Tales from the Dark Side: Day 12

As seen on the drive, I think.

I slept in, then translated more anecdotes to share with the drivers before getting up and getting ready for the post office. I went to the bus where I found The Model. The Scorpio, I learned, was sleeping. We hung out and soon enough the other member of the group arrived and we were off. Well, The Model got interminably lost, but we made it to the uncrowded post office. I could not buy stamps to put on the post cards, so I would have to go back tomorrow. We left to put the other person's cards in the box, but we didn't know which. I decided to go to the bus to ask the driver for help, but the other person followed close behind. The Model handed me his phone to talk to our main guide, but I had to climb over the small fence to get to the bus. He said we needed to leave immediately, and I said that we would as soon as he let me go. I said by and handed The Model's phone back to him, climbed over the fence, and got on the bus. We were then on the way to the hotel. When we got there, I asked the bilingual guide how to say "the worst", which was batarin. I told The Model, " shomâ hastid batarin" for making us late. Then I said, "shomâ hastid zibâ", so it was okay. That meant " you are the worst, (but) you are beautiful".

We were then off to the Golestan Palace of the Qajar Dynasty.

The throne.

More schoolchildren.

I'm a little overwhelmed by this photo, I must say.

At this point, we went into the mirrored palace, and were not allowed to take photos. That was probably for the best, because it was breathtaking, and I would have ate up the rest of my storage.

We then walked off to other exhibits on this side of the complex.

After I said hello, these guys asked if they could have a photo with me, and of course I agreed.

The guys in the photo above are from a town near the Pakistan border. I was told later that people from that town are very nice, and I wasn't surprised. Once the photoshoot with Iranian strangers was done, I had to catch up to the rest of my group and go into a mirrored part of the palace where we could take photos inside.

This mirrored part of the palace is less spectacular than the actual mirrored palace.

I made sure to take a happy selfie in the mirror to go along with the American Gothic.

Then we were back outside to go to another part of the complex. I'm sure I would know more about this place if I had been paying attention or read the booklet they gave us, but you try doing that when you're surrounded by this much beauty.

I meant it when I said "less spectacular".

The next stop would be the anthropological museum, but first, I took more photos of the inside of the complex, from inside its courtyard.

Did not take photos in the anthropological museum because many of the exhibits were of art and crafts we had seen live in the Bazaar.

We then went to the WC where I met a very friendly cat.

Then we went to the Bazaar. We were instructed to make sure to carry our purses in front. Despite the friendly, small-town feel of this city, it was, indeed, a city. I guess that you forget that petty crime can be a thing when no one is forced to sleep on the street or beg for money on the corner.

Around this time, I needed water, and got it in the form of a melon smoothie. Then we saw the National Bank of Iran.

I pretended to be from eSpain and managed to find some more popping chocolate.

We then walked back through all the government buildings, past the palace, and through the city to a square where we waited for the bus.

Finally, the bus arrived and we were off to the cafeteria. But first, we had to take the bus down a street that was too narrow and get stuck. We got off the narrow street, but turning onto a better street took the help of several strangers.

The guys in the photo on the left were guiding the bus down the street.

Legit, they moved that car. I really wanted to be out there to help.

After a half hour or more, we were finally, finally on our way to lunch, or my first meal of the day. I had not eaten (other than the melon smoothie) for 17 hours or more, but gone up 10 flights of stairs, walked 4 miles (8,900 steps), and burned 2,500 calories. 

We passed by a movie theater showing "The Bodyguard", but it had an old guy instead of Kevin Costner and no Whitney Houston.

Finally, after a confusing and frustrating and possibly expensive trip to the cafeteria, I was eating at 2:30, wishing that I could be hanging out with the drivers. Food helped my mood immensely, however.

I finished my food and moved to another seat to talk to a smaller sub-set of our tour group. I waved to The Model when I saw him come in. He sat with the guide, however, and then we left for the Contemporary Art Museum.

The guides said that we could walk back to the hotel after we saw this place and went to the carpet museum. I was in the museum at 3:34, when I hit 10,000 steps.

That spherical sculpture looks very, very familiar. I think there is one on the UC Berkeley campus.

There was a little concert going on when we arrived. Our guides directed us one way, but I decided to rebel, as did another member of the group, and go the opposite direction. I still ended up seeing all of the exhibits, we just went through in different ways.

We were told that many of the exhibits in the museum were from before 1979, as these paintings were. I should note that I only took photos of paintings with a green color scheme because I liked them the most.

I followed the oldest member of our group into an exhibit room with artwork from 2014, and holy jesus... Well, just take a look for yourself.

These were the two pieces in this room that I photographed, there were more.

An engraved Maserati shell and Daphnis & Chloë CCW, 2009, silver lacquered bronze

This would have been the coolest thing I saw in this museum, if not for all the other stuff.

These are crucifixes rolled into balls, sometimes Jesus is on the outside, sometimes on the inside, and sometimes, he is on both sides.

I swear that I have seen a piece like this somewhere else.

I was able to catch the very end of the concert at the end of my stroll through the exhibits.

I later learned that all of the exhibits are from the same artist, who was not from Iran. But back at the museum, I wanted to walk to the hotel rather than walk uphill to the carpet museum, so I told the guides and went. When I walked out of the museum, into the light, I felt an enormous joy. I was free to walk past a lovely Tehran garden, down a beautiful Tehran street, on a gorgeous Tehran afternoon.

More crigeons.

Surveyors

Trucks went by playing music with people in all silver (I think) holding signs. I didn't get a photo.

One of my favorite photos from the trip.

Soon, I was back at the hotel and went in, did packing and unpacking things, allowed my clothes to rest, and took a shower. When I was ready to come out, my roommate came back. I got dressed slowly, we talked, I packed, we talked, and I did some translations until 6:45. That was when I went down to the bus to hang out with the drivers. The Model welcomed me to his bus and they gave me an orange. We talked, tried to communicate, and had an amazing time. They gave me the microphone and I tried to look up Lady Gaga for them. When I translated Lady Gaga, they thought I was referring to myself - I wish, lol. Then the group got on the bus and I decided to go to dinner. I was in the same seat with The Model as he navigated, and I helped as we got to the restaurant, or at least think I did.

We got there finally and filed down the stairs.

There was a lovely salad bar, and they brought bread and ice, then bread and ice.

And we waited. The music began. We waited, and the food arrived.

We ate, and it was very good. At the end of the meal, I saw The Model squeeze lemon into a spoon and put it all in his mouth! I was shocked. Then he put the lemon wedge in his mouth like an orange! I was shocked again! One guide said it was to prevent scurvy, and I guess with a meal like kebabs, it is needed. I decided to follow suit, and they even put some salt in mine.

It was just as you would expect - very sour.

We had ice cream, and it was 10pm, I wanted to leave, especially since I couldn't get wireless access and was therefore unable to communicate as I wanted to with the drivers. But we still had to have tea.


When we finally left, the drivers asked me to walk with them. The Scorpio walked down the middle of the street, and I said that it looked like he was drunk. They did understand that. I wanted to tell the story about the time a friend got drunk, walked home and picked up a traffic cone, was stopped by the cops for having the cone, then yelled at the cops with the cone as a megaphone. That could not be translated.

We got to the bus and soon the others arrived. I had the microphone and told random anecdotes to the group, including that hot dogs are not sandwiches and reports from the front of the bus. Eventually, we were at the street with the hotel, but it was PACKED with cars! A wedding was getting out, so we got off and I said "see you soon" to the drivers. I sat in the lobby at a window. The Scorpio had sent me a message on What's App and I replied. There were lots of well-dressed Iranians and young girls in white dresses. After a little while, I saw the bus going to park with The Model guiding it. I told The Scorpio to come to the lobby. He saw me through the window and then The Model showed up. They sat outside. The Scorpio was asking for the wireless password. I tried to say that it is limited to guests and we can only have two devices on it, but I don't think they understood. I guess they wanted to be by the bus, so I went outside to sit with them. We had a good time. I learned that swearing in Iran is "no joke", and asked what they did for fun. The Model responded with something funny that I won't repeat on the blog, but you can ask me in person. We chatted and laughed until after 12:30.

I would have stayed out there forever.

Finally, I went in to the hotel and my room where I got ready for bed and then wrote out my post cards - 7 of them - and photographed them in case the stamp goes over the writing. Finally, around 1, I got to bed.