“Hello hello, where are you from?”
The catchcall of this stint in Iran.
In the first day in Esfahan I think Tobi & I must have met 15 people and some of them we chatted with for hours. Within minutes it seems people are pretty keen to get onto talking about religion and the government. Most people seem to miss the freedoms of the Shah days and see Islam as a connection between them and their god and not something that should be used by a government.
What about the sites? Well the Imam Square and mosque were great, a walk over the bridges (Khaju, Choobi, 33 Pol), a look over Esfahan from the Ateshkadeh-e Esfahan Fire Temple, some towers I can’t remember the name of and the bazaar.
Food – finally got to try a proper kebab served with rice, bought some noughat called “Gaz” which Esfahan is apparently famous for, and Beryooni – delicious!
A Persian proverb says Esfahan is “Half of the world”.
Whilst i didn’t quite have that feeling when I was checked out Esfahan it is indeed a grand city.
Naqsh-e Jahan Square (Imam Square) is massive and beautiful to see, and is also cool because it was once used to play polo in (someone told me Polo was first played in Esfahan).
The Imam Mosque is full of mosaic work, 2 minarets, and some imperfections to show that nothing on the world is perfect – seems if they hadn’t added intentional imperfections then the building would have been perfect. hmmm…
