www.google.com --> "women traveling alone in iran"
--> "dress code iran"
--> " traveling iran"


I think its time for some rest...tommorrow more preparation :)
Im excited, and trying not to think about all the worries that people keep transmiting to me and that I am so far avoiding. I hope to come back with an amazing experience.

5 days till Iran and nothing ready.

Ohhhh lord!!! 5 days to Tehran and nothing is really ready!!! Well today I recieved my passport from Madrid!! Im saved by the bell!

Having had visits for the past 2 weeks of Italian and French friends I have used that as an excuse not to plan anything. Now that they are gone, its time to hurry and set things up...

I called my aunt yesturday to double check on certain medications and asked my cousin to bring his backpack so he could lend it to me. As he did when in Turkey.
I spend the past hour mailing friends to obtain their addresses and phones in Tehran and Isfahan.
I prebooked a hotel, now must wait to have confirmation that they have availability. Hoping so, cuz according to the guide the place is good!! Brought down to the living room a few cloths, medications, and things that I need to be sorted. For now im piling up in the livingroom all that I need and the day of packing I will take out some stuff.....dont want to carry too much weight. However, the idea of having to be all covered and sweating due to summer and having to attend a wedding makes me want to carry lots of stuff but ill try to keep it to a minimum and buy things there. Bazaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrr time!!!!

Tried shopping a bit yesturday at Maremagnum but all I could see was short tight stuff... at the end I caught a couple of things at H&M. It took me years to convince myself that I should wear skirts and shorts in summer, and now that that is mostly what I owe I have to go looking for long sleeves untight cloths. Fashion will not be my thing while in Iran, well it never is with me but this time it will be bad bad. Do not expect too many pictures with me in them :D

Made a list as well of all the things I need, and hope that by the end of the week Ill have everything ready. Still got to get some major things. But the most important is that I have my passport, my visa and my ticket. Also got payed 2 days ago so im saved to pay my holidays :)

So random thought, what happends when the alarm in the hotel goes off at night ill have to run looking for my head scarf before walking out?

Second random thought, why did they not want me to have a head scarf in my visa picture?

Comment nourrir tout le monde ? from Denis van Waerebeke on Vimeo.

23 days to Iran!

This picture is my first attempt in covering my hair... I was just looking around the house for what I got and what I dont have in terms of cloths. As I walked out of the office I started to go into shops to see what I could buy. Quite hard, all that I generally saw where short jeans, short skirts, tang tops etc. I need large, wide cloths, not too transparent, not too open. So I decided to first look at home what I had. Seems like the veil is covered. I can get another one in Iran once Im there! For the rest, got to do some shopping, and the rest will come in the bazaars in Iran!

On the meanwhile more remote/out of place comments to me going to Iran. This one came on facebook: "You're going to Iran!?! I don't think there's a country in the world which hates America more." and my Reply " I think you are wrong, and what you say is what one could expect to hear due to all the propaganda from the media. Iran is clearly not all nuclear weapons, anti amercian feelings and extreme muslims. So far I have not met a single Iranian like that. To be honest the more I read and reasearch the more interesting the country seems in terms of hospitality culture and history. I think the country has been wrongly misjuged by all the news on TV, and it’s a pitty people make up the wrong ideas of countries. To see how reality really is, nothing better than to go. Ill be heading over for 3 weeks on holidays, and as far as I can read, it should be a great experience."

Its Real, Next Destination Iran

This book is in my hands and its real.Its not a dream but I have the ticket, the visa is almost processed and in 24 days I will be landing in Tehran. My heart was starting to speed up as I was walking towards Altair, one of my favorite shops in Barcelona. I spend around an hour deciding which one of the guides to buy. I reckon the assortment was small. Tons of literature on Iran, very little on traveling, even less on Iraq. And this is what excites me, to find not that many tourists and yet a country full of culture.

The more images I see of the country the more excited I get, the more my hearbeat starts speeding up, and I cant count the days to the landing. Iranians are known for to their hospitality, and this country seems tainted by the fact that everybody believes it belongs to the axis of evil. I recond ill be between countries I have never traveled to, Afganistan, Pakistan,Iraq,Turkmenistan, but this is what makes it more intresting. Countries that pop in the news and from which we only see extremists, but that is not all there is.

We are all in this planet, living in the same routines in our own area without opening boreders and allowing all that propaganda to come to us. Go to Ibiza for the parties, dont go to Iran they have nuclear weapons, go to Spain for "Cerveza and Sangria", go to Holland for rain, dont go to America they only eat burgers. How many are willing to break those barriers and go explore what really is there? I admit that traveling alone might stop me for doing certain things, I already took extra care on my RTW trip in 2007 which might not have taken had I been with someone. But this June ill take the chances and go see what there is in the Middle East. In January I got the taste by seeing Turkey, I came fascinated by its culture and people, and now its Iran's turn.

Time to open the book, have a read and go to sleep.