Hi, I'm Rick Steeves. We're heading east today on Travel with Rick Steeves. We'll start out

remembering a train ride you can no longer take. The venerable Orient Express from Paris to

Istanbul, which has survived mostly in the imaginations of mystery writers, has been officially

removed from the European train timetables.

But in its heyday, it was quite a trip.

Getting on in a dent of spies, getting off in another dent of spies, and in between going through the

mysterious east where new borders were popping up all the time.

Think about all the stories that the train could tell having seen so much history.

And we're getting inside Iranian culture with travel filmmaker Justin

Chappiro.

After spending a summer in Tehran with her six-year-old son,

she learned that politeness and distance are sometimes

two sides of the same coin.

The Persian walls are not just what you might expect in terms of censorship or dress,

but it's also very much in the nature of the Iranians.

From the old train route to Istanbul to intrigue in modern Tehran.

Come along as we experience the world together on travel with Rick Steeves.

Last year at this time we were talking about my experiences filming a public TV show in Iran,

what the Iranian culture entails, what the people are really like.

Hi I'm Rick Steeves.

Coming up, filmmaker Justinine Shapiro joins us to share what she found as a Jewish American single mom

living for a summer in Tehran with conservative Muslims as well as contemporary secular Iranians.

...