Date: 20th of April 2011
Places: Teheran
Temperature: 25 (day) / 19 (night)
Progress: 0 km (starting from Teheran)


We landed 5:15, and got through immigration, bagage and exchanging money within an hour. A very nice (but also pricey) taxi took us to Hotel Asia, where we had stayed the previous time in Teheran, and we even got the same room! Dad took a nap, while I took the metro and walked to the Railway Station to check the luggage storage hours and get tickets for Mashhad. The storage was open 24/7, which meant that we could use it as meeting point with Christian and Mikkel. For the tickets, I finally conveyed what I wanted, and got a number for a line... which was expected to take 4 hours!!! After milling around, I asked a woman at a desk (they are the most likely to speak English, I've found) what to do, and she suggested a travel agency. I tried to find the one she suggested and failed, but found another one, which could inform me, that tickets were sold out!!! Once the chok had settled, they told me that perhaps at 10am some uncollected tickets would become available, and I sat for half an hour tortured by the thought of wrecking the scheduled plan on the first day! Luckely, they got tickets, and in my happiness (and wish to get back to the hotel), and got a hair-raising lift on the back of a scooter in Teheran traffic to the metro station. In getting ready for seeing Teheran, I managed to lock myself into the bathroom, and it took the guys from the hotel quite some time to sort the jammed lock! We gathered our things, and took the metro north towards the mountains, which still had plenty of snow on them. At the station, we met an English speaking girl, who told us a great deal about the current situation in Iran, both with respect to politics, but also on general life among the young, and how they were using cryptation software to access Facebook, Youtube, etc. The area around Tajrish Square is quite nice, and we continued up into the hills by minibus reaching Darband, from where the skilifts start! However, they were not running that day, so we simply got us a great view of the mountains. We then returned to lower Teheran, and went to relax and get some tea and lunch in Park-e Shahr. We ordered "dizi" and had quite some fun figuring out how to eat it properly by scattered help from the people around and a description in Lonely Planet! After some more tea, some reading, and a short nap we walked home to get a real nap, as we were both quite tired. We woke up an hour or so latter, and went for something to eat, which became local and simple (chicken sandwich with Pepsi!). Unfortunately, dads right leg is occationally bothering him, and we also lost my small camera, but we were never the less smiling when we got back and prepared for bed, while the batteries of both our electronics and ourselves were recharging.