Tales from the Dark Side: Day 1

On the plane, let's see, I knew that I slept because I don't remember hearing a lot of music that I put on my playlist. At some point, breakfast was served.

The brown things on the left are mushrooms, which I did not eat.

We were also now approaching the UK, and I turned the under-plane camera on just in time for us to go over the English coast, I believe, maybe Welsh. This may have been before breakfast. I tried to get more sleep, I know, but eventually, we began our descent.

Click the image to see the video of our landing.

As we taxied, the woman in the window seat asked if she could get up and go to the bathroom. Earlier, I found it odd that she asked permission instead of just stating her need, but this time, it was convenient because I said no, you can't get out of your seat while we the plane is taxiing. I told her that she could try, after she mentioned how she had to go, but that the flight attendants would be upset, so she just sat there. When we got to ther gate, people got up and started to leave. I got out of my seat and went to the divider area so that she could get out first. Eventually, I deplaned through the back and walked to the bus to the gate.

The bus ride was quick and I was the first off and went in to wait in line for international departures. I was behind a guy with a very interesting backpack that I only just got a photo of after our boarding passes were checked and we were in the international gate area.

See the lion backpack on the left.

Then I walked around, sat down, and looked for the gate for the flight to Shiraz, but it was not yet posted. I found my roommate and then went to the restroom, which was fairly unpleasant. I think that a little girl had to go pretty badly and her mom asked if she could go to the front of the line. Maybe that was in Houston, whatever, it happened. We eventually went upstairs and we got some beverages and snacks that we could pay for in American Dollars, thank goodness, and sat down to talk and wait. I was so tired and just wanted to lie down, but that was several hours away. We found other members of our tour, and I declared that I was going off to find water. What I really found was the part of the airport that was the shopping mall and got some pastries with meat and cheese, which I was eating when I joined the group again. I wandered off another time for a second awkward trip to the bathroom and bought some water, since I couldn't find a decent water fountain.

We eventually boarded the plane and my seat was a window seat, again, near the back, and this time, the flight looked full. Being at a window was indeed merciful. The entertainment available was more limited this time, and the interface was more cumbersome, but I managed to make a playlist for myself anyway. There were no cameras outside the plane, so all we had was the flight tracker. The food arrived while I manged to nod off, but I awoke just a few seconds after my seatmates were served. They said "chicken or pasta", and I said that I had not seen a menu (and thus didn't know what the difference was), but they said it was just two choices, chicken or pasta. I saw the chicken, which was some kind of curried chicken, I'm sure, and rice, so I got pasta. I didn't take a picture of the food this time. It was a tubular pasta in Alfredo sauce (that I also got on my shirt), hummus, chocolate pudding with what seemed like toffee pieces, crackers, and a little sealed container of water. I was going to not eat the hummus, but then I realized that chic peas = protein, and I could use that for this meal. Then we sat with the trays down and the meals on them for the longest time. My knee needed to move, but it couldn't until the flight attendants took the trays away. Oh, it felt like a million years, but finally, they came and took it.

This might be Shiraz

We saw many cities and towns from the air, and finally looked to be flying into Shiraz. We took a hard left (I recall) and landed. I put on my scarf, then deplaned from the back and got on the bus to the terminal.

At the terminal, we waited to go through immigration control, then had my passport scanned, got my bag, had it x-rayed at customs (but they didn't have me do that to my purse), and walked to our bus.

It was a full size bus with comfortable seats to take the 12 of us tourists, our travel agent person, and guide around Iran. There were also two guys to run the bus, though I only see one driving consistently. We drove through Shiraz, where I got this video footage, and arrived at the tallest building in the city, 24 floors, which was our hotel.

At the hotel, we got our room info and went up to the 10th floor, where we were all staying. It was after 3 in the morning, but I did get onto the wireless and sent some messages home. Finally, I was ready to go to bed.