As a technical freak and self-appointed vagabond I actually take joy in being in airports. But when it comes to Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, it's more than my odd fetish that excites me: Mehrabad [Persian: village of affection] is not only one of the few outports to the outer world, it is also located rather close to the city centre, making it an integrated part of Tehran. Besides, a lot of modern history has taken place here.
It was about midnight on a hot September day when I arrived at Mehrabad. After a decade of dealing with the unhappy physiognomic European police officers who are suspicious about anything with a non-Western touch, I had developed 'border-crossing-fobia'. Now I was about to deal with their unhappy look-who-is-the-boss Iranian colleagues who are suspicious about anything with a Western touch. To my great surprise, everything went smoothly, all I had to do was to keep my passports in order and hand over the the right citizenship.
For some reason, all flights seemed to arrive around midnight so some percentage of Tehran was waiting for their relatives to arrive from Europe. I got myself a preview of the chaos waiting for me out there. I carefully wrestled myself through the crowd out to the Tehran night and missed those who were supposed to meet me up. Suddently I was alone in the city I left 15 years ago. |
|
|
