We are in the Amir Kabir Hostel (or hovel as some are calling it). It is not worth explaining why it is what it is only that it is probably the cheapest accommodation around. We were to go sightseeing with the guide Muhammad this morning but it has been called off by our leader as she has no water purification tablets and needs to find some. It took Derrick and myself about ten minutes asking in the sports shops down the road to find out that there are none available in Isfahan.
The shops round the hostel are mainly sports shops with one specialising in judo equipment and most of the others with football gear, inline skates and Nike shoes amongst racks of other types of shoes. Another street had shoe shops, mainly ladies shoes, and the fashions seen could be anywhere, again not as expected before coming here.
This was one day when I saw quite a few ladies without a piece of black clothing and wearing all sorts of colours. There were ladies all in black and some in between so I guess the type of dress is a personal choice. It must be the jeans capital of the world as almost everyone here wears jeans even under the local dress. They seem to prefer the stonewashed type with a lighter patch all down the front of the leg. The men seem to be able to wear anything as their dress varies from a suit to jeans and T-shirt with long hair and bits of beards in some instances. The only full beards are worn by the Imams. The clerics are either Imams and mullahs.
We did go for a walk with Mohammed later in the morning when we went to the Chehel Sotoun Museum, once a building for the government. It's name derives from the forty pillars in the museum. Apart from the wall paintings one of the surprises was the paintings on an external wall showing people dressed in European dress. When I asked how it was so I was told that the paintings were of either French, German and Spanish ambassadors who were here at the time it was built, about 1500 AD.
From the museum we went to the Ali Q Palace, Royal Mosque and Abbasi Hotel, this being an old building that has been changed into an hotel.
In the evening we had another walk to the Grand Bazar. I noticed that a number of building had quotations from the Quran in Farsi and English on the outside fences. No further comment! This was a very clean and green city with many parks and walks especially along the river. In the evenings the local people seemed to congregate and have their picnics near the bazaar and at the river and all seemed to enjoy themselves.
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| Hotel breakfast of an egg, bread, butter, carrot jam, tea and orange juice. |
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| Ladies shoes |
This was one day when I saw quite a few ladies without a piece of black clothing and wearing all sorts of colours. There were ladies all in black and some in between so I guess the type of dress is a personal choice. It must be the jeans capital of the world as almost everyone here wears jeans even under the local dress. They seem to prefer the stonewashed type with a lighter patch all down the front of the leg. The men seem to be able to wear anything as their dress varies from a suit to jeans and T-shirt with long hair and bits of beards in some instances. The only full beards are worn by the Imams. The clerics are either Imams and mullahs.
We did go for a walk with Mohammed later in the morning when we went to the Chehel Sotoun Museum, once a building for the government. It's name derives from the forty pillars in the museum. Apart from the wall paintings one of the surprises was the paintings on an external wall showing people dressed in European dress. When I asked how it was so I was told that the paintings were of either French, German and Spanish ambassadors who were here at the time it was built, about 1500 AD.
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| Views at the Chehel Sotoun Museum |
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| Roof |
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| Music School |
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| A view from the roof |
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| Music school ceiling |
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| Inside the music school |
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| Stairs in the music school |
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| Outside the mosque |
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| Silver covered mosque door |
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| Inside the mosque |
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| The mosque ceiling |
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| The mosque ceiling |
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| The stairs is where the Imam preaches from |
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| Abbasi Hotel Reception Area |
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| Abbasi Hotel |
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| Abbasi Hotel grounds |
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| Abbasi Hotel Courtyard |
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| A river bridge |
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| Singing traditional songs |
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| A cleric on the bridge |
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| Picnic at the bazaar |
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| The bazaar at night |
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These girls allowed us to take their picture. The one in the back did not want hers taken.
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| Notice the position of the legs! |
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