Blogs from Middle East - page 1185

Woke up at 6:30am and hurried to the Bank Melli Central branch only to find out that they don’t change TC's. Well now my only hope is the good old Sri Lankan embassy. Mehdi had the address in his diary and we went there. To see they have shifted. They had shifted 2 years ago but information wasn't updated in the Tehran direct inquiries. Then we stopped by at the Syrian embassy and asked them if they knew the new address of the Sri Lankan embassy. I figured that if an embassy is to move they should at least notify the embassies nearby. Fortunately they had the new address and telephone numbers and it was nearby. I went to the embassy and I spoke to the 2nd secretary Mr. S. Dawulagala and he was kind enough ... read more

Woke up around 7:30am, had Lavash, Nutella, Honey and Butter for breakfast. Mehdi and I went to the National History Museum. Mehdi showed his pass as he is doing Tourism planning for his degree and only told them that I was a student and they gave a 50% discount. Even though I am not much of a museum fan, there were a few impressive things. I liked the Iranian Salt Man, some of the old characters and statues. Some palatial ruins like artefacts which reminded me of Anuradhapura. Where you have the wooden columns in this instance like the stone columns Sri Lanka had. The National History Museum and the Islamic History Museum are side by side. The door entrances in the Islamic museum were quite nice. After the museum we went had a kebab and ... read more

Woke up around 7:30am, went across the street bought some Barbari (one of the four types of bread in Iran) came back to my dorm and ate it with cheese and Nutella. Afterwards checked my email at the hostel and called Beyruse. He said he will come at about 11am. I checked out of the hotel and put my luggage in Beyruse’s car and went roaming around the city centre. Afterwards Beyruse took me to the Soffeh bus terminal and I took the 1pm bus to Tehran. Once in the bus I continued to read Pet Semetary and then I suddenly realised that I had left my passport at Amir Kabir guest house. Generally no guest house keeps the passport but these guys decided to keep it and I forgot to take it from them. Quickly ... read more

So, after my adventures wandering around the OC alone (the Old City, that is... Inside the Wall, if you didn't know) I went back to my Hotel and all... Then the next day I checked out of my hotel and was going to catch a cab to JUC. HOWEVER, I talked to the guy at the Front desk, Joseph, who told me that the cabs only come to Jaffa Gate. Well, in case you weren't aware, my hotel was 'right' inside the New Gate. That's the NW corner of the Old City. Well Jaffa gate is approximately halfway between the New Gate and JUC. Now, being the logical person that I am, I thought this through. 1. I drag my two huge suitcases to the Jaffa Gate and get a cab to take me the rest ... read more

I arrived in Israel late on the 25th of January. I then crashed for the night, only to be awoken by a little Muslim boy kicking a car parked outside of my window, making the alarm go off. Hehe... I went into the Old City and wandered around for a bit. Well, for about three hours. I saw the Tomb of David, the Church of dormition, and a few other random sites that I bumped into. I spent about a half an hour taking with some old man, but I had convinced him that I spoke no English. Heh heh heh. He knew jsut a tiny bit less Russian than I know, but it was effective. I could string together enough intellegent sentances (or almost intellegent sentances) to get by. Hehe... It was great fun! Then ... read more