Monthly Archives: July 2018

enchanted

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This morning my friend Hooman took me to a waterfall: But first, we had to cross this bridge: The waterfall was enchanting: It was the kind of place that makes you want to take off your clothes and swim (and possibly drink a Mojito). Of course none of this was possible. But it was awesome […]


the Audrey Hepburn among roads

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I had spent the night in a nice little hotel on the roadside, and in the morning I took some photos with the owner: There are many pictures like this – many pictures, and an infinite more pictures that live only in memory. Then I was back on the asphalt again: The Caspian Sea was […]


a church in Iran

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Sunday morning. I woke up in a hotel that was located in an old Russian building, high ceilings, big doors and all: It was a bit run down, but I loved it: And I wished I could have stayed longer. Instead, I went back to the Armenian church. It was behind two doors and an […]


sleep off the heat

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Naturally and totally in line with her character, the Caboose decided to go kaput this morning, just as we were preparing to leave the eco lodge. And it wasn’t just a minor problem, either: we crossed a tree branch, there was a thumping sound, and one of the axles had snapped in half. There was […]


time to

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There is a time for everything. A time to sow and a time to reap. A time to stay and a time to leave. I was still waiting out the storm in the wooden house. I had looked at the sunset from the verandah, and I had looked at the night sky from my mosquito […]


wonders of Gilan

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People from all over Iran had been telling me about this province where I was right now – Gilan. “The food!” they had said, painting greatness into the air with their hands. “The nature!” And sometimes, with a sly smile: “The women!” And yes, Gilan seemed like a good place. I slept under a mosquito […]


a house to cry over

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If you look at the map, you will see that I had been walking in the wrong direction for the last two days. I should have walked to the northwest, but instead I had opted for a northeastern route. The reason was this: I had seen this eco lodge called Lotka on the map, and, […]


Mehdi did not wait

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I had breakfast in a little place: Omelet. Bread. Tea. Then I continued walking down the path through the fields: Everything was quiet. There were not that many people around and not that many buildings, either. Some of the houses that I saw looked like their owners were preparing to shoot arrows from the roofs: […]


world, please

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Much to my own surprise, I decided to leave Rasht this morning. After just one day. I had wanted to stay a bit and explore the city, but then my plans had changed, and so I got out the Caboose from her shelter, loaded her up, and left. After all, I could always come back […]


Iran’s fastest immigration police?

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My visa (the one that I had gotten in Armenia one month before) was about to run out. So I needed to extend it, just like I had done when I was in Bojnurd three months earlier. So I put on my plastic bathing slippers (the ones that I had bought in Turkmenistan almost a […]


Rasht

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Money was scarce in Iran. The value of the Rial was plummeting, and people were worried about the future. And still, this friendly hotel manager had insisted on buying me dinner the night before: Persian hospitality. I left Kuchesfahan under a thick cover of clouds: These little dudes caught up with me as I was […]


an American dog and a faceless man

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As much as I enjoyed being there, I still had to leave Lahijan at some point. So I did. I walked out of Lahijan on a Friday morning, which meant that it was the weekend here in Iran, which in turn meant that most shops were closed and the streets were empty. I turned onto […]


higher than the House of God

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I was still taking my daily selfies. Sometimes I would take them with people whom I liked, or with an interesting building or a landscape in the background. But then sometimes I didn’t know at all what to photograph myself with. Today I looked around in my room, and there was this clock. It had […]


hipster problems

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The pink Macbook that I was using to sort my photos, to edit my videos, and to write this blog – it had stopped working. I mean, theoretically it did still work, it just had no power. The charging adaptor was kaput. I had tried to MacGuyver the thing for a while, but to no […]


colossal rains

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For once, the weather app was of the same opinion as the people around me. It said that there was going to be rain, and the people said the same. Only there was no one who could say specifically how much rain there was going to be. I was surprised when it started coming down: […]


worship or relax

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The hotel had a breakfast option where you could choose two nutella pancakes stacked on top of each other: I decided to make this my daily routine. A blister on my right foot had gotten inflamed (probably because of my water antics two days earlier), so I treated it with iodine and hung out in […]


tea of Gilan

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Having gone to sleep at two, I somehow woke up at five thirty. I just lay there for a while. Then I got up, brushed my teeth, packed my stuff, and left: One of the dudes from the night before came along on his motorcycle and said goodbye: And then I was alone on the […]


finding a bridge

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When I woke up I sighed, because I knew I had to go back to the noise and the confusion of the highway: I had studied the map the night before, and I had determined that there were a couple of waterways that I had to cross before I got back on the country road: […]


forced to ford

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Gilan was like Mazandaran – hot, green, and full of rice paddies: I had decided to take a path through the villages, so I was a bit worried about the rivers that came out of the mountains and crossed my path (or rather: I crossed theirs). But an early bridge seemed to be reason for […]


what does wood smell like?

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Remember the eco lodge I had stayed in a few months earlier in Radkan? I had liked it so much that ever since then I had periodically punched “ecolodge” into my googlemaps, hoping that another one would appear on my way. This one was called Gileboom, and it turned out to be a lovely little […]