(Daniel) This morning I decided to spend some time updating the Diary in my room. After a few hours Rowan came and knocked for me and said that he and Gabby would like to spend the day together, as they are newly married. This suited me as there are many jobs that need doing on the Wolf, and there was plenty of diary to type up too! After an hour more my phone rang, it was Abed, he asked if I would like to come to the shop, to which I replied that I needed to get the car washed. He was happy to take me to a local place, so I went to leave, but couldn’t find the keys. I searched everywhere, and really got into a panic, I was just about to phone Nick and get the spares sent out, when I found them I my bloody pocket! How many times have people done this? I know that it is a common occurrence but so far from home this was a real scare. Kicking myself, I drove down to the Imam Komemi square where Abed’s shop is located and met up with him.
When I arrived Abed introduced me to two of his friends, Saumon and Bobek. They were both really nice guys and asked if they could come to the car wash with us, which was of course fine! Together we all drove down to a place on the outskirts of town, and had lunch outside before going in to get the Wolf cleaned. When we arrived there was a huge queue, but the manager waived us past and around to another entrance where he let us jump the queue and get ours washed first. The manager was very nice and gave us all tea while we waited. He jokingly asked if his workers would catch anything from the truck as it was so dirty. But as the pictures show they did a great job of cleaning her up, and charged around 6 dollars for the work.
After they had finished we all jumped back into the Wolf and drove to the square where we had tea and a waterpipe in the other tea rooms in Esfahan, overlooking the spectacular Imam Komemi square, while we sat the sun went down, and gave us the most amazing view of the square by night. Unfortunately my camera phone doesn’t do the view any justice. : ( Over our tea, we discussed the idea of driving to the desert tomorrow, and camping overnight.
As it is the Martyr Hossain festival the villages would all be celebrating with processions and free food. I thought that this would be ideal, as Rowan and Gabby wanted some time alone, and I was desperate to get out to the desert. So I agreed. After that we drove back to the hotel and cleared the plan with Rowan and Gabbs, and then to the other side of town, where we returned to the Arabo sandwich shop, and then walked to a local mans house where we bought Grappa, Wine and Cognac all made by him. Again I stress that although the alcohol is illegal in Iran, it seems more acceptable for Christians to drink in private, and the only dodgy thing here is where we got the drink itself. I am not one to flaunt the laws of a country, especially one where the death penalty is handed out for such crimes as converting to Christianity and conducting a relationship with a foreigner!
We agreed to meet at 5am the next morning, and went our separate ways.