Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Shiraz: gardens and tombs
Monday, November 28, 2016
Shiraz








Thursday, November 17, 2016
Iran, towers, markets and jewels









Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Tehran, a 1st explore
We headed south from Ferdowsi Square. One challenge which we had been reading about was the chaotic traffic and crossing the roads. However Hanoi training served us well. If we couldn't find a local to walk beside while crossing the road we took the walk calmly, make no sudden movements approach and generally had no trouble our time in the city.

Returning to the bazaar area we had that traditional Iranian dish - Pizza and a coke. But really nice food for 2 weary travellers.

Andrew checking out happenings. Men tend to wear less colour than your average New Zealander

We contemplated going to the nearby National Museum, but decided to hold that till tomorrow. Instead we meandered back to the hotel. Only to be enticed by a neon sign saying 'Coffee'. So one had a coffee and one had a pomegranate juice. Followed by two large Iranian ice cream sundaes. Delicious with flavours and nuts, sugar and chocolate on top and the only Iranian food we ate all day- but a very good choice.
There weren't a lot of places to eat in the area around the hotel -excluding fast food kebabs and tea-houses where smoke wafted our of open doors - so we ate at the hotel. Day one finished as a definitely enjoyable experience
Last day in Tehran
Our final day in Tehran involved a metro ride to the end of the line - Tajrish, at the foothills of the mountains that border the city. Here we approached the more low key Tajrish Bazaar, quieter and friendly we enjoyed wandering the alleys.
In the vegetable section there were mincing machines cutting up supermarket sized plastic bags of herbs. Andrew was invited to have a taste of some of the herbs. There were plenty of people with plastic bag in each hand heading off to create something tasty with them. We watched oils being extracted and put into bottles. We needed some more sesame oil so we got a small bottle ourselves.
He was also motivated to purchase fruit leather, premium nut mix and a dozen mini-doughnuts covered in chocolate. We HAD to eat them there and then. So we ended up sitting on a wall on the side of the street while Andrew smeared chocolate around his face. While he ate the lions share I did have some :-)
We returned to the other Grand Bazaar to return to the Moslem restaurant and to order the dish we were supposed to have ordered the previous day. Tahchin, layers of rice and saffron and chicken slow cooked so the juices drip down. It was worth the journey back.
In a nearby park we wandered through and came across a bird enclosure with ostriches and flamingos and saw plenty of people relaxing and enjoying picnics/BBQ on the grass


Iran


