Introduction
Then I went to Isfahan by plane (a decent Foker this
time - I think they keep the crappy old planes for the
back country routes).
Isfahan is ... pretty place ... trees .. mosques ...
friendly people .. you have heard it all before so I
wont go into too many details.
High points - arriving just after Iran had beaten
Bharain in the world cup qualifier - putting Iran
through to the finals. They were a little happy.
Isfahan was full of cars covered with people - honking
- blowing trumpets and generally being happy. Football
fans seem to behave the same way even when there is no
alcohol involved.
One of the guys was going around and ripping up the
posters of Rafsanjani - there are election posters all
over Iran at the moment - and he seemed to be
supported by a lot of people in the crowd! In shiraz -
the guy who told me what the driver said also pointed
to a poster of Rafsanjani and said "Very rich man"
and then thought better of it and changed the subject!
There seems to be a whole post war baby boom in Iran
reaching the age of being politically active and not
very happy. It will be interesting to see what happens
- I just hope of a JFK sort of baby boom rather than a
Tiananmen Square type.
I also saw a guy having a full-on shouting and pushing
match with a young Mullah at a mosque - although the
guy next to me muttered "having an argument with a
mullah - must be a powerfull man".
Final highlight - spedning the hot part of the day in
a teahouse in the pillar of an old bridge across the
river with tea, biscuits and a pipe.
Downside - I developed some sort of hayfever type
allergy to something. There are a lot of flowers
around at this time of year but also a lot of
pollution!