Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So here I am safe and well in Iran.(big sighs from lots of folks) Sitting near hostel in Esfahan tired and hungry after a city tour wearing my headscarf and actually feeling comfortable with it! Today has been full of Mosques, churches ( in the armenian quarter), shaking minarets, a trek up to the temple of fire and lots more!
 Well...after my last blog entry I thought I had experienced the most excitng taxi ride of my life! Boy was I wrong!!! After leaving the internet cafe in Dogubayazit, Rach, Ave, Des, Martin, Will and I all thought a taxi would be a good idea! MMMM...no! About a km out of town we hit flash floods and got stuck on some boulders. So after removing shoes, socks and trouser bottoms, we all had to get out the taxi into knee deep water and push it off the rubble...not quite sure how we never got swept away! We then kindly pushed the taxi to safety and he drove off and left us there!!! I think someone is trying to tell us something!
 The journey into Iran proved uneventful! After a 3 hour wait at the border we were on our merry way! It was a joyous occasion when we all bought lunch for about $0.50! I did have a pile of postcards from Turkey which I passed onto a ?nice chap at the border to post....so you may all recieve....or he may have sold the stamps to someone else!!!  Our first night was not uneventful! After finding a lovely little campsite in the hills, enjoying a chicken curry and settling into bed, I was rudely awoken by an armed policeman poking his AK-47 into my tent and telling me I had to move along with the rest of the group to another campsite! Not impressed! We found a lovely spot next to a petrol station in Tabriz which due to the rain was a field of mud! The waterproofs made their first apperance! Needless to say our next night in a hotel below Babak Fort(even though it was the hotel from the Shining) was sheer luxury!
 The next morning we awoke to bright blue skies and I was like a horse at the starting post.....I ran up that there mountain! The views were amazing! Sheila also enjoyed the fresh air after many days stuck on truck! After hanging the tent out to dry we stopped for lunch in Ahar on the way to Masouleh. I had a bit of a sweet tooth so went to buy a cake and came out with a box! The baker was very excited and got a little carried away....well it only cost $2!
 After a few days in Masouleh we were all ready to brave the city again. Our time in Masouleh was mainly spent hiking, eating, drinking tea and smoking the fragrant water pipes! Women are not really meant to but even the Iranian women do as it's an Iranian holiday spot. We met a group og girlsin the hills from Rasht who told us we were going over the top with the headsarves and cheered as we all pulled them off.....however it is a little less hassle for us to wear them and we are now all showing a little hair! The only bad thing about Masouleh? I lost my precious Oakleys crossing a river and they are probebly now floating in the Caspian sea!
 So from the lush green hills we are now firmly in the desert in Esfehan. It's a beautiful city with beautiful people. I'm now used to the giggling school girls shyly shouting 'Hello', the folk with cameras pretending to take pics of their loved ones but pointing them at me, random people stopping me in the street and asking me where I'm from and welcoming me to their country and it goes on...invites to dinner, endless cups of tea from shopkeepers, old ladies dragging me into their homes and showing me pics of their children. The peope here are amongst the friendliest I have ever encountered....and the kindest. Iran and it's people are amazing...don't believe what the papers say! Though I have met many men and women who wish to leave and have made apologies for their government. I don't envy the women wearing black all day in this heat and the male/female segregation is difficult to understand. Using different doors and sitting in different parts of the bus!
 Well...off for some dinner now and a last wander through the Bizar. As I sit here I can hear the city come to life once more as the siesta ends. Families head to the parks with their teapots and stoves to make dinner, stalls and shops re-open and the traffic starts once more! It's nice to wander in the cool air that the evening brings!
- comments