1. Rodrigo Ávila (The CEU Weekly): Dear Orsi, thank you so much for accepting this interview with The CEU Weekly, we find your story thrilling and exciting. Throughout last year you and your boyfriend spend a good amount of time crossing Asia –including Iran, by bicycle. Could you please tell us the general coordinates of this amazing journey: where and when did you start, where did you go, how long did it take, where was the final destination?
Orsi Réka Ács (ORA): Thank you for inviting me and for your interest in our story. Initially my boyfriend, Bruno, left alone to fulfil his dream, to cycle round the world. He left France in June, 2010 and after crossing Western Europe he arrived to Budapest in September. That’s where we met. After some unexpected events, falling in love, meeting a travelling circus, running into the Hungarian winter with all its snow he stayed until January, 2011. Meanwhile he convinced me to join him on his journey; however I’d never been the “cyclist girl”. The longest distance I’d ever encountered was Blaha – Gödör, return. But there are stronger feelings than fear, so my curiosity and interest in the East won. Ok, I was still scared of cycling like hell. J We started to cycle together at the end of January in Turkey. Bruno cycle to Istanbul and I flew there with my bike. We spent 2 months in Turkey, mostly on the North coast, along the Black Sea. Everybody knows about the Turkish hospitality, but if you want to feel it for real, just cycle along tiny villages in the snow in the middle of February. You will see what’s going to happen to you. The magic world is “chai”.
Afterwards having spent 3 months in Iran, we crossed the Caucasus; Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan in about 3 months. These countries are amazingly green (except for certain parts of Azerbaijan though), people are very friendly and open-minded, you can make good use of your Russian knowledge, and they do like alcohol there. J
From Baku we crossed the Caspian Sea by cargo ferry and continued in Central Asia. We saw Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan and then we returned to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Central Asia is something exceptional; there you really feel that you are on the border of Europe and Asia. The faces, the traditions, the clothes, and in general, their approach towards travellers make you feel like home, but also so different in several aspects that you know that you are experiencing something genuine.
From Kazakhstan we couldn’t cross China and the legendary Karakorum highway due to some unfortunate diplomatic issues between China and France, so we had to take a plane to New Delhi. Arriving into the heart of India after the calmness and countryside ambiance of Central Asia was on one hand a great shock but also a vibrating, exciting feeling. Everything was so fast, so loud, so much. We spent altogether 3 months in India visiting mostly the North-West corner of the country: Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. 3 months are barely enough to see even a tiny bit of such a vast country with so many different ethnicities and regions, so we are still at the beginning of this discovery, but what I feel now is that whatever you are looking for you will find in some corners of India.
From India we were heading back to Europe (by plane L), so the spring of 2012 found us in Spain already. From February to May we crossed Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia and finally arrived in Hungary together with the daffodils. (Actually, Bruno cycled back to France this summer, having cycled over 20.000 km altogether, so that’s why I’m the only one answering your questions.)
2. TCW: Really impressive Orsi! Sounds like a real challenge. Now, we have another question. On August 14 you gave a little public talk in Budapest about your experience in Iran. Nonetheless, your trip was through almost all Asia, so we would like to ask you why the emphasis in Iran?
ORA: There were several reasons. Most of all we simply loved Iran. All the love, hospitality, friendliness, help, good intention and generally great experiences we had there made it clear that if I chose one country to share with other people that must be Iran.
Also this was the country were we spent the longest time and where we managed to learn the language to a certain level so we were able to communicate with those locals who didn’t speak English. This was very important for us as we felt that you get a different picture if you can talk only to educated –English speaker– people from the one you get while talking to farmers in a one-hundred-inhabitant village in the middle of nowhere.
Moreover, the picture the media present of Iran is far from being objective, and as usual, is based on the analysis of the leadership and its foreign affairs. And as we can see examples in Europe too, the intentions of the government or its leaders don’t resemble the intentions of people at all. It is sad to see that whenever you meet an Iranian, right after asking about you, they enquire about the general opinion about Iran and its people. “Do they think we are terrorists?” And it’s just difficult. You know these nice people, who invite you to their home, feed you, help you, and they feel judged and they feel the prejudices the world has. And simply because I thought people might be interested in Iran, and fortunately they were.
3. TCW: Precisely, for us Iran is also of great interest and relevance, and we try to give it as much coverage as possible, so thank you for sharing this appreciation of yours. Now, going more into the insider perspective you must have developed during this trip, please, describe us in your own words how Iran is: if you had to synthesize it in a few sentences, what would you say about this country? The question is important for us because many people talks about Iran but only few have actually been living there, with the Iranian people.
ORA: Iran is a vast country with territory almost as big as India’s but with “only” 80 million inhabitants. That means a lot of desert that is inhabited and that only very big cities get crowded, however they do get crowded. People are very friendly; they are not distant and always keen to help you. Iran’s got a long history of inventions, poets and battles of great importance.
Before going there I had had the fear that, I suppose, many girls planning to travel to a Muslim country have. Was I going to spend 3 months in ignorance when nobody talks to you, and your place is in a corner, wearing your hijab, looking as innocent and invisible as possible? And the answer is a big NO. What some might misinterpret as ignorance is actually respect. It’s respect for you, so they wouldn’t embarrass you by touching you; respect for your partner, so they wouldn’t talk to you directly. On the other hand they are eager to know your opinion, you are always asked if everything is alright, if you need anything, if they can serve you anyhow and generally how special and brave you are that you cycle, sleep in a tent and travelling the world. (And if you have hair colour different from black be prepared to become a doll of the local girls, they just love it J) And it obviously applies to boys as well.
Many Iranian has strong political identity and they don’t hide it too much when they are with you in their home. Though it is not something you can freely advertise out of your house for your own safety. Iran is an amazing country with amazing people. But as a matter of fact we have friends who have lost people in the riots in 2009 that they still know nothing about.
I can’t tell much about its touristic facilities as we slept in our tent, did our shopping at local markets, drank tap-water most of the time, but I suppose they’ve got nice hostels and restaurants as well. The good thing in Iran is that even without going to restaurants you certainly will try many local specialities simply because people invite you regularly so wherever you go you will taste their abghust, gharme-sabzi, douGh, cream and marmalades, all the sweets and nuts, not mentioning the several types of bread they have. But you shouldn’t think of the loaf shape we have. Most of their breads are flat and baked in different ways and they are just simply amazing. And their tea of course, but that’d be another long story.
4. TCW: Wow, very interesting to listen to the opinion of someone who has actually been there, spending some time close to the local reality and away from the clichés and narratives constructed from the outside. And, cold you tell us what you liked the most from your experience in Iran? What was the best part of the trip?
ORA: The most amazing experience was the language itself I think. Farsi or Persian, the Iranian language, is written in Arabic script but is a very different language from Arabic. As I had studied some Arabic a few years ago I knew how to read the script but it didn’t mean anything to us. But in three months in the continuous full contact with very helpful and talkative locals we managed to master our Farsi to Elementary level where we were able to talk about ourselves, our family, explain what we wanted, ask for directions, about other’s family, health etc. and to do the shopping and all bargaining included, of course.
As a special event, I can say one of the most amazing things was our stay in Shiraz. A local Afghan refugee family “adopted” us for some 10 days absolutely by chance. We became a part of their family, their daily life; we accompanied them to a traditional Afghan-Iranian wedding and we got to know a bit more about the refugees’ life in Iran which is surely not the easiest life one can have.
But I must say even having chosen this piece of memory I feel I’m being partial because we had so many beautiful moments, many dedicated friends we are still in contact. I can’t list all the people helped us or gave us an ice-cream as a gift, invited for a tea, for a meal, for a night, or for a week; or just asked how we were. To be honest, in Iran most of your moments are special.
5. TCW: Lovely. And what could you advise to the people out there flirting with the idea of doing a similar trip. Was there any dangerous situation? And if yes, how did you manage it? Any suggestion for other wild souls planning a journey like yours?
ORA: I think the first and maybe most important thing is that you need to be flexible, ZEN if you like; not only in terms of planning, but also in your needs. You will wash in creeks, you will be cold sometimes, you will be hot sometimes, sometimes you can’t clean yourself for days, and sometimes you eat only rice and lentil for a while. BUT you can go wherever you want, there is nobody to tell you when to start, when to stop; you will meet wonderful people, you will see beautiful places, you will experience freedom, understanding and discovering on the core.
You don’t need to be a cyclist (best example is me), don’t have to have the best bike on earth (we found mine in our garage where a tenant had left it because it was too old for him), you don’t need the best sleeping bag (I survived my first winter with two summer sleeping bags folded into each other), you don’t need fancy cycling gears (they will break in a few thousand kilometres anyway and then you will change them to cheap local products) and you don’t even have to know where you want to go (get a compass and decide upon a direction, that’d do the job).
But you do need to be open-minded; open to others, open to new people, open to people who want to help you, open to new cultures, open to different ways of life, open to different food, different clothes.
And about dangerous situations? We are still here so if we had any they mustn’t have been dangerous enough to be mentioned. And they definitely were not dangerous enough to prevent me from going on another trip in the future.
6. TCW: Thank you so much Orsi, it has been a real pleasure to get to know more about you and your story: do you think that in the future we will be able to read your adventure in the form of a book?
ORA: Thanks for the opportunity. Probably not from my side, but Bruno is planning to get all the impressions together and form something longer lasting out of them. So hopefully yes!
7. TCW: Ok, thanks you so much Orsi, if somebody from CEU would like to get in touch with you, how could they reach you? Any final you would like to share with them?
ORA: If you feel like, you can contact me on acs.orsolya.reka@gmail.com . And the only thing I can advise you is to GO! Don’t be afraid, it’s going to be great. No matter where, but go and experience something else! You will become a different person.
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