iranians behaviour culture,. In this episode we will travel to Mashad, visit the holy Shrine of Emam Reza a.s and talk little bit about the people I met in the train.

Hot and dry air came into our lungs. We smelled car fuel in the air, like everywhere in iranian big cites when we left the main train station in Mashad.
The 800km journey from Tehran to Mashad by train took nearly 13 hours. At this time the railroad was not electrified, but today projects are underway or already finished wich allows train to arrive earlier. A High speed rail is also under construction.
Here a Picture from the Imam Reza Shrine (I took one from the Internet because i was not able to take good photo from inside, i will tell you later the reason)

When you travel there, specially by train, many people will offer you their help to find a hotel or carrying your bags.
Even people asked us secretly: "you need some drugs?, Girls?"
I can give you a hint: Dont pay attention to these offers and go your way straight to the taxi. he will bring you everywhere. ;)

We rent a room nearly 400 meters away from the Holy Shrine,in a backyards street wich was connected to the main street. Here a photo of the backyard alley:

The room had a bed, a shower but nothing more. We payed nearly 15 euro per night for 2 persons. We had to tell the Host that he have to put new sheets on the bed because obviously they were not fresh. So he did.
But what to expect for a price like this?
The waether was very hot in this Summer, we had more than 45 degrees. Even for Iranians it was a very hot summer.
I can tell you something: Every 400 or 300 meters we had to take a small drink. Walking along the street there costs much energy.

The main road leads in a tunnel wich directly undergoes the shrine to the other side of the shrine. Here we are staying exactly in front of the shrine entrance . directly behind us is the tunnel.

Everybody can enter the shrine, no matter if you are christian, jew or any thing else. People there are very open minded and tolerant. If you want to enter you have to give your camera, backpack and jacket to the collecting station. But we were allowed to take our mobile phones with ourself even if it had a camera. To be honest...i dont now why. After you go there be aware that men and women are entering seperatly. They will check everyone as security measure before entering. But all of them are very friendly and there is no sign of mistrust against anyone who wants to visiting the shrine. But the actual situation in the region makes it necessary fot these security measures.

Grave of Imam Reza a.s : (Women and men are sepperated) people pray there or tell him their problems. He listens to all of the people.

The so called "Khadem`e Emam Reza", (servants of Emam Reza a.s) they serve everyone who is visiting this place too, if you have any questions or need help. They are the most friendly persons there and their wole job is to serve the shrine of Emam Reza a.s

The Imam Reza a.s Shrine is the Shrine of the 8th holy imam of Shiite Islam. He was born in 765 a.c and is one of the direct descedant of the holy prophet of Islam. Shiites believe in his infability.
In front of the shrine many young people made photos with their mobile phones (my phone as broken at this time and i just had an old second hand phone)
The clerics told them just "Haram Haram" , (forbidden, forbidden) , but they didnt recognised them and continued. Some clerics there had no problem with it or even made photos of theirself there. So it seems there are different opinions about that.

They also belong to the "Khademe Emam Reza". They call the trumpets at special times. They are really traditional. They do it since ever.

Tea houses inside the side alley:

Inside one of those empfy side alleys, in a backyard hidden in a basement we found this wonderful and small tea house.
They played traditional persian music from Iraj. Interesting thing is that not everyone knew this place. Only 100 meters away were Thousands of tourists running down the main street. But this tea house is a real and original tea house, not known to tourists, mostly people visited it who lived there.
In Iranian traditional tea houses you can order often a omlett. As a drink there is only tea to offer (very strong and tasty aroma) and of course a waterpipe.

(Music of iraj mahdian in this ambiente: )

In Mashad food is generally very cheap. Specially near the shrine. We eat in a resturant for maybe 5 euro, for 2 persons the iranian national meal called "Tscholo Kabab" with drinks. Tea is always for free.
Its made out of Iranian Basmati rice and mincemeat. Inside the mince meat are tasty spices and grounded onions. The rice is safran. iran is the worlds biggest Safran producer in the world. 90% of worlds Safran production is made in Iran. So Safran in Iran is very cheap.

Thats how the mel looks like:

You pay in iranian resturants often at the checkout. You dont pay any tip.

When we went out we met in the front of the shrine a person wich was giving us a paper with a prayer written on it.
fter we took it, he wanted some money from us because "he helped us to get gods blessings" we wanted to give him the paper back but he started to say "whaaat you dont want the blessings of god? and so on....after a discussion we gave it back to him and shouted.......dont hoax me guyyy. Honestly it was a very funny dialogue because the guy was really able to reverse the situation to his favour and put us into the weeker position in terms of moral and argumentation. But at the end...truth has won! :P

When you go to Iran........just show with your finger on any juice you want and the shop owner makes an ice cold juice out of it. Specially in warm weather its like an Paradise on earth:

I choone this one:

I hope you enjoyed it. See you next time guys in Part 3.
There we go to Shiraz and visit the 2500 year old ruins of great persia and the lovely poems of Saadi and Hafiz......and a drug dealer ;)