Isfahan, Iran - Day 8 - Strolling around - at the Qeysarieh Museum and Café gallery and the Imam square - The 23rd of August 2019

 

I had decided to have my birthday lunch at a bathhouse turned into a restaurant, having completely forgotten that my birthday fell onto a Friday, a family day in Iran so many places would be closed.

 

 

As a second choice we went to  a bazaar restaurant we had been to last year, which was one of the few open to have lunch and despite having had to queue for a while had a most delicious meal.

 

 

 

From the Qeysarieh Café we saw the Imam square getting crowded as both polo players and their horses made their entrance and the crowd gathered to watch a polo game. There were several activities going on, still associated to the previous religious days but also to the children's commemorative weekend.

 

 

On of the staff members took us onto the roof, whisch will soon be able to the public to have a first hand experience of what it is like to look at the square from the highest observation top. The experience was second to none and so were some of the photos we took.

 

 

 

 

The evening ended on a rather unique note. We were approached by an eleven year old girl who could speak English as a first certificate-like student, which really impressed me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isfahan, Iran - Day 7 (evening cont.) - The visit to the Golestan-e-Shohada war cemetery - The 22nd of August 2019

(...)

To walk into the Golestan-e-Shoada war cemetery was a differnt thing because one's mind wandered about the numerous people who died in a senseless longIrn-Irak war. To stroll around the haunting faces of those who perished was touching and yet the presence of their families sitting on the ground eating and keeping them company or being accompanied by their memories was even more touching.

 

 

I felt the pain and sorrow of so many valuable lives lost and wondered if anything will ever change and to which extent people learn or don't learn from past decisions and mistakes that may lead to similar rows of tombs, whose faces look you in the eye.

This was our last evening visit and yet a rather meaningful one.





 

Isfahan, Iran - Day 7 (evening cont.) - The evening guided tour of the cemeteries and less known Mosques - The 22nd of August 2019

(...)

I wish I had taken a booknote with me as we strolled around the cemetery where some known Iranian musicians have been buried because Hamid told us some rather unique stories regarding the reasons as to why some of them had actually been "forced" to be buried here following some requested agreements upon Ayatola Khomeiny.

 

The same is true regarding the Mosques we visited afterwards and whose names I don't recall. Apart from the purpose of the chain at the entrance and the designs on the tomb stones identifying the type of profession those buried underneath were holding I remember very little.

 

I do remember though the fervorous atmosphere and the fact that burial places and religious sites which in Europe would otherwise be locked in the evening were here filled with people that made them alive.

 

 

 (To be continued)