Iran

After our messy night in Dogy we got up with slightly groggy heads to we hit the road for Iran. As we arrived at the border myself and the rest of the girls had to get all our get up on us for the first time...and it was weird! We had a couple of hours wait at the border while they processed us all through and we really pissed off the locals as there was a massive queue forming behind us! Also got a taste of how low women are regarded when men wouldn’t even move an inch to the side to let me past to go to the bathroom! Not an easy lifestyle for the women who live it all their lives...although I supposed they wouldn’t know any different! Once we finally got all the visas sorted we drove on to Tabriz....and got our first blow out on the way! Everyone was having a nice nap when there was a loud bang and a slam on the breaks! So out we all piled to sit at the edge of a dusty road while the wheel got changed...quite a welcome to Iran...and it was Friday the 13^th too!! Was quite funny though to see us girls sitting there head to toe in black at the side of a deserty road!! When we arrived in Tabriz it was evening time and getting dark and it was an amazing way to experience our first glimpse of Iranian life! The Iranian’s are famous for their picnics and they were out in force when we arrived. They all have little tents to shelter in and they literally set them up anywhere they can...including the side of motorways and major junctions! The city was all lit up with colourful lights and people just seemed to be relaxing and enjoying life. As we were driving along we drove by a wedding procession. It’s weird, as we drove through different towns throughout the day the one thing that kept jumping out at all of us was the amount of wedding dress shops we kept seeing...and the dresses could easily have rivalled Big Fat Gypsy Wedding dresses!! So when we saw the wedding procession (which makes it sound grander than it was...literally the groom driving the car, bride beside him, some flowers on the boot and the bonnet and another car driving near to it with some crazy ass dude hanging out of the car with a video camera on his shoulder!!!) we were surprised (even thought we shouldn’t have been!!) to see the bride all covered up in an elaborate white cloak! I’m not sure why I was so surprised by this, I mean the women just aren’t allowed to show skin but I guess I thought on their wedding day the rules were different! But apparently not. Ok she wasn’t head to toe in black, it was head to toe in white...and I’m sure she felt very dressed up and pretty in her shiny, sequenced white cloak but it just seemed very odd to me! Apparently Iranian weddings last a few days and on the day of the actual ceremony once the service is done and the meal is finished, the men go off into one room and the women to another and this is when the bride gets to take off her cloak and show off her dress!! So this is what greeted us in Tabriz on our first day in Iran!

In Tabriz we were staying in a hotel....which meant beds! And the fact that we had a western loo in our room (something that usually gets us quite excited!!) got completely overshadowed by the fact that we had proper towels!!! No handy travel, quick drying towels.....proper out of the hot press warm towels!! It also turned out that Hamid (our Iranian chaperone) knew the owner of the hotel...so he gave us free water for our rooms (a lot of it!!) and told us he would send up fresh fruit. We then headed for some food (kebabs surprise bloody surprise!!!) then back to the hotel for a good nights sleep!

We had all been planning on having a lie in with no alarm clocks the next morning...only to be woken up by banging on our door just before 9am! As Joe was the only guy in our room and us girls were not appropriately dressed to open the door (shorts and t-shirts pyjamas minus a headscarf is not acceptable we imagined!!) we made him get up to open the door....only to find out that we were locked in our room!! Joe tried for ages and then I got up to have a go but gave in!! Rosie then got up and had a go but in the mean time the guy at the other side of the door had gone down to reception to get a spare key! So next thing we knew the door was open; Rosie was standing in the middle of the room in her pyjamas with an Iranian guy standing looking at her! She made a mad dash across the room (ala Phoebe in Friends...arms flailing everywhere) to hop under the covers while me and Dee had already ducked under and were in fits of giggles!! Once we calmed down we discovered that along with the free water and fruit the hotel also gave us free breakfast and it was the guy delivering it to our room!! So we had a great giggle at the beginning of our first proper day in Iran....the giggles renewed once we saw that with the bread and tea for breakfast we had also been supplied with butter, cheese and CARROT jam!! This sounded totally bizarre to us but I have actually become quite a fan of it!! It’s lovely on a slice of bread in the morning!

In Tabriz we headed first for the Bazaar so that myself and the girls could buy a tunic and lighter headscarf so that we didn’t look quite so depressed in our black get up! We then headed to check out the Blue Mosque (yes every city does seem to have one!!) before going back to the hotel for a lie down! Walking around Tabriz was quite odd! We got stared at so much being Westerners but the weirdest thing to deal with was how women were completely ignored! Locals were quite happy to stop the lads on the street and talk to them and ask where they were from and while this was happening me and the girls would be standing at the edge of our group having a chat amongst ourselves being completely ignored!! Even the women seemed to be looking down on us and giving us dirty looks like we were shit on their shoe...and saying we were shit on the womens’ shoes while they are shit on the mens’ shoes made us seem pretty worthless in the eyes of the Iranians!!We did get ONE smile off a girl and my, Rosie and Dee got quite excited about that because this girl positively beamed at us and made eye contact with us!!

Next day we headed off to Babek Fort. This part of the blog is for everyone but aimed a lot at Triona cause I both blame her and love her for it!! Triona has been sending me documents with information about the different countries and cities that I am going to, to give me an idea of what there is to do and what to expect. In the Iran document along the top of the Babek Castle information she said that it looked absolutely amazing....so I knew I had to do it!! When we arrived at the starting point for the walk it was cloudy and cold and I was dressed like a right eejit in a long berka type thing...not exactly hiking gear!! The Lonely Planet had said the walk was a strenuous 2.5 hours...but Andrew said that that was in “fat old people” terms! So we said sure we’d give it a go and after Triona saying it looked amazing I knew I had to go and have a look cause when else would I ever get the chance! So the walk started with steps up the side of the mountain...for about half an hour!! At which point the view was coming and going as the clouds moved over the mountain! When we got to the top of the steps we then had to follow a trail around the side of the mountain...slightly less taxing but seemed to go on forever. And then when we got to the end of the trail....we had a nice rocky hill to climb up!! At this point we were all fairly exhausted and hot....not helped by our ridiculous attire!! The clouds over the mountain was really thick at this stage at it was impossible to see in front or behind us! It was a case of looking for a silhouette in the mist and following them! After about 2 and a half hours we got to the top....or what we thought was the top...damn false summits!!! The “guide” we had managed to get ourselves...the local guy who ran the kebab shop we ate lunch in (affectionately nicknamed Goat Boy by us!!)...told us we had another little bit to go....so we walked on!! When we got through the rocks we saw where we had to go...even more uphill....so we trudged on...and in the end it was TOTALLY worth it! We had climbed so high that we were up past the clouds that had hindered us so much on the way up! The sun was shining and the sky was blue and the castle was at the very, very top of the mountain, perched right at the summit. We climbed on up the steps leading to the castle and walked around exploring it. We stayed up there for probably about an hour, taking pictures and taking in the views. It literally felt like we were on top of the world and was totally amazing to see. Was a good place to listen to some music and think of home, so you were all up there with me! When we were finished taking it all in we headed back down to where Goat Boy was waiting for us...only to discover we were going back down the mountain a different way to how we came up! It was a nice steep decent down a gully first, followed by a trek along a stream trying to pick out tracks! We came across some beautiful waterfalls and it was lovely to walk through the forest and valley but again we weren’t really dressed properly! (I should mention at this point that Hamid, who had come with us, told me he was the President of the mountain that day and I could take off the headscarf if I wanted to! I don’t think I’ve ever removed something so quickly in my life before! I whipped it off and shouted “liberation” at the top of the mountain...much to Hamid’s amusement!! Even though I was still in the berka, losing the headscarf made it seem like less hassle!). After the headscarf came off I felt slightly more relaxed and ended up with the berka tied around my waist, along with my coat and the first couple of buttons open...very unIranian!! We did get quite worried at one stage, as our group had become pretty spread out, we had an hour left in the walk...with just over an hours sunlight and the clouds were closing in again! But we all eventually made it down in one piece and were very glad to discover that dinner was ready for us when we got back! So we literally ate dinner, cleaned up and went to bed after the 6 hour walk we ended up doing!! So Triona even though it felt like I was going to die on the side of an Iranian mountain in the most ridiculous outfit ever, it was totally worth it to see the views and to experience the feeling of being in the clouds! So as much as I may have cursed you on the way up (and I did a LOT!!)...once I got above the clouds you were completely forgiven and given all credit for what I experienced up there J

Oh just to mention before we started our mountain walk we were driving to the drop off point when an Iranian film crew came looking for us! They were from Tabriz TV and were filming a documentary on small Iranian villages and that day happened to be in the same village as us....saw the big orange truck, got curious and came after us! They stayed with us at lunch, filming us and talking to us about what we were doing and what we thought of Iran. The funniest moment for me was when I got off the truck one of the guys looked at me and said “Oh, you’re Muslim”, I said no I’m Irish and he looked slightly confused. A few minutes the same guy came over and asked if I was Persian, again I explained I was Irish and he said I looked Persian...so after the Turkey incident and now this incident I’m beginning to think if I ever need to escape the law this is the right part of the world for me to come to as I seem to fit in and even manage to confuse the locals!!!

Next day we had a short drive day to a campsite on the Caspian Sea. We had all just got our tents set up when a dude appeared with a rifle!! We then had to stand around for awhile while we tried to negotiate to stay at the site without pissing off the locals! We achieved it in the end and they even started setting up lights for us....not knowing that as soon as we were finished with dinner we would all bit going to bed anyway!! It was lovely to fall asleep to the sound of the waves and there was an amazing moon so I sat in my tent for awhile with the door open, looking out at the view! Not often I will get to say a moon gazed by the Caspian Sea!!!

The next morning I had a very surreal experience as I awoke to the sound of cows mooing...for a few very confusing seconds I felt like I was waking up in Daars and felt a little pang in my heart! We got up anyway to see the local woman first bringing the calf to the cow to feed and then she sat down and milked the cow old school style...no fancy parlour Rory!! We got breakfast over and done with quickly and then headed off to our next destination. We didn’t get very far before we had to pull off the road as we were stuck in 4wheel drive. So Greg and a few of the lads spent an hour or so trying different things to unjam it. We got there in the end but not until after attracting a crowd. Two Iranian guys got talking to the lads and came on the truck to have a look...and then went and bought us a box of chocolates...such is the Iranian way! Once we were all fixed up we headed on for our next stop, the village of Masuleh. This pace was absolutely gorgeous and we were taken with it straight away! It has a population of only 1,500 and apparently is at least a millennium old. We were told by a few locals how their houses were 400 years old...and literally stay in the family for that long. The village is set into the side of the mountain and on such a steep gradient that the roof of one hose is the pathway on the level above it! The Bazaar was truly bizarre as there were steps and alleyways all over the place to take you up or down and it was impossible to go exactly where you wanted to go! I could see shops from one level that I wanted to go see...and it could take me about a half hour to get there between stumbling across other shops and just not being able to find my way to the right level!!

In Masuleh, we were once again tent free as we were doing home stays. This is the general type of accommodation offered in the village (there is 2 hotels). I enjoyed the home stay though, most of the houses have a self contained apartment in them and that is what they rent out to tourists. The family keeps themselves separate to us and we don’t see them or anything. Though I did see the little girl who lived there as she was playing on the porch when I went in one time and we also got locked out at one stage so rang the bell and an older son (a very tall dude!!) opened the door for us. They were just as curious about us and as we had to walk by their family room to go upstairs we would often see them looking out at us as we walked in and out. We had a rather relaxing couple of days in the village. Metti, the guy who organised our accommodation told us about a walk we could do to go up to a big waterfall. So on our second day Andrew, Dee, Little Kev, Bui and I headed off on the walk. You know how I said I had’nt regretted any of the walks I had done...yeah well this on e I did! We had a very rough map to go by and ended up quite obviously where we weren’t supposed to be! All throughout the trip Andrew has been our trek leader and up to now he has never got us in any trouble...that day he did it in bucket loads! At first we were on a nice but steep track...and then it got to the stage that there was no track...just a lot of thorny bushes!! However we kept going and after about 15 minutes of having thorns sticking into every part of us (for once I was glad I was covered head to toe with little skin exposed...I would seriously have cursed shorts and t=shirt azt that point!!) we asked Andrew, who had gone a little ahead if it got any easier. He replied that there was a couple of “challenging” bits ahead but that we would then be at the summit. The rest of us stood for a few minutes discussing our options...go back down the hill through the brambles...which wasn’t very appealing cause we knew how overgrown it was...or keep going up and hope that Andrew didn’t get us killed!! So we put a little more faith in him and kept going up....still not sure how much of a good idea it was. We literally ended up crawling on all fours with thorns and brambles stuck in our hair, clothes and bags! There was squeals and yelps coming from all of us...in between cursing Andrew!! We did eventually make it to the top with scratches and holes in our clothes! I have now affectionately termed this part of the trip the “Scramble in the Brambles”!! Once we did make it to the top we then had to figure out where to go! So we picked a direction and went that way! The hike did not get any easier! We were on a very narrow edge with a steep drop down to a rocky river bed!! And we got to a stage where we couldn’t go any further...so we had to go down the steep drop!! We thought we would be able to cross the river but on closer inspection it wasn’t going to be easy! I did a little recon further up the river (further ripping my clothes!!) and came back to report that we couldn’t go that way. We found a point to cross as long as the lads helped me and Dee with our short little legs to nop across a couple of rocks and not fall in and soak ourselves!. Then it was up the steep incline on the other side...at which point we came to the road that lead back down to the village! After a couple of hours “walking” we were only 10 minutes from the village and the truck had been in view pretty much the whole time!! We bumped into a few locals and showed them the map but it made no sense to them. So while the boys did their manly business with the locals me and Dee stood off to the side again and got quite obviously laughed at, at one point!! At this point we were all up for giving up but headed first to a rooftop to have some melon we had bought. There was a group of Iranian girls at the other side of the roof and they came over and offered us some food, so then we offered them back some melon. We then got a few pictures taken with them...which was quite funny as me and Dee were a sweaty mess after the walk with our clothes all ripped and these four girls were absolutely stunning looking!! When we were finished we headed back to the village to go for showers! Afterwards the other guys found Metti and he told them we had started in the wrong place so the guys gave it another go...I stayed where I was, freshly showered and went for some lunch and sat around chatting for the afternoon and got extremely relaxed. And that was pretty much how I spent my last few hours in Masuleh...sitting around relaxing, taking in the gorgeous scenery, watching the clouds closing in and walking around and getting lost in the Bazaar, it was amazing.

We were up early the next morning to hit the road for Esfahan. We had another small delay when we stopped for a pee stop and discovered that we had an oil leak. Once that was fixed though we drove on. It was at this stage that we all really started to notice the landscape changing. We had all expected Iran to be flat and barren and all deserty but up to that point we had been up in the mountains which were full of forests and green as far as we could see. But that day as I looked out the window we went from green fields to desert for as far as we could see. As Esfahan was too far away to travel to in one day we got to do a desert camp somewhere in the middle of Iran. It was possibly one of my favourite nights so far! 5 of us abandoned the idea of tents and slept on the roof of the truck! We set up the roll mats, chucked our sleeping bags up and that was us done! While dinner was being cooked a few of us starting playing a game of Frisbee and then we had the brainwave of having a game of rounders, because we were out in the middle of nowhere Hamid told us it was oj to take off our headscarves and all the crap, so for the first time in a week in the baking sun I had my headscarf off, the trousers rolled up and only a vest top on me! All the lads too full advantage too and whipped their t=shirts off...partly because of the heat and partly just because it was in Iran and totally illegal!! The game of rounders was great fun and I even managed to get a home run!! While we were all sitting down for dinner lightening started in about 5 different places around us. It was amazing to sit and watch it and see how much the sky was lighting up. We sat around chatting for awhile and then it was time to go to bed...so we climbed up onto the truck and settled ourselves in! The sky was so clear and we lay there looking at the stars for awhile and then the most amazing moon came up. It was so big and brilliantly orange. It was weird to wake up a few times during the night and to see how the moon was changing position. We woke up the next morning to the sound of the cook group getting breakfast ready, and it was perfect timing as we got a lovely sunrise view from the roof.

Once breakfast was over and we were all packed up we headed off for Esfahan. When we got there we sorted out hostel rooms and then headed for food. The heat was unreal at this stage so when we were finished with lunch we all ended up going back to the hostel and just have a nap! We got up then to head to out for dinner. We went to a rooftop restauarant at a hotel...and it was lovely. After a couple of weeks of living off kebabs in dodgy looking joints it felt like we were really treating ourselves! The lads even managed to have steaks, something that had been missing from their diet since Europe really!! The view from the rooftop was lovely and it was nice to just sit there and relax for awhile taking in a new city. When we were finished dinner we headed to Iman Square to have a wander around. Esfahanis are a huge fan of picnics like all Iranians and the Square was magical. Iman Square is the second largest square in the world (after Tiananman Square in Beijing for those of you who are curious!!) and it was filled with hundreds of families out spending time together. We all got some ice-cream and wandered around the Square (in actually fact a rectangle!!) taking it all in. There was kids everywhere playing ball games and roller blading and little horse and carts that you could hire for a jaunt around the Square. It was also while we were walking around that we got stopped by the tourist police. At first we thought we were in trouble but they were just curious as to where we were from and got even more curious when they realised we were all from different countries! They asked us all about the trip and we showed them the itinerary and a picture of the truck, one of them even said he would give up his uniform and join us if we needed a handsome escort! Another thing they said was that it was good to see tourists out smiling and taking time out. They had asked us if we were with a group and when we said yes they asked did we have down time. When we said yes they said it was nice to see that because usually tourists are on a strict schedule and are always running around to get to the next thing! The tourist police had a little hut and told us if we needed anything or just wanted to call in for a chat we were always welcome, and so off they want and we stood there in awe once again at how nice the people were! As we walked around so many people said hello to us, including us girls and asked us how we were.

Next day we got up early enough to have breakfast before we headed down to Iman Square to meet Syed, a guy who owns a carpet shop on the Square but who has been working with the company for a number of years when the groups go through. When we got to his shop we all piled in, sitting on the piles of carpets and were immediately provided with tea...and lots of it! Syed then changed our money for us...literally dealing in millions with the exchange rate and we all had rather large wads of cash in our wallets when we were finished. Once all that was done he then took us on a tour of the Bazaar Bozorg. It was actually really cool to have someone to show us around as usually when we go to bazaars we just end up getting lost!! He first took us to the best teahouse in Esfahan which was just off a caravanseri in the Bazaar. The carvanseri we were in was 400 years old and the purpose of them was for people to come and park up their caravan and rest their horses. While they were there they could sell their goods and make some money before they continued on their journey on the Silk Road. The tea house was really cute and cluttered. The ceiling was filled with chandeliers and light shades and the walls were covered in paintings and pictures. People could go in there for tea and shisha and just relax...and of course they had a mixed section and a men only section!! When we were finished there he then brought us to a tilers shop. The tiler knew we were coming and was ready to give us a little demonstration. Years ago they used to use handmade tiles that were about half an inch thick but nowadays they use factory produced tiles. They first draw out the design and then etch it onto the tiles lightly. They use natural ink that comes from grinding down rocks from different regions that produce different colours. When the rock is ground down they mix it with water to make it into a workable ink. Then they start to paint the tiles. Once the tile is finished it is then fired for about 7 hours to seal it and this also helps to bring out the colours of the ink. This process means that the colours on the tiles never fade and keep their vivid colour for years, which is the reason why so many of the mosques we have see have managed to keep their splendour. It was really interesting to see how the process worked. We then moved on to the carpet part of the Bazaar where again we learned all about how the Persian carpets are made. Syed brought us to the design shop first where we saw a guy busy at work on a magnificent looking carpet design. When the design is done it is then made up. The carpets aren’t made in shops, they are generally made at home by people as they can take anywhere up to 3 years to make! When they are finished they are then brought to the carpet preparation shops where the ends are tied off, giving the carpet its tassels and then they are pinned down and stretched out as they are often not perfect measurements due to the fact they are handmade in a house. Once all that is done the most bizarre part of the process happens when the carpets get flamed! They literally take a big massive blow torch to the back of the carpets and run the flame over it! We found out that this helps to seal the carpet and also proves that it is a genuine handmade carpet as a factory produced one would just go up in flames apparently!

After our carpet lesson we wandered around for a little longer with Syed bringing us to more carvanseris, some of which were amazing and much more upscale than the first one he brought us to...amazing that even hundreds of years ago they had different classes of accommodation!! We also went into a spice mill which I loved! The first thing that hits you is the different smells and aromas. The mill is a huge chank of rock that has been used for 400 years. It was a pretty massive heavy rock the day we saw it and Syed told us that it was absolutely huge when they first started using it but that over the years it had worn down. As we were standing there the guy who worked at the mill appeared out of somewhere and started giving us tastes of the different spices and getting us to guess what they were. I got the first couple but when we started getting them right he started bringing out harder ones...ending with ground dried lemon which they provide on tables over here along with the salt and pepper! It was really cool to see this and see the old school way of doing things and how they still exist today. That was the end of our little tour then with Syed and myself and the girls did a bit of shopping to get a new tunic. We then headed back to the hostel to meet up with the boys and attempt a walk that was in the Lonely Planet. And attempt we did...and failed miserably!! We managed to follow the first part of the walk but the road names were different to what the book said and eventually we found ourselves in the middle of what looked like the homeless part of Esfahan! It was really dusty as it was right beside a building site but there were old people lying about all over the place, sheltering in tiny little shelters they had made out of cardboard and that. It was very odd and we got some stares walking through it! When we got to the other side of it we were standing around trying to figure out what to do and where the hell we were when an old m an who spoke a bit of English walked by and took pity on us. We asked him how to get back to the Bazaar and he literally walked the whole way there with us, which took probably about 20 minutes or so. Once we were back where we knew we all grabbed an ice cream to try cool down and headed back to the hostel to get out of the searing heat. On our way back to the hostel we got stopped again by the tourist police right by their hut and got invited in for a chat. So there we were sat in the middle of Iman Square having a chat with the police in their little hut! The guy that day was telling us he had just finished college and was doing his mandatory 18 months service. In Iran when a boy turns 18 he has to sign on for 18 months but if he is in college then he can complete his studies and then do his service. We were telling the guy about our trip and he was saying he would love to do it but cant do anything he wants to do until he was finished his 18 months. From what he was saying you could tell he hated the fact he couldn’t do something with his degree straight away or move away. Though by the looks of it his life didn’t seem to be too stressful with the tourist police!

That evening we all went down to Iman Square to have a picnic outside of Syed’s shop and to join in with the locals. We found a pizza place and were very relieved to be able to eat something other than kebab and bloody rice!! So we sat around talking for a couple of hours drinking tea and watching all the goings on in the Square.  It was really nice just to sit there and experience what Esfahanis experience day to day.

Next day we had a fairly slow start with everyone just chilling out. Nobody really did anything until it was time to go get lunch, and even then we took the easy option and went to the restaurant we went to on the first day that was just down the road from the hostel. As much as we were glad to finally get some really hot weather it stopped us doing a lot of things during the day cause it was too warm to walk around...and it didn’t help that we couldn’t wear shorts and t-shirts!! I did have a lovely lunch that day thought trying and Iranian dish called Tachin of chicken or something along those lines! It was basically half a chicken roast and stuffed inside a (rather large) boiled and friend rice cake! It was amazing! Really, really tasty and the rice cake was lovely too! Later that evening when it had cooled down slightly a few of us headed back to the Square. The boys wanted to go shopping so while they did that myself and Dee went to visit Iman Mosque on the Square. It was absolutely beautiful...and truly massive. Me and Dee were getting frustrated at how our cameras just couldn’t capture the enormity of it, or how beautiful the tile work was, and after visiting the tile shop the day before it made me appreciate the work that went into it all the more. Building of the mosque began in 1611 and it took 25 years to complete it. The Mosque is unique in that it has a double dome. The interior dome is 36 metres high and the exterior one 51 metres. Because of the dome within a dome there is an echo in the Mosque and if you tap your foot on the slab of black slate right in the centre of the room you can hear it echoing a number of times. Apparently in the dead of night with no other sounds you can hear it 17 times, though during the day the most people usually get is 7 or 8 echoes. It was cool to hear it though and added even more to the magnificence of the place.

When we were finished in the Mosque we were standing outside when a guy came over to talk to us and asked if we were with “the big truck” we said yes and he said he had been talking to Greg and Rosie earlier that day. He invited us into his carpet shop for some tea and as we had a few minutes before we had to meet the boys we went in. He gave us a little lesson in interpreting the carpets. There are 2 types of Persian carpets, classical and nomadic. The classical are the ones that get designed before they are woven while the nomadic ones do not have a design and come from the weavers head as they go along. Each nomadic carpet tells a story with a lot of symbolism woven into it bringing good luck and warding off bad health and that. Again really interesting to hear all this, although I think the dude thought he was going to make a sale at the end of it!! Luckily a large group walked into the shop and we seized the opportunity and said goodbye. Then as we walked swiftly up the Square so as not to be late we got stopped byt yet another old dude on a bike asking us where we were from. It turned out this guy was a tour guide called Ali, he used to be a geology teacher but was retired and as they retire young he had plenty of energy left so he decided to become a tour guide (life history much!!). anyway we chatted with him for a few more minutes and then finally made it to Syed’s shop where we met the others. When we got there we were given more tea and then Rhona and Rachel arrived, followed by Brian and Ollie (an English guy who was staying in our hostel who was biking from South East Asia to Turkey), followed shortly after by Darren and Derek! So once again Syed’s shop was fairly full!! While Rhona agonized over which carpet to buy the rest of us popped ourselves out on the grass again and ended up having another picnic that night! While we were sitting their Rachel asked if I had seen the bridge and when I said no her face said I was missing out...so once again the fear kicked in and I went and asked Syed how to get to the bridge. It turns out there was 2 main ones along the river and both were a 20 minute walk from the Square. So me, Joe, Rhona and Peter decided we would walk to 20 minutes to the first one, then walk along the river bank to the next one and then back up to the hostel. Well, Syed’s 20 minutes is a lot different to ours! It took us close to an hour to walk to the first bridge which was the Khaju Bridge. The bridge was built in 1650 and is the nicest bridge in Esfahan, and according to Syed, in all of Iran. It is 110 metres long and is 2 levels, the bottom half of which was used for regulating the water flow. It was beautiful and wonderfully lit up at night. The only disappointment was the fact that due to a 15 year water shortage the river is dammed up and so there is no actual water on the river bed! We then headed upstream (can I say that if there was no water present??!!) to Chubi Bridge which was built in 1665 and is 150 metres long with 21 arches along it. The third bridge we came across was a new bridge that was contructed for car traffic but they had it lit up blue so I called it the Blue Bridge. There was a slight bit of water pooled around this bridge so there was a nice photo with the lights reflected in it, which was about the best thing I can say about this bridge! Then we got to the last bridge we wanted to see, the Si-O-Seh Bridge, or the Bridge of 33 Arches. This bridge is 298 metres long and was built between 1599 and 1602. The bridge also served as a dam and is still used today for this purpose. When they get good rainfall over a period of time, they open up the dam to allow some of the water through to the other bridges...but this hasn’t happened in a number of years. The 4 of us then headed back up to the hostel, after the walk that was supposed to take us about an hour took just over 2!! But it was totally worth it and we all enjoyed the walk as once again there was loads of people sitting out with friends in the little parked area that was all along the river bank.  I was glad in the end I got to see a good bit of Esfahan even if it was all in the last few hours of the last day. It is truly a beautiful city and really enchanting. Myself and Rhona were saying to each other that it was our favourite place so far but we weren’t able to say why! I can’t honestly say there was one thing that made me fall in love with it, it’s almost like the city just puts a spell on you! The people are so friendly that you can’t help but feel completely welcome and they are so helpful. They invite you to their house for tea at the drop of a hat and just want to see how foreigners perceive them and most importantly give foreigners something good to say about them and Iran so that people know it’s not what they imagine it to be. I also never drank so much tea in my whole life...which isn’t hard considering I never drank tea! Luckily they serve it in teeny little glass cups so I can manage to drink it...once I drop a couple of sugar cubes in first!! The people are so kind and polite that you feel you can’t say no to them when they offer you something...for example when I was buying a headscarf I was offered what looked like a maggot!! My face must have been a picture cause the guy laughed and said it was a mulberry picked straight from the tree! So I tried it and it was lovely...and really refreshing! So Esfahan is definitely one to put on the list people! Off the beaten track but totally worth it!

We left Esfahan early the next morning to head for Persepolis....some ancient ruins just north of Shiraz. Work began on building the city in 518BC...so they are freakin old!! We got to the ruins at about 3.30 and it was nearly still too hot to walk around! But we ambled along with the Lonely Planet under our arms and had a walk around. It is a pretty impressive site to see. Its not nearly as big as Ephesus was, but we were very glad of that. Everything was really close together and it was amazing to see how well some of the things were preserved considering how old they were. As we were walking around a couple of Iranian guys stopped to talk to us and started walking with us and asked if we had time to go for coffee, we genuinely didn’t have time as we had to meet the truck at 5.30 but we were glad to have the excuse after the guy asked Rosie what she thought of the government. We had been warned that we might be asked this question and to just reply that we didn’t really know much about it so didn’t have an opinion. Rosie tried this and they guy asked again a coyuple more times so we started to amble off in a different direction and said we didn’t have time to sit down for tea. Sometimes I felt bad refusing to go for tea when the people are being so friendly but I’d rather that then got stuck listening to a lecture about the Iranian government for an hour or two! We had a bush camp that night then on a farm just up the road from Persepolis. It was all very dusty but it was comfortable and we all just wanted to relax out of the heat for awhile so were glad of the shade of the trees! A few of the workers stayed with us and one guy, Hassan, even had some dinner with us! He declared his love for Kev and then later told me I had beautiful eyes and face and voice...and then called me either a monkey or a mannequin!!! Gotta love the Iranians!!

We were up again early the next day to head to Shiraz to drop off the people who were flying over Pakistan. It was very odd driving off without 9 people when we got there. We dropped them to their hostel and then we all stood on the street saying goodbye! We kinda drew a crowd as well firstly we were in a big orange truck! Secondly we were foreigners but mostly because at first we were all saying bye and then after a couple minutes we all just sadi screw this and started giving each other hugs! I know they will only be gone for 2 weeks but we have lived in each other’s pockets for 8 weeks now so it will be weird to not see them every day. And it was very odd when the truck drove off and there were only 11 of us in it! It felt very, very empty and we now suddenly have loads of space! We probably won’t be able to cop when the others join us again!! Once we had said our goodbyes and took a few photos we headed off on the road to Yazd. We kind of had to double back on ourselves to go back up north but we got some lovely scenery again and it was nice to sit back and relax.

Our hostel in Yazd was lovely....and air conditioned which always makes it more appealing...another thing that helped was the western toilets and the normal towels!!! We spent our first night chilling at the hostel and having dinner...meatballs and chips....NOT chicken or rice!!! Nice change to the diet!!! We had a lie in the next morning...didn’t get up and shower until 10!! First time since the trip started that we did that!! Then we went in the hunt of some food and had a wander around the city. It was really hot but not as bad as Esfahan so it was bearable to walk around in the early afternoon. We got back to the hostel then and managed to get (illegal) access to Facebook and Skype which we all got very excited about. Then some of us headed out to attempt another Lonely Planet walk around the city. We cheated slightly as the walk came right by our hostel so instead of starting at the start point we started there and skipped the first little bit...but I had already seen the couple of mosques that we chopped out during my morning walk so I didn’t mind so much! We had fun on the walk, we waited until about half 5 to head off so that we weren’t walking in the really hot weather, which actually turned out to be a good idea as the sun setting cast a lovely orange glow over the city and as the walls of the city are all made from mud it looked amazing. We saw the Jameh Mosque (which was just up the road from the hostel...and unfortunately covered in scaffolding), Khan-e Lari, which is a 150 year old preserved house with lovely stained glass windows and was a nice glimpse of what life was like foe a well off family in the Qajar-era. We then moved on to Alexander’s Prison and the Tomb of the 12 Imams. We then walked on and came across another couple of sites, which we weren’t sure what their purpose was but they were pretty! Once we were finished our walk we came back to the hostel and waited around for about half an hour before we headed back into town to the Amir Chakhmaq Square to go to a thing called Zurkhaneh. When we were in Esfahan myself and Dee got talking to a tour guide who told us to go to this thing called Zurkhaneh. We didn’t get the chance to go in Esfahan so when I found out it was also in Yazd I knew I had to go. So a few of us popped down to check it out. It’s hard to explain exactly what it is. It’s held in a gym and means “house of strength”. A group of men stand around in a sunken pit and perform a series of ritualised feats of strength, while the leader pounds on a drum and sings and chants songs and recites poetry. The men do push ups and swing around wooden batons (only way I can describe them!) and then start spinning around really fast. There were times when I though they guys were about to start break dancing! At first there was just one guy doing it and just after he finished two little kids came in. Then the first guy joined back in and then one other big burly guy joined in. It was really cool to see and like I said, hard to explain but I’m glad I got to see another bit of Iranian culture...strange as it may have been!

Yazd itself is slightly different to Esfahan and we had to wear our headscarves in the hostel. When I was walking around I also felt slightly out of place. In Esfahan there was a big range of what the women wore, from full chadors to just a long coat over jeans. In Yazd I noticed straight away that every female other than young kids was in full chador...so me walking down the street in a purple tunic and headscarf made me stand out even more!! So that was slightly odd! But I’m getting used to just ignoring these things so I still enjoyed the little walk around...and getting slightly lost in land after endless lane of mud walled alleys!!

Other observations of Iran...the driving is horrific!! The Lonely Planet said “while traffic in major cities rarely goes fast enough to cause a serious accident, never underestimate the possibility of dying a horrible death while crossing the road. Vehicles never stop at pedestrian crossings. You will quickly realise you have little alternative to stepping out in front of the traffic and hoping that the drivers will slow down”. And never have the Lonely Planet written a truer word!! They advise that until you get the confidence to just walk to follow an Iranian as the cross the road...and to have them car side!! Which we did...and in the absence of an Iranian we sent one of the lads car side, figuring that the Iranians probably wouldn’t be too bothered about hitting a woman!! The driving is absolutely crazy though...and it is literally survival of the biggest! The bigger your vehicle the more that others will give way to you...so being in our big orange truck gave us a serious advantage!! 

The food in Iran was also OK...yes I was seriously sick of kebabs...not helped by the fact we had spent 3 weeks in Turkey eating kebabs there too!! But every now and then we managed to find something other than kebabs, like a hot dog, falafel or pizza and then in our last hostel meatballs and curries. I quite liked the Iranian breakfast of bread (not like our bread) and egg and fruit. I was also very taken with carrot jam after my first impression being that it was going to be the weirdest thing ever!! I also tried a bit of camel stew in Yazd which wasn’t so bad! The Iranians seem to serve rice with everything, just like the Turkish serve bread with everything! It’s lovely basmati rice usually but holy crap they give a massive portion!! They also have a serious sweet tooth with bakeries everywhere selling everything from break to cakes and biscuits. And they also have major sweet shops basically in a pic’n’mix type set up! Some of the pastries and biscuits are lovely and their cakes are quite tasty too! We enjoyed a little selection of pic’n’mix on one of our picnics in Esfahan and the sweets were quite nice...similar to what we would have at home but less jellies and more chocolate based. We did manage to find a shop that sold Haribo jellies in Masuleh so we stocked up on those....you know me and my jellies!! So once again not starving in Iran despite my worst fears before the trip!

And that pretty much sums up my time in Iran. I’m sure I’ve left some stuff out...and we are here for another couple of days but then in Pakistan so no internet so I said I’d update everyone when I got the chance!! So until next time when I have stories of Pakistan to tell I will say goodbye!!