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Tehran and Shiraz

We arrived in Tehran to find a very cosmopolitan city, complete with skyscrapers and a metro. But after getting money, seeing some beautiful cultural buildings and the incredible national museum, we quickly dipped into the more traditional bazaar - the first of many beautiful souks we visited on the trip. It had everything you’d need, including a nice, secluded lunch stop that was one of my favorite meals. It introduced us to chicken-rice, and had more familiar dishes like kebabs, fries, grilled tomatoes. Food in Iran was delish. We then had the treat of an overnight train ride from Tehran to Shiraz - we felt like we were in an Agatha Christie or Harry Potter. The low sun over the orange desert was otherworldly. Shiraz is famous for Persepolis, the 2500 year old ruins of the city of Persia and Darius the Great. I had really no idea about this place before this day, and I was totally overwhelmed. It reminded me of Pompeii, though it probably even blew that away in scale. This is the day I realized how amazing our guide, Elham is. She has a MS in archeology, and there was nothing she didn’t know. We were told across the country by other guides that she is the best in the country, to which we always replied, “oh, we know!”. Add to that her efficiency, bravery and especially kindness and openness, and we had a great new friend in her. Adjacent to Persepolis and the amazing friezes and columns is a set of tombs for Darius and son Xerxes, carved high up on the mountainside. This was right out of Indiana Jones, and I was dying for a ladder. We had a lovely lunch at a main tourist stop, with fountains and a gorgeous buffet, and then we found our lovely authentic lodgings in Shiraz. This was my favorite hotel of the trip, and had recently been redone with tile and wood, balconies, courtyards, it was so lovely. We all three stayed in the same room all trip, which I loved so much for keeping the conversations going and making us feel very cozy and safe. We went to visit the famous tomb of the poet Hafiz, in a really beautiful garden, and full of tourists and locals. Then we went into a music store in town for Justin to start taking a look at tars, and we got to join in on some awesome jam sessions. Then we began to be introduced to the massive religious ceremonies that were taking place over the entire week we were there. This was a mourning of the martyrdom of the prophet Al-Hussain, which caused the split into Shia and Sunni. Men wore black and marched in parades, flogging themselves with chains, to haunting chants over a loudspeaker, with eery green lights on floats and lighting up mosques. This was all a little intimidating when we first saw it, but then we sat down and watched, and realized the chains were really light metal (you’re not supposed to hurt yourself in Islam), little boys and old men were helped through the parade, and the green is the color of Islam and signifies life. While the tone of the ceremonies was always that of mourning, it was a kind of catharsis for them, we could realize, and there was beauty in it. And they were all eager for us to see it in front row seats. Finally, we hit the Shiraz bazaar, which was overflowing with rugs, textiles, boxes and jewelry, and I started accumulating very quickly.