Apologies for the late blog posting. We arrived home to Abadan last night after a long day travelling and I was too tired to write anything. We stayed in Isfahan for one night and I will talk about that visit here. Unfortunately, something has happened to my memory card in the camera and I cannot, for the moment, access the photos of Isfahan. I'll download and post some photos of the sites we visited from the internet.

Early on Wednesday morning, after a long bus trip from Shiraz we arrived in Isfahan. Unfortunately here, Ebi and I had to part ways with Khosro as we had arranged to stay with Ebi's aunt and her family, and there wasn't room for him to stay too. Khosro has a friend and a sister in Isfahan, but both were out of town. Luckily, he managed to stay with another friend but we didn't get to see him as he got some casual work for a few days and we were only staying for one day :-(. I'm sure we'll catch up with him back in Abadan.

We had some tea, cake and rest at the family's house and later that morning we went to see the Khaju Bridge. It was built in 1650 by Shah Abbas II and also doubles as a dam. There are a total of 11 bridges that cross the Zayandeh river. Unfortunately, two months ago the river had to be diverted to Yazd and another city, as due to lack of rain fall, they were running out of water. Now it is just a dry river bed and sadly is not so picturesque. Hopefully it will flow again in the future.

After lunch we visited the Chehel Sotun Palace, which like many of the palaces in Iran, is set in a beautiful garden. The palace was built as a pleasure pavillion and reception hall, using the Achaemenid inspired talar (columar porch) style and apparently dates back to 1614. It has 20 slender pillars surrounding the front entrance. These pillars are reflected in the long pool in front, giving the palace its name (Chehel Sotun means 40 Pillars). You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chehel_Sotoun

Later in the evening we strolled in the Naqsh e Jahan Square, which at 512m long and 163m wide, is the second largest public square in the world. It was very busy with lots of families sittiing on the grassy areas, talking and eating food together and children playing in the fountains. Horses and carriages took people on rides around the square. Around the perimeter is the Grand Bazaar, a labyrinth of alley ways flled with shops selling crafts and jewellry. A great place for souvenier shopping.

I've been really amazed at how cheap things are here, particularly entrance fees to the tourist sites. For example, for Iranians the entrance fees to most sites is 20,000 rials (about 50p!!). For tourists it is much more expensive, but still not unreasonable at 150,000 rials (3 pounds). We managed to save some money by me being married here, although Ebi got into an arguement at Hafez tomb with the ticket collector, who said we must pay more because I was foreign. After much shouting and profanities exclaimed, Ebi showed him our marriage certificate and my conversion certificate. The ticket collector closed his mouth and waved us on!

The other funny thing is the number of stares Ebi and I have got as we have been walking around, particularly in Abadan where there are no tourists. I've gotten used to it now and just smile to myself each time it happens. Mostly, its the women who look and whisper amongst themselves, but on Wednesday night, finally a girl and her friends were brave enough to come and talk to me while we were out having ice cream with Ebis uncle. They were very interested in how Ebi and I met and what happened in our wedding. Everyone that I have met on the trip so far has been very interested in knowing all about me and the UK. There has been no hostility, quite the opposite! Its sad that, due to internet filtering and the lack of tourists in Iran, the people do not get much chance to interact with the outside world. The ultimate question that I often get asked is what do I think of Iran. My answer, that it is a wonderful country with lots of interesting culture, always gets a smile.