Dubai

Bye bye from Dubai.

With a backpack full of memories, experiences and new friendships we're coming home!

We hope y'all had as much fun as we did, travelling through the world.

We are looking forward to spending time with you again :)

Tehran

Our last stop in Iran was Tehran. We decided to try the well known 'couch surfing portal' (which hadn't worked so well for us during our world travel). Surprisingly, both of our requests were granted, which allowed us to stay the 7 days with local people.

Our first host was Hossein, who made an introduction to the capital by showing us the big artificial lake and the three-floor pedestrian bridge. We had great discussions while smoking waterpipe and eating the good Iranian food. We wandered through the Bazaar, visited the Film museum and spent some time at a big shopping mall :)

Our second host was a very nice couple, Ghazal and Ali, who live in an apartment with a beautiful view on the North of Tehran. While staying in the North, we took the opportunity to go skiing on the nearest mountain, Tochal at 3900m above sea level.

The next day we went to the Grand Bazaar to buy a little carpet and some souvenirs.
Together with Ghazal and Ali we cooked tasty meals. We met their friends and spent a nice evening with political discussions and cheese cake. They took really good care of us and made us feel at home.
The final day, they showed us Tehran's big flea market, where we wandered around and bought some more souvenirs.
As both of them are passionate film watchers, we decided to enjoy the last evening with a good movie before heading to the airport in the middle of the night :)

A big thanks to both of our couch surfing hosts (Hossein & Ghazal/Ali). We keep in our hearts the best memories of Iran!!

See you in Luxembourg.

This bar was actually 'mens only' but Hossein managed to get us in.

The gouvernment is still not very happy with USA and Israel. Trump's Muslim Ban for sure didn't help for a better understanding.

Standing on the third floor of the beautiful designed Nature Bridge (or Tabiat Bridge). A 270m long pedestrian bridge that connects the Water and Fire Park (Abo-Atash Park) with Aleghani Natural Park in Tehran.

 

The view from our second couch surfing hosts Ghazal and Ali.

On our way to the ski slope in Tochal.

A little blizzard couldn't stop us from skiing down the mountain.

With the adequate clothes (4 layers per person), we didn't freeze too much.

We were quite lucky to profit one whole day from the mountains, because the following days, they closed the Cableway/Telecabin due to the bad weather conditions.

Normally the city sky is too foggy or too grey because of the smog, but during our stay, the sun was shining most of the time.

Visiting the Golestan Palace.

Our last night in Tehran, watching movies and eating 'croissants' with Nutella, what a life :)

Kashan & Qom

We continued our way with Laura and Benni to Kashan, where we stayed a few days. We visited the underground city, which was used as a shelter during war times. The entrance to this underground city was through the bread oven in some of the houses. It was discovered only 15 years ago and most of the parts are still not accessible for visitors.
The following day, we did a three hour free-walking tour around Kashan with Fatima. We visited ancient public bathes, enormous mansions and beautiful mosques.
Then we moved on to Qom before heading to the capital, Tehran.

Underneath this cupola is an enormous water tank to stock the precious liquid during the hot summer period.

A famous Islamic school/university is located underneath the mosque. It's an 'men only' university to become Mullah.

At the time, the mansions were a little bigger than nowadays.

Three hours of walking, but not one second was boring :)

In Qom, we visited the shrine of Fatima Masumeh, daughter of the seventh and sister of the eighth Imam. Qom is considered by the Shia Muslims as the second most sacred city of Iran (after the shrine of the eight Imam in Mashhad)

The most famous building of this site with its three courtyards and three large prayer halls is the grave chamber with the golden dome. Qom is considered nowadays as the 'birthplace' of the Islamic Revolution initiated by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.

Isfahan

Isfahan, once among one of the biggest cities of the world, still shows today its glory from the past. Its amazing mosques, huge bazaars, an enormous square, many traditional architectures and beautiful bridges makes it a blast for the eyes.

Around the Naqsh-e Jahan Square are many skilled craftsmen with artistic proficiencies. You can observe them drawing patterned plates or creating beautiful ornated silver serving trays, while wandering through their shops.

During night, people gather together in tea houses, Shisha bars or hang around the picturesque illuminated bridges to profit from their spare time.

The Khaju Bridge is very popular with locals who gather together underneath the pillars for a picnic, a recital of poems or to sing traditional Iranian songs.

The entrance to the famous Isfahan Grand Bazar, one of the longest and oldest bazaar of the Middle East.

Since more than thousands of years, men practice the sport of 'Pahlavani' in the house of strength 'Zurkhaneh'. Its original purpose was the physical and mental preparation for war.

On our way to the city center with the mobile home of Laura and Benni.

Enjoying a cup of tea in a traditional tea house with many antiques.

Playing hide and seek with the camera.

The Jāmeh Mosque of Isfahan is the result of more than 13 centuries of work. The outcome features consequently various styles of architecture.

Si-o-seh Pol or Allahverdi Khan Bridge measures more than 290m and the river that flows underneath it, is most of the time dried out.

Najaf Abad

After 2 weeks of travelling, we decided to participate in a cool project in Najaf Abad.

The couple Hajar and Mohammed had the great idea to create a language cafe, where foreigners could interact with the local people. This interaction has benefits for both sides, the Iranians can practice their English and the tourists can learn more about the Iranian culture and traditions.

The extension of the initial cafe was not yet finished, so we decided to help them out. We were not the only guests. Elif from Turkey joined the project the same day as we did, and Laura and Benni arrived a week earlier. Just like us, they are also on a world travel for a longer period. In April, they started with their converted Van from Germany and crossed the whole continent by car to finally arrive in Iran. We had a lot of funny stories to share and the days were never boring.

We took two days off from work to visit Isfahan with Laura, Benni and Elif but for the rest of the time we stayed in Najaf Abad to help with the cafe. On our second last day Maud, a French girl, joined the team and was perfectly punctual for the inauguration.

At the beginning everything was white,... or let's say greyish ;)

The electric cables were laid for the LED's, the banks were created and the wall decoration was 'deconstructed'.

To fix the wall decoration, we had to put bars on the walls. Estelle and Elif had a great time with the nail gun ;)

Six hands are better than two :)

Unfortunately, the nail gun got jammed all the time.

Nasty work, getting all the nails out.

The concept of the bar was 'wood', therefore the walls needed a little transformation.

Some details needed to be fixed on the bar, before we could continue towards the 1000 unfinished tiny tasks.

If you don't have the right material, you get creative: Polishing the windows with newspaper.

Nobody wants to sit on hard wood, therefore we needed to build cushions for the wooden chairs.

 

After long days of hard work, the inauguration was a real success.

Thanks Mohammed, Laura, Elif, Benni and Hajar.

With live music and lively discussions we started the first night.

In the end, we were all happy about the result and wish Hajar and Mohammed good luck with the continuation of their amazing project.

Farahzad, Nain & Toodeshk

In the middle of the Dasht-e Kavir Desert lays the small village of Farahzad, where we took a long walk among sand dunes and mountain ranges before a big sand storm forced us back to our lodge. In the middle of the storm we got the fabulous idea to continue our journey towards the next destination, Toodeshk. After arriving in Mesr (the nearest town to Farahzad) we found out that there was no bus anymore leaving to the West. But luck was on our side. We met an extremely heart-warming truck driver Ahmad, who took us under his wings. He drove us to Nain where he invited us to stay at his house (speaking only Farsi). Here we met his wife and his grandson and spent a very entertaining evening. We tasted the best Dizzy ever (a traditional Iranian dish with potatoes, meat and vegetables, all mashed together) and enjoyed the following day an exclusive sightseeing tour of Nain.

Thank you again for this great hospitality!

From Nain we drove to Toodeshk, where we stayed one night before continuing to Isfahan.

On the bus into the 23rd largest desert of the world.

Driving long hours on a straight road that lead us into the mountain chain.

An eagle-tiger on its way through the sand.

Ahmad our truck driver.

On our way through the sandstorm with hot tea and fruits on board.

In the process of making the tasty dizzy.

Happy family, part three ;)

Narenj citadel.

Those wind towers had the purpose to catch the wind and transfer the fresh air into the rooms underneath to cool them down. Sometimes you can also find them next to big water reservoir (āb anbār) that were used to stock water or even big ice cubes. Today, the construction of those wind towers are too expensive (because of the complicated architecture) therefore most people prefer a modern air-condition.

The Old Bazaar of Nain.

Enjoying the sunset in Toodeshk.