We spend the entire day in and around the City of Love, doing its sights, smells and sounds. Our guide for the day is Gholuya, an old Russian woman from Ashgabat. We start with a tour to the newly constructed gigantic Azadi mosque which is more or less a copy of the Haga Sofia in Istanbul. Unfortunately it is not that popular with the locals, since the construction work was marred by some accidents costing some workers their lives. The big hall under the gigantic dome is covered in red carpets and gives a very peaceful impression at this hour. We continute to the main square in front of the parliament which has a number of interesting sights around it. Apart from the parliament building there is a similar capitolium styled buliding with a golden dome ... read more

Sleeping late again and reducing my breakfast intake to a sip of Tip Top fruit juice form the nearly deserted hotel bar. We're going to spend the entire day exploring the city of Khiva, some 30 kilometers to the southwest of Urgench, very close to the Turkmen border. Its main attraction is the Ichon Qala, the old city surrounded by an imposing mud wall. It has been preserved and restored like an open air museum, and there are plenty of beautiful buildings around, including mosques, medressas and some major minarets. Although marked a UNESCO World Heritage site some purists would regard it as overly restorated. Personally I really enjoy the feeling of a living, breathing city as opposed to some sandy old walls peaking out from a hillside. We spend the morning wandering up and down ... read more

It is now ten days after the attacks on the twin towers, and the western world has suddenly found itself engulfed in islamophobia. News reporters, self-proclaimed experts, politicians, coffee table rethorics; just about everyone seems to have a view on the geopolitical situation which they are more than happy to share. As people struggle to cope with the new world order many a careless and judgmental axiom spread across the community like wildfire. The self-appointed company security advisor, normally engaged in counting unlocked doors at the office and scouring the shared printers for classified documents suddenly saw his chance to greatly expand his responsibilities. A company wide instruction was sent out to all employees, asking us to refrain from visiting nations loosely defined as "muslim countries". Apart from the regrettable lack of insight it was also ... read more

Our last day and we begin by wasting half of it visiting the museum of Persian carpets and another pottery museum. I suppose it can be fascinating to count the millions of knots involved in weaving a carpet masterpiece, but the detailed devotion to each and every design gets rather samey. Each time I walk through a doorway I find myself hoping that it will not open up to yet another hall but to the exit. Heading for lunch both the Bergmans and I are getting a bit fed up of the samey kebab diet and instead insist on only having the tasty soup, bread and salad, skipping the main course. The staff look at each other and Farzaneh, probably muttering something about foreigners.... Afternoon is free time and I head down to the lobby to ... read more

Last day in Esfahan and the schedule is padded with lots of air. We start out at the Esfahan Jame Mosque and the nearby bazaar. The mosque itself is full of pigeons and has some damage from an Iraqi air raid. Farzaneh describes her own memories of similar attacks. We have a quick glance through the bazaar along the way. I am always on the lookout for more portraits of the Ayatollahs and the president, having acquired a small collection already. One interesting and unusal type of shops are the ones that specialize in wedding equipment. What catches the eye is a number of big ornamented table stand mirrors in white, silver or golden colour. Another oddity is the mosque with the shaking minarets which is our next stop. Having wandered around Naqsh-e-Jahan Square the other ... read more