Kish, Iran

Kish, the resort island located in the Persian Gulf off the southern coast of Iran, is the home of 40,000 residents. As Kish is a Free Zone and does not require tourists to obtain a Visa, Kish annually welcomes 1 million tourists. Kish is not well known, but is still the 3rd most visited vacation destination in Southwest Asia (after Dubai and Sharm El Sheikh). Kish is an island popular for its beaches, shopping malls, and water activities. 

I had not heard much about Kish before deciding to visit Parvin, who has been living there for 5 years. The island is quite small, and as you can probably drive around the entire island in maximum 2 hours, I would strongly suggest to rent a car. My days in Kish were spent with Parvin eating at popular restaurants, parasailing, and just spending time together basically. I also got a short introduction to a few phrases in Farsi, which could be useful during the trip and for the future.

The weather was overall pretty decent. It was raining, which caused the streets to be flooded. The weather did not impact my time in Kish, however I was not able to visit the Women's beach, which according to the local women is a must when visiting Kish. Diving was also not an option, as the currents were too strong. We visited the Greek Ship, we had breakfast at the Toranj Marine Hotel, several shopping malls and restaurants. 

Iran

Oh did I finish this year with something good. Since I was a little girl, I have always dreamed of travelling to Iran. I’ve always been proud to be from Iran, or having a father who is from Iran, but have never been able to grasp what that actually mean. Some of the stories I have been told since I was a child have been in the lines of ”You have 90 cousins in Iran, the mountains there are incredibly beautiful and we always cook and east together with the entire family”. These are only a few of the things, but no matter what story I’ve been told, it’s been all about family. Family is obviously very important in many cultures, but for some reason it has a completely different meaning in Iran.

So why did it take me 27 years to travel to Iran? Back in 2012, I had applied for a visa to Iran and was beyond the moon excited to travel there together with my father. Unfortunately he visa was rejected. The reason given to me at the time was that I had to apply for an Iranian passport, due to my father being from Iran (forcing me to change my first and last name). This of course, was not something I was willing to do, nor did I have the time before the journey. Since then, I had given up the hope and I started focusing on travelling to other countries.

Things change, I suppose, and as I was introduced to Parvin, (our fathers are childhood friends) she was eager to help me sort this out now in 2019. I decided to visit her in Kish, which is an Island in the Persian Gulf. Kish is a free-zone and does not require any visa. Therefore, as I had 1 week of vacation, I booked my flight tickets to visit Parvin and Kish. By chance, together we applied for a visa to the mainland of Iran, and lucky me, but the visa was approved the same day I was flying to Kish. How could it be so easy? Did they not realise or see that my visa had been rejected in the past? These questions and concerns were obviously going through my mind at the airport while arriving to Kish. Everything went well, and I arrived successfully in Kish and my vacation