TABRIZ

Friends and family are so nice and hospitable to me. Everybody want to get together and some want to travel and there are so many places to see.
My best friend Mehdi in Iran, offered to fly me to Tabriz to visit his spouse's family and this ancient city. This was a great opportunity for me to visit Tabriz for the first time. And I had a great time staying with Mehranfar's family and I'm grateful for their hospitality.

Tabriz is in the East Azerbaijan province,  which is the Turkish part of Iran. The first language here is Turkish but everybody speak Farsi as well.  It feels foreign since everybody speak a language that I don't understand.
Tabriz is the 4th largest city in Iran and it use to be the capital of Persia during the Qajar period. The history of Tabriz goes back over 2500 years.

Qajaar House

Everything I ate in Tabriz from fresh Cantaloupe fruit Juice to the Baklava tasted great. I think the food products here in Tabriz are of a better quality than many other places.
Silky cream cheese topped with honey on fresh barbari bread along with tea is the best breakfast you can imagine.
The old Tabriz Bazaar is a must see, it's enormous and one of the largest and oldest in the middle east. It is actually the oldest covered Bazaar in the world.

Kandovan

Another site we visited is Kandovan, which is a village in the outskirts of Tabriz. The homes in Kandovan are carved inside large cone shaped rocks and some are as old as 800 years old. This village is just surreal. These cone shaped rocks must been reefs under water many many years ago.
Furthermore, you don't see as many homeless or panhandlers in this city. The air here in Tabriz is also much cleaner than Tehran or Mashhad.
To see the photo album of Iran please visit earthling sailor page.

Love from Tabriz