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Today was a free day so Gabrielle, Robert, Anya and I decided to do our own walking tour of Yazd.
After a breakfast of egg, bread, jam and water melon we headed off into the sunshine. By 9am the temperature was already in the 30's so we made the most of the shade of the high walls in the old city. First stop on our tour was Khan-e-Lari. This 150 year old building is one of the best preserved houses in Yazd. The badgirs, traditional doors, stained glass windows, elegant archways and alcoves give it a very grand feel. Owned by merchants it shows the opulence in which they lived. Next stop on the tour was Alexander's Prison and the tomb of the 12 Imams. Whilst we were stood outside wondering where to go next a gaggle of giggling school girls all about 10-12 years old descended upon us. Whatever their age the Iranian people are so happy and pleased to see you. One girl spoke very good English and asked us the usual "How are you?", "Where are you from?", "What is your name?" and "How old are you?" questions before their teacher made them hurry on to the school bus.
After all that excitement we decided it was time for a tea break so we headed inside the Fahadan Great Hotel. It has a beautiful courtyard tea house and I tried a Date Milk shake, which was really tasty. Feeling refreshed we started heading back towards the hotel, occasionally browsing in some of the shops along the way. By now it was lunchtime so we started to look for somewhere to eat. We were all getting a bit hot, bothered and hungry by this point but we couldn't seem to find anywhere to eat. Eventually we found a tiny restaurant with only a handful of tables. No one spoke English and there was no menu. However, through pointing at other peoples food, hand gestures and a few phrases from my Lonely Planet guide we managed to order food and drinks for all of us. We shared some rice, chicken stew, vegetable stew and bread and it came to about £1 each!
Yazd is famous for it's sweets, which can be bought at hundreds of shops throughout the city. The sweets are amazing they have Almond Louz, which is made from Almond p**** Willow and Sugar, Baghlava, Coconut Louz, Ghotab, Haji badam and my favourite Pashmak, which is a local version of Candy Floss and it tastes really, really good. We knew that we had a 5 hour coach journey the next day so we all stocked up on some provisions. We wandered back to the hotel only stopping for an ice cold, freshly squeezed strawberry slushie.
That evening Mustsfa arranged for us to go to the gym. Seems a bit bizarre especially as it was well in the 30's and I haven't been to a gym since I was at school! The reason for going was to watch a men only exercise class. Again sounds a bit odd but men all over Iran attend these classes, which have traditions dating back over 200 years. It starts with a leader playing a beat on a drum. He then sings some traditional Farsi songs thanking god for giving the men the strength to do the exercises and being healthy and the men reply by praising god. It's very rhythmic and structured and the age of the men varied from young boys aged about 12 up to men in their 70's. I sat next to an Iranian lady from Tehran. She told me that the songs and the chanting made it similar to yoga as the men were encouraged to think about their mind as well as the physical aspects of the exercise. She also told me that it was the first time she had seen this as Iranian women aren't usually allowed into the gyms. It was really interesting to see - although that exercise didn't stop me from having another saffron ice-cream!
We returned to the hotel were Mustafa produced a Shisha pipe so we sat around talking and some of us attempted to smoke the pipe (see photos to show that I didn't get very far!).
- comments
Gabrielle It should read "We were all getting hot, bothered and hungry AND Gabrielle had a meltdown!"
Sarah Ha, ha I know I was trying to be polite!