Killing a day

I chatted to Sebastian from France at breakfast.  We had a similar flight time out of Imam Khomeini International; mine at 0435 tomorrow morning and his at 0600.  He had similar plans for killing time and we decided to stick to do things together and head to the airport by metro around 1730.

We headed out soon after check-out at 1000.  I walked him past the US Embassy which he wanted to visit but it was closed.  We metro’ed to a part of Tehran that I can’t remember visiting before:  the Bazaar area and the Imam Khomeini Mosque.  As we had seen some of the most stunning mosques, this one didn’t require much of a lookaround.

We found our way to the Golestan Palace nearby. It had been 15 years since my previous visit.  The complex was built by the Qajar Dynasty and was once inside a mud-thatched citadel. It dates back to the 1500s but the current form is largely from 1865.

We paid for the general admission (IRR150K) and the main hall (another IRR150K).  This probably gave us an insight into the riches of the royalty.  But the best insight that anyone can get would be jewels held by the treasury which is closed during the entire duration of my stay this time.

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Sebastian wanted to go to Azadi Tower.  I had time to kill and money to spare and went along with the idea.  I had seen it many times from a car but this time took the opportunity to go up to the top.

From the metro, we had to crossed several busy roads to get to the large roundabout on which the tower was located.  Getting to the top involved a change of lifts.  The scenery was good enough. There were some photographic displays of old Tehran in the intermediate floors and a puppet museum in the basement.

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We dodged the traffic again returning to the metro and returned to the hostel around 1530 for an inhouse  lunch of Mirza Ghasemi (eggplant, tomato, garlic mash fried with egg) at 1600; they were unable to order in delivered takeaways today.

I felt desperately in need of a shower but no longer had the hostel towel after check-out.  I hadn’t packed my travel towel this trip as I had no/little need for it.  The two French, Sebastian and Thomas, offered me theirs.  Sebastian had his used personal towel while Thomas had an unused hostel towel. Amazing camaraderie on Thomas’ part but perhaps not the best hygiene practice. No prizes for whose towel I chose.  I felt so much fresher after.

Sebastian found about IRR1000K which he thought he didn’t have; he thought he was nearly out of money. I asked if we could consider sharing a taxi instead. The metro would probably cost us less than IRR100K pp while the taxi IRR325K pp. It would mean killing time in the hostel rather than the airport; there wasn’t much difference comfort-wise but it allowed Sebastian to watch the World Cup opening match between Saudi and Russia. We’d arrange for a midnight pick-up. He agreed.

I did some work on the computer while the football was on.  It was a good day for me to leave Iran.  My Google account was starting to play up on my phone as it didn’t like being in Iran, regardless of VPN. The same thing happened in Sudan.  It took me to a page saying that some services are not available in certain countries.  I wasn’t on standard Gmail but on business account which I snapped up many years ago for free and for life. Fortunately the browser version of everything still worked.

After the football, the two French, an American Chinese and I went out for an Indian dinner.  I was reluctant as I didn’t have much money left but Sebastian offered to top-up my shortfall.  It was a very yummy dinner but the waiter detracted from the experience by demanding a tip.  Thomas gave him a little; he said it wasn’t enough and took some more out of Thomas’ hand and walked away.  Thomas went up to him and took it back.

It was a very nice group.  In New Zealand, I’m usually the multi-lingual one but tonight, I felt a little less talented.  All of them spoke Spanish and the American Chinese was studying Arabic in Beirut as well.