Day 32 Esfahan

Esfahan, about 340 km south of Tehran. Sight seeing with Simon: after messing about trying to find a post office (for me), we wandered down to the older part of the city from where we are staying, finding ourselves in Naghsh-e Jahan Square - reputedly one of the biggest squares in the world; just off the square are Shah mosque (pictured) and Sheikh Lotfollah mosque, both huge and both intricately tiled. The large scale use of blue decorative ceramics is memorable. We pretty much had these places to ourselves. The dome structures have (not surprisingly) interesting acoustics: you can stand right under the dome - I got about three echos per second - I guess that makes sense - the dome of the Shah mosque is an amazing 50 or so metres above the floor, and sound propagates at about 300 metres per second. Spent several hours getting lost (and having lunch: sort of haggis in flat bread with lots of fresh basil leaves) in the Grand Bazaar - by far the biggest bazaar I have visited - very convoluted and very easy to get lost in: one part looking very much like another. We seemed to keep arriving back at Jamé mosque [this is one of Iran's oldest mosques]. Eventually made it back to the square - wherein I did find a post office.

After going back to the hostel to meet up with the others a group of us went back to the old part of the city for supper. A subgroup (T, Simon and I) then went off to look at the city at night - a lot of it looks even more beautiful at night - the illumination being a lot less harsh than the high-up Iranian sun. Of particular note are the numerous illuminated bridges across the Zayandeh Rud river, particular the Khaju bridge which has two sets of arches, one above the other - we crossed over this, taking the upper tier [dates from 17th century]. We spent quite a bit of time chatting to locals - young Iranians students mostly: we seem to be instantly recognisable as English (actually English, Irish and Scottish). Students told me that dancing was not allowed (unless married) - dancing on the lower tier of the Khaju bridge was discrete - but stops if police arrive. Also amazing to see large numbers of people all sat along the embankments, both sides of the river, enjoying themselves: picnics. Young and old - way past midnight too.