We apologize for the silence on our blog over the last week. Our travels across Iran, while rich and deeply fulfilling, have teamed up with slow and censored internet, a blistering pace of full days that end late, and an attempt to process it all that feels like a slow drip.
A table of women in Kermanshah invite Dan to share their qalyan (water pipe).
Now that we’ve dispensed with the excuses, we offer a few snapshots of our journey to not-so-traveled Western Iran where our path through the country begins. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Iran, Middle East, Travel by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
21 Comments | 13 November 2011
Persia’s Qajar dynasty kings knew how to have a good time. (Some may argue that they did so at the expense of their subjects and their country, but that’s another matter entirely.)
For now, a visual. Take a peek inside the lavishly tiled and ornate Khalvat-e-karimkhani room at Golestan Palace in Tehran, Iran. Imagine Qajar dynasty kings from 200 years ago relaxing with a water pipe in this cool outdoor lounge and waiting to greet their subjects from their marble throne.
As you open the panorama below, be sure to use the up arrow to gaze at the ceiling! Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Iran, Middle East, Panorama by: Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott
14 Comments | 4 November 2011
What does it feel like to fly into Iran, to enter the country for the first time? Here’s the story of our flight to Tehran including some things you might expect, and some others you might not.
Destination: TEHRAN. I ogle my boarding pass at the departure gate in Istanbul. We bought the tickets months before, all easy enough. So easy in fact that we wondered if the day of our flight would actually ever come; a rejected visa application snatching it all away in a breath.
But our Iranian visas were approved and there we were waiting to board a plane — our plane — to Tehran. Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Iran, Middle East, Travel by: Audrey Scott
37 Comments | 3 November 2011
This is the story of Iran, a country we once expected to visit last, as a final bow wrapped around a journey that tells the story of making human connections around the world. It’s also an explanation of why we’re going there this Friday.
Continue Reading »
Filed Under: Iran, Middle East, Travel by: Daniel Noll
87 Comments | 26 October 2011
