Slooaniya? Chek? Ah, Europa. Iran gud? Polis gud? Polis Iran elegans? Mercedes benz, a? I got my passport back only after having positively answered to all the questions and after my facial expressions proved I really meant it.
We reach Marand in the evening, right during the traffic jam. We pass several truck-prohibition signs. There is a police officer on the roundabout. He's stopping us. Even before getting there my window is open and I ask him at once: "Tabriz?"
I can hear many words in Farsi. I only caught that I should make another round so he can reach us with his Mercedes and that we should follow him. Red roof-lights are flashing, all the intermitents as well, except for the red lights I do the same. Through the jam we quickly reach city terminus and he stops at a roundabout. I jump off the cabin, the smiling officer comes out of the car, shakes my hand, shows the way and wishes safe journey.
Already in Maku, just a couple of kilometres from the border, we stopped to camp. A few minutes later police came in a Mercedes C310 to show us a better place to spend the night. We followed the flashing lights. Red ones.
Zanjan. It's still cold but less than the previous days. We are camping at a cyberspot. We simply couldn't pay anything the first night. We wanted to find a place to quickly eat something before going to sleep. But the owner brought some sandwiches for his dinner. He offered us to have dinner with him. Just an attempt from our side to deny the proposal resulted in his face expression that was promising a sincere crying. Today we barely managed to pay for 5 hours of internet access by leaving the money on the desk. Hamid was guiding us around this pleasant city all day long. We even managed to find engine oil and brake liquid. It's fine to have such things at hand.
Last night smiling police took us to a "better place" for camping. With flashing lights. Red lights. However, locals don't feel my kind of sympathy towards their police. But here we're touching another topic. One that is not for the worldwideweb.
What have we been doing? Freezing, driving on the snow to a mountain village of Kandovan at 2200 m above sea level and... smoked the first shisha on this tour. Hooray!
Sincere thanks to everybody for following our journey and for good wishes. Thank you all that leave your comments. It's nice to know I'm not writing just for myself. It's great to meet great people and Hamid, you were undisputably one of the shining stars on our way. Sincere thanks for all your help and support. It's the people that make a place special or just ordinary. Thanks to you and your friends Zanjan will remain in our hearts.
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