We arrived in Tehran at about 11:15 pm. We had been flying for about 24 hours (including layovers). We get to the airport and of course have to get the luggage. Which you pick up and it goes through an x-ray machine. So leaving and coming in it gets scanned. Anyway. Amir's brother, one sister and mother meet us. Just so you know, there are close to 8 million people that live in Tehran. They were ALL at the airport. Believe me, that is only a slight exaggeration.
We have to drive an additional 3.5 to 4 hours to get to his brother's house. Now, GPS is a wonderful tool, but it has yet to come to Iran. We got very lost. And I learned something: culturally, Iranian men have no problem asking for directions. Amir says if you ask two people and they say the same thing, you know you're headed the right way. :) We literally stopped in the middle of the road and asked people in the next car, or on the street, whoever we thought might know. (And whoever happened to be out at 3 in the morning) And people were totally cool with strangers asking them directions in the middle of the night.
There was much giggling over the above situation. I was beyond exhausted at this point, but hey, at least we were in the right country.
It took us 5 and a half hours, but WE MADE IT!! Yey!
And our luggage was wet. Huh!? Yeah, somewhere, in some airport, or luggage was left outside and it got soaked. Our clothes, our presents, shoes...you get the picture. Ho-ray for plastic bags! They kept some things safe at least. And as some of you may not know, most countries outside the U.S. do not believe in dryers. Well, they may believe in them, but they don't have them. So, out on a rack everything went.
So if in the following pictures we look a little haggard, it's because we were.
We have to drive an additional 3.5 to 4 hours to get to his brother's house. Now, GPS is a wonderful tool, but it has yet to come to Iran. We got very lost. And I learned something: culturally, Iranian men have no problem asking for directions. Amir says if you ask two people and they say the same thing, you know you're headed the right way. :) We literally stopped in the middle of the road and asked people in the next car, or on the street, whoever we thought might know. (And whoever happened to be out at 3 in the morning) And people were totally cool with strangers asking them directions in the middle of the night.
There was much giggling over the above situation. I was beyond exhausted at this point, but hey, at least we were in the right country.
It took us 5 and a half hours, but WE MADE IT!! Yey!
And our luggage was wet. Huh!? Yeah, somewhere, in some airport, or luggage was left outside and it got soaked. Our clothes, our presents, shoes...you get the picture. Ho-ray for plastic bags! They kept some things safe at least. And as some of you may not know, most countries outside the U.S. do not believe in dryers. Well, they may believe in them, but they don't have them. So, out on a rack everything went.
So if in the following pictures we look a little haggard, it's because we were.
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| Amir, Amir's mom, Amir's sister Leila. |
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| Amir's brother Mohsen, Amir's mom, Amir. Notice Mohsen is clean shaven. In coming pictures he gets much scruffier. He said he didn't have time to shave. Too many late nights and too much fun. |
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| Me and Amir in Mohsen's living room. |
Love it. More stories please :)
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