Tuesday, 21 August 2012

20-21 August 2012–Isfahan

Isfahan was a joy to visit. This is mum and dad’s second visit, having been here previously in 2008. So, I had the benefit of a personal tour guide taking me around all the places of interest. Another bonus point was that there was no getting lost in the city. We visited some places both during the day and night. We skipped the Zoroastrian Fire Temple as we had already visited the one in Yazd and figured that the one in Isfahan would be roughly the same thing.
We started our tour of Isfahan with a visit to the Armenian Quarters.

Vank Cathedral >>
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Church of Saint Joseph of Arimathea. The walls inside the church are all painted with illustrations from the Old and New testaments, Saint’s life etc.
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Si-o-Se Bridge (but there’s no water running under the bridge) >>
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Khajou Bridge >>
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Imam Square. The square is lined with rows of bazaar selling all sorts of handicrafts, the Shah mosque on one side, the Ali Qapu Palace and Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque on the other two sides. As we walked through the bazaar in the day time, a group of 4 students, who spoke English, chatted with us for almost an hour. Two of them were from Afghanistan but their family came to live in Isfahan when the war started. We came back at night and the atmosphere is great, not something we have seen elsewhere before. The well manicured grounds of the Squares were packed with groups of people sitting, eating and socialising.
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Handicrafts at the Bazaar >>
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This soft vanilla ice cream served with lots of lemon juice and slightly crunchy “noodles” (the guy tried to explain to us what it was but we couldn’t understand) is the best dessert we had in Iran. Though we did find other places in Isfahan selling the similar looking dessert, they did not taste the same or nearly as good as the ones sold at Imam Khomeini Square. Here I am buying another one at night while we enjoyed the lightings around the square. Flooding it with lemon juice was what made it yummier.
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