Esfahan & Shiraz

Montazari Family in Esfahan

John and the backyard in Esfahan

Little Montazari having tea from the saucer

Meydan-e Imam (Imam Square)

Intracate decorations

My buddy the Molla

Inside of Mescid-i Imam (Imam Mosque)

Si-O-Se-Pol 33 Column Bridge / Esfahan

Under the bridge

Meydan-e Imam

Shops at Meydan-e Imam

Sunset over Esfahan

Potheads of Esfahan

Smoking hashish

Kerim Han Castle / Shiraz

Bazaar in Shiraz

Hafez's Mouseloum

I went back and forth between the Turkish and Pakistani Embassies for four days to get the visa. I would take care of the necessary paperwork at the embassies in the morning and walk around in Tahran for the remainder of the day. At the end, Pakistani consulate rejected issuing me a visa by not accepting the letter from the Turkish consulate (I'm not going to bother explaining details). So it was for sure that I had to fly to India from Iran. I was predicting the plane ticket costing about $250, which shortens my travels by at least two weeks.

I was hosted by the same great hospitality in Tahran as I had been in Tabriz. In the evenings offerings of food, fruit, nuts, desert, and tea would just not end. I had great joy with the family in the evenings thanks to the Turkish poems the father would read, coffee fortunes we would tell, and funny conversations we would have about random topics.

Once it was concluded that I wouldn't get the visa, I decided to travel the rest of Iran. In the morning the father took me to the bus terminal, bought my ticket, and put me on the Esfahan. I was planning on the bus ride not taking too long, and getting to Esfahan early enough to have some time for sightseeing, but it arrived around 6:00 pm. Throughout the bus ride I talked to the only other tourist on the bus, a guy named John from Canada. He was visiting Iran on a one-week transit visa after visiting Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia. He's planning on going back to Turkey before his transit visa expires and keep traveling in the middle-eastern countries. He was planning on staying with an Iranian guy in Esfahan he had met on another bus ride, and he offered me to come along with him, of course I accepted the offer on the spot. Staying with Iranian families and experiencing their way of living has been the best part of my journey. John called his friend from the bus terminal and was told to wait at the terminal, that someone was coming to pick him up. After such a short phone call and without taking any information we started waiting with some hesitation for someone who didn't even know John to come and get us. After half an hour a guy not knowing a single word in English but with a super enthusiasm showed up to pick us up. He started taking us to the car with a fast pace and I thought that he must have parked at a bad spot and he was hurrying before the car was towed away. We stopped at a street corner, he told us to wait there by sign language, and went running into a mosque!! After the prayer was over he came out of the mosque carrying a tray of tea. We had our cup of tea standing in the middle of a street and headed to the car. As the Iranian kept driving we were getting farther out from the city towards the quiet little towns. We pulled over to the parking lot of a place of which the of it I still haven't figured out, but suspecting it to be somewhat of a government building. Inside, a group of man whom didn't speak any English greeted us, started talking and laughing about us. John being a Canadian and especially with his wacky hairstyle (similar to a mohawk) became the hit topic right away. We didn't have a clue about what was going on but then figured out that one of the guys was John's friend's father, and soon after, the three of us got in the car and drove away. There was a large crowd waiting for us when we got home, but John's friend still wasn't there. Again mostly by sign language we found out that John's friend was in Tahran and wouldn't be in Esfahan anytime soon. We were both surprised and happy at the same time that he offered us to stay with his family eventhough he wasn't going to be there. As we kept sitting the number of people coming into the house kept rising. All the relatives were coming to the house to see us (especially John) and trying to communicate with us through the few English words the youngsters in the family knew. We concluded the evening after a long conversation filled with laughter.

The next day we went into Esfahan with one of the teenagers in the family. I have seen the most number of tourists in Iran in Esfahan (was the same case later in Shiraz). After seeing the major sights of Esfahan we started searching for a plane ticket for John for the next day since his visa was expiring. There wasn't any room in any of the flights so he decided to leave that night by bus to Tahran and to Turkey by train from there, and I decided to take a bus to Shiraz at the same time. After going home, giving John a haircut (still kept the mohawk), having dinner with the family and saying our farewells, we took a cab to the terminal. I arrived in Shiraz early in the morning, rested some at the terminal, and started walking towards the city. The city was still asleep and the only open places were the bakeries, so I got myself some fresh baked bread, opened up a can of tuna I had with me, and had a nice breakfast in a beautiful park. Numerous tents set up in the park caught my attention, and I thought it was a nice opportunity for me to utilise the tent I had borrowed from the family in Tahran. I pitched up my tent, napped for couple hours and started walking around in the city. After walking the streets of Shiraz all day long. I came back to the tent and decided to rest a little before going out looking for dinner. It had been only ten minutes before I heard a walkie talkie noise and two guys talking to each other right outside of my tent. We came eye to eye with two cops when I unzipped the flap of the tent. I didn't understand what he was saying in Farsi, but I muttered a few words I thought they would understand such as Turkiye, tourist etc. They took a look inside the tent and walked away. You shouldn't think of a forest, a big park, or a place outside of the city when I mention camping. Iranians pitch up a tent at every space they find including the sidewalks in the city. And this park is just a usual park in the middle of the city, where the locals come to take walks and hang out. I'm planning on visiting Persepolis, which is located in the outskirts of the city and taking a night bus to Yazd tomorrow.