After an insanely horrid bus trip, overheated, cramped and sleepless, we arrived in the beautiful Esfahan... at 4am. Feeling utterly grumpy we decided to wait in the bus station with cups of tea until a slightly better hour to walk into town and find a hotel. Djalma's idea of an appropriate hour to call was not as soon as mine, so I took charge of the phone and woke the poor night porter up at around 5am and we took a taxi that dropped us near the hotel. We walked into town and right passed the hotel, for once I had the directions right but not the conviction to press it and so we walked up and down the street trying to find our cheap sleep. We eventually got there and the guy let us in the room early without charging us any extra, and at last – sleep.
Around midday we struggled out of bed and walked round the bazaar, ate some dizi (a poorman's lunch of lentil stew and bread, essentially), wandered through a beautiful mosque, which although wasn't supposed to be the best was very interesting and very beautiful. We had some tea and some gorgeous lamb soup in a small tea house/restaurant which was absolutely covered in lamps, none of which were the same.
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| From Esfahan, Iran |
The next day we got up fairly up to walk to the bridges crossing the Zayandeh River, which Esfahan is famous for, and spent the morning strolling along the river in the sun, two college girls said hello and asked us to talk to them, on sitting down they soon went very quiet, possibly not prepared for the requested conversation so we stayed a few minutes asking them questions and then went on our way – what sweet people. The rest of the afternoon we spent back at the hotel because I wasn't feeling too well.
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| From Esfahan, Iran |
Before leaving for our next stop, Toudeshk, we visited the Imam Mosque. This Mosque is supposed to be one of the most beautiful but it was packed with people all rammed into a huge tent which kind of spoiled the mosaics and space. It was the last day of an Islamic holiday and so the square the Mosque is on was crowded, a sea of black chadors (the all black head to toe covering fr women that leaves the face clear), we were invited to go in and have a little look round anyway. Of course women being the naughty little temptresses that they are, not only must be covered head to foot, must be taken completely out of temptations way from the men and were shielded from view in the same tent as the men by a huge curtain which ran through the middle of the room.
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| From Esfahan, Iran |
I walked through with the women while Djalma walked through with the men, I found it more than a little overwhelming being surrounded by so much black in such a foreign environment and on such a big day, there were so many people. I got mixed reactions top my presence there, most people ignored me, some stared no doubt wondering what on earth a tourist was doing on such a important day (and it did feel a little inappropriate to be visiting at such a time) but there were some lovely girls who said hello, asked my name and welcomed me to Iran.
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| From Esfahan, Iran |
I left after a few minutes and was quiet with my thoughts for quite a while about the role of women here in Iran. Despite having travelled through quite a few Muslim countries I am still unsure what to put down to religion and what to put down to cultural differences. Despite being an awfully strict country – due to the Islamic Party and the not the actual religion which is not usually interpreted quite so strictly or restrictedly, one thing that has blown me away is the welcome given us in these Muslim countries. I struggle to think of my pre-conceptions about these places (Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Azerbaijan not that it really counts having been atheist for so long), now all I can think about is how friendly and generous the majority of the people are. The two friendliest places have to be Jordan and Iran, with Iran winning by a long shot (apart from Georgia, but they're not Muslim). I thought the women would act oppressed but in Tehran they flip the finger, slap on the make-up and make the most of rule bending clothes and scarves, admittedly in the rest of the country they aren't quite so free to do as they please but the women aren't quiet. In fact it is in Iran that I got my first female 'fans' which made a nice change from the hordes of boys/men/dribbling grandpas everywhere else. Young women and teenage girls would stop me on the street to say hello and welcome me to their country (which is gorgeous) and Djalma and I got countless offers for tea, lunch, dinner. They are just so friendly, it is such a pleasure to stop and talk to someone with a mindset like that, everyone is so keen that you love their country as much as they do that it's impossible not to.
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