Shiraz and Persepolis: The Ancient Capital of the Kings
Shiraz is a really nice and quite calm city. The old town doesn’t allow cars which makes it easy and relaxed to walk around and explore the old bazaar. In Shiraz I met an Iranian family via Couchsurfing as well as an italian traveller and two spanish friends on their way to India.
It’s really interesting to hear all the different travel stories and how everyone has a different goal in Iran.
Persepolis is an ancient town that is 1 hour drive from Shiraz and a must visit when in Shiraz. To be honest it wasn’t that interesting for me and I’d rather visited the desert (which I still didn’t manage to do!). But for everyone who is interested in history and especially old places it’s definitely worth to go there!
In Shiraz we went to the oldest traditional restaurant where I ate some kebab and of course I visited the pink mosque, the holy shrine and in the evenings we cooked or sat together drinking tea. I had a lovely time in Shiraz, thanks to my Iranian friends 🙂
What I liked most in Isfahan
I was really excited to go to Isfahan – to the “half of the world”, because every book and every website mentions Isfahan as THE to go place in Iran. No traveler should miss that city. Unfortunately I just arrived at night in the hostel and the next day it rained non-stop. So I decided to take it easy, stayed in the hostel and edited some videos.
It is okay to just not go outside and be active the whole time, especially when you are on the road for a few weeks. This made me even more excited to go out and spend the whole day exploring after my short break and rest time.
And I didn’t get disappointed! It was a beautiful day spent in Isfahan and I visited the big square, the mosque, a traditional tea house, the Chehel Sotoun Palace, the bazaar and of course the bridges. Nowadays the river is not flowing anymore and instead, there is only a lot of sand left. Even it looks sad it was still fun to walk on the “river”.
At the big square I got a little bit annoyed by all the Iranian tour guides that talked in German with me and tried to sell me a tour or a “free tea” in their bazaar shop. It also happened that a few youngsters talked to me about Hitler and how much they like him because he was a powerful man. I tried to make them understand that I don’t agree with them but I guess that didn’t change their minds.
However, Isfahan is beautiful and has a lot of attractions, but for the first time during my trip I felt a negative impact of the tourism industry and I’m afraid that it won’t get better but worse.
me in a traditional tea house
