Tales from the Dark Side: Day 2

Awake, after about 5 hours of sleep. I got ready and attempted to take a shower, but wasn't able to get the shower working, so I bathed, then got ready for my first day behind the "Muslim Curtain". I took a photo of my day one outfit. I got some breakfast just as they shut it down at 10am, and went to the bus for 10:30 to Eram Gardens.

This is my first photo of Iran during the day, but we had a great view from the 24th floor, where we had breakfast.

The bus stopped along the street and we filed out for the first tour.

As we walked from the bus to the gardens, this class of young boys practiced their English by saying "Hello" to us, so I answered
back with "Hello, how are you?" They responded with "I'm good, thank you", or maybe "fine", I forget.

Then we entered the gardens.

The koi pond* and some running children.

The original photo and the "stylized" one created by my phone.

Perhaps those koi are supposed to be here.

The lamp posts were cool.

*And here are some koi actually in a pond, along with a turtle.

Birds are very popular in Iran, and this is for my relationship with paper cranes.

At the exit, we all got taken by a Fortune teller who put little birds on our shoulders, then had another bird pull our fortune from a pack. It was less than $2, and the photos alone (from a tourist perspective) were worth that.

After the garden, we drove through Shiraz to our next destination.

These are my attempts to get photos of the traffic lights, taken after we got off the bus.

The lights blinked either red or yellow, first the middle light, then the top & bottom, back and forth, but the photos I got and combined
didn't show the blinking. The light on the bottom right of the left photo has all three lights as red.

We walked to a mosque.

Inside the foyer, we had to put on these white robes - well, white with little floral designs. There was a nice old lady helping to put on the robes, and when she got to me, I raised my eyebrows and smiled at her to point out that I recognized that I was, indeed, a big lady. Then we went into the courtyard.

Trim & pattern on the robes.

We entered the Shah Cheragh Mosque through the men's entrance, and it was splendid. Shāh-é-Chérāgh is Persian for "King of the Light". We could see the ceiling of the women's area, though it was walled off, which made the place seem smaller than it does in the photos on this blog. Perhaps we entered from the back, or maybe there are more than one mirrored mosque in Shiraz? This blog post both confuses and reassures me about that. The locals in the mosque seemed to be hanging out (if in a group),or texting, but one guy did his prayers.

Shāh Chérāgh (Persian: شاه چراغ‎‎) is a funerary monument and mosque in Shiraz, Iran, housing the tomb of the brothers
Ahmad and Muhammad, sons of Mūsā al-Kādhim and brothers of ‘Alī ar-Ridhā. The two took refuge in the city during
the Abbasid persecution of Shia Muslims.

I bought a clock like the one on the right.

At one point, the guy in the sash took a prayer stone and rubbed it on my phone in a specific pattern to bless it.

We then left the inside mosque and put our shoes back on, then went back through the courtyard.

As we left, returned our robes, or Chadors. It was then that we noticed the bird nest at the top of the entryway.

Then we drove to where we were going to have lunch and went in. Iranian Fanta; bread; salad; the Iranian, non-alcoholic beer that others got; Kebabs; plain and saffron rice; vegetable rice

We talked a bit about this and that. Just before we left, I went to the bathroom, but it was a squat toilet and I couldn't figure out how to use it at that moment, so decided I could wait. Then we were back on the bus to the Pink Mosque, but it was closed for another half hour.

This was just along the street.

Rather than sit and wait, we went to change money. After that, I got some chips and took a photo of businesses across the street.

Iran Burger on the left. I took a photo of the Cucumber and Yogurt Mint chips, which I ate later. They were interesting. I
deleted the photo later to free up storage space, since I had saved the bag. Click here to see an Indian analog from Lay's

Then we went back to the Nasir ol Molk Mosque, also known as the Pink Mosque. It is a traditional mosque in Shiraz, Iran, located at the district of Gowad-e-Arabān, near Šāh Čerāq Mosque.

We went inside the part that, at sunrise, is simply magnificent. I wish we had gone here in the morning, instead of the afternoon. Even if it wasn't as magnificent as this, I'm sure that the sunlight facing the windows would have created some colored shadows. Or maybe not. Still, I would like to have known for sure.

We learned that there is so much stained glass in Iran because it confuses mosquitoes.

We went outside to see the courtyard for a moment and I took more photos.

Then we went into the other side, which was the summer mosque with photos and artifacts.

We went into the Cow Well area, which used to have cattle attached to ropes that would pull the water up from the well.

Looking at the well, then down to the bottom.

There was an area off to the left with some very steep stairs. I suppose that is where the cows were hitched up to pull the water. There was a couple down there taking photos, and I wanted photos too, so I went down what turned out to be maybe the steepest stairs I'd ever encountered.

That must have been a very cute photo. I would have waited to take a photo of the stairs without them there, but my
group had already left, so I was in a hurry. I also didn't yet know the Farsi word for "excuse me".

After that, we went to the tomb of a famous poet, Sa 'di Shirazi,

I really like this lotus pattern. I ended up getting a magnet with a similar design.

There was an old bathhouse down some stairs nearby, so we went to check that out.

Looking up, then down.

Then it was time to go. As we left, I noticed some caves in the nearby mountains, so I tried to get some photos. The original photo will be on the left, and an enlarged section to see the cave on the right.

No caves here, just a beautiful view.

At that point, we went to the hotel to rest before dinner, and I took a nap. When the time came to go to dinner, I was not ready to get up, so I opted to skip dinner and sleep. I may have had my potato chips a little later, but mostly, I slept, and it was awesome.