Day 154 - 155 Qom

Life is full of surprises: There are many things I had thought I would do in Iran - having fun playing Jenga with 3 fully veiled iranian-kurdish-german-kosovan girls and a french-swiss cyclist in a tv production company office in the holy city of Qom was definitely not among them.
After a delicious breakfast prepared by her mother our wonderful host Fatima took us to her work. She is a tv host and currently shoots an english languages documentary about foreigners coming to Qom who have converted to Shi'a Islam. Qom is the second holiest city in Iran (after Mashhad) and the largest center of Shi'a scholarship in the world. We got to know to a South-African man and a girl from Kosovo who came to Qom to study. Most of the time we did not know what was going on - we just followed our host - after so many days of having to find our way by ourselves this was just perfect. We visited the South-African, spent some waiting time playing jenga, had lunch with the production company and went to the white hill near to Qom. While an interview was shot there we walked up to the mosque on the hilltop and enjoyed wonderful views over the holy city.
After getting back home we had tea and chat with other couchsurfers and friends until Fatimas mum again called us up for a delicious meal. We heard that other travellers had a hard time leaving this wonderful place - we completely understood why and decided to stay one more day, too. In the evening we went to the Holy Shrine in the city center. Since several days we had seen that a religious festival is going on: many cities are decorated with black flags and street stalls are playing very specific music (slow, sad, a capella with a monotonous stroke of many a drum at the 1 of each bar). Ali in Sadeh explained to us that it is Muharram, the first month of the islamic lunar calendar. The first ten days are a period of mourning, especially among Shi'a muslims. The tenth day is called Ashurah, a day of grief for Shi'a muslims, commemorating the killing of Hussain ibn Ali, grandson of Mohammed and a Shi'a Imam. At the shrine we witnessed the processions - recitations, drum & trumpet-based music, waving of huge flags, swinging of wooden swords and carrying of huge illuminated 'ships'. Once again we did not understand much of it, but it was a fascinating experience. We were not sure if we were disturbing at the processions - after all we are infidels - but eventually we were told 'Welcome to Iran' by a complete stranger just as so many times before. The shrine itself is a huge compound of immense beauty - we were stunned even though we were only allowed into the outer areas. At this time if mourning even Irans supreme leader Ali Khamenei is depicted at the shrine in a weeping pose.
Besides the spiritual experience this evening also made us gain the very worldly skill of organizing a shared taxi to the correct destination in Iran.
The next day we were just very very lazy: we felt like children - being called up for food by Fatimas mum and going to play to our room inbetween. We just ventured out one time to organize some food and chocolate milk (mmmmmh) for tomorrows long ride and to do some more planning at an internet place - after Iran I will take the ferry to the Emirates, from there I will definitely pay a visit to Oman  before flying (unfortunately there is no other way) to the Indian subcontinent, most probably to Sri Lanka.