Home > Notebook > If You Wait For Five Minutes I Invite You For a Tea

In Tabriz there is a Blue Mosque and Covered Bazaar. Biggest in the world they say. More than 35 km of alleys full of shops. Nothing for tourists. Shoes, jewelry, clothes, carpets, sugar, meat, buckets and brooms. Then there is a Citadel. In Middle Ages they used to execute convicts by throwing them down from the ramparts. One woman miraculously survived thanks to parachute-like effect of her chador.

The biggest attraction of all, however, is the tourist information office and specifically Nasser who works there. He hunts down tourists, makes them tea, changes money for them at wonderful rates somewhere in the bazaar, recommends restaurants and organizes trips around Iranian Azerbaydzan when asked. "It is all free," he says, "government pays for it." (You have to pay for the taxis when you go for a trip, of course.)

He knows a few words and sentences even in Czech but he is a true master in any language when it comes to swearing a cursing. So appart of "Dobrý den, jak se máš" ("Hello, how are you"), he told me that Ahmadinezad is "čůrák" ("prick") and that everything went wrong since he came to power. Things are more expensive, inflation is let lose and he possibly cannot win next year's elections. Chatami on the other hand was the man. Prior to his reforms women had to wear only black headscarves, could not show slightest bit of hair and wearing sandals without socks was unthinkable. Chatami changed all that. Even promoted the changes.

Elgoli Park

In the southeast of Tabriz there is Elgoli Park. In it there is a funfair with Ferris wheel, small lake where you can rent motorboat and topple with it those unfortunate enough to rent only kayak, a lot of benches perfect for people watching and infamous sellers of carrot juice with ice cream.

According to Nasser the best time to come is evening when it is most crowded; most important thing is, though, that many "pěkná kočka" ("beautiful girl") come at that time. But be careful because it is also the time for "whores looking for clients". And really, either there was quite a lot of confident Iranian girls around who were not afraid to say "Hello" to a foreigner and add a smile or it was the latter case. (Note: extramarital sex is illegal in Iran and is supposedly punishable by death.)