by Stephen Orth
On the plane I will have a hangover from the schnapps and the catchy melody of “Happy” buzzing around in my head. The Tehran video clip was only briefly offline; now it is again accessible. More than 2 million people all round the world have already seen it, and the number increases every day. No one can sentence the dancers a second time.
They have won.
“Happy” video
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I WOULD LIKE TO warmly thank the following people, without whom this book would not have been possible: Yasmin in Tehran, Masoud on Kish, Hussein in Kerman, Saeed in Shiraz, Ahmad in Bushehr, Marjan in Bushehr, Farshad in Ahvaz, Hamed and Ashkan in Khorramabad, Azim and Susan in Kermanshah, Ehsan in Marivan, Shahin and Mona in Hamedan, Ahmad in Isfahan, Sofia in Isfahan, Mellid in Isfahan, Massi in Isfahan, Elaheh in Mashhad, Azadeh in Babol, Saeed in Chalus, Funman Mohamed in Abbas Abad, Azim and Nilo in Choubar, Hussein in Ardabil, Reza in Tehran, Shahab in Tehran, Venus in Tehran, Kian on Qeshm, Setareh in Tehran, Fardad, Hamed, Babak, Sahar, Mina, Arash, Negar, Anita, Maryam, Ali, Mohsen, Abbas, Marzieh, Helaleh, Narjes, Pedram, Sahar and Nazanin, Laila, Anastasiya Izhak, Rüdiger Ditz, Mina Esfandiari (minaesfandiari.com), Martina Klüver, Bettina Feldweg, Jule Fischer, Samuel Zuder (samuelzuder.com), Marina and Yiannis of Marili Apartments on Paros (marili-studios.gr), Nora Reinhardt, Katrin Schmiedekampf, Stefan Schultz, Azadeh F. Parsi, Verena Töpper, Anja Tiedge, Nasser Manouchehri, Marouso Triantafyllou, Aysegül Eraslan, Ben Wadewitz, Annette Schneider, Clemens Sehi (anekdotique.de), Johannes Klaus (reisedepeschen.de), the Goethe-Institut, Antje Blinda, Lena Hinz, Kitty Liu, Tom Hillenbrand, Philip Laubach-Kiani, Astrid Därr, Anja Lange, Tonia Sorrentino, Bianca Bontempo, Mareike Engelken, Melanie Maier, Anouk Joester, Janine Borse, Hallie Gu, Christian Byfield, my parents.
Couchsurfing in Iran: My Journeys Behind Closed Doors on Facebook: www.facebook.com/couchsurfingimiran and on Instagram: couchsurfingiranwww.travelepisodes.com/reise/couchsurfing-im-iran/
NOTES
At the border
1.Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003.
Torture
1.James, E.L. Fifty Shades of Grey. New York: Vintage Books, 2012.
The Persian Gulf
1.Hill, Napoleon. Think and Grow Rich. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2011.
2.Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
3.Robbins, Anthony. Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! New York: Summit Books, 1991.
Hide-and-seek
1.Browne, Edward Granville. A Year Amongst the Persians: Impressions as to the Life, Character & Thought of the People of Persia, Received During Twelve Months’ Residence in that Country in the Years 1887–1888. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1926, p. 240.
Poetry
1.Hafiz. Poems from the Divan of Hafiz. Translated by Gertrude Bell. London: William Heinemann, 1897, p. 72.
2.Ibid., p. 111.
3.Ibid., p. 104.
4.Ibid., p. 67.
5.Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Goethe’s Faust. Parts I and II. Translated by Louis MacNeice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1952.
6.Celan, Paul. “Death Fugue.” 70 Poems. Translated by Michael Hamburger. New York: Persea Books Inc., 2013.
Hiking
1.Hafiz. Poems from the Divan of Hafiz. Translated by Gertrude Bell. London: William Heinemann, 1897, p. 103.
Life’s caravan
1.Khayyam, Omar. The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Second edition. Translated by E.H. Whinfield. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co. Ltd., 1893, p. 51.
Happy ending
1.Khayyam, Omar. The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Second edition. Translated by E.H. Whinfield. London: Kegan Paul, Tranch, Trübner, & Co. Ltd., 1893, p. 51.
2.Ebadi, Shirin. Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope. New York: Random House, 2006, p. 204.
STEPHAN ORTH is a travel writer based in Hamburg, Germany. His three books, Sorry, We Missed the Runway, Couchsurfing in Iran and Couchsurfing in Russia, have all been major bestsellers in Germany. They have been translated into ten foreign languages. Two of his feature stories, one about Russia and one about China, won the Columbus Award for travel writers.
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