Esfahan - the half of the World

we decided that our next destination will be Esfahan. Our bus was supposed to leave at 5 pm, but we realized that it's not so obvious.. it leaves when the driver wants ;-) surprisingly the bus was a comfortable Volvo with air condition and even more surprisingly Iranian highways are really modern (and definitly much better than those Polish ;-))!

we stopped once on the highway as some people wanted to eat, and others wanted to pray. the place was very small- there was only one wc, one restaurant and one shop. we decided to buy something to drink in the shop and what we discovered? the shop was selling only... knives...it had like 500 different kinds of knives... I really don't know why in the middle of the highway there was such a shop (and none else!) and who would buy such an item while travelling... ;-)

we got to Esfahan quite quickly. it's another weird thing - lonely planet was saying that this journey takes about 17h, but we arrived there 5h earlier than we thought - which means at 5am. maybe because of the crazy driver, but I'm not sure if the not crazy do exist in this country!!! Ours was driving with one hand, with another he was eating and moreover he had a mini screen on which he was watching a movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and he was driving at least 140h/h!!!!!

But actually after what I've seen in Tabriz I wasn't very surprised! it's quite a challenge and almost impossible thing to cross a street! nobody cares about the traffic lights, and when you're already on the street, you have to run,cause the car will smash you, but it won't stop...It's also very normal if there are 4 people on motor or 9 people in the car... ;-) motors driving on the pavements as well as on the bazaar's streets is also normal.


but ok,we're still in the bus and of course we're its biggest attraction. people are as usually very nice, but sometimes it's becoming a bit annoying..
example: a woman gives me a piece of pizza
me: no, thank you.
woman:no, but please,take a pizza
me:no really thank you
woman: I really would like you to eat it
me:but I'm really not hungry
woman:but I really insist
so ok,I'm taking this pizza and I'm throwing it away later,because I dont wanna eat it...


we arrived to Esfahan very early in the morning and another surprise was waiting for us. and this surprise is an old guy - English teacher whom we met at some stop station and with whom we spoke about 2 minuts.. it turned out that he took another bus and he decided to wait for us 30 minuts (at 5am!)....ok, so he took us a taxi and he drop us to the hostel (famous Amir Kabir), then he insists we meet him the next day at Imam Square..we say ok, but the next day it turns out that he waits for us in front of the hostel...we say him we don't have time and from now on we decide to be more assertive with annoying people... well... yeah... we were assertive only 2 minuts as some young guy started to talk to us. he seemed to be nice, but after, he didn't want to leave us! his mouth didn't shut at all, he kept on talking, he was so boring and annoying. and he didn't want to leave us even when we stopped talk with him and told him we were waiting for our friends.. I really don't know how to deal with these people...

Esfahan turned out to be really nice city! we're not surprised that it is considered to be a "pearl of Persia" and "a half of the World". The central place was Imam Square with its Imam Mosque and Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque.




We visited also amazing Vank Cathedral and Jameh Mosque.






And when it was too hot we were going to the parks and hidden in palaces - Hasht Behesht Palace and Chehel Sotun Palace.




The evenings we were relaxing at the border of the river with a view tothe Bridge of 33 Arches



In Esfahan we discover also that Iran is smaller that we thought. In the hostel we meet our Trans Asia train buddy -Andre from Germany. The last day we also meet our French couple from the train :-)

Few times I've also seen a"morality police" and was also hiding! unfortunately for girls (and boys) it's not allowed in Iran to go buy car with a boy(s), otherwise they might have problems. It's not allowed either to walk on the streets together, without mentionning the fact of kissing or having sex... these are the rules we know do exist here in Iran, but for us - Western people it's really difficult to understand and accept. I'm facing them for first time already in the train, when I was sitting together with the boys in their compartment (with open doors) and controller told me I was not allowed to sit there and had to move.. but why we cannot have just a small talk?


MORALITY POLICE LOOKING FOR INNAPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR


the police wanted from me once something, but I have no idea what... I was talking with some Iranian girls and when I asked them what they wanted, the girls just replied: "oh nothing..don't worry..". anyway myself and Asia don't worry indeed - I wear turban instead of a scarf (I'm too hot in neck) andAsia don't wear a a tunic. apparently as far as we don't break Iranian rules in an obvious way (i.e. we don't walk naked) they're quite tollerant with the foreigners... let's hope..

Our first day in Esfahan is also a first day of Ramazan -which means that Muslims are fasting from the morning till the sunset and we're not supposed to eat and drink in public either. And at the beginning we were always hiding while drinking, but then we discovered that so many Iranians eat and drink on the streets, so we do the same. And apparently they can accept it,but they cannot but wonder when they see smoking women. Once, Asia was smoking on the balkony - and EVERY person from EVERY car was staring at her as at a polaar beer. our question with no answer is:"what is worse in Iran? smoking woman or a woman without a scarf??"

our another question is: "why girls start to fast during the Ramazan when they're 9 years old, and boys when they're 15?????"

my favourite place in Esfahan is Bazaar. the last day we meet Mohsen who showed us his carpet shop and other interesting places in Bazaar. I promised him that next year I'll buy a carpet from him -Inch'allah... :-)

Tabriz - and we discover amazing Iranian hospitality and... Persian carpets... :-)

the first thing we saw at the station in Tabriz after getting off our train was a huge picture of Imam Khomeini... well, welcome to Iran!! Within next days I'll find out that Imam Khomeini is omnipresent.. Main streets and squares of Iranian cities have his name, his pictures are in all hotels, many shops and other buildings and moreover we see Khomeini every time we have to pay, as his face is also on all bank-notes (yeah! each face-value..)...



In front of the station there were already taxi drivers waiting for us. We shared one with an Australian guy that joined us in the train in Van. After 3 days of the trip my only dream was a shower! after finding a hotel we took a very quick one, as we wanted to start visiting the city asap.

I cannot describe what was going on when we went out of the hotel - EVERYBODY was staring at us!!! It's really incredible and impossible to explain it to you. It's maybe as in an European city an ET, or Pope, or Madonna would walk on the streets. It's totally incredible and weird for us and it's quite difficult to get used to it. And people's reactions are very different. Some of them just stare at us, some of them smile to us, some laugh, and those more courageous come and talk to us (hello, where are you come from, welcome to Iran, what do you think about Iran etc). anyway NOBODY stays indifferent. The most absurd situation was when a little child stopped to cry, because it saw us :-).

Anyway the first day we were heading to the Tourism Office, but after about 5 minuts of walk, a mother with two daughters came to us and invited us for a dinner. Just like that!! Quite unususal in Europe!! So we decided to accept the invitation and taste typical Iranian dinner. It turned out that the only person speaking English was a 12 years old girl, but her English was amazingly good! In terms of accent, grammar and vocabulary! As far she was the best English speaker we met in Iran. The family was incredibly hospitable! They asked us at least five times if we wanted to sleep in their place. As Asia said if we would have asked them to give us their TV, they would give it and would be happy to do so... :-) Unfortunately for me the mother cooked a sheep.. And I didn't eat any red meat for more than 10 years... but I just couldn't refuse eating this dinner - I hope that at least the sheep was killed in humanitarian conditions...

The second day we found out that it's impossible to plan anything in Iran, as life here is too unpredictable. Since the first day in Tabriz we spent only 5 minuts in the center and we didn't get to the Tourism Office, we decided to go there straight in the morning. But on the way we decided to visit a Christian church in Tabriz. And it turned out that the person we asked for directions was Mansur Khan - brother of the Nasser Khan who is "the legendary multilingual pillar of the tourist information office" ( lonely planet p.150) about whom we read already on all blogs and forums we were following. We discovered that Nasser loves Polish people and he welcomed us with the most absurd Polish expressions (w morde jeza, jestem zajebisty, wyluzuj). Moreover we had this pleasure and honnour of being invited to his house for a dinner, where we met all his family. Mansur showed us also where we should have an Iranian breakfast - yoghurt with honey and nan (bread) - yuuuuummmyyy!!!!!

This day we also went to Kandovan which is considered being and Iranian Cappadocia, but unlike Cappadocia, people still live there.

Tabriz actually turned out to be not very exciting city. The only interesting things were Blue Mosque and Bazaar. It was actually too interesting and I became mad.. - I spent almost all my money for a small carpet.. the first price was 1000$... I bargained a bit less, but anyway it was still expensive... but beautiful and 100% silk.. well yeah.. I know I've always been a bit too spontaneous... :-)

Trans Asia "Express"

If the idea of going to Iran was definitly one of my best ideas ever, then a decision to get there by Trans Asia Express train was definitly the second best. At the beginning I was extremely enthousiastic about this trip, but later I started to hesitate and worry a bit. I'm afraid to travel by night in Polish trains and didn't know what to expect in the one going from Turkey to Iran.. But all my worries dissapeared within first hour of my journey. It turned out that the train was nice, modern, safe and comfortable. We were sharing our compartment with two French - Julia and Nils. Later, we found out that apart from us there were five other foreigners in the train (so 9 foreigners/250 Iranians and Turks).

The heart of the train was the restaurant. All life was going on there and it was never empty. It was perfectly relaxing to sit there with a cup of chai (tea) and watching the landscapes, or reading, or learning Farsi, or talking to people, or singing and dancing. I also discovered why it takes 3 days to arrive to Iran - at some points we were going 30 km per hour!!!!! Moreover a few times our train stopped. We were told that Turkish soldiers had to check if the Kurds didn't put any bomb on the tracks... We also saw Kurdish holding arms in their hands while watching our train going - quite scary situation... Anyway I wasn't bored with this trip any single minute!!!!

Another nice thing was (given that there were only few foreigners) that everybody knew us - "the yellows (blondes) from Lachestan (Poland)". People were extremely friendly and nice - everybody was smiling to us, wanted to talk to us (and if they were not able to talk in English, I was trying to talk with them in Farsi), was taking the pictures of us (or even filming us). We were invited to all compartments and got many invitations to their private houses in Iran that we will certainly use :-) Iranians are sooooooooooooo friendly!!

At some point we stopped in Tatvan when we were supposed to take a ferry and change a train on the other side of the Van Lake. But the train stopped and nobody told us how long we will wait and what we were actually waiting for, if we shall take our luggage from the train etc. It was quite absurdal situation..

After around three hours somebody told us we had to come back to the train, and then we went few km in order to move to the ferry. After few hours of ferry cruise, we changed the train into Iranian one. In the morning we arrived to the Turkish border when we were waiting few hours for passport control. The Iranians were more clever and we had a control during the trip - they just got into the train and were checking all the passports on.

Finally, with 8 hours of delay we arrived to Tabriz - our first destination in Iran. When we got out of the train, everybody was waving to us and saying bye. On the one hand I was happy that finally I'll start visiting Iran, but on the other I was sincerely sad I was leaving my new friends... Trans Asia Express was definitly a great great trip and adventure!!!!