Photos

Comments

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  Patricia Deany April 25, 2011 at 12:03am

  Just looked at your facebook collection and note that you have had the wonderful opportunity of travelling to Iran! I lived there for several years a long time ago and would love to return. Noted also your ring with red glass, looks like a hajji ring -- I have such a ring as well. I also purchased a wonderful bracelet in Marakkesh with the red hajj glass, but, alas lost it on the airplane home. It was never meant to be mine.
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  Sigrid van Roode May 9, 2011 at 12:09pm

  Hi Patricia, thank you for your lovely comment! Iran is wonderful indeed, it has been a great experience to travel through this country. How long have you been living there? And where, if I may ask? I fell in love with Isphahan...hope to be returning there next year. The beauty of the architecture is almost unbelieveable, such grace and elegance!

  Too bad about the bracelet; as you say, sometimes they are not meant to be with us. I lost an Egyptian silver ring in Iran that I never found back again; apparently it wants to stay there...
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  Patricia Deany May 9, 2011 at 12:53pm

  My husband and I lived in Isphahan  and Tehran for over three years about 35 years ago during the last days of the Shah. In Isphahan we lived in Jolfa, which is the Armenian quarter, very close to the church. At the time I had mixed feelings about being there, I was very young and really, really provincial, but I look back on it now as close to the best time of my life. We travelled all over, the desert city of Yazd, Kerman, Kashan and Gorgan were some of our favorite places and we also travelled to Afghanistan from there. I imagine you go with a tour group? I am looking for a tour to travel there again soon. I hear you are possibly going on Sarah's tour-- you will love it! Soo much jewelry and textile shopping. Makes me wish I were still on the tour now!
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  Patricia Deany May 9, 2011 at 8:10pm

  Oh, I forgot,you have probably heard this but, for the tourist, it happens to be true. Isphahan, nesf e jahan, --Isphahan is half the world.--
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  Sigrid van Roode May 17, 2011 at 8:42am

  Yes, I heard that expression! Wow, you have traveled to Afghanistan as well, how amazing. Hard to imagine these days! I was traveling with a group on a study-trip in archaeology: we went to see both important and less known archaeological sites, like Persepolis and Kermanshah. I was thrilled by the country (and especially by its cuisine!), so I will definitely return some time!

  And yes, I hope to be joining Sarah's tour! I so look forward to it...must be amazing!!
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  Patricia Deany May 17, 2011 at 11:26am

  Yes, the food in Iran is sooo wonderful, my husband and I still crave it and eat it asap. We live near Washington DC where there are lots of Iranian expats and therefore lots of Iranian food. Were you able to see the citadel of Bam -- it is destroyed now by earthquake but was breathtaking, the whole country near the gulf is desert and date tree, a bit like the palmery of Morocco.
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  Sigrid van Roode May 17, 2011 at 12:55pm

  No, we did not see Bam unfortunately (another reason to return): we traveled mainly through the west side of the country, roughly Tehran, Qazvin, Hamadan, Kermanshah, Yazuj, Shiraz, Isphahan and back to Tehran - beautiful trip. I liked Khuzestan very much: hot and dry, and very desert-like.

  I can imagine you still eat Iranian food when you can! I looked up a set of recipes as soon as I got back and now I can whip up a decent khoresht fesenjan....so delicious!
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  Patricia Deany May 17, 2011 at 1:48pm

  Yes, that is a wonderful dish although I prefer gei mei  or chelo kabob. We have a chain of chelo kabob restaurants in the states which serve very comparable food to Iran, the basmati rice and yogurt with leeks is yummy. But I like the sweeter dishes too particularly zaresk-i-polo, the rice, chicken and berry dish. Alas, I am not a curious cook, actually quite lazy cook right now so I usually eat these in a restaurant.As far as I know,the citadel of Bam basically does not exist anymore ( although I have not kept up with this) the whole city and the citadel were virtually destroyed -- I think over 30 thousand dead -- years ago, I may be wrong here, since I have not kept up with progress. Yazd is my favorite city, it is like a fantasy or dream or mirage-- very foreign looking with it's wind towers, although I have heard that many people have given up this sort of housing for more modern. I love the climate there, at the time I went it was fairly unpolluted although may have changed too. Yazd used to be a textile center and produced a very distinctive silk textile, older examples are very expensive now and I can't remember the name. At the time, I was very much into Iranian textiles and loved Kerman primarily for it's patehs, embroidery on hand woven cloth, some new and some old, these are hard to find now here but sometimes I see one and either purchase or just admire it on ebay. So much there and a very gracious people and so many horrible things have happened to them--the Iran, Iraq war was devastating. Oh well, hope to visit again before I leave this earth!
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  Eva Baby July 15, 2011 at 4:48pm

  Beaautiful, just love it.
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  Sigrid van Roode July 20, 2011 at 7:56am

  Thank you! It's one of my favourite pieces...