Kashan: The City of Roses

Anya searching for the secrets

When you travel overland, even if you want it or not, you have to spend couple of days in the country's capitals waiting for visas to your next destinations. So... once I took my visas for Afghanistan and Tajikistan, I was finally set free from the invisible chains of polluted Iranian capital. I arrived in Tehran with Ilaria, and 10 days later, I left it with Anya - once my guest in Serbia, now my travel partner in Iran.

a random road fountain

We took the only existing subway in the Middle East to bring us outside of the capital, from where we reached the toll gate. Iran was hot... but fortunately, it didn't take long time to hitch a ride, I suppose, mostly because of the people's curiosity. Therefore, after few minutes of waiting at the toll gate, and seeing the bus named "Bad Boys" passing us, we got picked up by two guys heading to Qom. As I didn't want to go back to that city, we found another car from the toll gate of Qom, which was going to our destination - Kashan. But before our drivers let us out of their car, they insisted us to accept some pocket money for our trip. We also accepted their mobile phone number, so they can be able to call us for the few following days, in order to make sure that we are safe. Everyone was concerned about our safety, so we had already few "fans" in our phone books. Our second driver was a bit more quiet, maybe as he didn't speak English... but I remember that we stopped in the middle of nowhere to wash our faces in "the road fountain".

Kashan is internationally famous for manufacturing silk and carpets. However, the symbol of the city is a rose, due to its long lasting traditional methods of making the rose water. Paintings of roses were following us from some random walls, as well as products made of roses (syrups, sweets and even ice-creams), This city, with a nice atmosphere and curious people, felt like an oasis in the desert: full of big bazaars, beautiful old gardens, and few huge and impressive historical houses which offer a feel of a labyrinth. About two hundred years ago, the spectacular houses were made from brick, mud and straw, and used by some rich merchants. Kashan is also being a host to the oldest existing garden in Iran, and Unesco Heritage Site, "Fin Garden". Since 16th century, Persian rulers kept burying their secrets here, and today, these 2 hectares of land are collecting new ones, as locals tend to throw their coins into the "pool of wishes".

Anya and me arrived in the city quite late in the afternoon, and as we forgot to look for a host through the couchsurfing website, we decided to check through her phone if someone left a phone number on one of their profiles. And.. few minutes later, we ended up giving a phone call to one more Mohammad. Even without thinking, he accepted to host us, and he rushed to the place to meet us, leaving behind his plans to attend a birthday party of his friend. From the moment we met him, he put us in his car where we sang together with a loud music and we spent two days with him, learning about Kashan, trying local delicacies and exploring the places I previously mentioned...