The next day was hitchhiking day again. The weather was unexpectedly beautiful and sunny, so I decided to go to Reyneh first and take a small mountain road down to the main road.
I hitched a ride with an older guy from Reyneh and to my surprise, we could almost have something one can call a conversation for the entire ride. A basic one, but still better than my rides before. My two months travelling alone meeting almost only non-English speaking Iranians seemed to pay off finally. From Reyneh, I started my way down to the main road. I discovered that it was only a five kilometer walk so I started to walk down and had breakfast on the way.
Walking along the road on my own was beautiful. The road was easy, the view beautiful and I could stop when I wanted to rest or take pictures. A couple of cars stopped and offered me a ride, but I wasn’t finished with the road yet. Finally, a nice couple with a small child stopped and asked where I was heading. I liked them (also because the woman spoke English) so I hopped in their car. It turned out they were tourists from Tehran who wanted to go to a nearby waterfall and asked me if I want to join them. I still had enough time to arrive in Amol and a waterfall on the way sounded lovely. Luckily the waterfall was on the way anyways, so I didn’t loose anything. It’s impressive how many nice villages and landscapes you have just a little off the main road. The village around the waterfall was one of these gems, and the waterfall itself was pretty and a nice walk in the nature. But two days of hiking and almost no sleep the night before didn’t help my hiking skills. I was tired and the way was slippery, resulting in me continuously falling and scaring my poor companions. I still wouldn’t have wanted to miss it, though.
Beautiful village close to Shahandarhasht waterfalls. 
Shahandarhasht from afar
Before they left me back on the road we shared an ice cream (what else) and phone numbers. A couple of minutes later I was waiting for my next ride.
I didn’t need to wait long. Halfway along the road it was time for the unavoidable question – my marital status. Tired of the discussion coming after my usual answer, I started to say I have a boyfriend when hiking with the Iranian the day before. To my surprise, it actually dropped the topic for a while and after assuring that we are engaged and will marry once I’ll be back in Germany there were no more questions asked. Happy about the result, this time I just answered that I’m married which immediately stopped the conversation. For my work and study background, I reduced the answer to “Internet Technology” which wasn’t really a lie as I finished a software programming course at a university and can call myself Junior Software Programmer now; and I did work in something related to IT the last couple of years. At least the people I talk to are happy with my answers, and isn’t that the most important thing? Me and my new identity at least liked the result.
When I arrived in Amol my host came to pick me up and drove me to her friend’s home where we stayed for the following nights.
