Our first adventure in Iran

It's a great feeling to hear so much about Iran these days in a more positive light than over the past few years. Naturally, it remains to be seen what will come from these warmer words between our new president and the government in Iran, but at least we do not have to sit here every week wondering if our family overseas would be safe from our own country. No longer do we have to hear about the Iran being part of the axis of evil. What a change!

I haven't figured out how to post our original newsletter from our first trip to Iran in its pdf form with all the nice graphics, but at least I can post the words and some accompanying pictures. We had so many friends tell us how much they enjoyed this newsletter. Our hope in writing it back in 2003 was to give people a different glimpse of Iran - one they were not likely to see on CNN or FOX news.

We were in Iran the first time together late in 2002 for nearly four weeks, but we began our trip with a visit to Amsterdam for a few days and then Paris. Both were wonderful cities which we enjoyed tremendously. I have to say, however, our most interesting experience there was one evening in Paris. While wandering on the Champs Elysees we stopped to talk to a Persian gentleman who was there with his family to inquire as to whether he knew where Iran Air’s offices were. After speaking with him for a while, he gave Nick his name and work telephone number, stating that he worked at the Iranian consulate and telling us that if there was anything we needed to give him a call. Before parting, Nick happened to inquire what he did at the consulate. It turns out the gentleman was actually Iran’s ambassador to France! What a small world!

From France we flew with Iran Air to Tehran. We arrived late at night, but two of Nick’s brothers, Massoud and Behrooz, as well as Behrooz’s wife, Akram, and Massoud’s daughter Mariam were there to greet us. We went straight to Nick’s parents house in Tehran Pars (in the east part of Tehran). It was wonderful for Marisa to finally be able to meet the family! We spent a few days just relaxing with family and getting caught up on sleep, partly because we were tired from the weeks before arriving in Tehran and partly because Iranians stay up much later in general than do Americans. Supper is usually served quite late by our standards – around 9:00 at night, if not later. So with tea and conversation afterwards, we usually did not go to bed before midnight at the earliest.

Massoud came to pick us up a few days after we arrived to take us to some of the palaces of the late Shah as well as to a couple of Tehran’s parks. One nice feature of visiting the palaces was that there was a guide at the entrance of each one to guide visitors through with commentary of the various sites. We saw the “Hall of Mirrors” in Niavaran Palace. It is entirely decorated with mirror mosaics and is quite spectacular! The downstairs “hoz” room (a “hoz” is a small pool in the center of the room) had a great deal of beautiful plaster decorative work which made it look like a very fancy wedding cake! The same day, we went to a trailhead that leads into the mountains. For about one mile along the trail, there are dozens of tiny shops selling dried fruit; cooked beets (which are sliced and served to customers with a little fork); spiced, cooked fava
beans; and tea houses along the stream where one could sit on Persian carpeted platforms to have
tea.
The next day, we left for Isfahan and Shiraz. We spent two nights in Isfahan and saw the Chehele-Sotoun, or the palace of forty columns. There are actually only twenty columns, but they are reflected in a pool just in front of the palace to look like forty. We also visited See-o-Sepol – the bridge that has thirty-three arches over the river, as well as an Armenian cathedral, the Friday Mosque, Medan-e Nagsh-Jahan, and the "shaking" minarets. The Medan-e NagshJahan is a huge square where polo games used to be held for the king’s viewing pleasure. There is a palace on one side with a large platform where he could sit and watch. There are also two mosques on the square, and a bazaar which links most of the buildings together the entire way around the square. We stayed in the Abassi hotel, which is fabulous. It was built in the style of Shah Abbas (1571--1629) at the site of one of his former caravan stops. The décor inside was beautiful, with a great deal of intricate painting, mosaics, and mirror work. It had an immense inner courtyard, and a nice teahouse at the opposite side yard from our room. There was an indoor pool with separate hours for men and for women to go to the pool. Marisa went one day and made several acquaintances through a mixture of Farsi and English.

From Isfahan, we traveled south to Shiraz. We stayed in what used to be the Sheraton, which overlooks a large park. We had a tour guide to ourselves for two days who was wonderful. On our first day, we spent the morning exploring the city by ourselves. We visited the citadel of Karim Khan. It has recently been opened up to visitors. Once a palace, it was badly abused over many years as government offices and even a prison. They are slowly bringing it back to life. One of the pavilions and former guesthouse of Karim Khan near the citadel has been turned into a museum. The decorative painting on the ceiling is quite beautiful. We also visited the Shrine of Shah Cheragh, which is a mausoleum for the brother of a great Shi’ite Imam who died in Shiraz in 835 a.d. Men and women must enter separately and are separated by a wall down the middle. After we had both seen our respective sides, Nick inquired as to whether there was anybody who could show Marisa around. After learning that Marisa was American, they allowed her into the men’s side with Nick and the guide so that he could give us a tour of the shrine. The entire inside is covered in mirror work and the light from the chandeliers reflects off the walls and ceilings.

We also visited a teahouse which is located in a very old public bath located half a stairway down from street level. It was very cozy with carpeted platforms surrounding the central “hoz” (pool) and the ice cream we had there was delicious! We met up with our guide in the
afternoon to tour Bagh-e-Eram palace from the outside and the surrounding gardens which are huge. They were so beautiful in winter – they must be amazing in the spring! We also went to the tomb of Saadi – a great poet who was born in Shiraz in 1189, as well as to the mausoleum of Hafez, another great poet who was born in Shiraz in the early 1300’s. Hafez’s poetry is very popular to this day, and we were surprised to see many teenagers at the mausoleum reading Hafez aloud with their friends. One of his books is even said to be able to predict the future when opened randomly. At the entrance, there was a street vendor with a parakeet. When holding it, the parakeet is trained to reach over and pick up one of many verses of Hafez. The parakeet did not seem to like being held by Marisa, but it did provide her with a good fortune!

We had tea with our tour guide at the mausoleum and talked politics. We were very surprised at how openly people discussed the government in power today.

The next day was one of the highlights of our trip: Takht-e Jamshid (Persopolis) and Naqsh-e Rostam. Takht-e Jamshid is a huge palace complex that was started by Darius around 518 b.c. and served as the base for the Archaemenian rulers through Artaxerxerxes II (359 - 338 b.c.) Alexander the Great conquered Takht-e-Jamshid in 330 b.c. There is much discussion as to whether or not it was an accident. In any event, what remains are the huge columns that supported the palace ceilings, the immense stone gates, hundreds of intricate and beautifully detailed carvings and the tombs of Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III carved into the hills above. Since many of the carvings and walls were not excavated the late 1800's or early 1900's, many of the carvings remain as fresh as though they were completed last year! Several of them show people of the nations that used to belong to Persia – from Babylonians to Egyptians to Ethiopians. The sheer size of Takht-e Jamshid, as well as the knowledge that all the masonry work was done by hand with only simple tools is overwhelming. The stones, to this day, fit together precisely.

From Takht-e Jamshid, we went a few miles down the road to Naqsh-e Rostam, the sites of the tombs of Darius I (521-485 bc), Darius II (425-405 bc), Artaxerxes I (465-424 bc), and Xerxes I (485-465 bc). Like Takht-e Jamshid, the tombs are intricately carved into the mountain face.

Once we went back to Tehran, we began planning for the wedding. Since Nick’s family could not join us in the U.S. when we were married, we decided to have a whole wedding ceremony while we were there. Within a week, and with a great deal of help from our family, we had arranged for the caterer, the photographer, the hair and make-up, had the wedding dress altered, and all the other preparations. We had the wedding at Massoud and Mahshid’s house, and everything was perfect!

The night before the wedding is the “Henna-Bandon” with the close family. The bride and the groom’s hands are marked with henna paste, as well as anybody else in the family who wants to join in. The hands are then wrapped up for about a half hour and, once unwrapped, the henna is washed off. The designs were semi-permanently on our hands for the next couple of weeks.

During the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom sit facing the guests. Before them is the Sofre-Aghd, which has symbolic items such as nuts, a mirror, candles, gold coins etc. Women of the family stand behind the bride and groom holding a scarf over the happy couple’s heads. Over the scarf, they grind together two pillars of sugar. The sugar sprinkles down on the scarf to bring sweetness to the marriage. To the side of the bride and groom, respectively, sits somebody to represent each. Nick’s father represented Marisa and his uncle represented Nick. His father read the ceremony and then asked Marisa, the bride, whether she wished to marry the groom. The tradition is that the bride remains silent when this is asked, and one of the women behind her gives an excuse for her, such as “the bride has gone to pick flowers”. The ceremony is repeated, and the bride remains silent a second time. Only on the third time does the bride say “Yes”. After the ceremony, there is a reception with dancing and food. The caterers made the food look absolutely gorgeous, with many carved fruits and vegetables. After eating and dancing, we then had a wedding cake. The tradition is a young girl dances forth with the knife to cut the cake. The groom must give her money in order to obtain the knife, but as soon as she has the money, she then gives the knife to a friend, who does the same thing. After a long while, we were finally able to cut out cake!

Most of the guests at the wedding were family – cousins, uncles and aunts, many of whom had not seen Nick for several years. It was a wonderful celebration!

Two days after the wedding we tried to go skiing at Dizine, a couple of hours’ drive from Tehran. Along the way, we ended up in a traffic jam. It seems they had closed the road due to a boulder that had fallen on it north of the Dizine exit. They had traffic stopped about ten miles south of that point. After much pleading with the officer in charge, he finally let some of us go who were trying to get to the ski resort. We had lost about 2 hours, and were only able to get a few runs in, but it was still worth it. The snow was very dry, the runs were quite long, there was virtually nobody on the slopes, and the scenery was spectacular!

The next day, we flew to Mashad, a very holy city in Iran. The main attraction in Mashad is the Shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam in Shi’ite tradition who died in 809 a.d. The Shrine is a huge complex with the mausoleum, mosques, libraries, schools, various courtyards, museums, hospitals and administrative offices. One cannot take any pictures inside the complex, which is unfortunate, as there are many beautiful areas. The dome of the shrine is entirely covered with gold and is quite magnificent. Our hotel overlooked the shrine. We went to the shrine for a couple of hours our first day and again during our second day in Mashad. We were there during the afternoon prayers on our second day, and were amazed by the numbers of people there praying. There were more people than could fit in the mosque, so the staff had to wheel out wagons full of Persian carpets which are spread on the stone floor of the courtyard for people to pray on.

While in Mashad, we also hired a driver to take us to Tus, about 19 kilometers away to visit Ferdowsi’s tomb. Ferdowsi was the author of the Iranian national epic, the Shahnameh, and is very important to the survival of the Persian language and history.

Saffron is grown near Mashad, and there are numerous places to buy saffron. There are even
entire shops dedicated only to saffron. They have enormous containers of it in the windows. It was a surprise to Marisa to learn that there are all different grades of saffron, just like there is for teas, coffees, or even fine wines!

Once we returned again to Tehran, we tried to spend as much time with family as possible. We spent a couple of days sightseeing with Massoud and his wife Mahshid or daughter Mariam. On one day, we visited a place where movies are made. There were sets there showing what streets in Tehran looked like 100 years ago, as well as ancient Jerusalem and Medina. We also visited the Azadi tower, and went to see the Iranian crown jewels. The crown jewels included the famed peacock throne, a globe made entirely of 51,000 precious stones, and cases upon cases of tiaras, brooches and other adornments.

We also tried to go skiing at Tochal on a Friday (which is like a Saturday here). But because it was a beautiful day, there were literally thousands of people at the mountain, which lies at the north edge of Tehran. Most were there for hiking, so we started the 5-mile long gondola ride up the mountain. We got to the second gondola stop, which is where one rents skis, only to find that they had rented every pair already. But the view was still fantastic. The top of Tochal sits around 10,000 feet above Tehran, and the gondola is about five miles long. We went back to Tochal on Sunday. Since that is a weekday in Iran, there were fewer people and we were able to rent skis and continue to the top. At the top (over 13,000 feet), it was incredibly cold and windy. At this time of the year, the ski runs were short and unchallenging, but just the feeling of skiing that high was completely worth it. When we stopped for lunch in the ski lodge (there is also a hotel there, on top of the mountain), we were amazed to find that the crowd of young men and women were dressed pretty much like at any ski hill in the US. Women wore typical ski outfits, and either a ski hat or nothing at all on their heads. Even more surprising was the loud, western-style techno dance music blaring from the speakers.

The last couple of days of our trip were difficult. It was hard to think about leaving. We had become so accustomed to enjoying time with our family in Tehran, that to think of not seeing them for several months or years was almost unbearable. Some of the best times we had in Iran were when the whole family was gathered around. There was so much love and warmth, and everybody was so relaxed, that we felt very much at home and at peace. Our last night in Tehran, the whole family gathered again at Nick’s parents’ house. We celebrated our niece, Parisa’s 12th birthday, and our nephew Mobin’s 13th birthday. In addition, we got a cake for Nick’s parents’ 50th anniversary, which was later in the year. We had made up a small scrapbook for them as well as one for Massoud and his wife, Mahshid for their 22nd anniversary. Along with a few tears, we shared laughter, and danced hand in hand throughout the evening. Pretty much everybody stayed up with us until we had to leave at about 3:00 in the morning.

After a long flight, we arrived at home and and our lives were pretty much the same as when we left (if not busier!). We were very sad to leave, but we truly came back with a new sense of appreciation for everything we have here. Leaving and returning home was a bit like one of the traditions that we performed at our weddinin Iran. The bride and groom are brought a glass filled with heavy sugar water on the bottom and lighter tea on the top. The sugar water represents the sweetness and happy times in life. The tea represents the difficult or bitter times. The bride and groom stir the two together and drink it. It is naturally very sweet. This represents that, although there are tears and difficult times, the sweetness and the good times alway outweigh the others until all one is left with are sweet memories. We were sad to leave our family and have experienced great homesickness for Iran, yet we have so much to be thankful for here in our life together and in the knowledge that we have two families – one in Iran and one in the US – who love us very much. The wonderful memories from the time we spent with our family and traveling in Iran will stay in our hearts forever.