Amol is a nice little town just before the Caspian Sea. Most of the Iranians I talked to about it were wondering what the hell I wanted there. It turns out also Iranians can be wrong. Amol is not only a nice city, but it is also full of nice people, among them my host and her friends. They welcomed me to their group as we were old friends. Although we couldn’t communicate well due to language barriers, it was super fun with them trying to practice their English with me or teaching me a little Farsi.
We went to the Caspian Sea together and I must say, seeing water again after the time in desert and mountains felt like coming home. I could have stayed there forever.
Afterwards, we went to a museum displaying contemporary art of young Iranian artists. My host showed me around and explained the different paintings and sculptures. She made me aware of many small little things my tired mind would have just overseen. In the evening we went to their friend’s garden house before we finally fell asleep after me being up for about 26 hours straight.
The following days were filled with picnics and leisure and I didn’t complain at all. We were out in the nature and visited my host’s family in a village close to Amol where we also spent the night.
After that, I went first to Ramsar where I visited a completely overpriced museum, but it had a park and garden and I wanted some time on my own before heading to my host in Rasht. I wasn’t about to hitchhike, but buses were rare so I first got a ride from Noor to Ramsar and from Ramsar I was about to hitchhike but I was on the worst road for doing that and at the end I found a minibus going straight to Rasht. I was gladly taking that option, also because it started to rain again and 3 hours later in a completely overcrowded minibus I arrived in Rasht. After being in smaller cities and villages for so long it was a bit of a shock, but I survived and my host welcomed me with the usual Iranian hospitality. Even after more than two months, I’m still amazed and humbled by the way Iranians welcome guests. I’ve never experienced such an honest hospitality and kindness. I used to welcome guests myself and try to help people when possible. But in recent years, I feel like I lost this attribute. I was too busy with loosing myself. I really hope I will not forget this when I will be back to a settled life, whenever this might be.
In Rasht, many firsts happened for Iranians apparently, amongst it being the first pharmacy of the country, the first theatre, and the first library (which I didn’t visit. Shame!). We went to the theatre to watch “I’m not angry”, a 2014 Iranian movie which was censored until now. It was in Farsi but my host did an awesome job in translating the key parts so I could puzzle together the rest and almost understood the context.
Her being a traveller herself, we decided to go to hitchhike to a close village together with her friend so we set off the next day.
