One more day in Esfahan

In Esfahan I found Yuki and Miwa again from Tehran so we exchanged eachother the pics we had taken on m first day there when we had spend the day with Hossein. Here is one of me and Miwa in Hossein house taking notes on what he was telling us! :)

They are heading back to Tehran tommorrow and im going to go to Yazd. Esfahan is a beautiful city, with impressive bridges crossing the Zayandeh River. Even better is the Imam square by day and by night with the imam mosque and the Ali Qapu Palace which are beautiful!!! The pictures will come once I get home and can get them onto a computer. I dont know how many times I have been in that square in the few days that I have been here. I have established myself in the hostel where all lonley planet travelers go and from here I will be traveling up and down to multiple cities. I wanted to go to a dessert village described as having 160 people and 2 camels but I called and they said its too hot to go and its closed due to sickness...so forgeting about that option! Today I have been to the armenian quater Jolfa and seen a beautiful church of Bethlehem - no pictures allowed. All the walls where painted with detail and precision and it was beautiful. Many mosques are painted in turquoise and lighted by night, you just want to sit and look. Immam square yesturday was full of people having their picknick on the grass, guys and girls playing with balls, motorcycles going around, shops selling icecream and as in all cities carriages with horses going around. However these carriages seem to have their magic. The best is that everybody does their thing, playball,go with motorbike etc super fast and yet no one seems to be bumping into eachother.

My main worry at this point is what will I do when I go back home and I cant eat iranian food. Im ready to search for iranian restaurants the day I get home. The food is simply delicious, I have had such varied food, from eggplants,garlics,olives,meet,kebab HEILEHUP (delicious...however that is writen in Farsi!)

As you can imagine yesturday everything was closed because it was Friday, thus weekend. Like a sunday back home, all the shops closed. People insist I look from here and ask me questions in Farsi, I stare at them :) Afterall this culture is close to ours, eating times are late shops close in the middle of the day and driving isnt like Holland. I think in Spain we would drive like in iran if it wasnt for the fact that the point system is freaking people out!! Saeed was trying to drive Dutch Style in Esfahan. He started using the yellow light to change lanes, he didnt beep at the people crossing the street etc, it was funny but it didnt really work :)

Today is the 1 year aniversary of the elections and they had said maybe something might be going on. On TV they announced they did not want groups of more than 2 people walking in the streets as they were scared people would do protests, but I have seen very little police in the streets and no real problems. They had also said that if protests would go on then they would cut phone lines and internet, but luckily all is under control.

Iranian hospitality has no limits

The hospitality of the people in this country doesnt have limits and its hard to describe it.
Basically you cant spend more than 24 hours alonewithouthaving an interesting conversation with one person or another.

For instance the receptionist in the hotel in Tehran, Mr. Mousavi, By mail he already offered to do a pick up in the airport for me , and then while having lunch eh would make sure that the BBC was on and that I would have access to the english written newspaper. He also sold me a sim card for my phone and took all the possible actions within the next 72 hours until my phone got unblocked and fully working. He organiszed all my trip bybus to Rash where he organized a taxi for me to Masuleh. He called me on the way to Rash to make sure I was arriving, then he called the taxi then he made sure I got on the right taxi, then he told the taxi where to go. I wanst sure if that was the right taxi. He told me it was taxi 115 but i couldnt see the number. Keep in mind they dont use our alphabet, so i didnt want to do a 1h ride with the wrong taxi. I didnt get into it until Mousavi talked to him and confirmed that was the right car.

He reserved me a place with his friend in Masuleh, all of this involved tons of phone calls for which he shouldnt even have helped. And im not talking about a 5 star hotel in Tehran, but a small hotel in the south of Tehran by the bussy Amir Kabir street. To add to it he wrote everything down in a paper for me in english and in Farsi so that I wouldnt get lost.

I had my breakfast with delicious rose jam ohhhhhhhhh that was so so so good!!! I then eat an egg and start caughing so so hard and i hear someone go AB AB AB .. and it took me a few seconds to realize that they were saying WATER WATER...the watier comes with a glass of water a minute later.

As I left the hotel to go take the bus in Ferdosi street I start walking and bump into quite a few people that say hello, i dare to cross some crazy streets with 10 motorbikes coming at 100km per hour against me... and after asking for Arjentin Arjentin a few times I find my bus!!! In the bus a girl stops me and asks me tons of questions. Who am I where am i from, how do i like iran. Do I need help? She can take me to the last stoop Arjentin, where i have to go and show me which bus goes to Rash. So nice!! Not needed but so nice. Everybody thinks Im iranian even this girl told me she thought I was from here and my backpack was cuz i was going ot go climb hehehehe!! Her friend even offers to pay for my ticket "iranian tradition" I tell her its not needed and i payed when i got off. Its 12 kilos i dont understand why its so heavy, but well... she shaked my hand suddenly and got off the bus.

The buses are segregated men go in the front and women in the back. When u get off the bus u have to go to the front door and give the money to the driver!!

Thanks to Mousavis writing in Farsi I quickly find my bus and pay for my ticket! After 15 minutes we leave Tehran which within the city has various expressways. In the bus they gave us te, cookies ,sunflower seeds and cake. And if that wasn't enough the woman next to me she gave me a cucumber, i told her no thanks, but i had to eat it. Afterwards she took out a bag of candy and gave me two, later an apricot, and then once i ate that another one!!And you cant say no cuz she will not take the bag of food from in front of u until u put ur hand in it and take something. She also gave me more dried fruits and took my tea glass and put hers in it so that I don't get burned. All of this without her speaking english and me farsi. So u know i take my 2 pages of farsi english dictionary and i make a few sentences such as Im going to Masuleh, tomorrow i go to esfahan. I am from spain. My name is... it works, we start talking. She calls her son and she starts writing in a paper"do you have a taxi for u waiting? i can help" sooooo nice!!! i take the opportunity to get the pronunciation of the numbers right. Suddenly she gives me the bags with fruits she has left and gives it to me... no words, i have no words. And i have nothing to give to her.

We stoped in the middle to go to the toilet where all the woman take out their headscarf , i have to say i feel quite confortable dressed like this.. u cant see my overweight!!! headscarf is okay and walking in the mountains as well is horrible, so hot!! (more on that to come on next entry..) In that stop over the woman bought a bunch of bread but i had to say no i really couldn't eat any more!!!

Once I got in the taxi from Rash to Masuleh the taxi driver called the guy in Masuleh and dint leave me until the guy from the hotel came. Wowwww!!!

much more and more astonishing comments on Iranian Hospitality coming up very very soon!!
I cant check facebook from here.

oh some guys were talking infornt of me and i thought "omg i sudenly understand farsi perfectly!!! then I realized they were speaking czech..."looser!

Back in Tehran

The master students with who I have spend the day today!!

Hello!!! Sorry for my major disappearance, I have so much to tell but no real time to write. I have been in the mountains for 48 hours and some amazing things have happened.Im currently at a home of a university professor in Tehran. You are wondering, what how when whatt?? LONG AMAZING STORY. In a few hours I will be heading to Esfahan to meet Reihaneh. This country is a country of contrasts and beauty in the north it was so green and dense, the last thing I expected. And people kindess and friendships are amazing.Im thinking of quitting work and becoming a world traveler and guide book writer. I will do a proper entry on my trip to Masuleh when I have time, for now just wanted to let you know that I really love this country and that I am alive. The best, there are no tourists, a real pitty!

NEVER MIND MY CLOTHING STYLE!!!
Take Care you all.

What estrong Im in Iran!

Hello!!
I wanted to put some pictures up of the day but. . . I just realized the cable I brought is for super mini usb and i have a medium USB so forget about that. . . Images will come one day or other.

This morning I woke up to the beautiful words (I talk to myself..."everyone is in the office and you are in Iran") So I went for breakfast and then decided to go explore the city. This time on my own. I dont know where all the dangers everybody mentions where as I faced none really. Yeah at the beggining and generally speaking it was mainly men in the streets. Woman were fully covered in black and others in tigher/shorter fashion. However I dont feel its as strict as in Saudi Arabia or any other countries, woman still show hair and the young ones are dressed quite liberaly. I had no problems at all. In the entire day I had maybe the intuition 3 times that a guy was following me, but I simply started walking slower, asking people directions, looked at him with a face of FUCK OFF and that was more than enough. For the rest a couple whistles and commetns here and there but nothing really compared to the amount of people I crossed.

At the first moment I was lost so I decided to ask people for the Bazaar. As simple as it is the word Bazaar it seemed like people where not really understanding. I tried many different pronounciations until finally I think I got it right. The problem is that the word Bazaar led them to ask me 10,000 questions which I could not understand. I made it to Goldestan palace where I saw 2 tourists (yeahhhhyyy tourists!) and an iranian couple that tried to talk to me with an impossible to overcome language barrier. In the back there was a girl looking at me and smiling who had an SLR and finally she came up to me and asked me questions. Serah walked me later to the bazaar and the Immam Khomeini mosk and she bought me a bottle of water. I have to say people here are quite nice, always asking where you are from and how you are.

The streets are hazzling, forget about the word traffic light. cars busses and motorcycles up and down. This is not like south east asia where motorcycles dominate but it is mainly cars going very quick and driving crazy. My tactic wait until someone appears at the crossroad and cross right by them. If that doesnt work, wait 2 seconds take a deep breath and cross making sure that the only thing approaching are cars and motorcycles. If a bus is approaching tactic is simply to wait.

In the bazaar I also bought a very long thing to cover myself. The guy was saying that the price in Spain would be more expensive. As I told him it was too expensive. And I said "yeah maybe it would, but trust me I wouldnt wear that there" he started laughing...

I also visited the Jewels Museum. Had to cross a super huge door where the jewels are hidded, the amount of silver,dimonds etc was incredible. A security gard approached me and I though I had to leave, but all he wanted was to knwo where I was from hehehe.

Also the official goverment builduings are quite grayish and huge. This city aint that nice at all, specially this center where Im staying as its full of small shops and very buzzing, but that is what I like about traveling. Outside the official builduings there are billboards with phrases from the Koran. i wanted to take some pictures but it was clearly forbidden by signs, i asked twice and they said No. So No is No!!

I ate this intresting icecream with coconut, pistacho, nuts ..it was like a Mcflurry but simply way better!!

Also, its a mess cuz they have Rials and Tomman. So 1 Tomman is equal to 10 rials. Its a mess cuz i never know what people are speaking in and I constantly get confused :S

The headscarf once its on u bearly notice it, so so far so good.
By the way yesturday I was in the gate of Ahmadinejad residence and working area.
I have been told I look iranian... oh really!?
And tonight dinner with Zainab.

Sorry about the pictures!!
Im leaving Theran tommorrow, and must just add what estrong Im in Iran!

im wearing a headscarf!

I am not very used to the head scarf specially when u have to go to the common toilet of the hotel and u need to leave ur room and put on the head scarf!!! Or when u are in the car with the window open and the wind just makes your headscarf go off... But so far so good.

Woke up this morning and got a sim card which is still blocked but I can now recieve calls!! I then asked a question to a japanese couple that was sitting next to me having breakfast and they told me they had met an Iranian man yesturday at the airport that was going to show them the city. I decided to join in. Hosein came with his wife and two girls one 9 one 4... first he took us to the famous Azadi tower!!! Toook the must take pictures. The best is this guy speaks fluent japanese so the entire day we were speaking japanese. I cant speak it and yet I understood quite a few conversations. Such as before crossing the streets. kioskete!! abunai!!! kuruma!! made - kara! ginko!gohan!tanjobi! For the first time in my life japanese soudned more familiar than any other language.

So afterwards he invited us to his home where he had ice creem, corn,pistachos. I also go to dirnk non alcohoolic beer which had a peculiar yet delicious taste.It was great. He then took us to the north by the mountains sa d abad museum complex which was the summer residence. It was great. His family was sooo nice. We put music in the car and we were all singing and dancing to it!!! We had lunch at a faboulous place outdoors where you sit down in the carpets and had some amazing rice and kebab and salad. The day was wonderfull, he later invited us again to his home and he gave each of us a free shirt (or smth to wear..) amazing!!! And having picked us up at the hotel at 11 we got back at 9pm! A long amazing day!!!

Everyone asks me what am i doing here alone, traveling alone. I hadnt contacted my famliy so they contacted my hotel hehehe to ask if i was here and the receptionist let me know adding the sentence "everybody thinks this is a dangerous place". I was the ony forign girl I saw crossing the border. But I got two contacts here so I think it will be fine!!