Day 28 - “Welcome to Iran. Go!” This is quite a significant day for us. Crossing the border into Iran signifies that we have completed our first leg after traveling over 5000 km through Europe and Asia. The next leg will be more demanding, as we will traverse Iran and Afghanistan to reach our final destination, the Pamir Highway starting in Tajikistan. The border crossing from Armenia to Iran at Nordooz was much more efficient than we anticipated. In just about 60 minutes, we had our passports and carnets stamped and were waved on by the friendly border guards. We traveled westward, along the border between Iran and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, an exclave of Azerbaijan. In Jolfa we set up camp for the night in the local city park—alongside many Iranian families who were doing alike as part of their weekend activities. We felt right at home! We had a perfect first day in Iran, our initial impressions were overwhelmingly positive, we felt safe and welcomed.
Day 29 - It's time to handle some administration tasks. We needed local motorcycle insurance, SIM cards for internet access, and to exchange money for the next fifteen days since neither Western credit nor debit cards are accepted in Iran. We reached out to Erfan in Khoy and by the end of the day, everything was sorted. Oh… the money: 1 Euro equals 1,000,000 Iranian Rials, which translates to 100,000 toman, sort of super currency used in everyday transactions. This also equals to 100 new tomans. Sounds confusing? It is! So when the taxi driver says it costs 100,000, he means tomans, and I hand him a 1,000,000 rial note. It ends up costing me 1 euro. We finally got the hang of it. The good news? A liter of petrol is about 4 euro cents, making it one of the cheapest prices globally due to heavily subsidized fuel. We can almost ride for free! We wrapped up the day with Erfan giving us an amazing tour of Khoy, where he introduced us to Iranian customs and let us try chelow (steamed) white rice with kebab, which is regarded as Iran's national dish.
Day 30 - Time is flying by, and we're already running behind schedule in Iran :) A quick calculation indicates that we will hardly make it through the country without extending our visas. Therefore, a visa extension is must. Erfan recommended doing this in Rascht, a smaller village on the coast, as it should be easier and quicker than in the larger cities. Plus, it takes us to the beautiful northern mountains of Iran and the Caspian Sea coast before we head to Tehran. We take the decision to cross Iran from west to east towards the coast. Our first stop is Tabriz, which we reached by the end of the day. We head into the city to grab some food and enjoy the charming Iranian city centers that truly come alive after sunset. The temperatures during the day exceeded 30 degrees.
