Athens and Iran (OZ, TK and QR business)

[RooFlyer]

The red scarfs are the uniform of the tour group?

I think the general rule is before 10 and after 3.30 is usually tour bus free

Not my group (travelling independent in Athens), but yes, part of a group.

 

[RooFlyer]

Resuming transmission ...

Day 2 in Athens and I visited the Ancient Agora, begun 6th Century BC as the administrative and meeting centre of Athens. Destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC (more of them later! ) it was rebuilt and used up to about 300AD.

The Temple of Hephaestus is the best preserved Doric temple in all of Greece and was built 449BC.

As seen from the Acropolis the day before:



Fantastic first thing in the morning, with no-one else around and strong morning light:





View to an adjacent neighbourhood:



Back through the centre of town and the guards in front of Parliament House:

 

[RooFlyer]

The Greek Parliament house from Syntagama Square:



My hotel is immediately to the left, and I got this view from outside it:



Ah! A protest! Wouldn't be Athens without one. I went closer for the fun:



Past the Zaapeion, the memorial to Frank Zappa:



The Cathedral, and inside:




and then the Temple of Olympian Zeus, viewed from the Acropolis the previous day:



On site. begun in 6th century BC and completed by Emperor Hadrian c 130AD. Originally had 174 17m high Corinthian columns

 

[RooFlyer]

On to the Panathenaic Stadium. A stadium first built here in 330 BC, then reconstructed in 144AD. Re-excavated in the 1800s, it was the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1896 Olympic Games (and also hosted some sports in 2004).







Lastly, the original cemetery in Athens, where you can rest in peace in your own neoclassical temple:

 

[RooFlyer]

The Acropolis Museum:





The Caryatids - originals this time, less the one in the British Museum!




Upwards view at this point - a glass floor above!




In the centre of the museum is a scale block representing the core of the Parthenon, with the famous marble frieze moved to here (copies in the Parthenon currently). Those removed by Lord Elgin are pure white replicas (to the right of the little sign) - originals are a bit dirty ...

 

[RooFlyer]

The National Archaeological Museum.

A mega highlight, the gold funerary mask of Agamemnon, from the Trojan War at Mycenae (c. 1200 BC) - although now thought to be older by about 300 years.



Gold cup from Laconia c 1,500 BC:


Another cup, with octopi, similar date:



Also from Mycenae, 16th C BC:



Too much fabulous stuff - but my favourite was the bronze statue of a boy jockey on his horse; abt 140 BC:

 

[firstclasser]

Nice photos. Looking forward to hearing your Iran experience

 

[RooFlyer]

I discovered that the day I was checking out from the King George was the National celebration day .. with the viewing platform right over Syntagama Square metro station and I was told that the station MAY be closed. Eeek! The eventual consensus was that it wouldn't be closed but I decided to head out early, just in case.

Took a bit of time to check-out ...



Metro to the airport went OK - 50 mins and arrived 5 mins before the QR check-in opened . Easy through check-in, security etc. QR (along with TK, SQ, UA, BA, EK and El AL (and some others)) use the 'Skyserv' lounge. Its pretty basic:





Wine initially was 'on request' but a couple of nondescript bottles eventually made it to the counter. Wifi very slow.

Out to board my QR flight to DOH, with connection to IKA (Tehran). I only have a 45 min connection in DOH (thanks the ATH-DOH flight having to fly around Saudi and Egyptian airspace), so I'm a bit twitchy waiting to board. Amazingly, 10 or 11 wheelchair pax to board. this will be a test of boarding lot's efficiency!




Amazingly, the door shut only 5 mins delayed. Its an A330, 2-2-2 config in business:





Lanson Brut Rose and cold towel at hand - Tehran, here I come!

 

[RooFlyer]

About a 4 hour flight. I have always liked QR business, and non of my flights on this trip let me down.

Menu for the flight:



And wine lists:






Plus a sticky and a port. As far as I could tell, ALL the selection were aboard.

Soup:



Mezze:



and cheese (I skipped the main):


The flight path took us over Iran - a preview of my next flight!

 

[RooFlyer]

Arrived DOH a few minutes early; I was off the plane at 6pm, through security, then at my C gate at 6:15 . At my seat at 6:18. Whew!

Time for another (in fact so early was I that I got a re-fill of the Rose before departure)

 

[Pushka]

Gorgeous photos Roo!

 

[RooFlyer]

B777-300ER; 2-2-2 config. Less legroom than the A330 and I don't like the little cubby-hole for feet in bed mode (which I didn't try). heaps of storage space and plugs and controllers all readily accessible.






Wine list the same as the last flight; menu for this 2 hour dinner flight:



Mezze:



Lamb shank - it was better than it looks:



Very pleased to be able to have a very nice Mount Langi Ghiran The Hollows shiraz while we were flying over Shiraz in Iran

 

[amaroo]

Athens - just stunning! Your photos are stirring lots of great memories...

 

[RooFlyer]

Arrival in Tehran ...

The tour agency had arranged (or so we thought) a 'pre-processing' of JohnM and my Visas on Arrival. We had paid then 145 euros each, which was the fee and sent them all the passport etc details and a week or two before we arrived, each got a PDF which looked like a 'pre-authorisation', like I had got for some other countries' VoA, where you take the PDF to the immigration counter and off you go. Although I thought it a bit strange that the doc was entirely in English (where its only use was at Tehran airport ...).

Some odd e-mails from the (British) tour agency led me to worry that they had processed us as regular visa candidates (like the Brits in the tour) rather than VoA. I asked for a copy of the receipt from the Iran officials where they had paid the visa fee.

So, on arrival I joined the 'Foreign Nationals' queue at Arrivals and after 30 mins I reached the front of the queue to be dismissed by the officer and pointed to the 'Visa on Arrival' window across the arrivals area; no discussion, no explanation. Oh, oh!

I explained to the guy there what had happened; he was a little more communicative and when he asked for 145 euros MORE for the fee, I showed him my receipt (which was in Farsi). it was initially accepted, but eventually rejected, so 145 euros of my precious cash spending money was gone before I entered the country .

Got the Visa, back through immigration, then upstairs to get some Rials for the taxi. A couple of taxi drivers attached themselves to me and when I realised they were only asking US$20, which is the going rate, I engaged one, and off we went.

Taxi in very good nick:



50 mins later, I arrive at the tour hotel, the Howeyzeh, in the centre of town. it was OK, although the room was hot and the aircon off, as it was 'out of the season'. We would find this in almost all the tour hotels.







A poor night's sleep and I awoke to ... Good Morning, Tehran!



The digs:



The tour didn't start until 11 (the majority, the Brits, arrived overnight from London), so JohnM and I took a stroll to the nearby former US Embassy. We didn't go in (but could have - its a sort of memorial/museum to American bad-ness shall we say):

 

[boomy]

Fantastic TR and photos, looking forward to read the rest.

 

[RooFlyer]

Athens - just stunning! Your photos are stirring lots of great memories...

Unfortunately without your culinary highlights! I went to Stofi's, for dinner, but it was early and I was a single, so it didn't match your experience .

I found a great pie-shop though!

 

[RooFlyer]

In the afternoon we hit the National Archaeological Museum. It was a logical first step, but what we saw didn't make much sense until I had completed the tour and learned a lot more about the timeline of the Persian Empire!

And what of the Persian Empire, I hear you ask?

Founded in 550 BC when Cyrus the Great conquered the Babylonian (most of Iraq), Median (Eastern Turkey/northern Iraq) and Lydian (Western Turkey) empires. This was the Achaemenid Dynasty. At its maximum extent it stretched from the Indus River (Pakistan/India border) in the east to northern Africa/Egypt/Libya and Athens in the west.



It was conquered for a while by Alexander the Great (in abt 325 BC). Alexander looted and burned the Persian capital at Persepolis, probably as pay-back for the Persians previous burning of the Acropolis (oops).

The Persian empire was included in the Parthian and Sasanian Empires up to about the mid 7th Century AD, with a short period under Arab rule and the Mongols had a look-in for a while, too. The local religion was Zoroastrianism (ie the fire worshippers), but this was replaced by Islam in the 7th Century AD.

The Safavids re-established a 'native' Persian empire in 1501 and the Kings ('Shahs') of Persia lasted until the Iranian revolution in 1979.

Anyway, to the museum:

Tablet with cuneiform script, c. 3000 BC from Susa, western Iran



Bowl, 2,500 BC (this is the early bronze Age):



A deer shaped pottery rhyton c. 1,000 BC . Rhytons are decorative drinking 'cups', often shaped such they they cannot be set down on a surface without spilling the contents (so - bottoms up!):





Now some things like you may have seen in the British Museum (and elsewhere) and which we'll see in-situ later. These bas reliefs from Persepolis and maybe showing Xerxes I or Artaxerxes I (mid 4th Century BC)





Head of a Prince, coloured by copper oxide (c. 500 BC):

 

[RooFlyer]

Then, off to the glass museum; I liked the architecture more than the contents. Formerly the prime Minister's house, with the staircase taking up a huge amount of room inside!





Then ... arrgh! The dreaded Carpet Museum! This is the third national Carpet Museum I've been trotted in front of; unfortunately I couldn't give a rat's bottom about knots per cm, town of origin or anything else about 'em.

But one I did find interesting. Woven abt 1910, it was a global 'who's who':

 

[RooFlyer]

Lunch was at a café somewhere in Tehran; the menu:



Amounts are in Tomen, which is usual in Iran. 1 Tomen = 10 rials which is the actual currency. So the chicken sandwich (a roll in our lingo) was 90,000 rials or about A$3.00 Yes, Iran is incredibly cheap to eat in. Our most expensive dinner, which was at one of the best places in Iran I recall was 450K rials including drinks (500K incl tip) - abt A$18 incl the tip. Most dinners were under A$15 including 'drinks'.

JohnM contemplates some of the offering;



I bet he was really wishing for:



Burgers and especially pizzas are very popular in Iran!

That evening, we could have gone to a show:



... but instead chose to go to a vegetarian restaurant at a nearby 'artist's colony'. Great spot - very cool (in the temperature sense), with lots of little galleries and young couples sitting & chatting.



I had the 'Lotus combo' which was extremely nice. One dish flavoured with rosewater ... (and yes, that's a slice of pizza there )



The walk home revealed some showcase (darkened) with cars that might give Cuba a run for their money (if the drivers in Iran weren't so crazy!)

 

[RooFlyer]

A bit about money. You can't use credit cards, travellers cheques or anything except cash in Iran, so you have to bring everything you intend to spend in euros, US$ and maybe pounds and get it exchanged in the country. Taxi drivers - especially to/from the airport will take US$/euros.

I exchanged 100 euro at the airport at a currency exchange place and was surprised to get a better exchange rate than XE reported. Mug! NO-ONE uses the official rate; its just a matter of how much better you do. I only exchanged 3 times and never got the feel for what was a good or bad rate.

The second time, I exchanged 200 euros and ended up with about 8.8 million rials! When in 100,000 rial (A$3.50) notes, it looked like:



Had to carry that around with me for a few days before I started depleting it. I don't now how easy it is to exchange rials back to hard currency when you leave as we all consumed our remaining rials for tour staff tips when we departed. I was told that if you got a receipt at the airport when you first exchanged, that would help exchange any surplus back at the end.


Some of the expensive carpet places would take a credit card - they phoned their mate in Dubai and put it through there. I resisted

Another lesson learned early on was that Iran blocks some western media ("filters it" to use the local expression). It seemed to be a bit hit-and-miss for some sites, depending where we were. News Ltd sites were blocked everywhere; BBC I think also; SMH I got sometimes, and ABC always.

When you hit a 'filtered' site, you got this, which was a bit disconcerting the first time:



Internet speeds varied, unsurprisingly. I don't think I ever got 'very fast'; in Tehran it was pretty good, but in the boonies it was a bit of a crawl when we first arrived at a hotel and everyone logged on, but later at night it was usually OK.