Tehran Monday
Monday was our last day in Tehran. Again another glorious sunny day, I could get used to this warm weather. We were again in the office by 8.00 am and worked through to 10 pm. Before lunch we were driven to a shopping centre where a ouhjt a few things to take home with me. I bought some pistachios and several mixed bags of nuts, biscuits and saffron. I think they were all a pretty reasonable price.
Back at the office lunch was kebab and rice.
After we finished work we went to a fast food restaurant and had deep fried chicken with salad. I have to admin the Iranian women are very pretty, the young ones were very fashionably dressed and made up with mascara etc and had well made up hair. I even saw one who had braided hair. They though still wore headscarves and the requisite coat. Except that the headscarves were very light and transparent, very pretty colours and worn very far back on the head. The coats were made to compliment their trousers or jeans and were not the dark colours of the more traditional women.
After supper, which we ate with are Iranian colleagues, we made off to the airport in the taxi, for the 2.45 am flight back. Reminds me of the days of cheap package tour flights. The airport was mobbed with people; we went to the wrong terminal to start with. I decided there was something wrong, the place was seething with people, most of the women in fully covered in black. Then checking the departure times noticed all the planes were destined for Medina, Jeddah, Kabul etc. We were definitely the only Europeans there and someone suggested we were in the wrong terminal building. The other terminal was next door and a very different and quite place. Rather bizarre, we were not allowed into the main part of the terminal until 12.00, where we had to do the usual long queuing and long check in times.
Flight back was uneventful, arriving early in Schipol, were I transferred to Heathrow, with my luggage catching the same plane.