Iran Hotel Tabriz

... projit asi pet hotelu nez jsme narazili na volny pokoj. Ale vyplatilo se, narazili jsme na hotel, ktery ma vlastni sprchu, tur. zachod i velky pokoj za naprosty pakatel (100,- Kc na cloveka). Odpoledne si Petr a Ondra vybrali zaslouzeny odpocinek po iranskem putovani a Lukas se vyrazil podivat na skalni mesto Kandovan vzdaleneho asi 45 km.
Jel jsem nejdrive minibusem do mesta Osku (25 km za smesnych pet korun), ktery byl narvany k prasknuti ...

... i výstupu se na nás sesypaly íránské taxikářské vosy. Po původní nabídce 50 dolarů za cestu do Tabrízu jsme si vyhádali cenu třicetidolarovou, ale nebyli jsme v poměrně malém autě sami, ale už jsme byli na mačkání zvyklí. Ovšem na jízdu řidiče jsme zvyklí nebyli. Čáry jsou pro řidiče zbytečným plýtváním barvou, předjíždí zleva i zprava bez ohledu na protijedoucí vozy a ...

... of the Tabriz bazaar. The ancient multidomed roofs. The bazaar was a working bazaar, so had everything you could possibly want from a practical perspective, including a large carpet section. We passed the spice shops with overflowing baskets of fragrant pink rose petals, used for rose water – a very popular fragrance used in everything from perfume to ice cream. Honey also appeared to be a local Tabriz specialty, with jars of glistening liquid honey lined up against the ...

... are enormous and make the New Zealand Waitomo caves look like midgets. Almost the entire trip is over water floating underneath weird level ceilings of limestone and deep grottos of stalactites.


Dinner at the hotel afterwards gave us the chance to sample the Iranian non-alcoholic beer, in delightful flavours such as lemon, apple, malt. Hey, it’s worth a try and it’s cold, but that’s about it! You could not call it a beer.

... dropped by and helped us pick some herbs from the fields. Dinner was cooked and despatched and we all crashed into our tents before 10.00pm to catch up on some needed sleep. All seemed well and good.

Or so we thought.

Our camping spot was astride a small rural rode with the tents pitched on either side. An old truck had woken me as it passed through the campsite at about 11.00pm. I though nothing more of it.



Then at midnight there ...

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The next morning I headed out with Steve, Sandra and Sarah. We hadn't been walking for 15 minutes when already we were approached by an eager-looking Iranian student who was keen to show us the city. He took us for a buffet breakfast in the 5* hotel, only 30,000 Iranian rials each (about $3) and then walked us around the bazaar. I enjoyed a delicious banana juice before heading back to the hostel. I then wandered across to the Blue Mosque in the afternoon with Luke ...

... mood. I eventually felt that I was spending too much time away from Ali and Ali Reza I didn't want to come across as being a bad guest so I went to sit with them and Ali Reza's roommate Amir and we started chatting. The guys had d some strange questions for me. Questions such as: Is it true married women in Canada and America have boyfriends on the side? If the husband finds out that his wife has a boyfriend, what will he do? If the wife finds out that her husband has a ...

... have none of it. He was adamant that I stayed at his friend's place. Staying at his parent's place wasn't an option as they had 5 people sleeping over already. I told him I wasn't comfortable staying at his friend's place and again he wouldn't listen. It didn't take long for me to remember how annoying Ali could be. One thing about traveling alone is that you do what you want when you want. I didn't like having people tell me what to do. So I told Ali that I would keep my stuff ...

... if I could talk about it and I asked them what did they want to know. They all huddled around me like little kids around Santa Claus when they saw that I was open to talking about it. Basically, these guys think that is all we do back home. They think it is so easy to meet a girl and have sex with them on the spot. I ask them how did they ever got this idea and they said from American movies, American TV shows and of course music videos. I told them that we weren't animals and ...