Monica Bern, an American writer, has been constantly traveling the world since 2002, gathering her experiences in books. India, Fiji, Cook Islands, Morocco, Somali, Ethiopia, Italy, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Tobago, and Dominican, were some of the places she visited.
Iran was one of her most recent destinations where she spent a month, visiting cities and places as suggested by the Lonely Planet travel guide. She got her enthusiasm for visiting the country from her Iranian friends who revealed different realities of the country. Her experiences from Iran will be published in the future, ISNA reported.
She explained her reasons for travelling to Iran as: having many Iranian friends, and the wrong image of the county in the US. “As a writer, I believe this image is definitely wrong. I wanted to come and see the country in person, and share my experiences with people and create another image.”
In answer to the question about what she knows about Iran and what information she had gathered before coming, she said there is a difference between a journalist and a novelist. “A novelist, like me, seeks first-hand experience.” They keep themselves unaware until they enter the place, So that they can write whatever they perceive. She adds, “I started my journey from the northwestern part, an astounding mountainous region with cold nippy weather. That was all I wanted from nature, very different from my experiences in other countries. They impressed me a lot.”
“First, I thought obtaining visa might be the most difficult part of my trip; however I managed to get it easily in one week through the Pakistan embassy (Iran’s interest section in the US).”
