Nain Tourist Inn

Our time in Esfahan was again marked by amazing Iranian hospitality. It was almost impossible to walk two steps without hearing "hello, where are you from?"; "welcome to Iran"; "welcome to Esfahan". We had people paying for food and tea; inviting us to a birthday party (which we unfortunately couldn't make) and even a shopkeeper wanting to give us our ice creams for free, simply because we were travelling in his country!!
Esfahan was a lot less ...

As Rach said in her Shiraz post, we have had trouble accessing our travelpod website as well as Facebook and local mobile phone networks. It appears President Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Council really don't like Iranians accessing some sites, although mercifully for crazy people everywhere wanting a role model and some novel ideas, his own blog site remains accessible and is worth a read (www.ahmadinejad.ir).

On the subject of ...

Poránu (spíš dopoledne) jsme se vyrazili podívat na Esfahánský bazar. Je o něco menší než Teheránský, ale o nic méně kouzelný. Poté jsme si dali na meganáměstí divnozmrzku (talířek zmrzliny neznámé příchuti - zde prý standard - s kopcem skorozmražených oslazených rýžových nudlí). Zmrzka byla dobrá, nudle nic extra. Poté jsme zamířili kolem muzea historie přírody s hodně naivními sochami dinosaurů k lékárně ...

Dneska jsme prijeli nocním vlakem do Esfahánu - po ceste vlakem jsme se
seznámili s jedním studentem mestského designu. Ten nám nabídl, že by nás s kamarádem provedl po meste a lépe mluvícímu kamarádovi díky své nevalné anglictine radši
zavolal. Po predchozí zkušenosti s Teheránským pruvodcem jsem se z nej
dlouho snažil dostat aby bylo od zacátku jasné, že v našem setkání nebudou
hrát roli peníze, což nakonec potvrdil (asi naopak nechápal ...

We finally arrived to Esfahan today! We flew from Tulsa to Chicago, Frankfurt, Tehran and then drove several hours to Ali's home town. Josef did great on the plane... and loved the crazy driving we experienced so far. Like China - I find that no one follows any traffic laws at all.

We are exhausted - but so excited to see everything.

Today, we went shopping for food. You have to go to separate store for ...

... river had dried to a bread crust-like expanse with people walking between the banks on the dry earth. The bridge was now somewhat defunct. Although the bridges were quite beautiful as dusk fell upon them, there was something I found quite disturbing about this scene. It is how one imagines the horror of the world when there is no water, a possibility within our lifetime. Seeing a once magical scene void of water is a reality check on what could happen to our environment. Fortunately ...

(Jim)

Our B&B in Kashan had arranged a driver for the next day, so that we could go and visit the desert city of Abyaneh. The drive from Kashan to Abyaneh took us out onto the plains and right past the controversial Natanz nuclear processing facility, and as we passed by on the main road the anti-aircraft gun emplacements surrounding the site were clearly visible. Iran's uranium enrichment programme has been a major bone of ...

Again a posting from Fiona.

The group headed out on a walking tour, starting with the All Saviours or Vank Cathedral, an Armenian Church with magnificent paintings depicting the life of Christ.


There were also many panels devoted to the Tortures of St Gregory, and what tortures they were! The poor man was shown being beaten, slashed, hung and strangely enough ...

For your reading pleasure the following entries are by Fiona. A womans perspective on travelling in Iran.

The morning saw us heading off on a walking tour of the city, starting with a bit of currency exchange (US$1 = Rial 9,800). We avoid the banks and just use the small money changing shops, because there is no red tape, no delays and the rate is often better.

Then it's a tour of Emam Khomeini Square with its ...

I giggled my way to Esfahan next to Luke on the truck again, playing 20 questions and hangman. We arrived in Esfahan at about 3pm, giving us time to shower and clean up before heading out for a slap-up meal in the Jolfa Hotel in the Armenian quarter of Esfahan. We had a buffet salad bar (you can imagine the effect this had on our group, having not had much of a choice of food for 2 months), steaks and a buffet dessert bar, all for about $12! We then caught a ...