Blogs from Esfahan, West, Iran, Middle East - page 3

Geo: 32.68, 51.68Esfahan, was the next port of call on our trip into the unknown, Mohammad's home town. He was clearly very passionate about it, and on arrival, offered to show us around that afternoon and the following day! Free tour… we were not going to complain. Our hostel was about a 15 min walk from the main square of the city where everything happens. The hostel itself was not great, especially after the apartments we had just been treated to, but there was a bed! The pillows, were most definitely not filled with feather… our guess was flour or concrete as if you had a pillow fight with them, someone would definitely be knocked out, if not die!Mo's tour was cancelled that afternoon, as Polly required his translation skills to find water purification for the ... read more

So, these are the photos that went with the previous blog... assuming the internet is being more cooperative here!... read more

The city of Esfahan has been the highlight of our short time in Iran so far. Emam square is the second largest in the world after Tiananmen square in China. The architecture is incredible, it's too bad they didn't light it up very well at night. Our favorite part of Esfahan was walking along the river by the old bridges that were built back to the 1600's. The pathways and parks were full of families setting up their picnics for breaking the fast at sunset. So many strangers approached us simply to find out where we were from and what we thought of Iran. All of them greeted us with smiles and good wishes. An older lady even offered to take us to her home for dinner. It's really too bad we had to leave the ... read more

Chang and I arrived in a hot Esfahan in the middle of the afternoon. We entered Kavan bus terminal to find out the departure times from Esfahan. But if you don’t read Farsi (which is in Arabic script) things are difficult to find in Iran. Luckily we immediately saw a desk manned by young women with headscarves and copious amounts of makeup. She spoke decent English and helped us on our way. However, outside the terminal were the wolves - otherwise known as taxi drivers. Surrounding us as they jostled with each other and shouting out English words whilst trying to grab our bags; my guard was immediately up. This time I kept quiet and watched Yang do the talking. One guy started off by offering 5,000 Tomans (5 dollars) to our hotel before adding “very ... read more

(Dienstag) Nun, ich bin im Iran. Alles ist hier furchtbar normal. Die Einreise ist entspannend-unspanned. Nur eins fehlt: Mein Rucksack. All meine Befürchtungen werden war. Er ist in Kuwait oder Dubai, oder, inshallah, in Lampukistan. Würde man in Europa jetzt wohl einen hübschen Bericht ausfüllen, fällt es hier schon schwer, jemanden zu finden, der Englisch kann und sich einem annimmt.Mit Hilfe eines netten Grenzpolizisten und dem Iran-Air-Station-Manager kommen wir zu dem Schluss, dass mein Gepäck wohl am Donnerstag Abend in Shiraz sein könnte. Eher ein frustrierendes Erlebnis. Ich wünschtre, ich wäre Ryanair geflogen und hätte mich dazu gezwungen, alles feinsäuberlich in mein Handgepäck zu stopfen. Ansonsten mache ich das beste aus dem Abend in Esfahan. Die Stadt ist gewaltig, und das was ich im Dunkeln sehe, ist allemal vielversprechend. „Esfahan ist die Hälfte der Welt“, heißt ... read more