Blogs from Zanjan, North, Iran, Middle East

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Middle East » Iran » North » Zanjan September 9th 2016

TAKESTAN to ZANJAN 9 September, 2016. Stage 94 143.23 Kms SubT. Kms 2036.40 kms . Road Condition: okWeather: BLUE SKY MILD 28c Time in Saddle: 6:00:58 Av Speed: av. 23.8 kph. Av Cadence. 70 RpmElevation: 500 m up; 150 m downCalories burned : > 5500 Today was another clear sky, thankfully the wind subsided from its fierceness yesterday afternoon, although prior to lunch rode in a peloton of three to conserve energy in the 20 knot headwind. After lunch we changed direction and the wind subsided and we virtually had little or no wind, which made the cycling more enjoyable. Made a deviation on route to view a construction built or commissioned by Genghis Khan in the 13-14th century. Whilst he was a bloodthirsty marauder, he did build some amazing construction, interesting to think that he ... read more
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Middle East » Iran » North » Zanjan July 16th 2014

Alam-Kandi summers & the Shahsavan nomads of Iran Yes, visiting the nomadic tribes can be amazing especially when they, mostly, do not speak the official language of your own country! :D but seems that translators are everywhere like these beautiful children. :) P.S. I hope that you know the name of official language in Iran is FARSI which is very different from Arabic! ;-) Fortunately, this time we could catch these wonderful nomadic in Alam-Kandi summers ;-) It is always interesting to hear about their lifestyle, drinking tea with them, eating fresh dairy products while being in their tented accommodation! I am very lucky that I had the opportunity to meet a great variety of very kind and friendly people there. These Azeri-Turkish speaking pastoralists migrate between their winter quarters, qishlaq, and their summer quarters, yeylaq! ... read more
me just in front of their tent. unfortunately they were not that much camera friendly
i loved these colors :)
on the way

Middle East » Iran » North » Zanjan August 7th 2010

Hamadan Hamadan, was known in classical times as Ecbatana - the ancient capital of the Medes - and was once one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. Nope, I'd not heard of it either! More often than not, travelling in Iran makes you shamefully aware of your own ignorance about things removed from that speck land at the end of the Eurasian land mass known as Europe. To a self-described history buff such as myself it is equally embarrassing and irritating to come across something such as Ecbatana for the first time and know absolutely nothing about it. Zilch. Heavy sighs for a classical education.... According to my LP guide book the ancient city of Ecbatana once had seven layers of walls - as long as classical Athens and two of which were coated ... read more
3 Zanjan - 7-8 July 2010
4 Soltaniyeh - 6 July 2010
4 Zanjan - 7-8 July 2010

Middle East » Iran » North » Zanjan October 14th 2009

Ever experienced an extremely cold night before? Well, wouldn't you know.. I had that experience when I was in Zanjan, in the northern part of Iran. When I say cold, I mean cold. Like freezing cold. Like the moment you spill water on the road, it instantly freezes. No, I am not kidding. It was about -13 deg C in Zanjan that night, and apparently, the next morning, I found out that it was the coldest place in Iran. How rad is that?! I was in the coldest place in Iran, really a lifetime-changing moment. Ok, now let's not rattle on how it's life-changing, but let's focus on what we have there, alright? The Zanjan hotel that we stayed in (I can't recall the name of the hotel, but I do know that the hotel is ... read more
Restaurant in Zanjan
Ibn Sina's tomb
Ibn Sina's tomb

Middle East » Iran » North » Zanjan October 5th 2008

Wonder of wonders, we started the day with a lie in, OzBus standards, on behalf of the sick people who were growing fat in number. We were joking about draping the back of the bus in yellow and sealing it off for quarantine. Fortunately we didn't as the bacvk of the bus is the most fun place to sit: out of all the things I learnt at school I didn't think it was that one that would come in useful on an around the world trip but the world is a funny place. Tabriz is a very funny place. We went to the bazaar, where we were the only women wearing any sort of colour whatsoever. We got some stares but nothing especially negative. The bazaar was interesting; much less touristy than the one in Istanbul ... read more

Middle East » Iran » North » Zanjan December 6th 2007

Well, we’re sitting here looking out over the snow covered mountains and town of Zanjan as the sun slowly sets, everything shrouded in the white of recently fallen snow, turning what is quite likely a fairly non-descript concretish town into something altogether quite pretty. We caught the train up at the crack of dawn yesterday morning and the snow started about halfway here, a constant and fairly heavy flurry that whipped around the train and blanketed the surrounding countryside in a good foot of snow. It was lovely walking around town with the flakes spiralling down and certainly puts a different aspect on Iran after the fairly warm weather that we’ve encountered so far in the desert regions… We left Yazd five days ago, after another couple of days walking the ancient laneways and having managed ... read more

Middle East » Iran » North » Zanjan September 4th 2007

Salam from Iran! Yes, we made it! We're now in Iran for one week! Before beginning to tell you our first impressions, we want to thank a lot Isabelle and her husband as well as Kianouche and all the people who took the time to give us useful advices about Iran. After many calculations (our visa allows us to stay 30 days in Iran and there is only one flight per week from Mashad to Bishkek, Kirghistan!), we crossed the border at Bazargan last Wednesday without any problem. The custom officer checked and stamped our visas in 30 seconds and meant "Iran border is cool, no problem!" and so we arrived in Iran!! We went directly to the little town of Maku. The idea was to have a smooth introduction to Iran before going to the ... read more
Iranian Rials make you feel as a millionaire!
Fortunatly this is not the main attitude of the people we met!
The bazaar in Tabriz




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