Tehran: Day Twenty Three

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Getting into Tehran was unreal: sudddenly the women's headscarves were slipping back to reveal bands of hair and their clothes were getting tighter, brighter and less tent like. Everything was more modern and less uncomfortable than the stiffling atmosphere in Tabriz.

Since we arrived too early to check into the hotel we went to visit the Royal Jewel Museum, which was amazing: the jewels were so huge and flawless I almost refused to believe that they were real. There were extraordinarily decadent things too: I thought that these sort of napkin ring like things made from gold and enamel, which decorated horses tails were decadent, until I saw the tiny golden plates designed to sit on horses teeth.

After being distracted by the shiny things, me and some other people moved on to go for a walkj around the city, where we found everything apart from the park we were actually looking for. One of my top three funny moments of the trip happened when Patrick bought a pendant (he gets one from each country) from a street seller, took all of two steps and dropped it down a hole in the pavement, never to be seen again. And then, when he went to buy a replacement, he got charged twice as much for it.

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