Home » Iran » The Second City

Zanjan, Iran
Tuesday, Sep 06, 2005

The Second City

David Murray
2007-02-21 19:54:46

Displayed times (last time: ) Rating 5/5

Rating: 5.00 out of 5.00. 1 members have rated this article

We checked out of our hotel pretty early and decided to jump in a shared taxi. They sit two in the front and three in the back of these old Hillmans. Also, no man is allowed to sit next to Lucy, but I am, as we are married, or so we tell them all !!! We asked to go to the bus station. We got dropped off where there were buses, but when we tried to buy a ticket, nobody would sell us one. They kept saying terminal. Eventually, someone who could say more than hello, explained to us that the terminal was the place to get a bus !!! We jumped into another taxi, and away we went.

Upon arrival at the terminal, we were greeted with more hellos and a guy sold us a ticket, carried Lucy's bag to the bus, and then gave us our money back as the bus was going to Tehran and would stop on the outskirts of Zanjan, which is not the way to treat tourist in Iran !!! After two more buying and returning of tickets, we found a bus that was going through the centre of Zanjan. Now, in Iran, there are two types of buses. Mercedes, which does not mean it is a Mercedes, these are generally shitters, and then there are Volvos, which could be a Mercedes, Volvo, Scania or something more luxurious. Luckily for us, ours was a Volvo. We set off. But only as far as the exit gate. It seemed that we were not full, and our bus was being like a Turkish Dolmus. After numerous stops, we were full and we were leaving the outskirts of Zanjan. This took an hour !!! By this stage, I was wondering if this bus really was a Volvo. Our bus was being overtaken by old Mercedes type buses and the seats were rock hard. It was fucking uncomfortable. After about 5 hours, we stopped. As usual, a man came to talk to me as he wanted to practice his English

Him - You are not from here, are you
ME - How could you tell
Him - Because you look like a foreigner
Me - That is right
Him - Can you speak English
Me - Yes
Him - Can we ...