Incredible Iran
This article first appeared in, the now defunct, Wildling Magazine (vol.2 September 2015). We visited Iran in October 2014.
Iran, not the most usual travel destination for a family. Yet there we were, waiting at the gate to board our long flight to Tehran with a little boy, not even two years old. The idea for the trip was in our minds for a few years, but the seeds were firmly planted when our close friends invited us for their wedding. So after a bit of research and a lot fending off "are you sure/is it safe/surely you’re not taking the baby" questions we decided to go for it!
We landed in Tehran on the small hours of the morning and thankfully were the only ones needing a visa, so we were out on the main airport hall very quickly. The lady at the passport control had a bit of trouble figuring out what our Greek passports were, thankfully we remembered the word in Farsi and that got us a stamp, a smile and a look of wonder.
Tehran spreads for miles and miles on end, yet feels very local. Many times we felt like we were in Athens, or some other new-built European city. Construction everywhere, new blocks of flats sprouting all over the place and endless traffic and smog. All that in-between of lavish palaces and gardens with exquisite vegetation and beautifully crafted fountains. Despite the huge population, the chaotic traffic and the construction boom, the city…
