How lovely it is to be in Turkey. We are very glad that we went to Iran but are not sorry to have left. The strongest memory will be of the extraordinary warmth and friendliness we were shown from the vast majority. There were a few incidents as I have already told you. The theft's were opportunistic, the grope unpleasant but juvenile but I think that by far the worst thing was someone throwing a stone at Nellie in their open car which hit her on the head. Luckily she was not badly hurt and bore it with tremendous stoicism. But it was a very nasty act. But, we should not let that mar the huge welcome we received.
A taxi driver told Simon that the Iranian people are good and the Cleric's are terrorists. It is beyond imagination to know what it must be like to be unfortunate enough to have been born into that country, especially if you are a woman. Time and again we were all amazed at how enthusiastically we were greeted. The American's amongst us were truly astonished by being told 'we love you', 'welcome to Iran'. Our Des Moines friends, Fritz and Laing, were invited into two different homes, given tea, offered dinner and a bed for the night and told how thrilling it was to meet them. Who would ever have expected that two American's would get a welcome like that? The censorship is widespread, as you would expect. The BBC website is banned, as are western newspaper sites. Facebook also. I could get on to my blog at first and then it too was banned. I didn't think that I had said anything contentious.
Yesterday, we stopped outside some shops as I wanted to get some handwipes. Adrian double parked as I was only going to be a minute. Unbeknownst to me a policeman came and asked him to move.. He explained that I was shopping. The policeman then made a car move so Adrian could park properly. The driver remonstrated and the policeman hit him in the face. A crowd gathered and it all got very heated. a soldier then appeared and took the man to one side. This was the scene I arrived back to, utter mayhem. I wish we had never stopped. There was never any threat to us at all as the police have been told to be helpful. We drove off and were stopped almost immediately and asked if we had taken photos of the scene. We said no and were allowed to drive on. The authorities do not want any adverse publicity. We are being used for propaganda purposes and it is very distasteful. I cannot imaging living in a society where you have no rights at all. As a woman you have no freedom of expression, and are subjugated to a degree that I find disgusting. It is very upsetting to meet all these lovely people whose lives are not in their own control.
I still need to tell you about our dinner. It will have to wait as time has run away with me. I can just tell you it was EXCRUTIATING.
Oh, one more thing. I said that we had been though three countries without a puncture. today we had a lovely Turkish puncture. The upside was that next to the tyre shop where we had it repaired was a little cafe and so we had lunch for the second time on the rally. There wasn't a menu but I was invited into the kitchen to inspect the pots on the stove. It was simple and delicious. By the time we had eaten the tyre was fixed.
Serendipity.
A taxi driver told Simon that the Iranian people are good and the Cleric's are terrorists. It is beyond imagination to know what it must be like to be unfortunate enough to have been born into that country, especially if you are a woman. Time and again we were all amazed at how enthusiastically we were greeted. The American's amongst us were truly astonished by being told 'we love you', 'welcome to Iran'. Our Des Moines friends, Fritz and Laing, were invited into two different homes, given tea, offered dinner and a bed for the night and told how thrilling it was to meet them. Who would ever have expected that two American's would get a welcome like that? The censorship is widespread, as you would expect. The BBC website is banned, as are western newspaper sites. Facebook also. I could get on to my blog at first and then it too was banned. I didn't think that I had said anything contentious.
Yesterday, we stopped outside some shops as I wanted to get some handwipes. Adrian double parked as I was only going to be a minute. Unbeknownst to me a policeman came and asked him to move.. He explained that I was shopping. The policeman then made a car move so Adrian could park properly. The driver remonstrated and the policeman hit him in the face. A crowd gathered and it all got very heated. a soldier then appeared and took the man to one side. This was the scene I arrived back to, utter mayhem. I wish we had never stopped. There was never any threat to us at all as the police have been told to be helpful. We drove off and were stopped almost immediately and asked if we had taken photos of the scene. We said no and were allowed to drive on. The authorities do not want any adverse publicity. We are being used for propaganda purposes and it is very distasteful. I cannot imaging living in a society where you have no rights at all. As a woman you have no freedom of expression, and are subjugated to a degree that I find disgusting. It is very upsetting to meet all these lovely people whose lives are not in their own control.
I still need to tell you about our dinner. It will have to wait as time has run away with me. I can just tell you it was EXCRUTIATING.
Oh, one more thing. I said that we had been though three countries without a puncture. today we had a lovely Turkish puncture. The upside was that next to the tyre shop where we had it repaired was a little cafe and so we had lunch for the second time on the rally. There wasn't a menu but I was invited into the kitchen to inspect the pots on the stove. It was simple and delicious. By the time we had eaten the tyre was fixed.
Serendipity.
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