The City of Poets, Wine and Flowers, Shiraz
Friday 28th August
We arrived in Shiraz at about 8pm and pretty much went straight to bed.
Saturday 29th August
Our first day in Shiraz was 'ancient Persia' day. First stop was Pasargadae which is about an hour outside of Shiraz. It was an ancient city of Persia but now there is very little left and without the guide giving us interesting info, I don't think it would've been much of a stop. The best thing there was the tomb of Cyrus the great, who apparently had this on his epitah:
"O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not therefore grudge me this little earth that covers my body"
W also visited some cool old tombs nearby at 'Naqsh-e Rustam' that are carved into solid rock. The famous Kings entombed there include King Darius and King Xerexes, there are also some really old carved reliefs, dating even further back than Darius and Xerxes.
This big old tomb (below) is a bit of a mystery, they think it was either a 'holding area' for bodies before their tombs were finished or a different kind of tomb.
Next stop was famous Persepolis... was the ceremonial capital (they had 5 capitals) of the Persian Empire during the Achaemenid dynasty and the oldest ruins date back to 515 BC. Some of the ruins actually aren't ruins at all, some of the buildings weren't actually finished before Alexander the Great destroyed the city.
This is the 'gate of all nations' at the entrance to the city/ palace complex.
Staircase with some amazing carvings....
Engravings of people from all over the world coming to pay their respects to the king- Darius and many of the gifts people are holding in the pictures carved into this staircase, were actually found by archeologists.
the classic 'ruins' shot :)
Iran Air's mascot.
King Darius
Nick with a column...
Us at the gate of all nations...After Persopolis we had a late lunch with the guide and the driver at this hilarious restaurant which was decorated with life sized dolphins, monkeys and other creatures set into a jungle/ cave setting... weird place, but delicious food. We asked them about the Shiraz wine from this area that we make so well in Australia- they said that even though alcohol is illegal in Shiraz people grow the grapes themselves and make the wine at home :)
Then we went back to the hotel and rang Brodie for his birthday!
Sunday 30th August
Next stop was a tomb/ garden for one of Shiraz's many famous poets...
Hafez's Tomb
The beautiful mosaic roof of the outdoor tomb.Next stop was another Poets tomb- Sa'di... all these famous poets explains why Shiraz is known as the city of Poetry, Wine, and Flowers :)
Sa'di's Moseleum- They must have really liked this poet, all this space used to be a cemetary before it became a shine just for him.
Next along the way was Shiraz Fort
The massive turret on the left is tilted and looks like it may fall off :)
This fort was used for some time as a prison. I think it'd be ok being locked up with this leadlight glass to look at every day....
After the fort we headed across the square to the Bazaar... We also purchased a couple presents for our hosts back in Tehran and some presents for ourselves :)
Nick strolling through the bazaar... we also saw a domestic in the bazaar- a woman and man were yelling at each other and our guide said they were husband and wife and they were yelling obscenities. She kept saying 'oh, oh' so it must have been getting nasty.
Also in the bazaar an outside sort of courtyard...We checked out the local mosque as well....
which was another beauty. I don't think they do small mosques here!
love those arches....
Interior of the Mosque.... The plain stone columns reach up into an amazing mosaic roof.
Next door was an old hammam (baths) which have been restored after they were used as a restaurant for years. It doubles as a textiles museum and had some interesting carpets.
We walked back to the hotel and generally lazed around for a while before eating a late lunch and heading back to Tehran on the bus..........
our hotel....Monday 31st August
We arrived back in Tehran at 7am after a long night on the bus. Ali and Negin were waiting for us at the bus stop and after some breakfast we headed out with some of Negin & Ali's friends to the Modern Art gallery of Tehran. There were some really cool graphic art where the artist has used the arabic word for God to make beautiful patterns and images. There was also an installation piece by a Japanese artist, a big steel square filled with crude oil. 
After the gallery we wondered around this little market and found this crazy Kangaroo statue.
Later on Negin and Ali treated us to some famous Persian food... none other than Sheeps Head. You can see by Nick's expression he wasn't too impressed... the problem was that Ali had also purchased some Tripe to eat which stinks soooo bad and made everything else that much less appetizing...
Nick being offered some Tripe...
The actual meat on the Sheeps cheek was delicious (we both tried some) and I also tried some brains, some foot and something I said I would never eat EVER... tripe!!
Ali tucking into some tripe.... he had a whole massive bowl full... and it really smelt horrible! :P
Lastly we headed out to look for an elusive Chinese restaurant, and after a particularly funny car trip zigzagging through Tehran we realised the reason we kept missing the Chinese restaurant was because it was closed :) So we had good 'ol Pizza and then headed to the Bus station to try to get a bus to the airport which didn't eventuate so we ended up in a crazy taxi but we made it!
Tuesday 1st September
We loved Imam Khomeini Airport, it was so much more efficient than the Turkish airports we've been to :) plus we we're slightly less stressed than when we arrived!! We had a nap in these cool reclined seats and then headed off to our 4am flight back to Istanbul!
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