Hubble Bubble

There is a saying that Esfahan is half the world. It is true that Esfahan is one of those places that easily fits in the 1001 nights fairytale. We woke up after a very good night sleep and headed into town. The imam Khomeini square is easily one of the most beautiful (and probably biggest) squares in the world. Everywhere you look beauty smiles at you. The grand Emam mosque, the Ali Qapu Palace and the Sheikh lotfollah mosque

We got there at around 11 and were lucky; nobody there! Normally the square is crowded with either tourists or locals, especially in the evenings when its basically one big picnic ground.We found the square completely empty and so quiet you could hear a needle hitting the ground when you dropped it. The view was spectacular and to escape the heat we headed to the masterpiece of the square, the Emam mosque.

Its difficult to describe the grandeur, the beauty and the serenity of this blue tiled mosque. One interesting part is a black tile underneath the 51 meter high dome. If you clap your hands here you will hear 12 echo¡Çs (studies has showed its actually 49 but you can¡Çt here them. So Michel, who is a sucker for these things, kept clapping his hands on and on and on¡Ä

Time to leave and head for the bazaar. There we discovered an amazing teahouse, filled with old relics, where Elles got her introduction in smoking the hubble bubble (qalyan or waterpipe) This typical middle eastern social thing is great, even if your not a smoker. The apple tobacco was actually quiet nice. We got a little bit light in the head and couldn¡Çt stop laughing and laughing. We continued our investigation of the bazaar and were invited in a carpet shop.

Michel asked for a twin engine flying carpet but unfortunately they were sold out. Good thing was that we got the full introduction in Persian Carpets. Amazing to say the least, especially if you know that some carpets have taken 5 ½ years to finish. Unfortunately, we could not find a nice carpet for ¡Æhippie¡Ç,our campervan, and went further into the bazaar. A splendid one, we must say.

In the evening we went to the ¡Æhotel Abasi¡Ç. It¡Çs the most luxurious hotel in town and a great place to have a tea and some watermelon. We enjoyed the rest of the evening watching the rich and maybe famous of Iran!

Please note that this Friday, great prices can be won with our monthly SMS&WIN game. This months prices is are Northface bag and many Ultra Sun – Suntan packages!! All you have to do is to send an SMS message with the text SOSWIN ON to 7373 before this Friday. This Friday we will sent an SMS multiple choice question to all subscribers (0.70 Euro) and a winner will be drawn from all good answers. The revenue of this game will be donated to SOS-Children¡Çs Villages. (Price winners will be called)