The old Persia

And indeed we did arrive in Tehran the next morning, the biggest city in the country with over more than 8 million people. It is a very important city because Tehran is the centre of most Iranian industries and the leading centre for the sale of carpets and furniture.

I have been reading a couple of brochures and it says that the population of Tehran is very young and high educated but unfortunately many of them, leave their country to work elsewhere because of the bad economical situation. Well, we have seen a lot of colleges and universities, each and every one of them has something special concerning their architecture. So you could say they do invest a lot in good education starting with this.  

When we arrived in Tehran we immediately noticed the air pollution. It belongs to the five most polluted cities in the world. It was very difficult to breathe sometimes because of the cars (80% of the pollution is due to cars).

Besides the bad traffic, taking the metro was incredible because Tehran has one of the cleanest and nicest metro! It was unbelievable, you can see it in the picture, it is very modern. You still have the basics, plastic seats and all, but very neat without having to worry about your clothes getting dirty.

Of course, there are some other things worthwhile to visit such as the famous Bazaar located South in the city Tehran. Which is actually a market where you can buy all sorts of things. And of course we did not wanted to miss the local specialty called ‘Chelow Kebab’ which is originally a Persian word for meaning grill. They do not only serve traditional Iranian food but also cosmopolitan cuisine. So we could eat whatever we wanted without worrying about what we were eating exactly.

What you must not forget while visiting Tehran although it might seem silly since the pollution, is visiting some parks. They are gorgeous, such as the Mellat Park, which is one of the largest recreation areas in Tehran. As you might not think of, there is a cinema, a coffee shop, some snack bars and of course pathways for walking and shade for picnics.  

Oh and there is also the previous palace (Golestan Palace) which is an old building but very nice to go and take a look inside. And if you also like to visit museums, there is the Carpet museum which is a very special designed building, really an eye catcher.

We did have some difficulties visiting Iran this week but after all it was a very interesting country and maybe if the pollution is solved, we might visit again some time.

Thank you for reading, we cannot wait for our next adventure! 

Sofie Van Laeken

Sources: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran