Day 6 (4/30) Traveling from Rome to Tehran

Today was just one very long day of travel. First, we had to haul our baggage all the way back to the airport via Metro and the train. Then we flew back to Amsterdam, had a couple of hours of layover, and finally boarded our flight to Tehran. It is 6 hours from Amsterdam to Tehran, and Tehran is about 3 hours ahead , so we did not arrive until 11 pm.

Once the airline touched down in Tehran, and before disembarking, I had to make sure I was appropriately dressed according to the government's regulations in Iran. This is not as difficult as one might think. I get a lot of questions back in the States about how women have to dress in Iran - many people think women are forced to wear chadors (long black robes) or even burqas. Well, I've never seen anybody wearing a burqa in Iran, although many women do wear chadors - some by choice, others for their work (especially if they work for the government in any capacity). But by and large, many women dress pretty casually. For example, I generally planned to wear the mid-length light coat I had been wearing in Rome (since it came down to mid-thigh) as well as pants or jeans, and a scarf or shawl. In Rome, I'd been wearing my scarf around my neck most days - now it just covered part of my hair - not a big change. And at home, people dress more or less like we do in the States.

But back to our arrival - the airline lost one of our bags on the way, which means we had to return to the airport later in the week, so that took some time to sort out. It was a wonderful sight to see many of our family at the airport. Our nieces, Parisa, Mahsah and Mariam all came in shawls of orange, teal and pink with beautiful bouquets of flowers for us – like three bright birds with fanciful plumage. And how they’d changed – 4 years fly by for us, and we forget how quickly the kids grow!

We arrived at Nick’s parent’s home at about 2 am. There were lots of tears of joy and smiles. I don’t think anybody who can easily see their family within a few hours of flying or driving time can understand what it is to be so very far removed – literally on the other side of the world – from one’s family and the sharp pain as well as joy with each homecoming and each leaving. So it's good to be here again. After much catching up, we finally headed to bed around 4 am.