"you can’t pick up two melons with one hand"

persian proverb

By 默默富酷

May 1^st, 2012

the land of cyrus the great

“you can’t pick up two melons with one hand” - this of course have nothing to do with the trip to persia. any sentence with melons and hands in it is certain to draw a few giggles.

mention iran and most westerners will think of the term axis of evil. i was a little skeptical when we made the trip to shiraz, yadz, esfahan, abyaneh and tehran. we did not manage to squeeze the holy city of qom as a special visa is required. when we left iran, four things were etched in my memory:

shandiz restoorant - nested in a hilly area, this restaurant serves the best lamb chops ever. and yougurt. so good, it made me forget that i had to be alcohol-free throughout the trip.

we almost died - after the rudimentary visit to persepolis, we had a really good and heavy meal. we made our way to shiraz. we slept in the van that was traveling at least 60kmph. the driver probably fell asleep too. the van smashed into the road divider and propelled us onto the floor. seat-belts are important, peeps. as we fell, e exclaimed “oh no, oh no, we are going to die”. it was terrifying and damn funny at the same time.

persian rugs - they are exquisite and ridiculously expensive. we bought four in total. don’t ask how much we spent. and oh, i regretted not buying the one with the lion.

and these images.

squares #1

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"you can’t pick up two melons with one hand"

squares #2

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no free lunch at abyaneh

this abyanaki lady came up to us and invited us to her house. it was unusual because the other ladies were either aloof or pushing their products (namely dried apples and nuts). we couldn’t reject her hospitality, could we? especially when it is an opportunity for us to visit a typical red village home.

she introduced us to her husband, which she instructed him to stay put. it was clear who wears the pants in this household. two minutes in, she insisted we buy her dried apples.