I know, it's very small.
Today I’m flying to Dubai and will be there for almost two days. It’s not really the peak of my trip but after all, I’m in the neighborhood and hence the short stop over. A pretty expensive stop over though. After booking the flight ticket I noticed that the cheapest (and crappiest) hotel I found (couldn’t find any hostels) was 750SEK/night - as much as the flight from Dubai to Iran.
After that I’m flying to Shiraz, my first stop in Iran and then I will try to follow the blue line on the map up to Tehran. From Tehran to Istanbul and then home to Sweden through eastern Europe. However, no hotel nor train, or plane tickets are booked so I can be very flexible with this plan and hence I’ll post more definite details of my route as I go.
In Shiraz I will meet Farshad, a 26 year old English translator and tutor. Farshad has promised to show me around town and also spare an extra room for me in his flat. (Credits to Philip (Allgoth) for making me aware of couchsurfing.org, awesome community.) I’m also hoping that Farshad can help me sort out some practicalities like extending my Visa, which is currently only valid for 21 days, and buying an Iranian sim-card. So let’s hope that I can get a hold of him when I get to Iran.
Apparently the disturbances in the country have not quite settled yet and the police are still hunting down people from the opposition movement. This is confirmed by a tragic email I just got from Ahmad whom I was supposed to meet in Esfahan. He wrote:
“…I’m sorry but there is something I should say.. I might be arrested by the police in the coming days. Now in Iran there are political problems and I joined a demonstration. I’m sure I’ll be in jail soon I therefore I can probably not host you. Very, very sorry...”
These latest posts have been kind of gloomy but I reckon I’ll be fine. It’s another two days till I land and as long as I keep myself away from the crowds it shouldn’t be any problems.
