iran part ii

The remaining sketches from our Iranian adventure...
Below is the coolest looking local bus I've ever travelled on (it looked particularly fun from the outside but it was too hot to make a sketch). It was a six hour journey through the desert with no air-con. It was hot! (wearing the hijab didn't help much either).

 However, it was all worth it as we arrived to the lovely Ateshooni guesthouse in an oasis village Garmeh. For some reasons I find the idea of an oasis in the middle of the desert very exciting. I think it has something to do with the adventure stories I read as a child.
Maziar, who owns the guesthouse is also a musician so we spend the evenings listening to his music.

 As the temperatures were really high we would spend most of the day in the guesthouse chilling, drinking tea, eating dates, reading books and chatting with other travellers. Above is Bernardo who is on a trip around a world.


In Ateshooni we also met Maryam and her son Nima. We became friends (despite a quite serious language barrier - they didn't speak much English and we didn't speak much Farsi). They invited us to their house in Esfahan.

 In the mornings and late afternoons we would go for walks and explore the area. We also went for a trip to the sand dunes and watched the sunset in the desert.

 On one of the walks I found some local ochre pigment and used it for painting.

 Another bus journey. This time on a so called VIP bus with air-con, comfy seats with a special support for your legs, TV and comlimentary lunch pack.

 I spent most of the time making collages trying to capture the character of the landscape we were travelling through.

 We arrived to Shiraz, which is quite a beautiful city itself.

But the reason we travelled there in the first place was Persepolis, the ruins of the ancient Persian capital. It was absolutely spectacular! I don't think my sketches quite capture that but here is a few I made there. (It was interesting that some tourists were taking photos of me sketching a relief of Xerxes king's guard instead of the relief itself. I don't think Xerxes would like that!)

Some more random sketches and another bus journey. This time to Esfahan, where we stayed with Maryam and her family. It was all very intense so I didn't have much time to make any sketches. Esfahan is beutiful though and we had a great time. The highlight of the trip was Maryam (fully covered in her chador) driving us through the city with the music on high volume (Enrique Inglesias) and everyone in the car singing and dancing (things you are not supposed to do in public). Maryam made sure that the windows were down so everyone could hear.

Some sketches from our last day in Iran.

Oh...And this guy! Ayalollah Khomeini. His face is everywhere. On huge billbaords and murals on the street, on posters and framed pictures in most of the offices, hotel receptions, shops, on every banknote. Everywhere.

Waiting for flight to Teheran - Dubai...

 

...And Dubai - Glasgow. It's amazing how people's body language and facial expressions differ depending on what courtry you are in (or what flight yyou are waiting for).

 So I fell in love with Iran. It was probably the friendliest country I have ever travelled to and hopefully I will visit again soon.