official first press release

first day in Tehran over. we didn't have a great sleep in the motel where they accepted us as married couple, and got up at 10, so the day was very tiring. however also very eventful. (however I have no complaints about the hotel, it was great to have a shower and I was very happy when we went to bed. today our "guide" -my fan of many years Emad- was simply horrified of how we ended up in such bad part of town, he had never even been there. well, it was cheap :).

I found Tehran to be a weird mix of old fashioned and conservative, and "new money". fancy lattes are consumed in seemingly European cafes, but the traffic is a subhuman mess in the polluted city. women push the limits of the official dresscode, and are very stylish at it with their hairdos mostly visible. also many are sporting bandages on fresh nose jobs. then theres the religious (or pressured by family) women in all black, tent like chadors. very old broken cars turn out to be secret taxis and a poor tourist is lost with the dozens of zeros on the bills.

I find that Istanbul and Tehran have a lot in common too. but here the beer is non-alcoholic and home breweries bloom. a protest yesterday caused the government to slow Internet speeds down today. a tad bit more radical than turkey...

need to sleep to enjoy another full day in the capital of Iran. I've already been positively impressed though.