11th – Return home

Still being full from the dinner last night I only had a very light breakfast before we checked out at 1000 and got picked up to the airport an hour later.

Arriving at the airport the part that ended up taking the longest was waiting for the check-in booths to open up for service. Luckily they opened up 3 hours before departure instead of 2 hours so half an hour after arrival at the airport we got into the queue for passport control. The queues were slow, very slow, but getting checked was painless and we found ourselves wandering a small boring airport trying to kill a few hours. Several of us ended up in a café before going through security to the gate and boarding.

Flight home was uneventful. The layover in Istanbul was just two hours this time and the second flight had issues with their cooling so even if you had your personal cooler blowing air at you, you were still very hot. Arrived home on time, got our luggage and left. And that was it.

Iran is a very underrated tourist destination and I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to see a different culture or climb a not-so-popular (for westerners) mountain. It's a beautiful country and the locals are very friendly. But due to the low traffic of international tourism you can risk ending up at a hotel - even a nice one - with staff that might not be very good at speaking English. It's all part of the charm. And don't believe the news; we did not get terrorized and people were not building nukes on every street corner. But, if you go, I'd highly recommend getting a full visa before arriving and not just a visa grant. You can avoid a lot of frustration having it all sorted out in advance. 

Big thanks to the guides Hamid, Zohre and Parisa, the extra two guides on summit day Hasan and Fatima and our cook on Damavand Rahim who all were part of making this trip memorable and who took care of us all the way. You guys are awesome! And thanks to the group; Søren, Niels, Søren, Mette, Dino, Johannes, Ole, Lars, Anders, Anders, Frank, Hilde, Ellen, Steen, Jens Ejner and Martin for being such nice people and making the trip as successful as it ended up being.

Full album can be found here.