It's Week Three of our intrepid trio's journey by bus to Sydney, and it turned out to be more than they had bargained for!
Well this week was definitely an unbelievable week as we got caught up in the presidential elections and the first serious riots in Iran in 30 years ... they were obviously waiting for our arrival! And we thought the blog would be unachievable as internet, SMS and international calls were blocked!
However we began our week in the surreal Goreme, Turkey. This is where Star Wars was filmed and really is like being on another planet. The whole town was formed from volcanic ash over 7,000 years ago and people made their homes out of the rocks that form the town. We stayed in a hostel, The Flintstones, where we slept in caves (with en suites!).
On Monday we were picked up at 5am by Kapadokya Balloons to go out on a hot air balloon ride. The balloon fitted all 20 of us and we got the very lovely pilot Mike Green who brought us 700 kilometres above sea level and told us about the sights we were seeing. The ride was without a doubt magical! The scenery is so beautiful. Afterwards we were treated to champagne and cake (this was at 7 in the morning!) and we all got a certificate to say we did the ride.
We headed back to the hostel and now it was time for abseiling and trekking. The trekkers walked over 7 kilometres and didn’t get back until 7pm. As for the abseilers ... well, that was a bit of a riot. We were brought to this huge jagged rock! And when we say rock, we mean we’ve seen smaller mountains! Just the climb up it was enough to terrify a few of us. At the top there were tears and some people couldn’t go through with the abseil down, whilst the rest of us attempted it which resulted in screams from one particular trio member that could be heard for miles around! Our only regret was that we didn’t catch her on film!
After a long day and a cool beer to calm some nerves we headed to the very lovely Fat Boys for some traditional lentil soup made by Grandma and a barbeque chicken dinner, all for only €5. On Tuesday morning we left early for Erzincan just stopping for the night to continue to Dogubeyazit the following night. Again just stopping for the night so we could get to the Iranian border for Thursday morning.
This is where we had to put on the kaftans and headscarves, and wow did we all look a right state! When we were buying our kaftans we all chose bright pinks and blues and greens and purples, not realising that all the women in Iran only wear all black! It was so embarrassing. Fifteen of us walking around looking like something out of a circus. Children pointed and laughed.Women skitted. And men were curious to know where we were from.
The first couple of days in Iran were different and we couldn’t figure out what people do for fun except for playing chess and drinking tea and visiting mosques!! Also the toilets or squats are still taking a bit of getting used to as they are literally a hole in the ground. We stayed in the 4-star Enghelab Hotel in Tehran and went for a meal in their rotating restaurant on the 16th floor.
Just as we finished our meal we noticed several fires around the city and that’s when the riots started. The streets were filled with liberal protestors marching and chanting that the elections were rigged. We weren’t allowed to leave our hotel so we watched from our hotel rooms. On our televisions BBC World was broadcasting the images we were witnessing. Very quickly the internet was down, our phones stopped working and BBC World was no longer available on our televisions.
This went on into the night, but we had to continue our journey. So the next morning we left for Esfahan and stopped at the National Museum of Tehran and the Glass Museum. We arrived at Ali Quapu Hotel on Sunday evening and wandered around the quiet town. The next morning the whole group visited the Ali Quapu Palace, the 40 Columns, a Christian church and Imam Square, stopping at the tea rooms for a cuppa! At 4 o’clock the protests started again … this time right outside our hotel!
The doorman allowed us to stand on the hotel steps and be a part of history. Iranian people came to us and told us why they were protesting and told us to 'tell our countries what’s going on' and that they are 'living in a cage' here. As they shouted 'Freedom' the police swooped in and threw tear gas into the crowds and beat them down. This went on for hours and we saw beatings, police confiscating cameras and destruction of ATM machines and public signs. As we write this we can still hear riots outside as we wait to head to the airport to head to the “
'much safer' Pakistan …
You’ll hear from us again next week … hopefully. For now, slán!!
Jacinta, Emily and Sara.
Advt
You’ll hear from us again next week … hopefully. For now, slán!!
Jacinta, Emily and Sara.
Advt
