TABRIZ - 10.07.2010

TABRİZ -10.07.2010

After disembarking from the ferry, Iranian passengers went into a small building to receive their acceptance stamp. The officials pasted a small tag on our train ticket that we had bought to journey further.   I also didn’t have to pay anything extra for the transfer to the   train of Iranian state. This train was very old.  There were two Azerbaijani youth in the compartment.  When the train departed it was late, about 1 :00.  I got tired due to lack of sleep.  I stopped talking with the youths until morning.  I should sleep quickly,  despite the train’s shaking .  I slept on the top bunk until an attendant hit on the compartment windows.   İranian attendants didn't check our passport   until  we arrived at the border gate.   Before crossing the into the Iranian side,  I got off  the train  to   go to the  small stones of  the railway   for a while without moving too far away. I felt the cold of the early morning.

I paid  15 Turkish Lira tax as an exit fee in the customs building. After crossing into Iranian territory, the passport control was done in the train. While we were glad that we didn't spend time checking -in , the train stopped in the Iranian town of Salmas .  We waited up to one hour and a half hours  in the train without  the  train doors being opened.  Moreover the air-conditioning  of the train  didn't work because the train’s  locomotive had stopped completely.

I should mention about two younger the İranians  Azeri Bahtiyar and Mehdi. One of them was a student in a paint art section in Hacettepe University in Ankara. The other one was a student in the sociology section and lived in a European country.  I was astonished  by  my prejudice during the first encounter with these Iranians.

 My efforts to find some religious references in their conversation, were in vain.  I saw them like a leftist  activist. You can see them a lot in the univercity canteens...  They  spoke  to me fluently  in Turkish.

 I had started to understand some things  before we boarded the Iranian train. Iranians were drinking their last alcoholic drink and  wearing their hijabs  in the Tatvan ferry.

When we arrived in Tabriz,  61 hours had passed since  we had left from Haydarpasa.  I bought a  ticket for a fee of one dollar that could be used 3 times for boarding the bus . It was very hot... especially on the asphalt streets.  I walked to bus stop from the train station, I didn't mind the taxi drivers.  I would come to  understand very well that these efforts  were meaningless.    After seeing the  level of prices in Iran,  I rented a room in Jahan Nama (Cihannuma) Hotel for a cost of  15 dollar per night.  It had no air conditioner, offered a shared bath...  also it was on a noisy street.  I definitely knew that I could not rest there.

After I checked in at  the hotel, ı went out to wander  freely. I saw a nut shop and  entered there … I had heard about Iran's pistachio and  wanted to taste it.  I couldn't find a good flavor that had expected and it was 18 dollars...

Tabriz Castle, which was called Arge - i Tabriz, was at a central point  on the close walk way. This building was built by the Ilkhanate state in 1300's. Tabriz was the centre of the southern Mongolia empire.  The name Tabriz  is a compound noun..

What remain  from   Arge - i Tabriz is just portal entrance that is 26 m high.  A new Masjid - i  Cuma was built  on the same field,  next of Arge -Tabriz..

Masjid - i Cuma.. The new Mosque was being build next Tabriz Castle .

An advertisement board on the public bus stop. I asked an Azeri man there what the meaning of this writing was and he said, "It is like that greetings to Prophet Muhammed's  grandchildren ".   I stated that it would be better if it had an information billboard for the public. He replied to me, "Don't worry,  it’s the same thing with the advertisement;   it is an advertisement of the Mullas".

Tabriz Archeology Museum

I met a young Azeri  boy . He got me to Tabriz Archaeology Museum and got two entrance ticket for museum.  And in spite of  my insistence, he didn't accept the  ticket's fee from me.  I would encounter more of these kinds of  courtesies  afterwards too.

Blue masjid is very historical a mosque that was constructed by the ruler of Kara Koyunlu in 1465.

The Blue Masjid name come from its blue ceramic coverings.

I knew the name of  Shahriar . He was a notable Iranian poet of Azerbaijani ethnicity.  A few young Azeri boys asked me whether I would want to go to the Cemetery of Poets or not.   I had to meet them in the city centre.

I don't know but I do wonder if there are any poets’ cemeteries in the world.   The Persian language has the possibility for very rich expression.  Poetry is a part their life and because of this, İranians value their poets so much.

The Azeri youths didn't leave me until the night.  We went to İl  Goli (lake) together.    This place is a city park. The Tabriz public always go there to the promenade in spring and summer. İranians have a habit of lying outside. Usually the summer season is very hot in Iran so many İranian prefer to rest and sleep outside during the hot summer nights.  Already, the shops close for 3-4 hours in the afternoon like the siesta period of some western countries. "

İt is time go to sleep.. I finished of my first day in Tabriz.. I will wander  freely Tabriz in the second day ..