5/7/2014 0 Comments Iran and our travel.Iran and our travel.
Now about to leave Iran we can reflect on our last few weeks here. What a great experience and after my first couple of days if culture shock I adapted to life as a tourist here. We travelled to all the main attractions and ancient cities and sites. Seeing the religious centres of Mashhad and Qom ( where the Mullahs and ayatollahs are educated) and marvelling at the Mecca like shrines and buildings. (Iranians tried to discourage us from Going there but we thoroughly enjoyed the surreal experience, and me adorning the chador cloak ). We travelled to the desert towns and enjoyed yazd Shiraz Esfahan, with mosques and bazaars. Staying at Yazd and Kashan in old traditional homes was a hi light. And we especially loved the really unique mud brick and cave villages built into the hillsides at Abyaneh, Masuleh and Kandovan. We visited the towns on the Caspian Sea leaving the heat and desert behind, to enjoy tea and rice plantations and the greenery and lush hillsides, along with the cooler temperature. We have enjoyed hitch hiking around the country where we rarely waited longer than a minute before we were picked up. Our rides varied from families to religious Mullahs, to 3 mums on a girls weekend away. And a special mention to our 3 special young people who picked up Svend one afternoon, returned to the hotel to collect me. Took us sight seeing to gardens, changed their own own holiday plans and stayed overnight in Kashan so that they could drive us to Qom, see the holy shrine then took us to Tehran, drove us around, had dinner in an old bazaar cafe with heaps of atmosphere, and insisted we stay at their place. A wonderful time had by us all. Ironically 5 days later in another town 5 hours from Tehran we had been dropped at a park by the 3 mums and we were buying icecream when we were suddenly greeted by Sahand one of the group. When he spotted us, he had rang his parents and said I'm bringing some people home to stay and have dinner. His parents were do hospitable and we had a wonderful meal. Real memories to treasure. so Sahand, Sahid and Feruseh(??speling) many thanks for a special time. Sahand went on to help us find bus tickets for Istanbul and guided us around the 7km of covered alleys and domes of the world heritage ancient carpet bazaar where we ended up buying a rug and a silk piece that he had shown us earlier in the day. So beyond all the ancient sites we've seen it is probably the people we met in Iran that really made the visit so memorable. I can absolutely recommend a trip there for people who want something a little different and who wish to be pleasantly surprised.
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