I had a lazy morning and had a 1030 pickup for the airport. I said goodbye to Mikel and Puri who left about the same time.
My Spanish companions by-chance around parts of Iran, and the hostel host.
I had a flight booked on Iran Air from Yazd to Tehran. I always look forward Iran Air’s welcome announcement “In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful, welcome aboard the Airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran Air”.
The drive to the airport took a little under half hour. I have no recollection of the city outside the old town from thirteen years ago. It was the days with a digital camera but the mentality of a film camera, ie. Take pictures only for nice shots and not purely for memory.
As we got near the airport, a cupboard fell off the back of a truck in front of us. While it wasn’t a narrow miss, it was close enough to think about what it could have been.
I arrived at the airport a little more than an hour prior to departure, but check-in wasn’t open. I learnt through the monitors of a 90 minute delay, then soon after was updated to 2 hours. That would make it 1400 meaning the afternoon would be rather unusable.
Checked in about 1300. I sat near the security check desk and chatted to a lawyer called Mehrdad. Suddenly check-in stopped and there was some discussion with passengers. Mehrdad enquired and found that there had been a further delay. We retreated to the cafe and saw that it was an indefinite delay with no new time.
Due to a misunderstanding I ended with a plate of fried chicken delivered to me while Mehrdad was given a burger. We went halves of each so as none of us would overdose on grease. He led me upstairs to the restaurant (affiliated to the cafe) where we sat for hours in the comfy seats.
After about an hour and a half upstairs at around 1600 we were advised of a new departure time of 2045. Apparently weather had been horrible somewhere in the network (and I later found out that Tehran had storms and this was evident when we eventually landed).
I rang my hostel to advise of a late arrival so they wouldn’t give my room away. I wish I could have been more productive during the wait as I hadn’t downloaded any bank statements or other admin work to do offline; free internet was limited to just one hour.
At 1900 there was rumour of a further delay and that Iran Air would endorse our tickets over to another airline. Caspian Air was leaving shortly and it was already late. At the Iran Air’s office near the restaurant, they printed out my PNR and stamped it. I walked it over to the Caspian office where they ushered me to the check-in desk downstairs. I was given a manual boarding pass and it was straight through security and onto the MD83 aircraft already boarding.
Very lucky to get shifted on to Caspian Airlines.
Being one of the last to board, all the lockers were full. Fortunately being an old plane with seats wider than the typical 777 or 787, I managed to fit my large pack in front of my seat. We departed at 1930 and was fed a very substantial meal for the 1h flight.
Landing at Mehrabad airport (which still carries the sign “International” even though it is now domestic), it was very wet in parts. With a bus gate, it took about 30 minutes before I was out in the metro.
Not realising that the first ride only shuttles between the airport and a nearby station (ie. I had to change for another train), I wasted about 10 minutes.
Exiting the my station in Tehran, I was disoriented and didn’t know which way to go. I knew I had to walk southwards so I headed in the direction of a slight downhill slope since Tehran’s mountain and skifields are to the north. That proved to be the right direction. I arrived at the See You In Iran hostel at 2200 tired after a “nothing” day.
I had forgotten that I had booked a private room with shared bathroom. It was my first on this trip but the room was very nice and spacious with a sofa and also a patio. The internet was worse than the smallest cities that I had visited but I realised that it was an intermittent thing.
I slept well relieved that I didn’t have to slum it at the airport in Yazd for a yet rescheduled departure at an ungodly hour.