Tag Archives: walk🚶🏻

I had arrived at the hotel at one thirty the night before, and I had slept at three. So I felt a bit groggy when I stepped out into the sunshine at about ten in the morning and said hello to this flower: “You look like shit”, the flower said. “I know”, I answered, “you […]

At about ten in the morning I stepped out of the door and into the North. In Iran, the Caspian Sea Coast was called “the North”, and people in Tehran had warned me about it. It wasn’t just hot there in the North, they had said, it was also humid as hell. But I, having […]

Again, the highway: One thing that is remarkable about the coastal areas here is that women are apparently allowed to ride bicycles by themselves: From what I understand this is forbidden in most other parts of the country, where women must always have a male companion present when they’re riding a bike. Why, though? Either […]

Walking along the highway, and never being able to leave it, and having the earplugs block everything out and making the world sound as if I was underwater, had left me with a strange sense of detachment. It felt as though I was driving a car through this part of Iran, only very very slow. […]

Stayed in another motel. It had a very quiet, empty, almost post-Soviet atmosphere to it: I liked it. There was a photo at the reception desk that showed a group of French people: Were they famous? I didn’t know. What followed was another day on the highway. Again there were people selling clothes: And again […]

Leaving Fereydunkenar meant trading the beach for the road. It meant four days of fast walking, most of it done exclusively on a highway. But one thing it also meant was a chance to take my two new stools out for a walk: And they turned out to be awesome. I tried to avoid the […]

Babolsar was one of the prime tourist destinations in this part of the country. So it was crowded. In fact it swarmed with people, and I was told that many of them were from the area of Mashhad, where I had been just a few months earlier. It felt only logical that people from a […]

Turns out Juybar, this inconspicuous little town between the mountains and the Caspian Sea, is the center of Iranian wrestling. And since Iran as a nation is pretty good at wrestling, Juybar is arguably also one of the main centers of wrestling in the world. There are monuments and posters dedicated to wrestling all over […]

When I left my hotel this morning and the owner asked for a photo of us together, I decided to post it along with all other photos I was going to take with people along the way: But first it was just easy walking through the quiet parts of Sari: Here’s selfie number 2 with […]

I felt like moving, but just within the city. I didn’t want to leave Sari, and neither did I want to leave my friends. However, I felt like it was time I gave them and me some space and stopped my occupation of their living room. So I packed up the Caboose and stepped out […]

When I woke up and left Neka, it was already noon. But I didn’t have to walk very far today. Maybe twenty or twenty-five kilometers, I figured. So I was going to take it easy. Especially since I still hated the highway. I was somewhat happy when I passed a place where a few cars […]

After a great night of laughter and music, I left my friends and the little village of Gorji Mahalle. The sky looked like it didn’t want me to leave: The highway was roaring as usual, but there was the occasional roadside clothes stand: And there were people who stopped to take pictures… …or to have […]

Said goodbye to my friend Borzoo today: Then I walked through the sunshine in Behshahr: Passed a toy store: And a propaganda mural that warned seemed to warn of evil forces grabbing girls by their school uniforms: When I took a closer look, it seemed to be more of an advertisement than a warning: I […]

The night had been shitty. Went to sleep at two. Woke up at three and saw a pig, a wild boar, going through the trash next to me. Went back to sleep, then woke up again at five thirty because a pack of street dogs was going through the rest of the trash. Then the […]

Finally, this morning I said fudge it and left the motherfudging highway. There was a little dirt path and then a secondary road a little bit to the north, so I was going to go there. Come what may. There were orchards: And there was silence: Sometimes there were little villages: And often there were […]

Today was going to be another short walking day. Kordkuy, the town where I wanted to spend the night, was less than 20km away. However, walking along the highway didn’t feel very easy at all. Rarely was there a moment like this one where there were no cars or trucks or motorcycles roaring through my […]

When I finally left Gorgan this morning, I knew that I would end up missing the place: the winding alleys of the old town, the bazaar, the people. Gorgan said good bye with a sunny sky and a rather peculiar looking little tower: Then we were on the open road, the Caboose and I. There’s […]

I woke up in pain. It was good, full-body pain, so I wasn’t alarmed. Also, my foot hurt, but not too much. So I decided to do another 40k and walk all the way to Gorgan in one day. When I left the hotel I noticed this: In a country that had outlawed alcohol, cocktail […]

I haven’t shown you Hotel Ghaboos, yet. Well, here it is: Hotel Ghaboos right behind the Caboose. Gonbad bid farewell to me with a strange statue of a Dalmatian dog: Then I was on the road: I left the main road after a few kilometers of noise and bad air, which was when I took […]