Prince of Persia

It all began the day before I left. At work, I already felt a cold coming up, praying that I wouldn't fall ill. But in the train to my parents thing I started to feel a little bit worse. So, the next morning before I left I plundered the medicine cabinet and took it all with me. At the airport I met part of my group and met the rest at the check-in and the gate. The first flight went fine, we had a layover in Istanbul. It was the second flight from Istanbul to Tehran that I really started to feel worse. By the time we arrived I completely lost my voice. The next morning in Tehran I felt better again, but still talking was hard.
With the subway we went to Tehran downtown. All the trains and the platform is divided in a women's part and a mixed part. Women go in the back half of the train, an only women. The front part of the train is mixed, allowing men and women, but as a woman you are not allowed to stand next to a strange man. So it's mostly men or couples there. This is the same in public buses.
First we went to the bazaar, truly a maze of shops and stores.
After the bazaar we went to Golestan Palace, a palace from the Qajar dynasty. The palace was beautifully decorated with mozaik tiles and was situated in a garden. With the inside of the palace I was less impressed. Or yes, I was impressed but I did not think it was as beautiful as the outside. Every room was decorated with mirrors. Also all the chinaware, dedicated from European royals to the Qajars, displayed European events, like the Napoleonic Wars. Afterwards we had a drink in the Palace gardens and went to a museum, which wasn't particularly interesting. There were a lot of remains from Persepolis, but since we would also visit actual Persepolis, the museum visit wasn't really of added value, I thought. At night we had dinner near the hotel with a small group, we decided to go for pizza (we already had a traditional lunch). When we headed back to the hotel, we stumbled on some street theater, which was really nice to see, even though you didn't understand a word.
After one full day in Tehran, we took the 6.00 am train to Yazd, a 7 hour train ride through the desert. I slept on and off on that train.
In Yazd we had a very nice, traditional hotel. Maybe the hotel with the nicest atmosphere I encountered during the whole trip. The rest of the trip we stayed in hotels were you could easily picture a kid on a tricycle biking the hallways.
Anyway, after we put our luggage in our rooms we went into the city. Our hotel was situated just behind the main square. We first went to the water museum. It sounded very boring at first but was actually very interesting. Yazd is one of the biggest desert cities in the world. The city gets its water from the surrounding mountains. People dug qanats (underground channels) to lead the water to the city. In the city they build underground reservoirs to store the water. To prevent the water from staying still, they build large towers alongside the reservoir. These towers were wind catchers, leading the wind down into the reservoir and stir the water. Yazd is also nicknamed the City of Windcatchers. Afterwards we went to watch Zoorkhaneh , a typical Iranian sport.
Also here we visited the bazaar. Because it was the Ashura (Martyrdom of Imam Hossein) festival, they handed out free coffee and tea at the bazaar. Very sweet of course, but the coffee, brewed in a large zinc kettle, was amazingly good.
By this time it was around 6.30pm and to see the sunset we went to the roof of the bazaar. Here you have a nice overview of Yazd. After dinner we went to see the Jameh Mosque by night and took one for the road on a rooftop bar nearby (no alcohol of course). When we walked back to the hotel, the Ashura festival had started with a big parade through the streets.
The next morning we first visited the Zaroastrian Fire Temple. Before the Islam came to Iran Zaroastrianism was the religion. It is one of the oldest world's religions that still remain active and is centered around the balance between good and evil. We also visited the Tower of Silence, a circular tower were the Zaroastrians exposed their dead bodies to the vultures, in order to avoid contact of the dead body with the Earth. They also used to bury their dead in concrete boxes to avoid contact with Earth.
Now it was time for our excursion to the Bafq desert just outside Yazd. While the camel tour was a total tourist trap, the game drive in a Jeep was amazing. After this we climbed up the sand dunes to watch the sunset again. In the meantime my voice was slowly coming back.
The last day in Yazd we spend walking through the city, through the narrow allies with their clay houses. We went inside the Jame mosque and did some souvenir shopping. Around lunchtime we went back to the hotel to freshen up. Because our hotel was situated in the middle of the city center, we decided with a small group to head out again on our own. Despite what the media tells us about Iran, it's very safe and the people are very kind. After just wandering about for a while we went for lunch and drinks on the Amir Chakhmaq Complex.
Now it was time to leave Yazd behind and travel to Shiraz, the city of poets, wine, and flowers. Of course you cannot drink wine anymore.
We arrived in the afternoon. We took cabs to visit the Imamzadeh Ali ebn e Hamze shrine and the Qur'an Gate. That evening, when we were walking with the whole group towards the restaurant, I got lost for the first time (after that it happened a few extra times again). We were walking through a park were many people were picnicking, smoking water pipe and children playing. With a few others we were talking to some local people while the whole group walked on. We just saw them turning right on a street so we followed. But by the time we got there they were all gone. After walking in circles for half an hour we decided to pop into a restaurant on the corner. And there they were again, starting diner without us.
The next day was dedicated to Naqsh-e Rostam, Persepolis an Pasargad. I was really impressed by Persepolis. While traveling from one place to another, we stopped for lunch in the middle of nowhere, to eat together with a nomadic tribe. Of course this was secretly a tourist attraction, but it was nice.
The next day we went to the Nasir-al Molk mosque, or the pink mosque. The plan was to go early, because the sunlight shining through the stained glass is the most beautiful again. But we had some delay, since the clock was turned back one hour. But it wasn't less beautiful, it was amazing. After that we went to the Vakil bazaar and Vakil mosque. But not before we stopped at the Khan School and had a little Qur'an reading. At the Vakil bazaar it's amazing all the colors of spices you see and smell! We had lunch just behind the bazaar in a really small authentic place, not a big restaurant, which was really nice!
After lunch and the Vakil mosque we went to the Botanic Gardens, which was not that special, and the tomb of Hafez, the poet. This is a place were people come to think and relax, read poems of Hafez, which are very liberal, and, apparently, discuss politics. We met a girl there that was opposed to all the rules. She took of her headscarf (because not every headscarf is an official Hijab) and started talking to us about how things slowly start to change. People still get arrested for dressing 'inappropriately' but are often released immediately afterwards.
And now we had dinner again in a fancy restaurant, the Shapouri House. At night we visited the Imamzadeh Ali ebn e Hamze shrine again. This time we went inside and all the women in our group had to wear a chador. But for tourist the hand out a 'chador', a white one, which is basically a bed sheet.
We left Shiraz behind for Esfahan, which was a shame because I felt we didn't see a lot of city life there, although we visited a lot of sights.
Esfahan is the second largest city of Iran. Our hotel was located just across the Khaju Bridge, so at night I ventured out, together with my roommate and a few others. I seems that the city life of Esfahan is concentrated on and under that bridge. People playing music, smoking water pipe or just causally walking about. It was nice. It is a shame though that there isn't water flowing under the bridge. The river has been dry for several years now. Not entirely of global warming, but because they have built a dam to redirect the water. So apparently now water flows through the city only a couple times a year.
The next day we visited the Sheikh Lotfollah mosque and the Naqsh-e Jahan squeare, one of the biggest squares in Esfahan and apparently a former polo field. We visited other bridges of Esfahan and walked around on the boulevard. This is the kind of stuff you want to do if you want to experience city life.
Our last day in Esfahan was spend in New Julfa, the Armenian Quarter of Esfahan. Here we visited several Armenian Cathedrals. The paintings inside depicted the story of Jesus. The pictures of Heaven and Hell did remind me a bit of the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch back home.
The next day we travelled to Varzeneh, another desert city. On the way we stopped in Nain and visited the oldest mosque in Iran, from the 8th century. Back in the bus we drove for another hour or so and stopped in the Ghoratan citadel, one of the largest citadels still inhabited by people. Finally we arrived in Varzeneh. Varzeneh is situated in Dasht-e Kavir, the great salt desert. We spend the night here in an eco-lodge. That same evening we went to the salt desert to see the sunset. As tourists you are kind of obliged to take those perspective photo's people do on Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. So we did as well. In the evening, back at the eco-lodge we went to the rooftop to watch the stars, played some games, smoked water pipe and drank some hallucinogenic tea.
We continued our trip to Abyaneh, a historical village with only around 350 inhabitants. With about 3500meters above see level it is nice and cool here. Here we could roam the village allies and I got lost again. After having found part of my group again we went back to the hotel and played some games. With a few people we arranged to get up early and climb to an old fort in the mountains. Here you also had a nice few of the village against the mountain's edge. After the climb we spend a lot of time in a nice coffee bar in this village and started chatting with the owner and his wife and some other travelers.
After Abyaneh we went to Kashan, just another city. I did not really get what we were doing here, and others agreed with me. We asked our guide if we could visit Qom, the religious center of the country. After a few phone calls, we were cleared to go. In Qom we were only allowed to visit the shrine of Fatimah bint Musa, sister of Imam `Ali ibn Musa Rida (Imam Reza), whose shrine we visted in Shiraz. A local guide there showed us around the shrine for only 15min, because it was almost prayer time and we were not allowed to go in any of the rooms.
Early in the morning we took the train back to Tehran, were we visited the former US Embassy and the Tabi'at Bridge and park. After dinner I had a cocktail (virgin of course) with a few others. The rest went to bed since we had to get up and go to the airport at 1.30am. After drinks we also wanted to go, but a few Iranian people were celebrating someones birthday and insisted that we would have cake with them. So we did. We ended up talking till around midnight, meaning that we only had 1.5 hour of sleep before we went to the airport.