Stage 82: From Yerevan to Tehran

Overnight, it had obviously snowed heavily again, so I had little hope of ever reaching Iran. Even after several calls to the bus company, I was none the wiser. Either they did not understand English or they told me to try again in 10 minutes and that the bus probably wouldn't run. On the fourth call, the surprise came: the bus is about to leave and I should come to the stop as quickly as possible! So quickly load everything onto the bike and race the slippery 5 kilometers through the snow. In fact, the bus was already there with a few curious Iranians gathered around my bike. Everything was loaded for a 50% surcharge for my bike including luggage, and then the bus started moving. After about 50 kilometers, the snow disappeared, and the road was clear. However, that would change quickly again by the early evening. We were stuck in an endless line of trucks. There was no movement, the pass was closed by the police, just like a few days ago. I knew that the same bus had to turn around back then, and nobody really wanted that. When it was already dark, the bus driver and some passengers were arguing vehemently with overwhelmed officers. I was told that we should indeed turn around, some buses had done that too. However, our drivers seemed to be particularly stubborn, and we were allowed to spend the night on the bus. At least better than turning back! That way, I had a conversation with a few Iranians, since everyone was on the same bus. Especially Arian, Pooyan, and 'IT-man' (as everyone called him because of his profession) were interested in talking to me.

At sunrise, our bus slowly but surely continued, with interruptions when a truck got stuck in a curve again. We were getting closer and closer to the Iranian border, right in the middle of the picturesque mountains. At the first passport control, I had to get off as the only one, probably because the officer didn't know what to do with my passport. Later, everything had to be unloaded from the bus, and we crossed the border on foot or by bike. On the Armenian side, I even had to disassemble my bike again so that everything would fit through the scanner (even the bike was supposed to be scanned!). On the Iranian side, it was much more relaxed, of course, nobody wanted to see my PCR test. However, checking the bus took more than two hours, enough time to get into conversation with the locals and receive the first invitations. Arian and his friends also didn't miss the opportunity to invite me to dinner during a break near Tabriz in the evening. We had Ghormeh Sabzi, an herb stew with spinach and lamb.

After sleeping in the bus for the second night, we arrived at the Azadi Bus Terminal in western Tehran just before dawn. After assembling the bike, I set off for the hostel without a SIM card, of course, I didn't have a reservation due to the delay. In the courtyard, I immediately noticed three more touring bikes, so I was in good company. At breakfast, I met Gabriel, who has been traveling with his tandem for over a year, with interruptions. It's practical, as he can take backpackers or visitors from home with him and still be mobile by himself! On the first day, I was partly alone and partly with Gabriel exploring the area. Getting a SIM card turned out to be more difficult than expected.

The next morning, Arian picked me up in his car in front of the hostel. He didn't miss the opportunity to show me some beautiful spots outside the city center. We drove past the Milad Tower towards the north to the large Saadabad Palace complex. Today, you can visit several museums on the huge complex, but the white palace and the green palace with its mirror hall are particularly famous. The complex used to belong to the Qajar royal family and was mainly expanded by Reza Shah in the early 20th century.

Even our joint attempts to get a SIM card failed. My visa agency even responded that it is currently forbidden to issue SIM cards to tourists (even though companies have 'Tourist Sim Cards' in their range...). An employee of Irancell told me that it is theoretically possible, but she could only find 3 out of 5 tourists in her system, and I apparently don't belong to them. And I thought that everything is unnecessarily bureaucratic in Germany!

In the afternoon, we went to the Grand Bazaar, which was barely visited due to the Nowruz holidays. Nevertheless, you could easily get lost in the numerous alleys, and Arian had to constantly ask for directions.

The next morning, I met two Swiss backpackers, Gisele and Florian, who, like Gabriel and me (and pretty much every tourist), want to continue their journey from Tehran to the south to Isfahan. Flo was successful in buying a SIM card and even bought one for another tourist. Thanks to him, I finally got my SIM card (which stopped working after almost two weeks). We spontaneously planned to meet up the next evening for camping together south of Tehran. I was also glad to have company on the bike again, and Gabriel and I had pretty similar ideas about route planning, speed, and cycling distance.