Surprisingly it is relatively easy to get around in Tehran, and since I don't like going by individual taxi, the most fun thing is to go by shared taxi. Shared taxis usually wait at certain points at important crossings or roundabouts and cover determined routes to other of these distinguished points. While this is quite normal in other towns around the globe, the enormous size of Tehran makes moving like this, as everything here, more fun. This is because, e.g in order to get to some point in the northern part of the city from the center, you might have to take as many as 4 taxis.. once you have found out how it works you really feel like a local if you stand by the road, shouting your destination, getting off at the right point, knowing where to take the next taxi, and enjoying the warm wind blowing through your hair during the crazy ride through town, in a mild summer night.. yeah.. I'm doing the Enghelab, Vali Ashr, Vanak, Tadjrish, Jamshidie ride!!!

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Something you get to see during each ride through town, be it by taxi or walking, are the water channels, which flow alongside almost every road in Tehran. As you know, Iranians have a weakness for flowers, parks and trees and so these channels must have been built initially as a source of water for the many trees and bushes decorating roads and the numerous parks throughout town. However, in the wake of the arrival of the plastic cup, these channels have more and more been converted into sewage drains, carrying with them everything from plastic cup to half finished "juje" kebab. Sadly the current is not always strong enough to carry away all the rubbish, and so, when the water stops flowing huge amounts of litter (with the corresponding smell) remain in the burning sun.. then things are of course not always as they seem, and whether the fact that these channels are frequently blocked by dams of piled up rubbish, is sad, depends on the point of view.. indeed I found myself the other day, a reminiscence of my childhood building dams in a mountain creek, next to one of these congestions, a wooden stick in my hand, removing the blockage, causing an enormous wave of water washing downhill, ridden by coke and pepsi bottles. Yeahh!! I'd love to apply for the job responsible of keeping Tehran's water channels flowing!

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Although it takes up to 4 taxis to go there, Northern Tehran is a place I like. If Washington is the capital of obfuscation and acronym, then Northern Tehran is the capital of make-up and nose-job.. The Iranian nose fixation would be understandable if it affected only women, given the fact that, in theory, they are not allowed to show anything else than their faces. But then there is more to it than just Islam.. in the beginning I deemed Tehran a rather violent place, since I was seeing so many guys with their noses wrapped up in plaster, but now of course, I'm more old and wiser... A nose-job has a pitfall though, as a friend put it to me, which is that, in scaling down the admittedly characteristic Persian nose, volume is lost elsewhere, too, at least in the eyes of the beholder, since in Iran the size of a guys nose is also a measurement of the grandeur of other parts of his body..

Northern Tehran is a really posh place and a long way from southern or central Tehran, both physically and culturally. Although Islamic dress is enforced by police standing at roundabouts with arrest vans, women have gone a long way finding ways to show (their) beauty. This is of course not the reason I like the place. I'm going there because of the coffee, which is delicious is the many coffee shops there.

But, as you are there, it is impossible not to see the elegant women, dressed in beautiful waisted manteaux, with colorful scarves, exposing more of their (sometimes bleached) hairline than covering it. .. make-up is used in excess and a lives time must be spent on meticulously redrawing every single feature of the face, giving some of them almost a Chinese-puppet-like appearance.. The eyes are often covered by expensive sunglasses; finger and foot-nails glowing of nail polish and their high heels sandals make the road seem like a catwalk.. Life in Northern Tehran seems to exclusively consist of shopping, going to coffee shops and making a good appearance on the way in-between. Coffee shops are a place for socializing and showing off ones wealth, and serve coffee, tea, fast food (which is a sign of luxury) and other commodities at exorbitant prices.

Men are rarely seen there and seem to play more the role of the cash-cow which renders possible all this luxury. Unlike everybody else, nobody of these people wants to leave the country, since it is only here that their somewhat superior status is rendered possible and in a more liberal society, their privileged way of living would be accessible to everybody.

Money is all one seems to need to have, and the number of telephone numbers for potential dates (extra martial affaires) one collects during a ride through certain areas, depends exclusively on the size of the car you drive (I was told.. unfortunately I am unable to prove, due to the lack of suitable car )-: )

I should say that many people live in Northern Tehran and of course not everybody there is like this, as the selection of Iranian women in the following link shows.

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But then, not even Northern Tehran is exempted from that somewhat depressing mood which seems to cloak Iranian society. Despite all the flowers, sunlight and its green parks, Iran is actually a dark place. Not in terms of light of course, at least in a physical sense, but there is a tangible feeling of darkness that has taken hold of me since I have come here. Maybe it is the many women, covered up in black cloth, or the omnipresent covered faces. Maybe it is the wall paintings of dead martyrs and dying soldiers which feature prominently on countless buildings.. or maybe it is the almost total absence of music, laughing or other forms of joy in public life.

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An event describes well the feeling I have. Just a few days after my arrival, I went to one of Tehran's many parks. It was a mild summer night. People had come out into the park with their partners, friends or families, to go for a walk through the mysteriously illuminated trees, and a mild summer wind was carrying some melodies from far away. The scenery was one of peace, like Shire in Middle-earth (before its destruction) in the Lord of the Rings movies. I went to see were the music was coming from, and arrived at a temporary stage which was standing by an artificial lake with blue and greenly shining fountains. On the stage, music was played; a mixture of cool European and Iranian vibes that made me instantly and intuitively moving my body.

But the weird thing was that, despite the lovely setting, which was a match for the best party locations I've ever seen, and the electrifying rhythms, people were silently sitting like glued onto the many rows of chairs, and the most they would move was their hands, clapping to the rhythm of the songs. Now you can say of course that each society has its own values and way of partying, but knowing the (private) enthusiasm for dancing here, it was evident that these people were not sitting there voluntarily, but squeezed into their seats by fear of the

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Iran is a beautiful country with a great culture and rich history, and its people are in great majority the most pleasant people to be with. Maybe the reason for my outspokenness is just Ramadan, which started yesterday, or must be attributed to my tendency to clash with authorities.. which has happened twice already, but which I will write about another day.

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