The German adventurer Michael Schönhuber, 29, started a trip in April 2014 and hitchhiked from Berlin to Iran.

“I crossed Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan & Iran,” he said in an interview with the Tehran Times.

“Like always, what you mainly hear in the news are bad/sad stories. Positive things are usually not on the news.
“So I am an open minded person, but many people I was telling I would go to Iran thought I am crazy and I would go to war zone or something. Obviously that is nonesense!” he explained.

“I was always interested and fascinated by the Middle East area and always had the feeling I need to go there.

“After making the decision I thought about which countries I can visit and sadly many where in a political unstable situation. I talked to some friends and quickly found people who have been in Iran and they told me it is very nice… so I went for it,” he added.

He said that the culture shock he encountered in Iran was only “positive”. “In terms of how helpful and hospitable people are.”

In his view, Iranians are “very polite, warm, helpful and very kind and hospitable”.
“I felt very welcome in your country,” he added.

“I had the chance to meet some families through friends I have in Iran and stay with them. They prepared gorgeous meals for me and I quickly felt like a part of the family,” he explained.

However he has some strange memories too. “One day I was in a taxi and because of a misunderstanding (I talked about Iraq) the taxi driver brought me to a police station and told them I was a terrorist,” he remembered.

“So they searched my luggage and I was not allowed to call someone. But nobody was able to speak English. They had to bring me to another police station. I guess everything took 4 hours and of course they didn’t find anything but I didn’t really understand what was going on and nobody was able to speak to me,” he said.

He named “Persian gardens” and “palaces” as well as the “historical sites like Persepolis” as his favorites.
He advised tourists who decide to travel the country to make themselves familiar with the basics. “Be aware of the fact that you can’t get money at ATMs and therefore bring cash with you. Learn about the Culture and respect it,” he said.

He also advised them to read about “taarof”, a Persian form of civility emphasizing both deference and social rank. “It took me some time to understand when someone is doing taarof”.

“Then just enjoy this lovely country,” he suggested. He called the Iranian cuisines as “very, very, very delicious”.

He enumerated Tehran, Isfahan, Yazd, Shushtar and Shiraz as the must-see cities in Iran.

PHOTO: The Shushtar water mills are the best ones which operate in order to use water in ancient periods