DAY 148 - ESFAHAN DAY 1

CRAZYJOURNEY TOURS ESFAHAN

Dave and Fintan at Imam Mosque, Esfahan

We were up early this morning to take a walking tour of Esfahan. This city is widely regarded as the most beautiful in Iran and has many of the country’s most amazing architectural sites. Walking around the city, we were struck by the lack of modernization and the whole place seems to be stuck in a time warp. Things don’t seem to have come on much here since the Islamic revolution in 1979. You still see shops selling tape players and VCRs and almost all the cars are run down old bangers. Even our hotel had an authentic retro feel to it.

We wandered around the city’s bazaar and were struck by how nice and genuinely welcoming everybody was. Even with all the media slant and it’s classification as a member of the ‘Axis of Evil’, the Iranian people are up there with the nicest we have met so far on CrazyJourney. At first they give you a bit of an odd look as they’re not used to many foreigners but with just a quick ‘Salam’ (hello), the instantly shoot back a big smile and interested reaction. They’re always hugely interested in where you are from and most seemed to have a lot of respect for the fact that we were Irish.

Esfahan's Camel Butchers...

After 2 hours walking, we were ravenous and seemed to be stuck in a part of the city with nowhere to eat. Chuck got fed up looking around and headed off to do his own thing for the day while Fintan, Dave and Rhys eventually spotted a restaurant selling some sort of meat kebabs. We had no idea what we were in for but if it didn’t kill the Iranian people eating there, we thought we should be fine. Despite not knowing what we were eating and with no English menu, our random selection ended up not being too bad. But after leaving the restaurant, we found a camel butcher only two doors down and couldn’t help wondering if we’d actually sampled the meat of these ugly beasts!

The incredible Imam Mosque

Visiting the city’s sights, the highlights were definitely Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and Imam Mosque which were both situated on the magnificent Imam Square. Imam Mosque was the most beautiful Mosque we’ve seen so far in the Middle East and we marveled at this huge and geometrically flawless structure, over 50 metres tall built using 18 million tiles to create richly designed mosaics.

Baker under the dome of the Lotfallah Mosque. We're not sure what's more spectacular, his moustache or the intricately detailed dome?

There was a giddy bunch of Tehran schoolgirls on a tour of the Mosque while we were there. Naturally, they all went a bit mad at the sight of us, since they don’t see too many young white guys other than in banned Hollywood movies! We had a good laugh with them and we all took photos with each other.

Fintan, Dave and Rhys with some Giddy Iranian Schoolgirls

We had actually met a good few guys in Imam Square where most of the tourists are located who just want to come up and practice their English with you. We even had a Mullah lookalike come up and practice French with Dave.

Dave with the French Speaking Mullah

With the sun setting and knackered after a day of marathon walking around Esfahan, we got a quick Iranian dinner and packed it in for the night with an early start to hit the road towards Turkey via a quick stop in Tehran.