Day 10 (5/4) Coca Cola, Kenny G, and the Ferris Wheel of Life

This morning at breakfast, we met two German tourists who are travelling the whole Silk Road. She is an architect, and he is a pilot for Lufthansa. He took a voluntary year’s leave during the economic downturn to travel. They’ve spent several days in Iran, but were unable to get into the shrine – small wonder as they really stood out. So we offered to meet up with them later when we would be going to the shrine if they wanted to come with us.

We hired two taxis with drivers to take us all for a drive to the countryside near Mashad. We stopped for lunch at Shandiz, a very famous restaurant that it seems like everybody who visits Mashad raves about. And no wonder – it has a wonderful setting with seating platforms covered with Persian rugs, creeks, plenty of trees and beautiful landscaping, and great food! However, I did find it amusing that with my lunch I was drinking a Coca Cola, and over the musak playing was Kenny G!


Along the drive home, we passed a huge park with a ferris wheel. Mom looked at it and quietly remarked on how much it was like life- sometimes up, sometime down. I just loved her perspective - especially as she has seen a lot of those ups and downs in her own life.

It’s interesting being in Mashad as opposed to Tehran. Because it is does not have as much foreign business or tourism going on here, and many people visiting here are on a pilgrimage, often from rural areas, I get a lot of people looking at me here. Actually, I have people staring at me most of the time. I never feel it’s particularly malicious, just intensely curious. I suppose most westerners don’t think of coming to this corner of Iran, as close as it is to Afghanistan, and yet it's a world away too. When I tell people back home I've been to Mashad (we came here 7 years ago) and describe where it is, they ask me if I am afraid here. The answer is no. Iran is not Afghanistan - plain and simple. I am no more afraid here than I would be in Phoenix right now with all the violence that's been happening south of the border in Mexico.

In the evening, we returned to the shrine. Stephanie, our new friend from Germany, came with me – luckily a group of women was going into the shrine at the same time, so we kind of piggybacked with their group and were not asked any questions (I was also careful to leave my purse at home!).

It’s hard to describe the shrine. The entire ceilings and walls are covered in mirror mosaics, there are crystal chandeliers, and then the gold "zareeh" or tomb of Imam Reza. The whole place sparkles with light dancing off tiny pieces of mirror and crystals, and underneath one’s feet is the softness of intricately patterned Persian carpets in reds, blues, golds and greens. Simply put – it’s breathtaking. One can’t help but be in awe. But as I mentioned before, it’s also comfortable – I can sit down on one of the carpets and just think, read, pray or talk with others. Or, as I found on a previous trip, if I’m really tired, I can pull the chador I have to wear in the shrine over my head and take a short nap!

As we were finishing up our visit to the shrine, I saw something very interesting. During Azan, the call to prayer, I noticed a young woman in the courtyard holding up her cell phone or MP3 player (I couldn’t tell which), apparently recording the Azan. I am told - and from what I have heard myself I believe it’s true - that the Azan in Iran is different from other places; that it’s more musical. I can’t blame the young woman for recording it. As a musician, I actually find the Azan enchanting and lyrical. I remember an Iranian friend of mine in the States telling me once she really missed the Azan each day, even though she was not particularly religious. I couldn’t understand it at the time, but interestingly enough, now that I’ve been to Iran a few times, I find the same thing. And if I hear a recording of Azan when I’m back at home, I find it makes me a little homesick for Iran. It’s just part of the fabric here, part of the landscape, part of the sensory experience that I know I’ll miss when I return.

Day 9 (5/3) Cartwheels, carpets and courtyards

Nothing like just getting here and then leaving again! Today Nick and I, as well as his brother Massoud and Massoud’s wife Mahshid, took mom and dad to the holy city of Mashad . We left for the airport around 8 am and arrived at our hotel in Mashad at 2 pm. The hotel is very nice inside, though it’s off a small alley, but it is quite close to the Shrine of Imam Reza, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. After a busy couple of days, we all needed a break, and took a siesta (there’s no equivalent word that I know of in Farsi!) in the afternoon. After getting a couple of wheelchairs for mom and dad to make it more comfortable for them, we headed to the shrine in the evening. Women and men have to enter the shrine complex through separate security entrances, though what security it really provides I’ve never quite figured out. As I had my purse with me with a compact and a lipstick, and because I look different, the women at the entrance gave me a bit of a hard time getting into the shrine, but mom and Mahshid argued with them and finally they let me go. The shrine has expanded since the last time we were there about 7 years ago. There is a huge new courtyard – when I say huge, I mean it is about the size of a football field. I was told the space for the new courtyard came from a graveyard. Apparently, they just built it over the graves. I tried to imagine the outcry if something like that happened in the U.S.! As mom and dad prayed inside, Nick, Massoud, Mahshid and I wandered around the complex. What I love about visiting the shrines in Iran is that in many ways, they are much less formal than the churches I grew up with. There are families sitting together on large Persian rugs, reading, praying or just talking. There are some areas that are separated men or women, but also many areas where men and women can sit together. I even saw children turning cartwheels amongst those who were praying or reading. Other than at the formal prayer times, it feels very relaxed. And when the call to prayer comes, the Shrine staff roll out wooden carts full of large Persian carpets and spread them out in the courtyards. Not everybody who comes to pray there can fit inside the shrine, so the carpets are laid out to accommodate the hundreds of people who wish to worship there. After the prayer time, the carpets are rolled back up and re-stored. I wondered where all the carpets came from. Many of them are made for the mosques to meet a person’s “nazr”. A “nazr” is when a person makes a promise to God that they intend to keep if their prayers are answered. And they do carry out their promises; people take their “nazr” very, very seriously. So, some of the rugs we saw at the mosque were woven to fulfill a “nazr”.

Day 7-8 (5/1 - 5/2) Getting settled into Tehran

Since we got in so late, we didn’t get up until about noon yesterday, and it was generally just a day at home visiting and relaxing with our family. Today (5/2), Nick’s cold that started in Rome seems to have gotten worse – we’re not sure if it’s a virus or allergies, or both. It never fails, we always get some kind of head or chest cold when we’re here. So far, I’m OK, but taking my vitamins just in case! Our luggage finally arrived, so Nick’s brother, Massoud, took us all the way back to the new airport that they built south of the city to pick it up. The airport is large, and clean and nice, but there's not much air traffic there. Nick was telling me it was planned over 25 years ago, and the plan was for a huge development with hotels, restaurants, etc. However, after the Revolution in 1979, it was never built – until now. Now it’s just an airport. I suppose eventually, Tehran might sprawl all the way down this far, but for now it seems like it’s abnormally far away for an airport. In the afternoon, we took Nick to the doctor and also stopped off at his other brother’s (Behrooz’s) business to quickly check our e-mail. Plans are in the works for us to take mom and dad to Mashad - perhaps even tomorrow!

Day 6 (4/30) Traveling from Rome to Tehran

Today was just one very long day of travel. First, we had to haul our baggage all the way back to the airport via Metro and the train. Then we flew back to Amsterdam, had a couple of hours of layover, and finally boarded our flight to Tehran. It is 6 hours from Amsterdam to Tehran, and Tehran is about 3 hours ahead , so we did not arrive until 11 pm.

Once the airline touched down in Tehran, and before disembarking, I had to make sure I was appropriately dressed according to the government's regulations in Iran. This is not as difficult as one might think. I get a lot of questions back in the States about how women have to dress in Iran - many people think women are forced to wear chadors (long black robes) or even burqas. Well, I've never seen anybody wearing a burqa in Iran, although many women do wear chadors - some by choice, others for their work (especially if they work for the government in any capacity). But by and large, many women dress pretty casually. For example, I generally planned to wear the mid-length light coat I had been wearing in Rome (since it came down to mid-thigh) as well as pants or jeans, and a scarf or shawl. In Rome, I'd been wearing my scarf around my neck most days - now it just covered part of my hair - not a big change. And at home, people dress more or less like we do in the States.

But back to our arrival - the airline lost one of our bags on the way, which means we had to return to the airport later in the week, so that took some time to sort out. It was a wonderful sight to see many of our family at the airport. Our nieces, Parisa, Mahsah and Mariam all came in shawls of orange, teal and pink with beautiful bouquets of flowers for us – like three bright birds with fanciful plumage. And how they’d changed – 4 years fly by for us, and we forget how quickly the kids grow!

We arrived at Nick’s parent’s home at about 2 am. There were lots of tears of joy and smiles. I don’t think anybody who can easily see their family within a few hours of flying or driving time can understand what it is to be so very far removed – literally on the other side of the world – from one’s family and the sharp pain as well as joy with each homecoming and each leaving. So it's good to be here again. After much catching up, we finally headed to bed around 4 am.

Day 5 (4/29) Last day in Rome

This morning, we decided to get up early and take another stab at trying to see St Peter’s. We arrived promptly at 8:15 to find lots of security as well as chairs set up in the square. We suddenly realized it was Wednesday, the day the Pope holds an address in the square if he is in residence. Naturally, it meant St. Peters was closed until the afternoon. I supposed many tourists would have been thrilled to see the Pope in the flesh, but it would have meant waiting in the square for a couple of hours with thousands of others. Since time was precious to us, with so many other sites to see, so we quickly rearranged plans and headed for Castel St Angelo.
We were glad we did so, as we may not have made time for it otherwise. Castel St Angelo was originally a mausoleum for Hadrian, and eventually other emperors as well. Later, it was added onto by various Popes and it became a fortress, the residence of a Pope and later a prison. A such , it is an interesting combination of an Etruscan style tomb on the bottom and a renaissance living space on top with fortress walls and ramparts all around it. It is quite a structure and not to be missed! At the top, there is a café with wonderful views of St. Peters. We stopped for an espresso and some fresh-squeezed orange juice and could just barely hear the Pope’s address from St Peter’s.
After Castel St Angelo, we took the train to Repubblica station to see the Baths of Diocletian. This is another example of Romans creatively using ancient Roman ruins as the foundation for new buildings. The Baths of Diocletian were once the most beautiful of over 900 public baths in Rome. Much of the ruins are still standing, but a large church has been built entirely inside of them! The church was unique in that, upon close inspection, what looked like marble columns actually turned out to be tromp l'oeil. Some were real, some were painted – and one had to see them from fairly close range to tell the difference!

From there, we travelled back to Piazza Spagna. On our first evening there, we had spotted several street vendors with scarves (which I love) and other nice wares. But they seemed to have all evaporated. The only vendors around were selling sunglasses. We found it amusing that the same vendors who were out in droves with umbrellas a couple of days ago, had so quickly been able to change their product to fit the weather!!
But while we didn’t find the scarf vendors at the Piazza Spagna we were rewarded in the end. When we were heading back St Peters, walking from Ottoviano station, we came across a vendor with absolutely beautiful scarves and shawls at superb prices! Of course, I went crazy and made Nick buy about 8 of them – mostly as gifts for Iran, since they are much used there – but also 1 or 2 for myself! Nick even got very brave with his Italian and tried to negotiate for a better deal, ultimately without success, but it was fun neverthelessAfter a booster of gelato, it was on to St. Peter’s and the very long flight of 551 steps to the top of the dome. What a sight from there – all of Rome was stretched out before us. Inside St Peter’s was stunning. I love mosaic, and St Peters has it in abundance.
But the crowds eventually got to be overwhelming. Tired after such a long day, we sat in St Peter’s square for a while, soaking up the blue skies and brilliant sunshine. As we did so, a one-legged pigeon hopped over to us. The poor soul, it truly couldn't walk, having one leg severely crippled. So we fed it with some bread we had with us until it decided to fly away to a higher perch. We said our good-byes to Rome that afternoon, and headed back to the hotel. Naturally, I couldn’t resist and bought another couple of scarves on the way back as well as a small souvenir to hang on our holiday tree as a memory.

Day 4 (4/28) - Just how many miles did we walk today?!

We started today at the Vatican museums since the weather was still overcast and light rain. We arrived early and got to the Sistine chapel before it got too crowded. There are no words to truly describe this great work of art. To see it in person was a treasure I’ll never forget. We then spent several hours wandering through much of the rest of the museum. The sheer number of status and busts was amazing. But what was even more interesting was how many of them were labeled as copies of Grecian originals. I always knew the Romans learned a great deal from, and even borrowed from the Greeks, but I didn't realize the extent to which they simply imitated works of art.


Unfortunately, we did not get to the Raphael rooms until later; by that time it was absolutely packed! This, combined with the fact that once you decide to start to go in the direction towards the rooms, you are squeezed through small passages with no way out amde it very claustrophobic for about 50 minutes. Once we reached the rooms there was a large crowd, so we were really not able to enjoy the room as we had hoped.

From the museums, we had hoped to tour St Peters, but when we arrived there at about 1:30, the line stretched all the way around the square. We decided to try again the next day and headed into Rome instead. We took the metro to Piazza Spagna and came out an entrance we were not familiar with, next to the Villa Borghese park. From there, we walked down the hill by the Trevi fountain again. Naturally, we stopped off at our favorite pizzeria/gelateria and continued on to find the Pantheon. Our map was very poor, and so we spent a fair amount of time lost and wandering in different directions – but what better way to truly experience Rome! We finally came upon the Piazza Navona and found the Pantheon from there. I think the Pantheon is truly one of my favorite places in Rome. Because so much of it is still intact, I felt closer to the history of the ancient Romans than I did among ruins. Plus, we loved the shape – that you can fit a perfect sphere inside of it – what incredible engineering! We headed back through the Piazza Navona and toured the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone. We then went to the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, which my sister said was a “must see” for a status by Michelangelo housed there, but which does not (unlike the Pieta in St. Peter’s) have hordes of tourists visiting it.


From there, we continued to wander through the streets to the Campo Fiori coming out along the river. Along the way, we came upon a Jewish festival celebrating the state of Israel. There were lots of police around, although everything seemed very peaceful. We continued on, and came upon the Portico of Octavia, once of the grandest monuments in Rome. Only the entrance porch now remains. What amazes us most about Rome, as I’m sure it does for every tourist, is that every time one turns a corner there are more ruins, and more history to be discovered. When we turned to our right, we realized we were at the Teatro di Marcello, built around 11 BC and once the second largest theater in Rome. Centuries after it was abandoned and then resurrected as a fortress, a noble family turned it into a palace on the 16th century and built additional living quarters atop the two tiers that remained of the theater. As it was early evening, there were few tourists around. It is a singular sensation to walk by a ruin or building that has been standing for hundreds of years, and realize you are not only small in comparison to the sheer size of the monument, but also only one miniscule person among millions who, throughout so many centuries, have also gazed upon these ruins with awe. The hurry and break-neck speed with which we normally live our daily lives suddenly seems to stop and carry far less importance.
Subdued, we wandered through quiet roads and alleyways to the top of the Capitolino hill for a beautiful view of Rome and the Forum, and then a golden-blue sunset over Vittoriano Emmanuel.
But this beautiful day had one last gift for us – as we strolled back towards the Colosseum, we captured – in our hearts, though not terribly well on film, a brilliant rainbow stretching from the Forum, over the Colosseum and disappearing into the busy nightlife of Rome.

Day 3 (4/27) - Our first full day in Rome

On our first full day in Rome we wanted to hit some of the ancient sites right away. The most obvious choice to start was the Colosseum. It’s truly amazing how much is still standing despite years of neglect and rampant vandalism. We were also impressed by how much the design, with all of its entrances and exits, has influenced stadium design throughout the rest of history.

From there, we headed up to the Palatine to walk around and view Augustus’ palace, looked down on the Circo Massimo and explored the various ruins. Unfortunately, a massive wind storm started while on the Palatine hill. The problem with being amongst ancient ruins in a wind storm is that there is a lot of,… DUST! Since we literally had dust and dirt blowing in our faces, we headed back down the hill into the Roman Forum. I especially liked the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, which was once a temple – the front portico of which is still standing. However, within the enclosure of the old temple ruins, the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda church was built centuries later.

What we didn’t realize is that as the storm picked up, the Forum acted as a virtual wind tunnel. We took refuge in the Curia and hung out with Trajan and the other emperors whose statues are housed there for a while. But there’s only so long one can examine the details of roman costume, hair styles and weaponry as carved into marble, and we ventured out again. After snapping a few pictures, our friendly storm brought us something we are very used to – rain. However, this was not the steady drizzle of the Pacific NW; rather, it was a heavy downpour. We took refuge in the Vittorio Emmanuel, and wandered through an exhibit on the history of Rome (all in Italian), before they finally kicked us out at closing time. Thankfully, vendors had appeared at every doorway selling umbrellas. As we headed back toward the Coliseum, the rain started to abate, and we walked along the Imperial Forum, taking in the sights and considering where we might score some tasty gelato. But the storm wasn’t done with us yet, for as we neared the Colosseum, the rain began again in full force, drenching us just as we reached the Metro station. However, it was not cold, and since we still had an appetite for gelato (who doesn’t?!), we bought some from the gellateria in the station and waited for the rain to subside so we could take some pictures around the Colosseum at night. The storm had other ideas, however, since the rain continued and did not look like it would stop anytime soon. In the end, drenched and shivering slightly after our gelato, we headed back to our hotel.

Day 1 – 2 (4/25 - 4/26)

We are finally on our way! After months of planning, shopping, as well as delaying our trip last year, we are once more headed to Iran to visit Nick’s family and homeland. It’s a long trip to Iran – generally about 25-35 hours in just travel time, so we decided to break up the trip and get some rest and relaxation before arriving in Tehran by taking a slight detour to Rome. We left Seattle around noon on Saturday and arrived in Rome via Amsterdam mid-afternoon on Sunday. The only challenge with stopping on the way is that it limits how much baggage we could take to one bag of maximum 50 pounds each, plus a carry-on. While this seems like a lot, when you consider that gift-giving is in Iran, as in many other countries, a very important part of social etiquette, 50 pounds when buying gifts for a large family is actually not really adequate. But Nick and I severely trimmed back our own personal clothing to the bare essentials – I was actually quite impressed with how little we took along personally, as we both have a tendency to over pack!

Since we only had one large bag each, we decided to take all of our baggage to our hotel in Rome with us. What we didn’t count on was that there are not escalators or elevators running at all metro stops. So after our long flight, we did end up lugging the bags up and down a couple of flights of stairs where the escalator was broken. But we eventually managed to get to our hotel just south of the Vatican. Nice place – it caters to a lot of tourist groups from Europe. We were even pleasantly surprised that we not only had our own bathroom, but that it had a deep bathtub – just what we needed after the long flight! After a quick wash-up, we decided to head out for our first evening in Rome. We hopped back on the metro to the Piazza del Popolo and walked along the Via del Corso, a shopping passage that seemed to be closed off to traffic that evening until we turned left and arrived at the Piazza Spagna and the Spanish Steps. What a great place to just relax amongst other tourists, locals, and pots upon pots of azaleas up and down the steps.


Tired, but still excited about being in Rome, we decided we just had to visit the Trevi Fountain as well, as so off we went. We not only found the fountain, which is a spectacular site lit up at night, but also discovered a great little pizzeria and gellateria near the fountain, where we naturally delighted in our first pizza and gelato in Italy!

Our latest trip to Iran

As much as I love Iran, it's been nice being back in Seattle again. There is so much here that I often take for granted - beginning with how beautiful it is! Since we returned two weeks ago, the weather has been fabulous - a very early summer for us. Since we spend so much time doing outdoor activities when the weather's good, that has made it much more difficult to sit down and post to our blog about our trip. Since we got back, we've also gotten into square foot gardening - and put in four gardening boxes. If the good weather is here to stay, we might as well get a jump on growing our own vegetables!

But back to our trip - I'm finally taking a few minutes each day to post our daily experiences on our trip to Iran. We were gone a total of three weeks, spending the first few days in Rome to break up the very long flight from Seattle to Iran, and the remainder of the trip in Iran.