The interview series #myRTW coincides with our hash-tag of the same name which is featured on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Our aim with the series is simple: to show off the world's amazing destinations that long-term travelers have enjoyed on the road!In each entry of this series, participating RTW travelers highlight one experience or destination they consider a favorite from their trip and share what they loved about it.
Today's #myRTW interview features Silvia from Heart My Backpack. Her long-term trip took her to twenty-seven countries over two years in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Caucasus. For her, the experience she recalls as a favorite was visiting Iran in March 2014.
In his words, Silvia describes her time in the country...
An American and an Iranian Standing Together
"Mina and I held hands and peered across the border into Iraq. I looked at the tense expression on Mina’s face and had to laugh. Here we were, an American and an Iranian standing together in front of a country we were both taught to fear, momentarily forgetting that we had also been taught to fear each other.
And what did we see across the border? Rolling green hills. Scary stuff!
I hadn’t always wanted to visit Iran, but after hearing stories from other travelers about “the most hospitable country in the world” I knew I had to go. Americans can now only travel to Iran as part of a tour, but with my second Norwegian passport I could simply get a visa on arrival at the airport in Tehran. So I booked a flight and organized a Couchsurfing host for my first two nights in Iran.
Visiting Her (Secret) Boyfriend
And so I met Mina, a university student who eagerly joined me on my travels through Iran over the next two weeks. These eventually brought us to a small border town in Kurdistan where we were visiting her (secret) boyfriend.
After taking some sneaky photos of the border, we got back into Mina’s boyfriend’s car for a drive up into the mountains. After about an hour we stopped at a snowy mountain pass for a cup of tea and Mina crouched behind the car for a secret smoke. At that moment I felt simultaneously so close to my new friends and worlds away. We were all in our mid-twenties, joking about our respective quarter-life crises and sharing pop culture references, yet underlying all their smiles was a grave uncertainty about their futures that, as an American, I will never fully understand."
Check out more great photos and stories from Heart My Backpack on social media at the following links:
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Join in! Are you a traveler who has been on a RTW adventure, has an amazing experience or destination to share, and would like to participate in this series? Email us at [email protected] to receive the prompt for the post!
For even more #myRTW goodness, submit your photos to the hash-tag on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our group board on Pinterest to share your RTW journey with the world!
