It’s kind of nice to browse through a beautiful city that doesn’t demand for your attention — you let things happen to you and you will be rewarded for your curiosity.

Shiraz is a city of simple pleasures  with a handful of photogenic sights that don’t overwhelm. Starting with a slow-paced street life and polite traffic, it kind of makes sense why Shiraz is Iran’s beloved city. And for the same reasons, it’s also where the local citizens are stereotyped as “lazy”  by other Iranians. Regardless how you see it, life takes its time here.

This was a government courthouse that we were not supposed to take pictures of. Oops.

We visited the Citadel first, where we glimpsed into how Iran’s former rulers lived back when Shiraz was the former capital.

The Persian king conquering the "white devil"

Behaviorial tendencies

The Persians believed that stained glass would confuse mosquitoes and prevent them from coming indoors, therefore making this the prettiest mosquito repellant out there

This was a rare moment of a public display of affection

Inside the baths

Outside the Citadel

Afterwards we toured Shiraz’s crowning jewel: the Vakil Mosque which pictures speak for itself. We felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

Vakil Square

Approaching the Mosque

Within the mosque

Vakil Mosque just got served

Finally, we breezed through the Shiraz bazaar to look for lunch.

After resting up a little bit and taking an afternoon siesta, we smoked a little shisha while waiting for cabs to our dinner.

Gotta do as the Romans do! Old school traditional Persian style of the water pipe

My dinner in Shiraz was having their special shashlik kebab…my favorite dish so far in Iran

After dinner though…that’s for another entry. Let’s just say it has to do with perhaps doing some borderline illegal things and getting caught by the police afterwards.

Sneaking around in Shiraz

Oops.

Right now we’re waiting on our morning bus to the ruins of Persepolis and Necropolis before settling in the desert town of Yazd. Look up pictures of Yazd on Google and you can tell me why we’re a bit excited to stay there. The place (at least from what I’ve researched) looks like something out of a movie.

On a randomly interesting sidenote, I just spoke with a fellow traveler who had gotten a little sick and went on the town with all these antibiotics that totaled up to $1.00 USD (probably would’ve been at least $50 in the States for all the drugs she got). Feeling a little victorious for herself, she was then charged the exact same amount for a single carton of OJ. which we both found a little amusing. The appropriate reaction I would’ve had at the counter would’ve probably been:

- At time of posting in Shiraz, it was 64.4 °F -

Humidity: 25% | Wind Speed: n/a | Cloud Cover: n/a