Day 21

Just driven into Mashad, really busy city, but managed to find a car park, and met another English teacher, she managed to point us in the general direction of the Holy Shrine and the city centre, so we’re off to get lost and wander around the city like tourists. First stop: Holy Shrine.


Just back at the car from a good day out in Mashad. The walk in took quite a long time, but we got to the shrine eventually, and had a look around, we had to sit and watch a bizarre video about the place and weren’t allowed into the actual shrine part because we’re not muslims. We had a walk around the various courtyards though and saw the huge solid gold dome and minarets.

Then we took a long detour on the way to the bazar, because I managed to read the map completely wrong. The bazar wasn’t that great, just shop after shop of the same things. Then we went for pizzas at a fast food place, which I though were really good but not everyone’s cup of tea. Then we went to a net café where I spent an hour on MSN, trying to check other teams updates but struggling with the speed. Facebook doesn’t work in Iran. Then we decided to get a cab back to the cars, the first one we got in refused to take us anywhere without an address card, so we jumped out and looked for another one, which took all of about 10 seconds, then the white knuckle ride out of the city centre.


After a crazy ride we got back to the cars and had a walk around the park, did some dishes waiting for the traffic to die down a little, and had a chat with a local man. Now we’re back on the road towards Quchan again, looking for somewhere to spend the night.


After looking in a couple of small side roads and just finding mudbrick villages with a lot of stray dogs, but now we’ve found one with flat dirt ground again, still full from pizza, so no food, just bed time.