Day 100 Teheran
SYNOPSIS: I hired a guide to be able to move around Teheran more efficiently. He ran me into the ground. One museum after another, not to mention the toll the traffic takes on you around here… Crisscrossing Teheran in metro, bus, and taxi.Ahmed, my Teheran guide, was waiting in the lobby of the Firouzeh Hotel by 8 AM even though we had agreed on a meeting time of 8:30 AM. Five minutes late is an hour lost, he exclaimed. Now that is dedication and punctuality that beats me! He crammed two days worth of sightseeing into one and after a whole day of this had me nearly crawling on the ground. He kept on going and seemed just fine, ready to go on if needed. How was he doing that?! He wasn’t a spring chicken either. Nine hours into this, after three metro rides, five taxis, two buses and hours of walking and looking I was done! I saw three art museums, two palaces, the jewelry museum, the time museum, the carpet museum, a martyrs’ museum, the American embassy, and lots of traffic. And I am way too exhausted to write about it in detail.But I will try to pull together a few words about this or that before I conk out: All the museums I have seen in Teheran are professionally run, well stacked and usually sufficiently labeled for foreign tourists. What is missing in the museums all around the country has obviously been pulled into the capital city. Nothing comes even close to a Louvre, a British Museum, or the Met. The museums are small. An hour is usually plenty of time to see the displays. But the pieces exhibited are exquisite and representative of the culture of the country.If you like jewels, there is nothing quite like the Jewelry Museum, housed deep down in the vaults of Iran’s Melli Bank. It is only open two hours a day, four days a week and limited to 200 visitors. A famous peacock throne, a jewel bedecked globe, dishes full of raw diamonds, dazzling crowns, dinner plates, goblets, uniforms, necklaces, tassels all made of rubies and sapphires… Gaudy displays of ostentatious wealth. An all time favorites of foreign visitors.If you like parks and quiet, there are the palaces of the former Qajar dynasty, and the Shah family displaying their furniture, art collections, and way of life. Again, it’s not Versailles, but it gives you a good insight into previous and relatively recent eras of Iran. For the first time in all of Iran I saw a sizable collection of Western art: 17th, 18th and 19th Century paintings from all over Europe, particularly landscapes and animal pictures. They were collected by one of the art loving wives of the Shah and are now on display. It is good to see that the recent revolution has not taken the same iconoclastic approach as many previous overhauls have. I hear that there is a huge collection of fine 20th Century art (Picasso, Impressionists, etc) valued in the Billions of Dollars which currently is stored in the museum vaults. I guess, the clerics do not deem these appropriate for display, but at least they refrain from selling them off or worse. The carpet museum made me drool… I wanted to just roll up half of them to take home. And there was the time museum with odd clocks and timing devices housed in a great 19th Century mansion.The martyrs’ museum was just a quick detour. It is interesting to see how completely occupied the Iranians still are with the Iran-Iraq war. Thousands of people died and there are shows constantly on TV refreshing the memory of this conflict not to mention the ever present martyr pictures everywhere. I wanted to go to that part of town because of the American Embassy across from the museum. I almost wish I had been on my own because I could have played dumb. There was no sign forbidding photography, but my guide Ahmed urged me not to take pictures. I had to resort to shooting from the hip across four lanes of traffic… That did not get me much. Too bad. In Farsi there is still a line of writing stating that the instigators of the hostage taking event at the embassy make their nation proud. There is also still a faded sign right across the entrance of the metro station that states: Down with the USA. But along the endlessly long brick wall circling the embassy compound (a full city block) there used to be dozens of anti-American murals and statements. Almost all of them are painted over with solid colors; little to none are left. One lonely Statue of Liberty looking like a skeleton remains. I was almost disappointed.After I parted from Ahmed, I walked to the Teheran University to have a look at the campus. I was not allowed in. There is one single entrance gate guarded by an officer who spotted that I was not from around here. No visitors are allowed. A student helped me to translate. There may be a possibility if I came back the next day and went to a far away office to ask for permission and with that permission I could return… No, thanks. Another disappointment. But I can’t complain. In one day I saw more than I thought was possible. And I took some of the public transportation in the city which was interesting.With Ahmed I took the metro a few times. It cuts down travel times by a huge factor. Only three lines are available and a fourth one is being built slowly opening station by station. There are women’s cars and men’s. But since I ended up in the male compartment with Ahmed, I was immediately offered a seat. It is OK to be in the “wrong” section. But I saw a woman hurrying through until she had reached the women’s section. She obviously felt better there. The metro was crowded, but clean.In order to guarantee efficient bus services that run faster than the ever congested street traffic, buses have their own designated lines. A central island allows people to board the bus from the center of the street. Buses also can run the opposite direction from general traffic – just imagine what that means for you trying to cross the street… You can never be sure from which direction traffic is coming. If it isn’t a bus going the “wrong” way, there are certainly enough motorcycles that do on a regular basis. Nobody seems to ticket or stop them.Speaking of motorcycles: I have to say that at least 25% of cyclists I have seen in the last couple of days in Teheran, do wear their helmets. I think I know why I did not see any two months ago: I was here during two major holidays. Motorcycle traffic is blue color traffic for the most part. There was little to none when I came here.I was so busy today that I did not even have time to dislike Teheran. To be fair – it is a city that has much to offer. I also think that it is one of the more exciting cities to live in especially if you are a young person. For me as a traveler, I am glad that I saved this ordeal for the very end of my trip. I was a lot happier in the country side. But I am glad I had at least this much time for it.Good night.