Iran VI, Tehran II

My bus left Yazd by 9pm. I figured to arrive in Tehran at around 6 to 7. Since my Internet time in Iran was not particularly high, I had at the time I boarded the bus, no place to stay in Tehran. After a couple of SMS to friends in Tehran, I had solved this problem. My bus arrived, however, not at the time I estimated in Tehran, but at 4.15 am. Since it was warm enough and I could not reach my host, I sat on the lawn at Azadi Square, and began to plan for my next countries Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
At around nine o’clock I could get a holt on my host Naeem. A few minutes later I arrived at his apartment and met his twin brother Fahim. After a few hours sleep and a good lunch, I decided to buy a ticket for the night train to Mashhad for the next day. Before I left for the ticket purchase, a call came on the phone of the family. A client of Naeem and Fahim's father (lawyer) was on the other end. It turns out that he had lived for 50 years in Germany and moved back to Iran for the past 18 months, at least temporarily. Since I had the feeling that he was happy to speak German on the phone, I accepted an invitation to dinner for Fahim and me.
After I had bought the ticket, we caught up with the clients of Fahim's father and went off to dinner. Doctor Pahlavan studied medicine in Heidelberg and had a practice over decades in Emsbueren. We talked well and because his daughter lives in Muenster, I could even incorporate a bit of local patriotism.
The next morning I went to pick up my visa for Turkmenistan at the embassy. This took approximately five hours of my lifetime, but ultimately it was done and I had another visa in my passport.
In the evening I went by train for the first time in Iran. The trains are good, they are old cars of the Deutsche Bahn. However, the process to reach the platform is more complicated than in other countries. First you have to get the train ticket acknowledged by tourist police (in the station) and then go to a boarding gate similar to the ones at an airport (many other people want to do exactly the selfsame, so use your elbows).

Iran II, Tehran

Teheran
On my way from Zanjan to Tehran, I was accompanied by Mohammad's friend Masoud. He had spent the weekend in Zanjan to visit his friends. After a nice bus ride to Tehran, Masoud accompanied me to the meeting point with my cs (CouchSurfing) host Masoud. The two Masounds already knew each other. My first night in Tehran I spent with the two of them.
The next morning I drove to the Turkmen Embassy. Since Tehran is a very big city, the ride there almost took one and a half hours (two taxis, a bus ride). The visa process is started and if everything works smoothly I can pick up my visa on June the 6th.
Since I was in the embassy district I wanted to apply for the Kyrgyz visa (Joe told me to skip Kazakhstan and go via Kyrgyzstan to China, instead) as well. The only thing that was standing in the way of me applying for the visa was the broken arm of the Kyrgyz ambassador. He offered me to come back in two weeks, or to use another representation of Kyrgyzstan.
The next day I wanted to start sightseeing. Masoud explained the route (shared taxi and then take the subway to the vicinity of the bazaar) to me.
The sightseeing has been postponed unexpectedly after the taxi driver spoke English. Nima, the taxi driver is actually an engineer and very frustrated with his government. Moreover, his girlfriend was at this time in Canada, so he insisted to invite me for a drink in a park. A little later, I sat with Nima in a quiet corner of a park and drank moonshine.
After we had emptied the bottle Nima invited me for lunch. A taxi ride in Tehran can be classified as dangerous due to the driving of taxi drivers there, riding with a drunken taxi driver in Tehran is just madness. After we had picked up a friend of Nima, we went to lunch at a sandwich shop. There I met the Iranian movie star Amin Hayah. However, since I have no connection to Iranian films, we simply shook hands. Later in the day Nima took me to the bazaar.
The next day I spent with a number of organizational and other tasks, as well as relax. Because in the late evening I was going on a trip to northern Iran. When I asked Alireza whether I could stay with him in my travels to Kashan, he replied that he would not be in Kashan at this time. But invited me to accompany him and his friends on a trip to the North of Iran. Following this invitation, I changed my plans for Iran for the third time.

Azadi Square