Shiraz - A Year Ago

A year ago I was in Shiraz, with just a couple of days left in Iran.  I never got around to posting any pics from Shiraz, or of my trip back to Tehran, because it's such a pain to use the internet in Iran - hotels with severely rationed WiFi, having to use proxies to access sites such as this one, proxies continually disappearing while the Iranian government plays whack a mole with them, and so on.  But I digress.

I took a bus from Yazd to Shiraz and got there early in the evening.  I had wanted to stay at the Niayesh Hotel, a traditional place arranged around a courtyard, but it was full.  So I walked several blocks over to the Anvari Hotel and they, fortunately, had a place.  The Anvari was kind of noisy (with a shopping center under construction across the street) and no western style toilet.  The Anvari is a little bit less central but it was still an easy walk to the market in the center of the city.

In the market there is a tea and qalyan (hookah) place.  It has poetry on the walls - very relaxing.

This is in the city center, just outside the market area:

Back in the market:

This is the outside of the Shah Cheragh shrine.  I went in, but they made me check my camera and phone before going in.   I was told that it was forbidden to take pictures.  Yet when I was in there, I saw many Iranians taking pictures with their phones and cameras.

This dilapidated building near the market is cool.

This is a tea place on the same street as my hotel.  Very ornate.

This is the tea garden in the market with the poetry, again.  I couldn't resist going back.

I joined a day tour to Persepolis, the capital of the first Persian empire.  The ruins date back as far as 515BC.  The people you see in some of the pictures are people that were in my group.  It was a varied bunch of people.  Some Europeans, some people originally from Iran living in Europe, Canada, and the U.S.

These kids were part of a school group.

Camel rides outside of Persepolis.

Back in Shiraz.

Shiraz at night was bustling.

On the afternoon of my last day in Shiraz, I got a taxi to the train station and boarded an overnight train to Tehran.  I ended up in a compartment with some traveling musicians.  They were very nice and they shared their food with me.

In the morning when I got to Tehran, I went to the Firouzeh Hotel.  I told Mr. Mousavi, who works the desk there, that I just wanted a room for the day so that I could have some place to rest and get cleaned up before heading to the airport (around midnight) for my 3AM flight out of Iran.  Because I arrived so early, my room was not ready and so I had to sit around in the lobby for a few hours.  Once in my room I took a shower and tried to sleep.

Around midnight the hotel got me a taxi to Imam Khomeini Airport, for 450,000 rials (a bit over 10 euros).  This is the new airport, way outside of Tehran down towards Qom.  I got home that evening via Istanbul, London, and New York.