Shirin

Shirin picks me up with her car in the morning and shows me around northern Tehran (the rich part). I buy a lot of Persian sweets and candy and a few gifts at the bazaar. We visit a small mosque that has an inside more beautiful than any other mosque I've seen -- completely covered in mirror tiles. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to take any pictures :( We have great Persian food and drinks. It's a good day. Before I know it, it's evening. I notice that I don't have any Iranian money left, which I'll need for skiing tomorrow, so I run around the streets downtown looking for a street changer, but they're all gone for the day. I decide to try another strategy and start looking for foreign tourists, which is not very easy either. Finally, close to midnight, I find three Czechs in a hotel who agree to change my remaining 100 euro to rials, and at the best exchange rate I've got so far, great! All set for skiing tomorrow!

Shirin laughs and takes this photo of me eating haleem, since this is not how you're supposed to eat it.

Sheep head. What we ate the other day.

Graves for unknown people who died in the Iran-Iraq war.

Qalyan place. Smoking forbidden :)

To keep warm, people simply start a fire on the street.

Tehran, Iran