Blogs from North, Iran, Middle East - page 12

„Hic sunt leones - zde jsou lvi. Oznaceni neznameho neprobadaneho uzemi, na nemz vladne pravdepodobne barbarie a nebo take uzemi bez zakonu a pravidel“. S touto myslenkou a se zapadacky politicky zmasirovanym mozkem jsme vyrazili smer Moskva a odtud pres Kaspik do Teheranu, hlavniho mesta byvale Persie, dnesniho Iranu. Klepal mi zadek strachy a pripadala jsem si jako kdyz jedu do valky. Jak priznacne, kdyz pri opousteni ceskeho vzdusneho prostoru jsme hladce kridly letadla lizali vrchol sluncem nasvicene Snezky … Moskva-Seremetevo, tot pojem, ktery jen lehce splnuje podminky provincniho evropskeho letiste. Ctyri hodiny v jeho utrobach staci bohate na to, aby se clovek zacal tesit zas o kousek dal. A tak jsme kratce pred pulnoci usedli do plne obsazeneho Airbusu, kde ze 170 pasazeru bylo 162 muzskeho pohlavi, temer 100% perske narodnosti. V muslimskych zemich po ... read more

Kandovan A truly spectacular, amazing village, that when it was time to leave, I found it hard to pull myself away from that place. I was lucky enough to be able to be presented with the glorious opportunity of discovering this tiny village in the outskirts of Tabriz. Initially, I had my doubts of going to a village. This was because I was used to seeing houses made of wood, and thought, Kandovan would not be any different. The prospect of travelling 2 hours just to go to a village is not that exciting, if you ask me honestly. Throughout the bus trip, I was contemplating on turning back and making my way back to Tashrifaat bakery (only the best pastries they sell in Iran!) and spending my moolah there. And yes, gorge myself silly (as ... read more

5 rano. Teheran. Mama je najprawdziwszy na swiecie barani jezyk. Marek obok mnie je baranie galki oczne. I pyta, czy w Iranie jada sie baranie jadra, ale po chwili dochodzimy wspolnie do wniosku, ze to w tym kraju pewnie zostaloby uznane za niemoralne. Okazalo sie, ze w naszym hotelu nie bylo dla nas pokoi i trzeba bylo czekac do 6 rano, az poprzedni goscie sie ewakuuja, zebysmy my mogli je dostac. Dla mnie to nie problem, bo i tak przylatywalam o 3, ale reszta wycieczki byla w Teheranie juz o 23.00, wiec jezdzili po miescie, az wspolnie trafilismy na restauracje typu 'head and tail', gdzie je sie wszystko z barana - od ogona poczawszy, na glowie skonczywszy, a w powietru unosi sie ciezki mdly zapach gotowanego baraniego miesa. Paskudztwo. Musialam tam jednak wysiedziec, patrzac na rybki ... read more

Hello all! Two weeks ago we left Turkmenistan and crossed into İran... Bit of a shock! We hit Tehran fırst and had an interesting tıme gettıng around. We dıd manage to see all sorts of nıce sıtes and then headed off ın the truck. Here are the cıtıes we stayed ın: Tehran Yadz Shıraz Esphahan Bush Camp near Zanjan Tabrız The people of Iran are very frıendly. Everyone wanted to talk to us and ıt was sometımes dıffıcult to keep walkıng! The locals always wanted to know what we thought of Iran. Image seemed to be at the forefront of every dıscussıon. Meghan's experıence wearıng hıjab was not a really pleasant one. Women are certaınly regarded dıfferently and Meghan felt ınvısıble sometımes. Kwesı dıd all the talkıng and all the buyıng. It was HOT to wear ... read more

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