Republic Day

Today is the 82nd anniversary of the Turkish Republic. It is a public holiday for government employees and bankers. As usual, on days like this, it seems every second apartment balcony has a Turkish flag hanging from it. I don't have a flag at home, Turkish or otherwise. If I did have, say, a Port Adelaide flag, and hung it on my balcony, ı wonder what the locals would think.

Huseyin Abi (Update)

I didn't bother to fast today. If Turkey had a Ramazan culture like Cairo I would have fasted from the start. However, it doesn't and I don't believe the faith or want to lose weight enough to continue. The Turkish coffee at work today was great. So were the lahmacun and salad. ;-)

Yesterday, besides fasting, I also met Huseyin abi for the first time since he finished running his shop, Can Can Tekel ve Bufe. After selling the lease to the shop, Huseyin went to Ankara and only returned to Mersin recently. He will spend two more years in Mersin before returning to Ankara with his family. At the moment he is looking for work.

A few days beforehand I visited his old shop to buy a bottle of Sevilen Merlot (13,000,000 TL). A month or so previously I opened the Sevilen Cabernet Sauvignon and it was quite a nice drop. I hope the Merlot will be of similar quality. I digress...

The new shop was transformed! Everything was clean, tidy and refreshed. It was though the stock on sale screamed 'buy me'. Obviously, the new managers had put some effort into reinvigorating the shop, making it more customer-friendly. I guess that happens most times with new and enthusiastic management.



PS: Does anyone have any opinions on the new Joe's Ramblings's colours?
The ugly green of before has had it's day. I hope the website looks refreshed and is screaming 'read me'. ;-)

Stuff It - I'm Fasting Today!

This morning I woke up and decided, 'stuff it - I'm fasting today!' I don't know if it was because of:

*The midnight snacks I ate last night
*The discipline gained by fasting
*The moral support I would give to and gain from the other fasting workers (on Saturday and Monday I was the only worker not fasting)
*The challenge of not eating or drinking anything during fasting hours; or
*All or none of the above

Whatever the reason, today I'm fasting. It is quarter to eight in the morning and my throat is already burning from the lack of water. The first day is always the hardest. After today fasting should be a piece of cake ;-)

There are almost 3 weeks of Ramazan (Ramadan) left. The last day of fasting is 13 November. Can I last the remainder of today, let alone the remainder of Ramazan? Let's see...




UPDATE [6.35 pm]: The sun set more than 20 minutes ago and I have just drunk my first glass of water - I made it!

Making it through the daylight hours without eating or drinking was actually quite easy. I did feel some small pains in my throat, head and eyes, but nothing too bad. During the afternoon the smell of food cooking entered the office a number of times - I wasn't tempted. On the odd occasion I did reach for where I usually have my glass of water, only this time there was no glass or water.

It was good to have finally followed the fasting tradition for the first time in my fourth Ramazan in Turkey but I do not see much point of it as a non-believer. The discipline was good, however the overwhelming feeling was of inconvenience - fasting getting in the way of food and drink!

I don't think I will do it tomorrow or the following days, although one never knows.

The New Turkish Lira Designs are Released

See here (in Turkish) for pictures of some of the New Turkish Lira (YTL) coins and notes. Not surprisingly, Ataturk is again featured on the currency. The new lira will be released into circulation on 1 January 2005. I will have a web page solely concerning the new lira at NewLira.com. At the moment there are only domain registrar ads there but this will change soon.


UPDATE: Does anyone have any questions about the New Turkish Lira or suggestions for my NewLira.com website? Please email me with your valued questions or suggestions.

Perhaps the Drummer is not such a big problem...

I swear the drummer went past at least 5 or 6 occasions this morning. It is annoying for this to happen every morning for a month. Then again, I'd much rather have the drummer than be stowed away on a ship between Malta and Italy. The Turkish-Kurdish asylum-seekers were loaded in Mersin.

Osmaniye: Karatepe-Aslantas and Hierapolis-Castabala

1 week late, but better than never...


Last weekend I caught the train to Adana. Saturday night was German AIESEC trainee Uta's last night in Turkey. With Toygun and the other trainees we ate Adana kebab (I ate ciger - liver) at the restaurant near the train station. This was followed by ice cream at Mado. Uta had not eaten ice cream at Mado before - an essential for anybody spending a while in Turkey.

Something else Uta had not eaten was sirdan. Sirdan (pronounced shirdan) is very commonly sold in Adana. Boiled sirdan is a popular late night snack after a few alcoholic beverages. Sirdan is sheep's penis.

Once we found out Uta had not eaten Sirdan there was some pressure on her to 'do the right thing'. Uta was kind enough to sample the sirdan. The photos will come later.

After sirdan we found a bar still open had a beer. The bars and pubs are quieter and close earlier during Ramazan as many people don't drink alcohol at all during the fasting month. Even non-fasting people may choose not to drink alcohol during Ramazan.

By the time Uta got home her early morning flight was only a few hours away.


The next morning Toygun and I woke up and left his family's house in their old Skoda car. We didn't get far before Toygun noticed the water temperature gauge higher than normal. In the city we picked up the Manuel, the Colombian trainee. The temperature wouldn't go down and, cutting the story short, we ended up at a Skoda mechanic's place in the Adana industrial zone. To get there without overheating the engine, the mechanic continually sped up the Skoda, turned the engine off and coasted. There, he replaced the fan belt and we were off!


Driving east we stopped at Misis for some her famous sikma and ayran. Then it was on to Osmaniye and passing the peanut farms, we turned north to Karatepe-Aslantas Muzesi (Blackhill-Lionstone Museum). The outdoor museum is situated on a hilltop where the Hittite kings used to spend their summers. There, the three of us were guided around the north and south gates. Guides are compulsory to stop people taking antiquities (mainly foreigners) or smoking/littering (largely Turkish people). The hill is surrounded by Lake Ceyhan, a dam flooded in the 1980s.

The north and south gates contain reliefs featuring Hittite writing and carvings. There are also sculptured bulls and sphinx. The themes reminded me of Persepolis, Iran.

On the walk between the gates we saw 2 chameleons on the path edges. The first was a male, the second, a heavily pregnant female. They were only 10 or so metres apart so I guess they were partners. The small, around 10-15 cm animals moved slowly, the male slightly changing colour as we observed. They were the first chameleons I had seen in the wild, if not ever.

A new indoor museum was under preparation, although not open yet.


On the way back to Osmaniye we turned off the road to visit Hierapolis-Castabala (as described in 1905 by Gertrude Bell - see photos 130 onwards), a ruined city surrounding a castle-topped hill. The columns, theatre, churches and bath were in substantial ruin. Further on there was a spring. Several frogs swam in the space immediately below the water outlet.

At first we struggled to find a way up to the top of the castle. The hillsides were steep and there seemed no way in. Eventually, we got there, despite the lack of thirst gained from walking around during the hot day. The way down was an uncontrolled run. All 3 of us were lucky enough not to fall over and see our lives disappear before us.

In Osmaniye we stopped for a drink and some sweets. No place in Osmaniye sold "atom", a high-energy drink made of pureed fresh fruit, honey and other ingredients. At a small supermarket we settled for a soft drink. This was not Manuel's first choice, though. He wanted a cold beer. However, small markets in provincial Turkey during Ramazan may not have their beer fridge turned on!

Back at Adana we went our own ways home, I went via the train to Mersin.

Helping Turkish School Children

Aegean Disclosure has a post on Ilkyar, a volunteer group that goes to disadvantaged primary schools in Turkey to hand out toys to the school children.

The posting has a few great photos of the happy children. The final photo is of some children playing soccer in front of an old Armenian church next to a mosque. The photo location is the city of Kars, far eastern Turkey. In December 2002 I played soccer with children in front of the same church. A photo I took is below. Did I play with the same children?

Phoenix by Amos Aricha and Eli Landau

The other night I finished another novel, my second in two weeks. Phoenix, subtitled: His Name Is Phoenix, His Trade Is Death, His Time Is... Now is an international thriller set in mid 1997 and finishing 1 day after I was born.

The book had one main similarity with Star - they were both gripping!

The copy I read was a paperback, falling apart at the seam. Sevil gave it to me, along with some Readers Digests (hey, one reads anything they can get here). Ahmet had read the book 15 years ago and I guess Sevil decided now was time to get rid of the book.

Without giving too many details, Phoenix is centred on a plot to kill a government minister as part of an international political dispute. The story takes place in several different parts of the northern hemisphere. Issues covered by Phoenix include inter-governmental cooperation/non-cooperation, assassin hiring, identity theft, Arab-Israeli relations, antiquity smuggling, security and project planning.

One thing I do ponder is how would such a story work out in the current world. With the book set 27 years ago (and published in 1979) there is no mention of mobile telephones, the Internet, global positioning systems, powerful computer databases, digital images, phone call tracking or iris scans. These and other recent technologies would totally transform the story of Phoenix, making it almost unrecognisable to the 1977 version.

Phoenix, the title character, is the supreme assassin. He has so many talents and abilities it is hard to see him making a mistake. Does he take out the target this time? I highly recommend you to read the book and find out.

Joe's Ramblings: Happy 1st Birthday!

I wrote my first blog post 19 October, 2003, 1 year ago today. Since then Joe's Ramblings has received approximately 250 posts containing more than 50,000 words.

What first put the thought of blogging (I didn't know it was called blogging then) in my mind was seeing a visiting American AIESECer in Adelaide write her blog in April/May 2003 (sorry, I can't remember her name). I was slightly jealous of the ease with which she communicated on the 'net. Tom's An Irish Experience also inspired my start in the blogging world. Prior to 2003 I am certain I had surfed hundreds of blogs all over the 'net but I obviously wasn't ready to take extra step and start my own.

I had a website at Taheny.com for more than a year before I started Joe's Ramblings. Unlike the blog, the website was painful and time-consuming to change.

A short while after Alicia visited in October 2003 I took the plunge and signed up at Blogger. Now life without a blog would seem very strange. I have put hundreds of hours into this blog. Sometimes I feel like I waste too much time on it and I should be sleeping, eating, socialising or doing something else instead.

The blog was established with four main purposes:

*to keep family and friends informed: much better than spam emails
*to be informative and entertaining enough for casual visitiors to return
*to provide an insight into both Turkey and Mersin
*to record my experiences, an online diary as such

I hope these purposes have been met.

Although one year is not very long in life, it is in blogging. The number of blogs and their importance is growing every day. A year or two back I predicted in 10 years time everyone will have a website. I did not know the websites would take the form of a blog.

I still have many more plans and improvements for the blog in mind. I want to change the formatting and colour, add a left column, improve the links and focus the content more. I may even experiment with advertising, not to make money (I don't expect to), but to learn and experience the process of website advertising so I understand it better. I would also like to categorise all my posts into 5 or 6 categories, for example: Travels; Mersin; Turkey; Food; Personal: Internet. Some other blog programmes like Movable Type have this feature but Blogger does not.

I want to write a brief AIESEC trainees coming to live in Adana and Mersin, a FAQ about the blog, and other articles. Does anyone have any suggestions for content, formatting or features?


Blogging will only become more and more important in the future: politically, socially, economically and technologically. I plan to ride the crest of this blogging wave into the future.

Ramazan is here!

Friday the 15th brought the first day of Ramazan (Ramadan), the most holy of Muslim months. Believe it or not, but this is my fourth Ramazan in Turkey!

As an infidel foreigner, Ramazan doesn't bring many changes, particularly since I love my food too much to participate in the dawn to dusk fasting (unlike Tom in Egypt). About half of the office people keep fasting for the whole month. The others may only fast on the odd day.

Talking about food, popular foods during Ramazan include dates (hurma), soup, particularly lentil soup (mercimek corbasi) and Ramazan pide. Ramazan pide is usually a large, round and reasonably flat bread only produced in the afternoon to meet the demands of the fast-breaking (iftar) meal. If one buys Ramazan pide in the morning they are buying yesterday's bread.

Another Ramazan food is 'kerebic', a flour-based sweet made with pistachios in the centre and smothered in a whipped egg white cream. This sweet is largely only eaten in the Mersin-Antakya area. I have only tried it once or twice before - will have to eat it again before Ramazan is over.


Other traditions of Ramazan I have noticed:

*Ramazan is a time of charity. People give money to local charities and basic food stuffs to people, particularly the poor. The supermarkets have special packages for Ramazan containing cooking oil, salt, rice, lentils, spaghetti, tomato paste, etcetera. Sevil gave all the employees (myself included) such a box today.

*As the daily Ramazan fast begins before dawn, before practising the fast normally wake up very early. To help people wake up, drummers walk the streets banging their drums. This morning at around (I guess) 4 am I heard the drummer(s) go past 4 times!!!
This extremely archaic tradition should die a sudden death. To compound the pain, at some stage during Ramazan the drummers visit each apartment asking money for their job. People now have alarms to wake themselves up at 4 am IF they want to. According to Ahmet, the discontent over the drumming has grown over the last few years and there are thoughts banning the practise. Hooray!


Happy Ramazan!

The First Blogger Blog

The first Blogger blog began in August 1999. It contains over 4,500 posts, 236,000 words and his profile has been viewed more than 30,000 times!

Evan Williams was a co-founder of Pyra Labs, the creators of Blogger. Evan recently quit Google (who took over Pyra Labs in 2003), no doubt, a very wealthy person. You can see his Blogger profile, profile number 1, here.

In contrast, my Blogger profile is number 2,131,128.

Turkish city of the future: Mersin

In August, Foreign Direct Investment Magazine, part of the Financial Times Business stable, believed Mersin was the Turkish city of the future:

The most popular housing regions for foreign executives are on the Mediterranean coast and villas in the nearby Toros mountains. The Tarsus American High School founded in 1888 prepares bilingual students for universities in Turkey and overseas. Manual workers are paid an average of €4.36 per hour, while secretaries and middle managers make just €4740 and €7272 per year respectively. The city’s administrators have an international outlook and are actively seeking foreign investors.

On a point of difference, I have extreme doubts about manual workers being paid an average of €4.36 per hour here. Maybe €1.36 per hour!

Hopefully, the article has foreign investment executives looking at Mersin as a place to invest.

Turk Yildizlari (Turkish Stars)

On Saturday afternoon a thunderous noise alerted work to the 'Turk Yildizlari' or 'Turkish Stars', a Turkish airforce jet stunt team. Although They were performing for the assembled audience at Cumhuriyet Meydani (Republic Square), away from work, our office could still see the jets fly past. In ones, twos and the odd multiple formation the Turkish Stars put on a thrilling display flying at low altitude just above the city apartment blocks.

See here for a picture and news article (in Turkish) and here for the official page's photo gallery.

Athletics coming to Mersin

According to an article from TrackProfile.com in runnersweb.com:

The 2005 Winter Throwing Cup will be held in the southern Turkish cith of Mersin.

Whatever it is (all the athletic throwing competitions in a throw-off? Dwarf throwing? Something to do with with running?), it will be different for Mersin and definitely worth going to.


UPDATE [2005/01/31]: See the official 2005 Winter Throwing Cup website at Mersin2005.org.

The end of Huseyin abi's shop

In August I wrote an article about my friend, Huseyin abi (photo), and his shop, Can Can Tekel ve Bufe. Huseyin abi was having financial difficulties. Basically, the profit from the shop did not cover his family's expenses. I helped him change the shop and provide some inspiration in the hope sales would get better.

For the past year I have spent many evenings with Huseyin abi at his shop, chatting in Turkish with hand signals and enjoying each other's company. Now, I will spend no more evenings there with him.

Last month Huseyin showed me the sign on the shop window saying the shop lease contract was for sale. One evening last week I walked past Can Can Tekel ve Bufe and Huseyin was not there. In place of Huseyin was a family. The next day I bought some chewing gum and the young man (well, younger than me) at the counter confirmed that Huseyin had finished. This was reconfirmed when I spoke to Yasar from Istanbul Pastanesi, a cake shop across the street. Huseyin had gone to Ankara where his family comes from. I think Huseyin and his family will be based in Mersin until his son will finish the school year and/or the house rental contract is up. From previous discussions, he is likely to look for a driving job as his next earner. Whatever he does I'm sure he will enjoy not being stuck at the shop for 80-90 hours each week.

Huseyin is a good man but he is not a marketing or retail person. It is just not in him. After a few years at the shop he was not very motivated and happy to get out of it. Can Can Tekel ve Bufe is still there in name, but its heart has changed. Although I have only seen a little of the shop under new management, it looks better and cleaner. I wonder how it will work out for them.

I will miss Huseyin abi, but the shop won't miss him nor will he miss the shop.

What I read: Star by Danielle Steel

Last week I finished reading my first novel in a long time, Star, by Danielle Steel. In a place with a large selection of English reading material I would be embarrassed to go near a Danielle Steel book. Mersin is not such a place. Sevil gave me the second-hand paperback novel when she returned from the UK in summer.

I took a few months to read the first 60 or so pages. The last 340 pages were read in 4 nights. On one night, after 10 pm, I went through 170 pages (Shannon, you would be proud)! I was hooked and could not wait to read the next chapter.

Putting it simply, Star is a roller coaster story of love between a man and a woman set after World War 2 – sound clichéd and done-to-death? I didn’t find it so (maybe because I had nothing to compare it to).

The story involves different subjects, including: racism, politics, the basis of marriage, war, the Hollywood Machine and many, many others. Star contained several plot twists and most of the time I was clueless as to where the story was going next. I recommend it!

This novel has kick-started my reading habit and I hope to read several more books from now on.

Australia Goes Backwards

Well, Today I don’t feel proud to be Australian. The fact that a dishonest, policy-free government can get re-elected is disgraceful. They may even control the upper house of parliament as well, either on their own or with the help of Christian fundamentalists, Family First.

The main reasons for the re-election I believe were:
a) The strong, low-interest rate assisted economy
c) Latham’s name was not well know enough – he had not been in federal politics long enough
b) The pro-Howard mass media
For their assistance with this election the Murdochs and Packers will want a payout. Expect the media ownership rules to be drastically loosened. The ABC will continue to lose funding, whilst at the same time, face more governmental pressure.

I’m glad I got my university degree when it was affordable – soon only the rich will be able to afford one.

At least I helped with the change in party sitting in my local seat of Hindmarsh.

Australian deserves what it gets. Following is an example of why Australia has re-elected its government. This discussion was on another blog with two other Australians – one living in Australia (P1), the other another expatriate (P2). For privacy reasons their names are not included:

Joe: P2, perhaps New Zealand could be a good place to live if incumbent party wins the election this Saturday (not a good thought).

P1: Better the devil you know, than the devil with botox in his forehead, whose party has a history of f*cking up the economy..

P2: Give me a frigged economy over the Liberal party anyday. And give me the Libs over life in NZ in either case.

Joe: Botox is a bigger sin than lying to the Australian public when taking Australians to war?

P1: Yeah, it is. Botox is about lying to the Australian Public on a daily basis about what you really look like.

P1: If someone is going to lie about that, how can you have any trust for what is coming out of their mouth?

Fishty Cuffs - breaking my visitor record!

I checked my stats this morning and found I have a record number of visitors for a day and it is only 8.30 am! Most of the visitors have arrived here via a search for Fishty Cuffs, a fun game to play with an Australian election theme. The game was devised in conjunction with Sydney Aquarium and has a fish theme.

I guess Fishty Cuffs received media attention in Australia earlier today (the election is tomorrow). For convenience, the post where I link to Fishty Cuffs is here.


UPDATE: As suspected, Fishty Cuffs did receive a media mention: in the Sydney Morning Herald's Spike column near the bottom of the page.

Here comes the rain

Last night a storm hit Mersin. Although there was thunder, lightning and rain it was not a major storm - except for the fact I can't recall rain in Mersin since the start of summer 4 months ago months ago. The storm brought the frogs out and by the time I left work there were several small, mustard coloured hopping things hanging around the front of the office.

You know you don't use ATM's when...

...you check your cards in your wallet in early October to discover your debit card expired in April!

The Weekend: a Concert, a Movie, Friends and more Ostrich Meat

Friday, 6:45 pm, just before work finished, Cigdem and Fatma visited the office. Cigdem is one of a few students I have kept in touch with since I visited some high schools for work in early 2001. This academic year Cigdem and Fatma will just focus on studying for the university entrance exam (OSS), a series of multiple choice questions. The Turkish educational systems requires great reform to make it develop and skill young people better instead of developing people who only know how to take a certain test. Iyi sanlar (good luck) Cigdem and Fatma!

Pre-concert

Whilst sitting, chatting on a park bench next to the river, a police car with several police officers arrived. During the day music had floated from the stadium area into work. Mustafa Sandal was to perform at a free public concert that night. I had previously seen ads promoting the concert for the Republic but after the bombing near the previous concert at the square the authorities and concert promoters must have decided to move the concert to the more secure dirt soccer pitch next to the stadium. This was the same place as the Tarkan concert earlier in summer.

Fish 1

After walking west along the bridge passed the concert and the row of police I return eastwards for some fish and salgam (3,500,000 TRL) on the 'Tarsuslu Amores' yacht at the local harbour. Also on the yacht were a retired Turkish couple who had lived for 22 years in Stuttgart and Munich, Germany, before returning to Mersin a few years ago. When I told the waiter I was from Australia they must have misheard 'Austria'. After eating I went to their table and chatted (in Turkish with the odd German word). Their children live in Germany and they were interesting to talk to.

In Concert: Mustafa Sandal

Walking back from the harbour I entered the concert area (frisked of course by the police at entry) and joined several thousand other witnesses to Mustafa's concert. Like Tarkan, Mustafa Sandal is a Turkish pop singer loved by many Turkish women but with a question mark over whether he likes women.

The concert was presented by Dogus Holding, the distributors of Volkswagen in Turkey. Throughout the concert, along with live concert footage and video clips, there were many VW adverts on the giant videoscreen located behind the stage.

Mustafa has made formula Turkish pop hits for 10 years in Turkey. The songs are catchy and the video clips always feature sexy women. For this concert Mustafa's band featured no less than 10 musicians and backing singers. Mustafa must have experienced some voice or other problems as the very sexy violinist in a short orange(?) dress and above knee boots performed a few solo instrumentals and a backing singer sang a popular folk song. Mustafa did return. I lasted a few songs longer before departing. Many people in the crowd were dancing and it was a pleasure to see people enjoying themselves.

Outside Huseyin abi's shop a car accident involving one of his friends had occured. Another car had crashed into the left rear of Huseyin abi's friend's car. Huseyin reckoned it was about 500,000 lira damage for each vehicle. Huseyin also though I shouldn't have gone to the concert because of the bomb at the previous concert. The next event is normally safer because of the greater awareness and security.

Toygun (Fish 2)

On Saturday night Toygun arrived from his work in Tarsus on the train. After a beer at one of the several pubs in the 'Antikhan' complex we walked to the harbour and 'Tarsus Amores' for a fish sandwich and some fried mussels.

Toygun is still commuting from Adana to Tarsus each day for work. Soon he will stay in Ankara for a 3 month marketing course and whilst he is there he hopes to find another job.

After muesli with fresh pomegranite (delicious!) Sunday morning, we caught the dolmus to Pozcu for my first trip to the movies in ages. The most conveniently timed movie at Metro Sinemasi was Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. This Gwyneth Paltrow/Jude Law movie was enjoyable for the fact it was science fiction and it didn't need to be realistic. The fun movie also exhibited an unexpected final scene which I thought was very good. See the movie to find out yourself!

Ostrich Meat Iskender

Afterwards, we were going to eat tantuni like any sane person visiting Mersin ;-) but then I suggested 'Devekusu' or ostrich. The Iskender (ostrich doner meat with yoghurt, bread, rice and tomato sauce) was delicious. Toygun even ordered a second portion!

Devrim and Efkan live on the same street as the ostrich restaurant so we visited their place. Only Devrim was home and she was drinking coffee with Metap. Metap's 12 year old son later came and I asked him some questions to help him with his very basic English. Asli had sent Devrim some funny, olive-sized fruit fruit from their family's garden in Canakkale. I had never seen such a fruit before and it tasted delicious.


That was my weekend, how was yours?

Tehran 3 (at last)

Finally, the next update from my Iran trip, the trip that now seems a piece of ancient history.


Sunday 5 September 2004


For breakfast we ate fresh mangoes and ugly, flat peaches (the kind we had previously eaten in Tabriz. The 2 mangoes were the first mangoes I had eaten since the 1st half of 2003 in Australia. They were not the best mangoes but they were far better than the zero mangoes I had eaten in Turkey!

Tehran University was our next destination and a taxi-ride later we were there. Across the road from the university were many bookshops, a few of which we entered and looked around. Although the summer holidays had not finished, there were still many students in the vicinity.

Karin and I tried to enter the university but we were not allowed in without a permit so the security guard asked the closest student to take us around the corner where we could obtain our permits. This kind student, who spoke no English, went with us until we eventually found the correct office located across from the main campus. He was rewarded with some cezerye I carried in my bag specifically to give to a kind person. At the office Karin gave her ID for the university official to photocopy and the woman asked us if we were journalists. A 'no' was a good enough answer to satisfy her and we received a piece of paper with Farsi writing - the permit. Officials in another office were satisfied with this permit and were free to enter the university.

At Tehran University's side entrance we gave the paper to the security guard and then proceeded on to the campus. Architecturally, the campus was not striking. However, it was not the architecture that drew me there. Tehran University was the seen of many of Iran's political and social struggles. With very few people on campus I could only imagine the riots and protests that have taken place in the past. We walked past the large covered square. Every Friday thousand of men pray their midday prayers on the rolled-out carpet. This prayer gathering would be a sight not to miss on my next visit to Tehran.

We relaxed on a bench and read a few of the local English language newspapers purchased earlier in the day. Another brief walk and our Tehran University experience was almost complete. I write almost, because we exited via the main entrance. Painted on the ground at the main entrance were Israeli and US flags with most of the colour gone from years of Iranian soles treading on them. I recall seeing footage of the flags on Australian TV several years ago. As the security guard was at the and gate and the flags were faded, we did not bother taking photos.

For the taxi to Imam Khomeini Square the driver wanted 20,000 rials but I gave 15,000 as it was really a 10,000 rial trip. The taxi vehicle was a modern car - our only taxi ride in a new car for the whole trip - all the rest were . On the way we passed a church, also modern-looking.

Our intention at Imam Khomeini Square was to visit the National Museum. We walked around and around but could not see a sign for the museum anywhere. We were about to enter a park the vicinity of the museum but were still unsure when a man wanted to have a chat. He claimed he had obtained an Australian visa in Damascus. The man also pointed us in another direction to the museum. Around we walked again.

On the way, I chatted to a diplomat's chauffeur. Several almost identical Mercedes Benz sedans and the odd equally luxurious 4 wheel drive, each with flags indicating different countries were parked. Italy, Slovenia and Finland were amongst the countries represnted but, unsurprisingly, I didn't see any US or Israeli flags. The chauffeur's car had the flag of Cyprus, including the whole island, although only the bottom 2/3 is controlled by that country. Of course he spoke English and he explained the way to the museum. Near the museum is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry is located in a beautiful building but it is not a place to take photos.

The second time at the small park we ignored the weirdo who had provided the previous, incorrect advice and made our way to the National Museum. I really believe the museum should be signposted better.

The museum cost 6,000 rials. Previously, foreigners paid 60,000. The museum was small when compared with the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations in Ankara and particularly, the massive Egyptian Museum in Cairo. However, every piece on exhibit was of great quality. Lots of items on display were from the historic sights of Persepolis and Susa. I recommend people see the museum after Persepolis to improve the museum experience.

The National Museum ticket gave free entry to the Islamic Museum. The decorative arts in this museum were very interesting but Karin and I were too tired and hungry to look over all the exhibits set on levels 1 and 2 seriously.

We managed to hold our hunger until we reached 'Tomato' restaurant, located close to the British Embassy. I chose 'Bacon and Mushroom' pizza. Iranian substitute bacon does not quite taste the same as real bacon! For Iran, the price was pricey: 2 medium pizzas, 1 pineapple drink, 1 coke, 1 cappucino and 1 delicious French coffee came to 72,000 rials (about USD 8.50).

The music in the background was either German or 70's/80's metal music. A curtain could be moved in front of the window to protect couples from the pry of the street. One man and woman did utilise this when we were there. The customers were young and liberal.

We walked back around the British Embassy to the Pars Internet Cafe. The patronage consisted of locals, Nigerians and other foreigners. Nigerians were also staying at the hostel. I don't know what they were doing in Tehran but from their vibe and the way they looked and spoke to Karin I don't think they were here for positive reasons. Having said that, I bet they also suffered from racism here. We didn't see Nigerians anywhere else in Iran. The computers had malware on them and it was not a good Internet cafe.

On the way to the hostel I changed another USD 100 (for 87,000 rials), our 3rd $100 changed in 3 days - fast compared to the rest of the trip. Back at the hostel we packed our bags and paid 100,000 for 2 night. We didn't actually stay 2 nights but we arrived 7 am the first day and left 8 pm the next. We presented the workers with some Turkish delight and one of them, the one who sleeps at reception, went with us outside to hail a tax that would take us to Azadi bus station, western Tehran, for 20,000 rial, the normal rate. We were to catch a bus back to Tabriz.

The taxi ride(s) to Azadi was a classic experience. Traffic was at its horrible best - slow, but the cars, motor bikes and other vehicles still jostled for position and tried to gain every single millimetre they could. I mentioned the "(s)" after "ride" because the first taxi ran out of "benzine". The way the driver tried to restart the car several times made me think he had ran out of diesel.

We had waited long enough and the bus departure time of 9.30 pm was fast approaching so I stepped out, gave the drive 15,000 and hailed another taxi (actually, any car that stopped - both taxis didn't have "taxi" written on them). We made the terminal on time and walked to the bus company's desk to be directed to the correct bus. Azadi bus station is a large and chaotic station even by Turkish standards. I enjoyed the chaotic (the word just fits perfectly so I have to use it twice) journey to the terminal even though we didn't know where we were when the first taxi conked out and there was a chance we could have missed the bus. The journey personified the essence of Tehran.



Monday 6 September 2004


After midnight the bus stopped for longer than 30 minutes for a toilet and prayer stop. I guess we had to wait until the last person finished praying, no matter what the scheduled departure time was. I slept very well on the bus the Tabriz despite the lack of leg room and seat reclination (we were in the back row). Conversely, Karin did not sleep much at all.



Tabriz


At about 6 am Karin woke me up as the bus had stopped outside the Tabriz bus terminal. We got off and then Karin remembered the bag of posters left on the overhead shelf above our seats. She ran off after the bus at the speed of light to successfully retrieve the bag.

The local taxi driver insisted on 20,000 for the trip into the city. This was the same journey only in reverse that a taxi driver had previously asked for only 5,000. On a park bench near the bazaar we sat, wondering which hotel to go to. We wanted a more comfortable place than the previous Tabriz hotel. We ended up at the Park Hotel, a hotel that looked good in its day, assuming one was referring to the 1970's or 1980's.

For 80,000 rial our large room contained ensuite shower and toilet, fridge, TV and the only double bed (or pair of single beds together) we saw in Iran. There were even inbuilt lamps for each side of the bed and a heart-shaped mirror! The toilet was broken, there was no hot water, the TV reception cable was broken, half the lights didn't work, we didn't bother plugging in the fridge, the drinking glass stuck to the plate and the hotel was under renovation but we didn't care as the bed and pillows were comfortable.



'Tabriz: the 2nd time' will be my next Iran update

32 Today: Congratulations Mum and Dad!

Mum and Dad shared a joint 32nd celebration today, Turkish time (yesterday, Australian time). If you looked at or listened to them you would think they were both 32 years old ;-)
No, it is their 32nd wedding anniversary!

This occasion gives me an excuse to upload a photo from my recent trip to Iran (for their eyes only - others, don't click on the link ;-). The photo is of a famous bridge in the city of Isfahan. I will upload other photos of Iran once I eventually finish writing about the trip.