Ursula's Travelogues: Tales from the Dark Side: Day 7

We awoke today and my roommate and I had along conversation about music, media, and cultural shifts between generations that delayed us leaving for breakfast. I also had to break the news about Prince, which was surprisingly (a little) difficult. We went to the breakfast place and got some food to go.

Our first stop was the Friday Mosque, which was a series of different mosques, but the mullahs had declared it a religious ceremony and we would not be able to go in until Sunday afternoon. However, on Sunday afternoon, we would be in Kashan. We did walk around a little bit outside the mosque.

These aren't dolls, they're more like sisters!

Then we learned that we could go in just a little ways, so we did get to see some of it.

Now, we had some free time, so we went to the bridge.

Click the image for a video of our approach.

Each image links to a video.

The top of the bridge was being closed off for an event.

Iran seems to be a major rival to America for most national flags flown.

While our guides rounded up the rest of the group, I requested about 5 or 10 minutes to wander around the park on the side of the river.

We then got back on the bus to the Armenian Quarter to go to a breathtaking cathedral.

The courtyard and entrance were very impressive, and I was still in a high from the beauty of the bridge and the riverside park. From pictures I had seen of sights in Iran, I had a slight suspicion of what was inside this cathedral, but I was still a little surprised.

Click the image for a video inside.

We arrived here around the 101 year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

After leaving the cathedral, we walked across the courtyard to visit a museum. The bottom of the museum was very crowded, so I went up the stairs.

There were many paintings and artifacts of Armenian history. I took photographs of only a few items.

Then we left the cathedral area and walked back to the bus, but I don't think we got back on it. It was lunch time in a lovely restaurant.

Soup and salad

Kebabs, rice, and bread

Plum stew

Lentils

Delicious desert bread

The salad bar and decor of the back of the room.

In the middle of the restaurant.

Gorgeous

Next, we went to a small palace in a large garden, the Chehelsotoon Palace. When we got there, my attempts to reduce dehydration at lunch necessitated a hasty trip to the WC, but with that out of the way, I could explore the palace and grounds.

The small palace...

Inside the palace, there were more magnificent paintings on the walls. Here is a link to a video taken by someone else, since I stopped taking videos for the day. Here is another video from some Chinese (??) tourists that shows the ceiling around the 1:10 mark.

As I recall, this is a very old documentation of the Quran, perhaps the oldest? I assume that the display is a copy, if it is the oldest.

... in a large garden.

I wandered off toward the back of the garden and found some old doorways.

And the palace kitty.

This place looked interesting.

I went back around to the front and found many carved artifacts sitting out on display. I also said hello to the kid in the hat, who was dressed in traditional Turkmenistan dress. I managed to find the Farsi word for "hot" and said it while pointing to his hat. He nodded.

Next time you complain about your job, remember this kid that wears that hat to sell Turkmen souvenirs in a desert city.

After the gardens, we went to the square and I requested to go ahead of the group as they stayed in one place. I just went ahead to the area beneath the palace here and went into the Bazaar.

A garden outside the entrance to the square on the left.

Yes, I was actually here.

This is where I realized that I wasn't going to buy much more because I didn't have a lot of space. However, I could photograph anything.

We then went to a tea shop in another part of the square.

After the tea shop, some went to buy carpets, but I went to the hotel with part of the group. When we got to the hotel, I went with a guide and two others to a pharmacy to finally buy my own sunscreen. Another member of the tour wanted to see if they could fill a prescription for some medication she used for jet lag. They were able to provide the medication for, as expected, a sliver of the co-pay she had for the medication in the US. The sunscreen, on the other hand, was not that cheap, sadly, but we bought it. The pharmacist asked what we thought of Iran, and I just gushed about it like a fangirl. Isfahan was beautiful, everyone was very nice, it looks so festive everywhere, and so on. Then we departed.

When we got back to the hotel, I told the guide that I had decided to skip the group dinner. I went back to the room to rest, then went to the coffee shop at the hotel. I had heard they had a cheeseburger, and they did, but it was made of lamb.