Date: 21st of April 2011
Places: Teheran, Rey, and train to Mashhad
Temperature: 25 (day) / 19 (night)
Progress: 0 km at noon and about 300 km at midnight (starting from Teheran)


Expecting Mikkel and Christian to land around 4:30 and with the agreement to meet at Teheran Railway Station at 6:30, we had set the alarms to 5am. We both slept quite well, and not having heard from Mikkel and Christian at 5am, we snoozed until 5:20, when I wrote Mikkel, who could inform me, that they had landed, gotten their bagage, and found a taxi bound for the city! We quickly got up, checked out (i.e. got our passports) and found a taxi, who took us through the rare sight of near-desolate streets of Teheran getting there on time. Allah Akbad, we found each other with no troubles, and after having stored our bags, we grabed a taxi for the metro, and headed south to the Silk Road town Rey. It turned out to be exactly the right choice, as it was beautiful, historic, interesting, and not the least open. The mosque complex had the most tiny mirrors ever amassed, and we walked through enjoying the shrines and architecture in the sun. At one point an elder man walked up to me, and asked me, where I was from. He then proceeded to hand me piece of green cloth, symbolizing the Iranian Jasmine Revolution, and wished me good luck in the future... and gone he was. A bit of a special moment. Continuing through the bazaar, we found water, matches, and camel steaks, but otherwise just a relaxed atmosphere, and we returned to the metro in a friendly taxi. Getting off at the Teheran Bazaar, we entered the maze of shops, and got the full tour of everything from carpets to (lots of) kitchen ware. We didn't really find any of the things we were looking for (water pipe accesseries, toilet paper, logbook, sun glasses, etc.), but it was still fun. Hunger made us exit, and after being refused service at the Khayyam Traditional Restaurant, we made it up to Imam Khomeni square to the usual lunch joint for some sizable sandwishes. Afterwards, we went to the National Museum, and then on to the teahouse in Park-e Shahr again, to everybodies great satisfaction. We got a round of tea and waterpipe, Dad got his (real) pipe out, and there was just a very relaxed atmosphere, Christian getting a nap. We then headed up to the National Jewelry Collection, which turned out to be closed, so we decided instead for the Milad Tower, which turned out to cost a fortune (at least by Iranian standards) and having closed the outside part, so we instead went for a nice Iranian Traditional Restaurant, where all the young hip Teheranies meet. A girl speaking near-perfect English accompanied us there, and was almost heart-breakingly keen on helping with finding it (though she couldn't!) and translations. A taxi took us directly and efficiently to the train station, where we got our luggage and waited for the call to the train in the chaos of Teheran station. Finally, we sat in our very nice compartment, enjoying hot tea and very nice seats, and even Christian was immensly satisfied with our train arrangement. Between the lively chatting, everybody did their thing, and slowly we made progress across Iran on this first move along the destined itinerary... the silk road.