Tabrizzle

Trip Start Apr 06, 2009

Trip End Jul 12, 2009

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Flag of Iran Tabriz, Iran
Friday, May 15, 2009

Because it was my birthday, I was relieved of breakfast duties for the next morning, so woke up and put my tent away (well… Shane did it for me) and then started on my birthday cards and gifts. Because it was only 6am I was still pretty merry from the night before (probably too merry to be safely crossing the Iranian border…) The Iranian border was an experience to say the least. It was a lot easier than all of us were expecting it to be. Nobody's bags were searched, nobody got body searched, and the truck wasn't pulled apart. I started to sober up and crash at about 9am, so I was hugely uncomfortable most of the day. We watched a short Iranian film on the television while we waited which was a bit strange, but we all eagerly headed into Iran when everything was done. Unfortunately, even though we didn't really have any trouble, it still took most of the day and by the time we had driven the rest of the distance to Tabriz it was 10pm. The city was absolutely buzzing because it was a Friday night (like Sunday in the UK) and there were hundreds of tents pitched in the middle of roundabouts and by the sides of the roads even in the city center

Chris Enjoys Some Shisha

. Families were enjoying picnics, and this went on really late into the evening, even with young children around. Our hostel was okay; we had a toilet but no shower, beds and a good view from the window. We were just down the road from the blue mosque but quite a drive from anything else.

The next morning I headed out with Steve, Sandra and Sarah. We hadn't been walking for 15 minutes when already we were approached by an eager-looking Iranian student who was keen to show us the city. He took us for a buffet breakfast in the 5* hotel, only 30,000 Iranian rials each (about $3) and then walked us around the bazaar. I enjoyed a delicious banana juice before heading back to the hostel. I then wandered across to the Blue Mosque in the afternoon with Luke, Chris, Russ, Heather, Shane and Bjorn. It was impressive, and interesting to see how they are rebuilding it all after it was destroyed by an earthquake, but it won't be completed for a while yet. We headed down to the fairground in the evening for ice cream. I almost earned myself my second "dick-of-the-day"... After about an hour of searching for good ice cream, we eventually settled for a corner shop. Luke bought me one of those twizzly fruity deals which I eagerly opened. In my haste to get to this ice cream, half of it immediately dropped onto the floor. In a fit of panic (and despair, and apparently petulance) I angrily threw the other half into the bin... before running back to buy myself another, much to the amusement of the rest of the group.

Before this, we had bumped into Andrew and John. They had made friends with an Iranian girl in the afternoon that had been really eager to take them out to dinner. She was certainly not the type of girl I would have expected to meet in Iran. She was forceful, outspoken, opinionated, and full of energy. Not the stereotypical submissive mice that one would expect. She was lovely, endearing, articulate and well-spoken also and tried extremely hard to get us to go to dinner with her. Alas, we declined and continued on our search for ice cream... We finished the evening with a long walk to the Sheraton hotel where we enjoyed strawberry milkshakes before heading back for beddy-byes.

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