Searching for Happiness through 8,000 kilometres
Travelling?
What urges us to go far from home? Is it the search for that overwhelmingly
wonderful feeling that we feel when we encounter a beautiful landscape or a
crystal beach of whitewashed sand? Or is it a search for happiness - for that simple
and personal, but transient, feeling - a feeling which does not last, but sometimes
emerges again in memory.
Transient
also was our stay at the Sultanate of Oman, from 2002 to 2006…. Four years went by far too fast. When our tour
in Oman
as an ambassadorial couple came to an end, we considered travelling home by road:
“Travelling back in time, a journey from
Muscat to Munich .” Our friends, our
family too, did warn us: “Eight thousand kilometres with only the two of you!? You
might face dangers which will prevent you from any further journeys for the rest
of your lives!” Dangers? Bad roads? Bad
people? Highwaymen? Corrupt police? Bad shelters?
We
did not care about all these questions.
But
we had to care about papers: A valid passport including visa, a carnet de passage for our small VW Golf (from
the Oman Automobile Association); and we had to care about a Bank Warranty for
the value of our car.
Finally,
after midnight , the Iranian
ferryboat, Hormuz 12 set out from the
port of Sharjah with us and our diesel car. When,
hours later, a shining sun began to illuminate the Strait
of Hormuz , I saw happily jumping dolphins and flying fishes. What a cheerful contrast these creatures made
with my thoughts of the serious history of this globally important waterway!
When
the sun was already giving off an enormous heat, we arrived at the very modern harbour of Bandar Abbas . Here we spent five hours
running after stamps and seals and photocopies. This boarder procedure was
worse than our well-known and detested process of admission for a new car in Germany .
Travelling back through time - It was dark when we came to Shiraz after a journey of
685 km through the heat-saturated ochre landscape, through thirst, desert sand
and desert storm. “We are in Shiraz .” I repeated this
sentence with contentment; indeed, we had turned up in a town of education and
poetry, of roses and nightingales, and of love.
Shiraz
reached a cultural zenith in the Middle Ages when the Poet Aramgah-e Hafez
wrote his famous Divan. Aramgah-e
Hafez is an Iranian folk hero who is both loved and revered. Every Iranian can
quote his work. His marble sarcophagus is a meeting place for young and old
Iranian citizens. And what astonished me
a lot was that young people were not embarrassed to show their true sentiments
to each other.
From
Shiraz , we took
a taxi 40 km to Parsa, the town in Persepolis ,
which until 1935 gave the country its name - Persia . Parsa is one of the marvels
of the classical world.
Travelling
through time… 2,500 years ago, the Achaemenid Empire endured under kings Xerxes
and Darius. During their glorious reigns the world was trembling; but it was also
received in a lavish and extravagant way as diplomats and delegations of
ancient people came to the fabulous Achaemenid court. But then Alexander the
Great arrived with a catastrophic result.
In 330 BC he burned the whole precious place down. All that remains of
four centuries of history are ruins. Many archaeologists have been attracted by
the remnants of sculpture and architecture in this beautiful place. My husband
and I were only passing by, but still the genius of the lost classical city was
apparent.
How
did we manage to get to the centre of Esfahan ?
I do not know. It took us a very long
time to read sign posts in Farsi language while driving. Suddenly there was a huge
highway crossing and too much traffic. Which direction should we take? Iran ’s most
important transportation links are the streets, always noticeable on our
journey. We decided to flow along with the endless stream of cars and lorries.
And oh wonder! We approached the city centre where the river Zayandeh-Rud runs
through with its eleven stone bridges out of a fairytale. It was a glorious
view illuminated by a golden afternoon sun. Not a single European city could
compete with the architectural beauty of Esfahan .
Travelling back though time
- It is unbelievable to think that Esfahan was completely destroyed by the Mongolian Emperor
Timur Leng in the 12th Century and remained empty and desolate for two
hundred years. It was in 1598 that the illustrious and brilliant Shah Abbas I
rescued the city; and, over many years, built Esfahan
once again into a jewel.
We
continued to the city of Taebriz , ignoring
important cities like Qom ,
Teheran and Qazvin .
We felt quite at home in Taebriz because we could hear the Turkish tongue again,
just as we hear it so often in Berlin .
Thanks
to the kind Turkish Consul-General, the boarder crossing into Turkey was
easy. We suddenly became aware of the
colossal mountain, Ararat, an extinct volcano 5,137 metres high. This famous
mountain has many names, an Assyrian name (Urartu); a Turkish name (Büyük Agri
Dag); and an Armenian name (Uurhu Masis). Many different cultural groups jealously
claim this mountain, but it is in fact on Turkish ground.
Next
we stopped at the city of Kayseri ,
the main town of Central Anatolia
in Turkey .
From there we visited Cappadocia with its breathtaking
landscape strewn with stones and its vivid history, including conquest by a
chain of aggressors from 6,500 BC onwards.
We
crossed the 4000 m high Taurus Mountains and stopped
over at Cyprus
on the Turkish side of the island. From
there we journeyed back to the Turkish mainland where we saw Pamukkale, a
fantastic white formation of calcium hydrogen carbonate and took a bath in the
natural hot pools.
Again
Travelling back in time, we visited
the ancient Roman town of Hierapolis .
Via the lovely peninsula
of Bodrum in Turkey (and the
pleasant Hotel Princess) we took a three day ferry trip to Italy from Cesme City .
From there, a highway took us straight to Munich
and on to Berlin ,
where the Ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman to Germany , HE Al Harthy, received the
former Ambassador of Germany to Oman
with these solemn words, “This is the first car with an Omani number plate which
I have the honour of welcoming to Berlin ”.
Our
journey back through time, as I think about it now, was a happy one and much easier
than expected.
Heidemarie Blankenstein/ Berlin,
May 2007
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