The Swiss cyclist Billy Bre, 20, travelled Iran in March and April 2015. As a young adventurer, she has a different view from tourists about the countries she crossed.

“I decided start discovering the world through my own eyes instead of entering university and being told about the world through other mouths,” she told in an interview with the Tehran Times.
Billy decided start discovering the world with her bicycle after finishing her high school in 19.

------------ Iran chose me!

She has pedaling through 16 countries including Iran. But as a young European girl why did she put Iran on her bucket list?

“So actually, I didn’t t choose Iran, Iran chose me. My aim was not to see a country in specific, but the world as it appears without borders. But of course, I was looking forward to Iran, because I had heard many enthusiastic stories about it through other backpackers and cyclists (we don’t like usually to call ourselves tourists),” she said.

Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Oman are amongst the countries he has visited up to now.
She called Iran “definitely a special country, which its own culture and history.”

In her view, these characteristics make it “quite different from what I knew till now”. She said that as a cyclist, it takes time to get used to hijab during her sojourn in the country.

She enjoyed little difference in Ian like “eating and sleeping on the floor”.

“This I really liked actually and I don’t think I’ll buy a table when I’ll have my own apartment back in my country, because it’s quite useless as I discovered,” she added.

------------- Why not everyone travels by bike?

She said there are thousands of reasons for choosing cycling through her journey.

“Sometimes I wonder why not everyone travels by bike! This way I exercise every day. Seeing the sea after three weeks of cycling is mind-blowing… but you can pretend the same after nine hours driving in an overheated bus.

“Then there is the ecological reason of course. There is the challenge about it, you have something to be proud of, you know not only your body better but as well your mental strength, you experience real freedom and last but not least, you sleep every night like a baby!,” she explained.

------------- No Iranian would ever let a traveler sleep outside!

She finds Iranians “Very helpful and open-minded towards travelers.”
In her view, they are very “stunning! Terribly friendly! Really overwhelming with their warm welcoming and limitless generosity.

“I got so many invitations during my journey that sometimes I had to refuse them, in order to keep going. Cycling during Noruz specially was incredible, since I would receive chocolates at every street corner, till my bicycle was bending under the weight of food.

“I realized that no Iranian would ever let a traveler sleep outside. Sometimes people would just stop me to ask me questions, show interest in my travel or take a picture with my bicycle.

She said that these things made amazing memories from Iran and she made some real friendships!

“From my eight months trip, I can tell that it was the most hospitable country I’ve been,” she said.

She called the Persian cuisine “delicious!” In her view, they are “diverse, healthy and tasty with lots of vegetables and fruits.
“I fell in love with Ash actually. Ghormeh Sabzi, Abgusht, etc… all dishes I will keep dreaming about, in my culinary dreams,” she explained.

---------------- Hardships and friendly hands

However her adventures are not always easy. She faced some problems during her cycling through Iran.

“Let’s start with one of the hardships: one of the hardships I had was the day I left Isfahan. It was very windy that day, and no matter which turn the road would take, the wind kept being stubbornly against me…that day I ended up sleeping under a road tunnel, since there was no other shelter from the wind which kept going all night long,” she remembered.

“The best memory? There are so many! There was one astonishing place I slept, in a canyon in the region of Yasuj, literally between sky and earth.

Then there were all the individual smiles and friendly hands, which makes a memory as a hole and which I will never forget,” she added.
She mentioned the “overdose of kindness” as the strangest thing she encountered during her sojourn in Iran.

------------ Cyclist vs. tourist!

She described Iran as an “incredibly rich in history and cultural places.
“This for sure… nerveless, without wanting to sound disappointing, personally, as a cyclist, I really liked simple roads without traffic,” she added.

As she mentioned, she is not literally a “tourist”! “Even staying over one week in Shiraz, I never made it to Persepolis for example… Shame on me!

“No, I actually don’t know most of the names of places I’ve really liked (for example this canyon I mentioned below). I loved the atmosphere in Souks in general. The one in Zanjan and Shiraz were especially beautiful,” she said.

She said the region just before arriving in Isfahan, with all the small and old villages was very nice as well, or Ganjnameh inscription in Hamedan.

--------------- Don’t think twice about travelling Iran!

“Don’t think twice, go!” She advised tourists who hesitate to travel Iran.

“Some people told me I would probably been killed travelling alone in Iran (sometimes even Iranians), but people said the same for Ex-Yugoslavian countries too… Some People tend to think, that everything which is out of Europe is not safe, if talking about Iran, Colombia or Nigeria, there is no difference,” she said.

She also explained about Islam phobia dominated in the Western country.
“There is a tendency of being scared of Muslim countries, because of the terrorist groups like ISIS or Boko Haram, which call themselves wrongly Muslims.

She lamented the one-dimension picture of Iran, which appears in media in her country.

“The Iran which is reported about in newspaper of my country is the Iran of politics, not the Iran of everyday people,” she said.

“But, what is sure, is that it would do great to some Europeans to come little bit more east, come down of their big horses and discover this for sure in many aspects misunderstood country. Myself I left Iran deeply changed.

“Countries like Iran make you keep believing in humanity after all,” she concluded.

------------ Billy thanks all helpful friends in Iran

In the end, she expressed her thanks to all the people who helped her along her way, in Iran.

“All the women, men, children who helped me fix my bike, invited me for food, opened me the door to their homes, and gave me a ride under pouring rain, sometimes without even being able to communicate with me in one common language. I will never forget them,” she concluded.

PHOTO: Billy (center) poses for a photo with two of her Iranian friends in Tabriz, Iran

HIGHLIGHT:

----------- Cycling during Noruz specially was incredible, since I would receive chocolates at every street corner, till my bicycle was bending under the weight of food. ------------

--------------- it would do great to some Europeans to come little bit more east, come down of their big horses and discover this for sure in many aspects misunderstood country------

--------------- My aim was not to see a country in specific, but the world as it appears without borders … I was looking forward to Iran, because I had heard many enthusiastic stories about it through other backpackers and cyclists

SB/