Shiraz - Persepolis - Shiraz

  Shiraz, Iran
Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Itinary : Shiraz - Persepolis - Shiraz
Dates : 13th of November 2007
Mileage in Iran : 1330 km
Mileage so far : 13030 km

I decided for the first time since Delhi to stay 2 days in the same place...Finally! Felt good not to have to pack the bags and load the bike in the morning. Moreover, this 2-day halt in Shiraz will allow me to do some laundry which I haven't had the chance for a long time...Some of you that have visual memory may have noticed that I've been wearing the same shirt on the bike for quite a while now...Woke-up this morning at 6 and decided to just have a walk in the streets and discover the morning city life of Shiraz. Felt nice and fresh doing this morning roaming to nowhere and I don't remember the last time I felt good like this...Then, I went back to the room to check on my buddy Kev and get ready to set off for the day to Persepolis. The main purpose of visiting Persepolis is to have a walk in the 2000 year old Persian city ruins. Very nice but the ruins are really ruins and there's not much pillars standing anymore! It was apparently destroyed by Alexander the great...Not much people either and we were maybe a handful visiting the site. Good for us.

Persepolis...falling appart!

The last 5 pillars standing...not for long!

King's tomb...long walk up to see this tomb...

Tired of walking!

entrance of the tomb...

All this walking for a stone! left before it moved

Persepolis ruins from the top...

Then we headed back to Shiraz where we went to buy a few stuff and I continued walking around town just to see the people. People make the country I guess...And I enjoy just watching them and try as much as I can to interact with them. So I got the chance a couple of times and I'm really surprised by how nice and friendly they are...Then I remembered that it was Christmas soon and that it was time to maybe do some Christmas shopping...So like I mentioned in my previous entry, I had already decided on the gift that I would bring back for the federation team...The Hezbollah caps! 1,50 usd /cap so I bought 10...The guy behind the counter that sold me the caps probably thinks that I'm going to enroll a few Frenchmen and go to Lebanon to defend my cause...Haha...By the way, because of limited space I had to sacrifice a few of my personal stuff in order to take the caps with me...Those caps are really big and stiff but I guess there are not meant to be worn to watch a baseball game or at the beach...

The army shop...Some cool stuff inside...

not impressed by my hezbollah cap purchase...

Finally, I ended the day by purchasing a souvenir for myself and being already fully loaded, I needed something light and not too voluminous. I figured that an Iranian football jersey would do the trick. So off I went to the sports shopping complex. I am delighted with the purchase...I'm not really a fan of wearing football jersey but this one is definitely a cool one to wear...The guy explained me that the name of the football player flanked on the shirt is a good player so I'm walking chin up in the street of Shiraz wearing this shirt...

My iranian uniform...Ready to go to war...

Now that I have my Iranian outfit settled, I'm ready to ride up to Yazd tomorrow which is about 500 km north-east of Shiraz. So I say goodbye to you in Iranian which is the only thing I can say because it's easy to remember...It sounds exactly like: "go to office". Maybe it's a sign!

PS : Marseillais...Je n'ai pas encore ose lever les chadors des demoiselles mais des que j'ai un apercu, je te tiens au courant. En revanche, je peux deja te dire que cote visage, je crois qu'il y a des tres belles plantes qui se baladent...

PS 2 : Maman, I've been trying to call you but can't seem to get trough! Can you give me a number where I can reach you!