KHODA HAFEZ - AUF WIEDERSEHEN - GOOD BYE - AU REVOIR

In the very early morning it was time to leave! Ipue's guest from Düsseldorf came to pick up me
in my box and met it very vorsichtig in his handbag and ipue called a taxi - the yellow ones are taxis here! And we went together to the airport, checked in (thanks god nobody was asking about the little box!) And in the early morning at 4.3o our plane left tabriz and IR!
For me it was time to leave!!! because I stood here nearly 3 month and my visa would be finished after a few days?!
THIS WAS MY IRANIAN ADVENTURE!
Thank you, dear ipuenktchen! It was great with you and your family and as well with POSSY & CROSSY!
And now I'm ready for further exciting trips! pleas everybody stay tuned!

*A*Y*R*I*L*I*Q* means separation.. :-(

yesterday ipuenktchen invited for dinner...
in fact it was the good-bye-party for me, PAUL THE BACKPACKER!!!!!!!
for sure I'll will miss them all so much!!!!!!
and so I was very happy, to take part in a home-made dinner party with live-music of azerbaijanian folklore!!!!!! and *ayriliq* is the name of the favorite folklore song of ipue in azeri language!
there was a lot of young folks and they were chatting and dancing and laughing - and at the other point they were so great and helped a lot in making and serving tea, doing the dishes and so on!!!! there is the habitude that iranian dinner parties have hundreds kind of hors-d'oeuvres, meals, salads, desserts AND SO ON............
let's remember - PAUL THE BACKPACKER arrived at ipue's at 25th february!! imagine!!!!!!! THREE MONTHS AGO!!!!!!! and as he got a 3-month-tourist-visa he had to leave just in a few days!!!!!!!!
now let's see what will happen with PAUL THE BACKPACKER....
his box is ready for him to jump in!! but there is still a lot of time
until the departure of his plane in the early morning...

Wedding anniversary

Today the recently wedding couple had the idea to go downtown to search once more for some furniture... and they proposed to go together with ipue and her husband, and of course she was so kind to take us with her!!! ;-) So we went to some chair galeries to choose one type of chair and request a series.. and we were so happy ipue profite to take a pic of us playmos....
After instead of going home we understood ipue's son had chosen another road but not straight home!?! And finally we went to a very large area with a very large building inside, built like by LEGO... Oh, we were so astonished... There is a hotel, a swimming pool, restaurant, coffee-shop, wedding palace and much more..... And a beautiful park around!
Ipue's son adviced us to go into the coffee-shop! boahhhh - how beautiful.. It's a long time, perhaps about 1o years, ipue hadn't been here and it was a real surprise!What a large long crystal luster, how beautiful furniture, the columns decorated by beautiful glass tiles and so on.. A very cosy place!
And when we sit down ipue's son & wife met a vase with flowers (stolen from the park... hehe..) on the table and congratulate their parents for their 41th wedding anniversary!
Lucky ipuenktchen & husband!
(they will be registered as a WORLD CULTURAL HERITAGE very soon)

JUST MARRIED

But on the way we had a VERY rainy, stormy, foggy, snowy weather - well, it's the coldest area of IR in the mt sabalan highlands!!!!

At 28th april was the great date we went to the city of ipuenktchen's son2's gf asking for the daughter's hand in marriage! By accepting their mutual proposals we celebrated the engagement!

Everything happened during TWO DAYS!!!

And everybody is so happy!!!

And me, I was so happy, that ipue took all the playmos with her!!!

Although her elder son asked her not to let out the playmos there... Harharhar...

The day after was fixed to celebrate the wedding ceremony! Wow... it seems we are the first travelling toys taking part in a marriage!?!? Unbelievable!!! We were sooooo excited!

And naughty ipuenktchen finally took a photo of us at the wedding table!

Well, in Iran it's a great thing to get married and still not only a matter between the young couple, but their parents are involved, too! It's a huge question if the father of the girl accept the proposal and in which way... And the father of the guy has to support his son! It's a great job to finish this and everybody agrees.

The bride's father had invited for lunch!

But there is also a huge difference in an arranged marriage, where the guys will be proposed to get married with a special daughter choosen by his mom or sister, they hadn't perhaps seen each other never before until they are going to the house of the girl to announce the guy!? But for many guys this is nowadays no longer possible!

The playmo guests tired and happy ready to go back home to tabriz to ipue's!

And so we wish all the best to the nice wedding couple. - happiness, healthy, wealthy!

Postcrossing intermezzo...

Jippieh - ANITA_2004 arrived at tabriz this morning and we had breakfast together! After she started to write her postcards! And we, POSSY & CROSSY & PAUL helped her!

Large events throw their shadow ahead...

No comment... Not yet!
And they brought us with them - it was so exciting! We think there had never been any travelling toys in an event like this...

First postcrossing (mini)meeting in el goli

Yea...
Today we had a tiny meetup with three tab-postcrossers!
and with some guests for sure: PAUL the BACKPACKER, POSSY & CROSSY
...and EMMA is so sad - we had forgotten to invite her! Poor emma... and so ipuenktchen took a photo from her as well...

Although it was great! In the meantime it was misslondon's b-day, and we congratulated her and gave her our gift. After we had a look at so many cards, as we hadn't seen each other quite a long time! Misslondon was so kind to prepare us a great makaroni salad, lili_6789 brought a very delicious chocolate as a dessert, and me, I add islamic beer without alcohol... And as the weather was great, a beautiful spring day, misslondon proposed to enter the terrace and so we did! We enjoyed it so much!! we never stopped to chat and it was so funny for us. Even we wrote some cards and for sure took some pics.

"Jaye OLDIEOMA khali kardim!" As we have a saying in farsi "your place was empty", when we are missing somebody, and so we remembered oldieoma's empty place! And she will be with us hopefully very soon and have a "Pfiff" with us!

What a beautiful weather today!

Today we had a downtown-trip and as the weather is so great I took my bicycle with me! First we went to tourist information for some hints and after we had a look at the former townhall (recently a museum!) and last but not least we went for two postoffices ;-)

Another postcrossing day

in the morning it was a bit boring as we had nothing to do and so dear ipue proposed us to make a *postcrossing day*, to write cards to our dear friends, because she would like to go to the post office, and this is quite far and she doesn't go that often.....

*ooooooooh - good idea!!!!* we were shouting....
and she brought us two boxes with her cards from her country! boah - we really couldn't decide which one to use....
BUT WHO IST THIS???? ipuenktchen brought another guest and introduced to us!!!!!!! boah, how beautiful it is!!!?!? it's name is EMMA. and it comes from FINLAND!!!
whenever you had seen a finnish meetup, there were some of them!!! it's a custom of the finnish postcrossers whenever they had a guest from abroad they give one of it as a souvenir!!!!! and ipue had been in finnish meetups in fall 2oo9 and is now the owner of this beautiful one!!!! given by dear HUPPU68 in HELSINKI meetup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lucky ipue!!!
like every time and everything the pencils were too big for us - well....... finally each of us was busy to write!! :-)))))))))))))) when finished each of us made it's signature on the other cards, too :-)
later she let us have a look in her treasure of stamps!! how beautiful!!!!!!! and she allowed us to choose the stamps for our cards by ourselves!!
after we got ready to go down town!! we went to a place nearby, jumped in the bus, changed the bus, later jumped into a taxi, and after an hour we arrived at the main post office!!!!!!!
and our cards are now on their way to.......... pssssst..!! SURPRIIIIISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
;-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
LET'S KEEP IN TOUCH!! *smile*

Ghabtshi brothers' pottery workshop 1

The more than 5o years old pottery workshop in the ancient part of tabriz belonged to abbas and ahmad ghabtshi, both passed away high in their eighties, the younger brother some years ago, the elder brother some months ago, originally from zonouz in north of tabriz, where the kaolin is found.

The son of abbas-agha is managing now the workshop! about 1o years ago he started to help his father and uncle by preparing the clay, which is a sweaty hard job!! and when his uncle passed away he just got retired and started to work here fulltime!
(fulltime for them means every day until noon!)
Well, we are happy the pottery workshop will not be closed! Even recently they renovated the work shop! They are not that busy like before, but better than nothing! And recently there is a young member of potter's house employed working on the potter's wheel!
So we went there this morning and brought our work pieces we've done during the last 1o days for the kiln to be ready, whenever it will be filled again... We will let you current! I like there and I hope we'll go there again untill I'm still with ipue!

A very special birthday card necessary!

Possy & Crossy and me, Paul, we were so happy, when ipuenktchen remembered to us, that the day after tomorrow is a special birthday! We were so surprised... Perhaps we'll be invited?!?

But for now we had to be busy writing a card!

Please don't think we'll upload it today! Honestly we wouldn't destroy the surprise - and so we promised each other, tomorrow we'll bring it to the post-office and the day after tomorrow we'll upload it here!
(the photos are taken!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *thumbup*)
JIPIEH!
It's MISSLONDON's birthday finally! She turned 17! And as I had been her guest and she was so kind to bring me to Kashan & Kerman I really liked it too much to write a nice card for her! I hope she'll enjoy it!?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR YASIMISSLONDON!

Spring, Spring, Spring!

Today we had a nice break in the yard! spring everywhere! Hhere you can see the entrance of Ipuenktchen's home and her mailbox!