Tehran

I probably should mention that Tehran traffic is mental!! Very much like Vietnam or Egypt.

We walked from our hotel to the palace and crossing the busy streets is like taking your life in your hands!!

We tended to cross with locals so we knew we were a bit safer!

Crazy, hectic Tehran

We slept pretty well despite the bustle and bustle of Tehran, once again like the other places in Iran, the place just goes to sleep as 11 pm approaches.

Breakfast at the hotel was good, typical tomato, feta and cucumber, but with the added bonus of pancakes and cooked eggs if you wanted them!

First stop this morning was a camera store, after a bit of a mishap last night (read me dropping the camera) we had to buy a new filter for our camera lens.

Lucky here in Tehran it was easy to find and the man in the camera shop knew his stuff, we got a new one for around $30.

We hen hit the bazaar, it was crazy and hectic, trolleys full of stuff being dragged all over the place, super busy but really not a lot to see as a tourist.

I did get given cookies by a nice man who happened to be in the line of my camera as I made a video, he was so kind.

The market also houses a number of mosques and we visited two of them but did not go inside them.

After the bazaar we made our way to the Golestan palace.

Off to Tehran we go

We headed off to Tehran on the 11am bus, the bus was fairly empty on 3 of us, but we picked up a few more people along the way.

The bus ride again was quite quick, only 3 hours to Tehran. Once we got off the bus we made our way easily to the Metro, bought a ticket and one the train we got, 6 stops later we were out of the metro and walking to the hotel.

A few wrong turns due to the GPS taking a while to work itself out, but we made the short walk to our hotel easily and checked in.

Hotel Markazi is basic but has clean rooms, although no air conditioning which would not be an issue except our room faces the afternoon sun! Oh well, it's only 2 nights, we will survive.

We went out for a bit of a walk and then found a cute cafe with a nice outdoor balcony. Not long after ordering a massive thunderstorm struck and we had to move to another table to avoid being saturated!!

We enjoyed our tea and decided to head elsewhere for dinner to see if we could find some local food.

Well, this proved to be near impossible, we could buy anything else, but apart from fast food, there were no restaurants in sight! Or the ones we did find were closed!!

So we ended up eating at a little kebab type place that sold fresh baguettes with salad and cooked chicken, it was tasty but not really what we had in mind!

Alas, I think we have perhaps chosen a poor location for decent eating but we are close to the sights that we want to see and we only have 1 more full day. Tomorrow we might check out the cafe where we had our tea for dinner as it seemed okay, we were just hoping to get some more local food in before we leave, who knows what we will find tomorrow though.

Historic homes

In Kashan there are a number of historic homes, we only visited one as our time here is a little limited.

But it was quite lovely although the pond could have done with a clean!!

Bathhouse

After the Mosque we visited the local bathhouse, it's not actually open for use but was quite interesting to visit and it was extremely ornate.

The rooftop was also of interest as it has these cool domes that look like they belong in Mars!

Agha Borzog Mosque

First stop in Kashan was the Agha Borzog Mosque. We really liked this one despite it being a it more plain than some of the other Mosques we have visited.

This one did not have so many tiles, more so carvings but still quite colorful.

Sent from my iPhone

Off to Kashan

Our bus to Kashan left Esfahan at 9.00 so we had to get up slightly earlier to ensure we filled up in breakfast and got to the station with plenty of time.

We ended up being at the station before 8:30, but all good, gave us time to go to the loo and find our bus.

The bus left pretty much on time and took 3 hrs to get to Kashan. It was an uneventful trip but went quite fast and before we knew it we were in Kashan.

We had to book bus tickets to get to Tehran tomorrow as we had not arranged that with the travel agent, it was all very simple and we had a ticket in had that cost about $5 each!

We got a taxi into Kashan and checked into our hotel, luckily the room was available, so we dropped our bags before heading out to explore!

Back to the square to say goodbye

We decided to head back to the square to see if we could get some better pics than yesterday.

It was crazy busy with locals who were picnicking in the square and there was some sort of display on with music and video screens. We still managed to get some pics, but I did find being amongst a large bunch of locals that I was getting a bit over being stared at, we definitely stand out here and I am looking forward to being able to dress in normal clothes.

After visiting the square we went for some tea and a sneaky piece of cheesecake! The cafe we went to was really cool, they certainly have some decent cafes here!

We had a great day here in Esfahan, it was great to get off the beaten track and see some different sights.

Tomorrow we head to Kashan where we have 1 night.

A stroll along the river

After our coffee stop we took a stroll along the river. I also took the opportunity to take a very small run, only 500m at a point in the path where I could not see any locals heading towards us.

It was nice to run and I enjoyed it although my headscarf kept flying off! I will wait until Baku to go for a proper run! Sadly I could not upload my run to the Garmin app as it appears it does not work here!! That's a surprise!!

After our stroll we stopped for some lunch at a small restaurant that makes a local dish called Beyani, it was quite delicious but somewhat greasy!!

It was a very local restaurant and once again we had locals asking us where we were from. They are an inquisitive bunch here that is for sure!

Second day in Esfahan

We woke to a pleasant day and after a big feed at brekky we headed out to venture over to the Armenian quarter of Esfahan.

There is a small section of Esfahan that Armenians live in having settled here over time and a number of people fleeing to Esfahan at the time of the Armenian genocide.

We visited a church which had the most amazing frescoes I think I have ever seen in a church, it was simply magnificent!

They also had a museum that housed many Armenian artifacts and had a brief history of the genocide.

It was extremely interesting and fascinating to see some of he artifacts that dated back for centuries.

After visiting the church we stopped for coffee at a quirky Armenian coffee shop, they were even playing Radiohead! It's unusual to hear normal music in Iran!

A bridge over no water

The river in Esfahan is dry, it apparently only fills with water a couple of times a year, but it's a rare sight to see.

We sat waiting for the bridge to light up, it was worth the wait as it was very pretty!

Again, whilst taking pictures some guys asked us where we are from and talked to us about our trip to Iran and asked us about Australia.

It's hard not to feel like they are going to try and scam you or something but they are really just very interested in why we are here and where we are from.

Once again today has been very surprising and enjoyable! Esfahan is probably the busiest of cities we have been to so far and it takes a bit to scratch beneath the surface to find the hidden gems, but they are definitely there!

We have one more day here tomorrow before we head to Kashan on Saturday.

Esfahan testing our patience

Following lunch we took a bit of a break back at the hotel to recharge the batteries with a plan to head back to the square to see the mosques in the afternoon sun.

However Esfahan had other ideas for us, all of a sudden out of nowhere a storm struck with big winds, lightning and thunder!

Now, in ordinary circumstances whilst on holiday if a storm strikes we would just head out for a few drinks and save sight seeing for another day, but given that's not an option here, once the storm cleared we decided to head out again and take pictures in the dark conditions.

Whilst it was not ideal, it provided a bit of a different back drop and I think in a way it made the colours a little prettier against the grey sky.

Whilst at the square we were greeted by some young girls who were obviously practicing their English, we chatted with them about Australia, they had a lot of questions and insisted we take a selfie with them. I also asked if we could take a photo too, they were happy to oblige! Their Mum gave us some nuts to eat as well which was very kind!