2023-05-21. Saravan - Qazvin

Iran 2023 (Iran - Iraqi Kurdistan - Turkey - Greece - Albania - Italy)

There are two dogs, probably from two different houses, that from time to time one barks and the other answers, go find out what they are called.
In the morning it rains again but around 6 o'clock it stops raining and a beautiful sun comes out that warms up and I can fold the tent which is already drying well.
While I have breakfast the dogs don't stop watching me.

At about 70 kms there is Masouleh, the stepped village on the mountain, and since I am going very early I will get there and then backtrack to arrive early in Qazvin and take a hotel that is already time to shower.

In Iran there are many motorways and toll roads that are forbidden to motorbikes but the few times I have taken them it has been by mistake or because there is no other road.
Many have been built not on the old road but next to it and have kept the old road and sometimes you can go to a town on the freeway or the "Old road" as the signs say.

In the north there are quite a few rice fields.
I make stops to buy water, make tea, make petrol, eat the fruit I still have left.
At one of the stops on the highway there is a dog sitting eating bread and I notice that next to it he has some good pieces of bread and a plastic container full of clean water, it's good that someone thinks about these dogs that they live freely and when you stop they look at you and come up to a couple of meters but they don't bother you or anything, they are just waiting to see if you give them something to eat.

In Qazvin I find a hotel with very good reviews, I go there, they ask 5,700,000 IRR (€12) for a room for one person, with shower, breakfast and parking for the motorcycle, I ask to see it and they show me an apartment. The one who shows it to me doesn't speak English and I go down to reception and say it's only for one person and he says all the rooms they have are like this one.
I ask him if the price is what he told me and he says yes, great, I fill out the form and pay.
I shower, cook some Parmesan tortellini, do the laundry and then take a nap.

Around 6 o'clock I go for a walk but it starts to drizzle and I only get to Azadi square and I go into a very cute cafe and I ask for a coffee with a little milk and they bring me a cup with a shot of ... water with mint

At the Jameh Mosque a group of girls in chadors approach me to talk, they are Lebanese and when I take a photo I approach without touching and one of them retreats just in case.

I'm going to the market to buy water and fruit to eat for dinner.