IsfahaaaaaAAANNNNNN

Drag the last bit of Esafahan out and say it like this "IssfaaahhaaaaAAANNNNNnnnn"

WELCOME TO ESAFAHAN! Salam!



The process of buying my 3euro four hour ticket to Esfahan was rather simple. I found the bus agency along the main road in Yazd, made lots of gesturing actions and pointing at maps to obtain a ticket and find out where the bus was leaving from and at what time. Rocked up to the bus stop after being left to die in the Zoroastrian Cemetery, was then watched by the whole station walking up and down with my back pack like a stupid tourist asking (Wheres my bus to Esfahan?) (platform 13, everything is in Frasi mind you) No, not 13, number 1, no, 6, no... 3.. AHhh THREE!! yes , to Esfahan! SALAM!



The bus was rather pleasant, they even give you cookies and fruit juice. The bus was pretty empty, the air condition lame, but the Movie in Frasi made up for it! (not) It was this exciting drama of a man who was a robber, and after doing a robbery, hoped in a shared cab, where this beautiful persian girl was crying, she then got out of the cab near the train station, leaving her bag behind. Him, being a robber, went through her bag and found a suicide letter, he then chased her and saved her from jumping infront of a train (how romantic) then they courted for a while, and i dozed off to sleep somewhere around then, but woke up for the GRAND TWIST! (see the reason why she wanted to kill herself was cause she had a rocky childhood, she witnessed the death of her father by two robbers as a kid, her mums been in a mental institution ever since) AND GUESS WHO KILLED HER FATHER AS A CHILD?! YUP! you betcha, her lover, the man who saved her life! THE END! I was glad when the movie was switched off, in went the Ipod, though i was a little startled when i realised we were stopped at a checkpoint and an army solider came on for inspection (i was in my singlet and rolled up shorts again cause the aircon was crap!) it was all good though. Evening was approaching, and the buses party lights where switched on, illuminating the aisle in a retro fluro blue and red! (cool). See all these things are disraction! All of a sudden, the bus stopped along the highway, with only a few people getting off. I wondered if this was Esfahan, i didnt see any signs, and i thought that the bus was direct to Esfahan, so i assumed we would be stopping at a main terminal. Hmm, out went the ipod, and i walked to the front, where the bus was taking off again... "Excuse me, Is this Esfahan?" "IsfahannnNNNnnn?? ... you...? IsfahannnnNNN?" ***BRAKE****the bus stoped and i was gestured off, got my bag from the under carriage and caught a taxi into the city!



IT was obviously a shared taxi, even though i was the first in it. See , if this was Lebanon, i would ask TAXI? or SERVICE? meaning Private or Shared. Though i still havent mastered the lingo in Frasi, so i try to catch the old rickerty looking cabs who beep and flash their lights, meaning shared taxi, to save money. But when i speak english i know im screwed, and the price just went up three fold. Its not a matter money, cause you end up doing your head in over a matter of $3-5 dollars, but its the principle, that they think your a rich western tourist! From now on im saying im from Lebanon (i hope they cant speak arabic!) Anyway this cab drive who was in his late 50s, hated SADDAM "SADDAM, VERY BAD MAN!" but liked old school 90s music! he explained he didnt like Iranian Music, so the drive into Esfhanan was shared with MC HAMMER! CANT TOUCH THIS!!



I then had the evening to wonder around Esfahan. It was a "friday night" by western standards, really it was wednesday night, but their weekends here are Thursday and Friday. So everyone was out on the cruise! It was just too funny to watch! I sat along the banks of Sio Se-Pol and watched the groups of Iranian boys and girls walking passed eachother and turn and giggle and point! They wear skinny leg jeans here! A first ive seen yet! Esafahians are slightly more fashionable i think, that or Yazd was just really conservative! Lots of nose jobs here, both guys and girls wear their bandages with pride, almost assif to say "HA! im rich and beautiful now cause i had a rose job!"



The next day was spent doing the sites. Imam Square was pretty impressive, its supposedly the second largest square on earth second to Tiananmen Sq in China. When the sun got a bit much for me at midday i retreated in an internet cafe till things cooled down. In the afternoon i realised that the main Jame Mosque was closed, i had missed the opening times it seemed! It was open at midday when i was at Imman Square though i dont particular like walking into Mosques at pray time and snapping away with my Camera, feels a bit disrespectful so i thought it will be open in the evening. OH WELL, im slightly becoming numb from viewing so many Mosques, its like when in Europe, you can only handle so many Churches! So i visited the Chehel Sotun Palace, which was nice grounds, i took photos for this Iranian couple who i then latter bumped into at the ice cream shop. The dude, (whose name i forgot) pushed in line and bought me an icercream! They had those big middle eastern style icecreams, where they whip them up extra long and its split, half chocolate, half vanilla! Wasnt that nice of them! Everyone's so nice here !!!



Well not everyone, when chilling out at Imam Square - if the locals arnt sure they ask me for the time in Frasi, and it takes a little while for me to register what they are actually asking for, then they realise im not a local, and comes the usual conversation - This dude (will call him Aziz for namesake) Aziz seemed rather friendly and invited me back to his carpet shop for some tea. How could i refuse!? Tea and carpets! HA! i told him straight out , look im back packing so i cant buy a carpet, YES NO PROBLEMS, COME AND SEE MY SHOP! Alright!!! It was a pretty average carpet shop in comparison to the others ive seen, after sitting for a while and sipping tea and chatting about the difference of lifestyles, Aziz was like, so which carpets are you interested in? "ahh im not, their lovely, but i cannot afford one" "no we have off sure accounts no problem with credit card" (that was obviously a pre meditated selling line) "yes but i cannot fit a carpet in my backpack" "we have small ones!" "OKAY AZIZ, thankyou for your hospitality, its time for me to go now, goodluck with your business!" "NO...WAIT...!" ahah poor bloke, but i said in the beginning i cant buy one, i was only in it for the tea! I think they need to reassess their target market!



In the evening i dinned at a rather atmospheric restaurant above Imam Square, it was real nice! I had no clue what i was in for when i order Beryani (i think thats how you spell it? i thought it was only an Indian dish) When it first came out i was rather disappointed by the look of it, just folded naan bread, with this pattay mixture inside, ontop some green garnish, and lime on the side. At first i didnt know how to eat it. Dinning can be rather confusing and embarrassing as i feel that the locals are watching me (or perhaps im being self conscious) So i began to brake it up and eat it with my fingers and gobble it down like the others (WANT TO EAT, WANT TO EAT?) It was the most delicious meal i have had yet in Iran! Oh apart from the Dizzi i ate in Tehran. Dizzi was a difficult one to eat! Firstly came the bowl and cutlery and then this little bowl of pickels and bread... then came the Dizzi, in a circle stoned hot pot with this garlic-crusher/plunger looking device ontop of the hot pot... The waiter then tipped and red soup into my plate while keeping the plunger in the hot pot, filtered all the soup out and then gestured the (Want to eat ) action! So i slurped the soup to begin with (HE WAS STANDING IN THE CORNER WATCHING I SWEAR!) and then opened the plunger where a mixture of beautiful mutton and chickpeas and potatoes was inside! I didnt know if i should crush it all with the plunger, or if it was used to keep the food warm, so i scooped half of it out and ate the pieces whole, then crushed the rest into a stew (i think that was the correct way) That was my Dizzi in Tehran! Anyway im side tracking...



I left for Abyaneh the next morning! ESAFAHAN was nice, though i liked Yazd better, it had more of an atmosphere, perhaps because it was the weekend in Esafahan and majority of shops and stores in the Bazaar were closed.

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