Not much has been happening in the last couple of days since we got back from our travels in Shiraz and Esfahan. Last night, Ebi and I met up with Khosro again and went for dinner with him in an area called Braim. Abadan, although it doesn't have any tourist areas, has quite a long history and connection to Britain, through the oil refinery business. This area has lots of housing which was built by the British in around the 1920's to house the workers of BP and they are still used today. The resturaunt we went to is owned by the oil company and is usually open to workers only, but Khosro is friends with the manager and we were able to eat there. The Iranian pizza and Persian Kebab were particularly good.

Here is a little history about Abadan:

The city is situated in Khūzestan, part of the oil-producing region of Iran. Ābādān lies on an island of the same name along the eastern bank of the Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab (river), 33 miles (53 km) from the Persian Gulf. Reputedly founded by a holy man, ʿAbbād, in the 8th century, Ābādān was a prosperous coastal town in the ʿAbbāsid period and was known for its salt and woven mats. But the extension of the delta of the Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab by silt deposition caused the coast of the Persian Gulf to gradually recede from Ābādān. By the time the town was visited by the Arab geographer Ibn Baṭṭūṭah in the 14th century, it was described as little more than a large village in a flat, salty plain.

Persia and the Ottomans long disputed Ābādān's possession, but Persia acquired it in 1847. Its village status remained unchanged until the early 20th century, when rich oilfields were discovered in Khūzestān. In 1909 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company established its pipeline terminus refinery at Ābādān. The refinery began operating in 1913, and by 1956 Ābādān had become a city of more than 220,000 inhabitants, with an economy almost entirely based on petroleum refining and shipping. The refinery complex was served by pipelines running from oil fields to the north, and pipelines were subsequently constructed from Ābādān to Tehrān and to Shīrāz. By the late 1970s the city's oil refinery was perhaps the largest in the world. (information from the Encyclopedia Britannica online).

The night before (Saturday night), we went out for dinner to a nice Turkish resturaunt with our good friend Farzaneh and her mum and aunt, and after went to a grassy area near Abadan airport to drink tea and chat. Ebi first met Farzaneh a couple of years ago when he was working as an over night car park attendant. Farzaneh is a teacher of English language at the university in Abadan and her and I started talking online just after Ebi met her. She has been a great help to me during my stay here, as she speaks fluent English and, as well as Ebi, has translated for me when we've been talking to family and friends. I have found the language barrier a bit difficult at times with my limited knowlege of Farsi, but I am hoping to study and learn more of it for next time. I dearly hope that Farzaneh and I will remain good friends for a long time and I will miss her when I leave to go to Tehran.