Shiraz

We took a night train to Shiraz. Highly recommendable. There are very good trains, very good service and it is in time. For Europeans also very cheap. Keep in mind to buy ticket before and before check-in it is needed to get a stamp from local police booth which you find in the train station. Simple and quick procedure - you just present your passport, get a stamp and that's it.

We travelled together with two local men from Shiraz. Their English vocabulary was around 30-40 words, but we had pretty long and interesting conversation. One of them was retired military officer and the other lawyer, both returning home.

Shiraz railway station is out of the city, so you need to take taxi. It is well organised - you tell what hotel and you pay immediately. Cheap and fast.

Shiraz is a capital of Fars province and it is a former capital of Iran. It is quite modern and lively city.

The highlight in Shiraz is definitely Shah Cheragh. You get guide free of charge and you need to have one if you want to take photos. We had very nice open minded and good English speaking guide. Photos were only allowed when he was around. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. We felt it is a holy place. It has also modern part of mosque and is architecturally very nice. Interestingly we got a leaflet apologising what happened in Paris and Brussels. Islam in Iran is pretty moderate and you don't see anything indicating radicalism. We talked to many people and they all were pretty tolerant to other religions. Most of them were very "western" friendly. We never heard anything negative about US, rather people were criticising their own government.


Nasir al-Mulk Mosque is pretty small compared to Shah Cheragh but it was worth to visit.

Yazd bazaar was not worth to pay a visit (compared to others).

On our way to the city was Karim Khan Citadel. It is nice piece of architecture and pretty well renovated.

Next day we took a taxi to Persepolis. It was ca 1 hour drive and 1,5 hours to look around. Its just ruins but worth to visit (keeping in mind its history). As Naghsh-e-Rostam is nearby (15 min drive), take an opportunity to visit also these tombs. You will see important part of the history. As it is so touristy place there will be people trying to convince you to come see their village, offer themselves as your guides to Persepolis or similar. It was the only place in Iran we saw sellers/guides being so aggressive and it wasn´t even high season. But then again we got a contact there for a guide who took us from Jazd to Esfahan. (About it you can read in our post: Trip to Esfahan)


In great hotel Zandiyeh (one of the best hotels we stayed in Iran) we took Iranian bath. Basically it is classical hamam but pretty good value for money.

When you know about the wine, you expect to see large fields of grape. We saw few abandoned plots of grape, but that's all. We heard rumours that some local people still do some wine for family use, but it is almost dead business there. Younger people brew homemade beer as well, but mostly moonshine called arak (anis spirit). Supposedly it is not too hard to get arak, but we would still advise caution when asking around. Iran has moral police visiting celebrations and noone takes the risk bringing alcohol to these events or appearing drunk in public. Private gatherings as we understood are a different story. Also when bringing alcohol with you, be prepared to explain that it is for medical reasons or something similar as some consider drinking alcohol sickness.