Day 21 – November 7th
The time has come to say goodbye to Kerman. I have enjoyed the 4 ‘slower’ days in this laid-back city and am now ready to face the hustle and bustle of Tehran again. I leave Kerman at 2pm and arrive at my hotel in Tehran around 6pm. I decide to catch up with emails and my blog and have a night in. Plenty to see and do tomorrow....
After lots of to-ing and fro-ing in my mind, I decide to forego the sightseeing on my last day i.e. I won’t be visiting the Shas’ palaces in the North of Tehran, but will go antique hunting in a few shops suggested by The Lonely Planet... I start out at Di Rouz Em Rouz Anciens Livres, where I expect to find older, rare books on Iran in English, French and German... But alas we unfortunately live in a world where few people are interested in old books... The bookstore is in the process of being turned into a Cafe’... No sign of any books. The owner Mr. Afshar isn’t there, but I’m allowed into the store by Elia, a handsome young Iranian (the better-looking version of Adrien Brody!), who explains to me that Mr. Afshar can no longer live from the meagre book sales. My disappointment shows and I suggest to Elia that Mr.Afshar should nevertheless include a part of his rare book collection on the Cafe’ shelves, as it would be a pity to ‘lose’ these to storage. He promises to pass on the message. Elia is a Christian and has visited Rome and St. Peter’s. He asks me to pray with him, but I have to politely decline, as it’s been about 30 years since I last prayed in the 'Catholic church' sense. I leave Elia headed for Manucheri Street, the hub of currency exchange as I am to discover, but also the location of Moses Baba’s antique shop (and opposite the ‘closed’ British Embassy). I forgot, though, that today is Saturday i.e. the Jewish Sabbath (he is one of the remaining members of Tehran’s shrinking Jewish Community – there are about 25,000 Jews left in Iran) and I find Moses’ shop door bolted. No worries, there are plenty of antique stores in the area and I lose myself in the unique pieces I find in a tucked away alley chock-a-block with antiques. I find some beautiful old books, handwritten in Arabic calligraphy, some pages decorated with red and gold borders... These are hand-written books of Sa’adi and Hafez poetry published in the mid-18th century during the Qajar era... Price tags? $750 and 1500. Not this year, Tania! I leave the shop, reach the main road (right opposite the now closed British Embassy) and am about to get into a taxi, but a little voice tells me I’ll regret not buying one of the old books I’ve seen. The shop owner offers me only a negligible discount. This time I’ll have to pass, but not completely...;-) I walk out with a little gem with a more modest price tagJ
The taxi takes me to the ‘US Den of Espionage’ – the ex-American embassy. The posters and murals on the outside walls of the building are quite interesting, as is the worn out relief of the United States great seal... Take a look. By the way the building I photographed on my Day 1 blog, wasn’t the ex-American embassy after all. Sorry!
For dinner I meet my ‘desert’ guide, Mehrdad, and a few friends of his and we have an interesting evening out with lots of laughter, but also talking about my travel experience around Iran and my impressions of the country. Mehrdad has also brought a client of his with him... An Italian runner who has just completed a 250 km run through the Dasht-e Kavir desert in 4 days, with Mehrdad and his team following him by car. Impressive, but a little crazy!
Time to go now...:-( At 10pm I take a taxi to the airport for my 3am flight back to Istanbul and London. I have really enjoyed the sights, sounds and experiences of the last 3 weeks. It’s a land definitely worth visiting. I’ll be returning!
No comments:
Post a Comment