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Excerpt 4 - Central Iran - Arrival in Esfahan Newspapers, websites, TV news – it seemed that every one of them had run a feature on Iran’s rejuvenated nuclear program in the days leading up to this part of my trip. In nearly every story Esfahan was listed as the major city closest to the program’s home. There were so many stories it actually felt like driving into a spotlight, like being back in Baghdad, knowing you were at the center of world attention. Esfahan was the first large city we’d been in since Tehran. After all of the emptiness and countryside it felt cramped and confusing. I could tell it bothered Professor too – he was more at home in the country or around the tourist sites than driving in big city traffic. Searching for our downtown hotel took forever in Esfahan’s confusing maze of one-way streets and wall-to-wall cars. We had to stop and ask for directions a half dozen times, though by now I could roll down the window and ask for directions myself. Seeing the surprised looks on people’s faces when a foreigner asked for directions, let alone in Farsi, got Professor and I laughing and helped break the tediousness of the search.
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The best thing about the hotel, other than finally finding it, was the easy walk to the riverfront. Esfahan is broken into roughly two halves by the Zayandeh River, with our hotel on the traditional, Islamic side. The far side contained a newer area of Armenian Christians, similar to the Jewish area of Hamedan and the Zoroastrian area of Yazd. A walk along the green, landscaped waterfront, though chilly in the winds of January, was a great change from the endless brown of the preceding days. Plus the river was spanned in several places by traditional bridges intricately assembled from carved stone. At the base of several of the bridges were tea shops offering great views of the river and a chance to relax with a pipe of Iran’s finest. Before setting out for a walk along the river we had to meet our local guide. The tour guide union of Iran (yeah, seriously) is quite strong in heavily-touristed areas like Esfahan and requires tourists to hire a local guide in addition to their main guide. People like Professor are licensed to lead tours around the country, but in certain restricted areas licenses only go to locals – meaning any tour groups in the area require a local rep. |