Last year I remember thinking, “Oh, my 27th birthday is on a Thursday. We’ll just have to celebrate the day after.” But, in Iran Thursday is like our Saturday. The weekend here is Thursday and Friday. So, it worked out perfectly. I got to spend a “Saturday” night on the town, in Esfahan of all places! We headed out at noon thinking that it would be a long day so we’d start later in order to see some of the nightlife in Iran. Besides being in love with the baking, Chris and I both fell in love with the fresh banana milkshakes. Chris thought that’d be the perfect way to start my special day. After our refreshment we started walking through the winding, cool streets of the covered bazaar to get to the largest mosque in Iran, the Jameh Mosque. It was prayer time when we reached the mosque, so…Continue Reading
I was concerned before entering Iran that it may be rather similar to Turkey in many ways. Not that there’s anything wrong with Turkey, but after spending what amounts to over two months there, on two separate trips, Laura and I are both looking for a change. Luckily for us, Iran feels like a whole other world, and we’ve only been here 24 hours. The landscapes have been unique, like crossing the giant, salty Lake Orumiyeh. According to the Lonely Planet it has salinity levels like the Dead Sea, with the same you-can’t-sink-effects. Unfortunately, we were flying across it’s long causeway in a taxi and couldn’t test it. The house architecture is different. In Turkey almost all buildings are concrete-framed with cinder-block walls. Here, houses we’ve seen are strangely tottering affairs, made of brick (mud-brick?) and ornamented with pillars often on the second and third storeys. Infrastructure seems better too,…Continue Reading