Came back from Geneva today.
A fantastic time with my very dear ones we spent. Great connections that can cross the border of time and you feel it with all your heart.

For the record:

Paris is lovely! Now, I see what people are talking about when it comes to Paris.

Moving in Tehran, Iran

It was different when we bought our first and last car in Iran, it felt like a grown up family, a husband and a wife with a car. We couldn't hold our hands passing through the streets of Tehran because he was driving at the time. We were not like a couple holding hands waiting for a taxi or walking the streets of Tehran, it was different.
We were the regulars there, at those places; to eat ice cream, very typical Persian cuisine and to wander a book store called "Shahre ketab" or "City of books" and as we got into the store we would get parted without realizing and we would find each other, sometimes with a book in hand or a funny card or a cool mug like the famous Mr.Behi's mug or nothing but news on what seemed interesting and we would get back to that thing again to show that to another one.
With the car then we had one extra step before getting into all those places: "Looking for a parking space" And if we could find one, it would be like an official permission to actually get into the favorite spots.
We couldn't hold our hands but I would put my left hand on his right shoulder on our way and we would listen to the music that we always made fun of their singers and the lyrics, nothing sophisticated about those music but great fun. Then this not holding hands part got compensated for a new interest; traveling by this car and with our own way for hours and hours inside Iran from the capital to the north of Iran or to the west to Shiraz. Smell of "Bahar narenj", since then, means Shiraz to my senses. Every where you go you will feel it if it's Spring in Shiraz. Last time the trip to Esfahan reminded me again and again the joy of moving and traveling inside Iran. And there are yet to travel, to see...
There is something unique about traveling in Iran, something different.

Not your duty

It was 11 p.m. We were getting back from Zayande- Rud bridge in Esfahan to our hotel; a 10 minute walk and enjoying every bit of our trip to that part of Iran. We were talking about how pity it was that we did not have the chance to see Zayande- Rud as a river that it was -as it was all dried at that time of the year- and mentioning still it was interesting that we could do something you usually could not do; walking in the middle of that river...I don't know exactly maybe that was when he showed up, we were passing by a passage, lights were on and shining in the streets and people were walking and shopping all over the places. He came straight to me. I could estimate his age to be around 10, maybe 12, holding a bunch of...God! I don't even remember of what, of chewing gum maybe or these cards which are written on some prays in Arabic (?) He came and I could see only resistance in his face which wouldn't fade until we would buy one. We looked at each other, me and the other Behi and I don't remember if we said anything to each other at all. That was not the first time that I had to deal with one of these kids and I normally didn't give them money or wouldn't buy anything from them. I told him: "why are you doing this, you should have been asleep or at home by now" .The typical story came up: "My father is sick, cannot work and I should work". I didn't want to say don't tell lie because I thought the truth was perhaps much more painful than the line he was saying. With a voice louder than my usual tone I said: "This is not your duty, you should be playing or asleep right now" and meanwhile I was handing him the money and taking the thing that I was buying from him. I still can see his face and eyes at that very moment; A face who was surprised, happy, sad and scared, he repeated his short story again while giving me the thing and taking the money : "My father cannot work"... I shouted at him: "This is not your duty, you must know this, this is not your duty" and he left so fast. I don't know, maybe I thought I was telling him something very important that no one never ever told him before, like a forbidden secret, something that could change his life and I was shaking at the time. I knew that I was fooling myself. What he could do really, what a striking knowledge a 10- year-old- boy would get from such a shouting and if so what he could do after knowing that...

Back to Tripoli

Our trip to Barcelona was refreshing and fun. Although a very quick glance that we took at the city could have not given us much clue to fairly know the atmosphere of its society but I could still find something to keep my mind playing with. It's obvious people in the European countries live more comfortable than my Iranian fellows who live in Iran or people here in Tripoli or probably in anywhere else which is not considered as a developed country. Public services provide better conditions and I think general problems that people in non-developed countries feel do not exist in the developed parts.
Well, it may be more fair to say the kinds of difficulties that these two different worlds have are not similar nor in the same levels.
I have no idea how many percent of all these people whether they live under high standard of services or not are really happy in their deep deep inside. And I know that the definition of happiness for every one is different from another but what I don't get is why these two groups seem this much different in the first place. Is it the climate or genetic or the kinds of beliefs they hold on to? Or is it the matter of each society's history and if so... Why?

Picture Source

Book-connection-Barcelona

Three things that have made me quite happy in less than 24 hours since yesterday:

1- I bought the book of "The kite Runner" on our way to Spain in Milan airport. I wanted to read the story first before watching its movie. I usually enjoy books better than their movies, now I have no idea what is the story all about so I can enjoy the story before the movie probably ruins my neutral mind!

2- Last night we realized internet connection prices in this hotel that we're staying right now are extremely expensive. But this morning we figured out there is a free access of high speed internet 24 hours within our entire stay which means the company is covering all the costs which is just P-E-R-F-E-C-T :).

3-Today I had the best time, we toured around Barcelona. I must say that this city is incredibly charming.

The picture above is made by Javier Mariscal called Gambrinus done for the Olympics. It's located at the end of Passeig de Colom.

Photo by Mr.Behi

Tuscany Road Trip-part II

And the rest of the story... The first thing that my husband did after finding the car completely hopeless was putting the warning triangle in a distance from the car and the second thing that he started to do was waving his hands for the cars which were getting close in the road as a sign of asking for help. After almost 20 minutes of waiting one of the cars stopped, a man and a woman got off the car. At first, all I could get in the darkness from them was a middle aged man with Italian accent and a lady who was younger. The man who we later figured out his name was Micheal started to call the numbers that my husband gave him in search of help. Finally after 2 hours, a towing car came and picked our car like a faint body off the road to take it somewhere for awaking.

Despite of our insisting on not changing their plans, our helpers canceled their plans literally, stayed with us the entire time and at the end they changed their way back to company us to Siena where we were supposed to find a hotel to stay for the night.
We found the hotel and the next day we received a new car from the car rental company. Then we had lunch as a thank you with our new friends. We found out that Micheal was in fact a professor of philosophy in university of Siena and while walking in the area of Siena he showed us his book in one of the book stores and talked about its main subject. The lady who her name was Emmanuelle was a French film director and as soon as she found out our nationality, she described her admiration for Iranian cinema and some Iranian directors whose works she was familiar with.

By facing that problem at that night we had this amazing opportunity of meeting these really kind people and we didn't miss the chance of visiting Siena which Micheal strongly recommended us for not missing it. It could be a shame to skip the visit of such a phenomenon place indeed.

I think life in some levels could be like this. You never know...there could be some thing bright beyond every dark path.

Tuscany Road Trip-part I

Since my previous post we went through different places and now we're back in Tripoli. I think this travel was so different from others that we've had and I'm loaded with plenty of nice memories and new feelings and experiences that I felt and had during that short period of time. It was quite a travel and very interesting after all.
After leaving Florence we were on the road of Tuscany region and all I can remember is beauty, beauty and again beauty. I could not take my eyes off through our way from those magnificent views. In the middle of our way we went to Pisa and had a very quick visit of its famous tower. Then we went up to a road which was ended up in a very amazing hilltown called Volterra. It was near the sunset that we headed toward Rome and after a while of riding, our car seemed not very well. We felt lucky as we were near a gas station when we had problem with the car. The person who checked the car told us that he could not see any specific problem in the system but for making sure we could go to Siena which was so close to the place that we were and we could check with an expert in there. We went there and checked again with an expert and he could not figure out what was wrong with it so we decided to call the company that we hired the car from to know what was best to do. We called this company which is well-known and international by the way. They asked some technical questions from my husband about the car, then they told him to go on the travel because it seemed the car had some electrical problems which happens so often and that was why some gages had been broken and it was not big a deal. So, we started the rest of our travel and we were relieved that we were not going to have canceled our hotel reservation in Rome at that night.
It was almost 8 p.m and we were in the middle of the road when the car suddenly and apparently very simply JUST stopped. It happened so quickly. Again, we were lucky to be in a spot that had a roadside and that the road was not crowded and that we were not in a high speed. Otherwise it could turn to something more unfortunate.
The place was so dark and seemed far from any help. We didn't have the cellphone that could work in Europe and I was already preparing myself for a really new experience of spending a whole night inside the car in a road and I was checking to make sure we had water and was happy that we had at least some cookies and also popcorns :).

To be continued...

From Florence

Having a very short available time to access to the internet during the last few days was the main reason for not updating...
After Milan we went to Sirmione. I loved the place very much. I'm not saying this just because it was located by the lake or had wonderful scenes and a very nice weather and delicious food, I'm saying this because its atmosphere was Romantic and by saying Romantic I mean the classic one. The one that you expect to see Romeo and Juliet come from the Shakespeare's tragedy in the middle of night to kiss each other and then return to nowhere where they belong to.
I could picture the past in its beautiful mysterious images in fact...That's the way I record my memories, by all feelings, sounds and scents that I take or sense or receive ...

After leaving Sirmione, we had a quick visit in Verona. At that place we had actually been to the house that was named the house of "Romeo and Juliet". A Roman amphitheater was another site that we managed to visit in that city...

The next destination was Venice. I knew what I was about to see before arriving to the city somehow, but still I was surprised with the whole structure of the place. I had a strong feeling of wonder. However, my husband and I both agreed that "Venice seemed tougher than our previous expectation". The very old buildings in some of its corners gave me the impression of returning to the very past with its harsh difficulties. The end of our Venice surfing was on a boat and by that we had a very good glance of the whole area which was fabulous. Also visiting the three islands near Venice was a delightful experience. I know Mr.Behi will write more accurately about all these places so I attend to write in a nutshell and mostly about my first impressions.

We are here in Florence right now and walked all day long to make the most of the siteseeing and yet to come and to write and this internet cafe is nearly closed and we have to go...

From Milan

We landed 3 hours ago in Milan airport and after driving from there to Milan, now we are sitting in our hotel room to get a little rest and then to have dinner. We took nice memories of interesting people we met from different parts of the world in Portugal and also from places that we visited there. I'm excited that this journey has not finished yet and we're about to make new memories in Italy as well. I love traveling by car. I can just sit,look and enjoy the roads' sides with my husband all way riding forever and now it's going to be a part of this travel which is fantastic.

From Cascais, Lisbon, Portugal

I've just come back from Sintra and it' s the first time that I am free to sit in the lobby of the hotel to blog since we've got here. Mr.Behi is in the seminar now. It was the part of the schedule of the seminar's holders to take the family members to tour the Sintra this morning. There is so much history behind the sites and places that I've seen. It was good to know indeed. I was trying to enjoy myself which is the difficult thing to do when Mr.Behi is not around.
During visiting all those old beautiful buildings and the areas, the memories of my childhood and my grandmother's house kept coming back to me! It had a very familiar feeling for me. Maybe that was because my grandmother used to live in north of Iran which is green like here with some similarities in nature or climate or something... I don't know, anyway it was all a pleasant experience.
On Sunday, we went to Lisbon for the first time to see the old part of the city which holds Saint George castle in itself. And yesterday, we went to Lisbon Oceanarium. I won't write further about these places since I prefer Mr.Behi to write in details with the photos that he's taken.
From Cascais where we are staying these days to Lisbon takes almost 25 minutes by train. I'm not sure if we will find enough time to go to Lisbon for the third time during the next 2 days as we'll take off on Friday. But, we spent these last 3 days properly without wasting times and enjoyed a lot and luckily, Cascais has still things to see and enjoy itself.

PS: The picture above is one of the most popular symbols of Portugal