I have been thinking more about the concentratedness of both the traffic and all the people in the bazaars, and I conclude that there is just less personal space for each person -- this is a city of 14 million, and it's pretty incredible that things move so fast.


So the dress-shopping. In addition to the headscarf, women must keep their arms covered, and your shirt garment must cover all of your butt. Then you wear pants (or rarely, a long skirt) underneath. Many of us needed the shirt thingies (for example, I had been wearing a fabric-y raincoat over a tank top all day). They are called manteaus (manteaux, to be French proper) and I got super bummed when we first went in the store because they all looked the same. Now that I have been here for weeks, I notice tons of variety. Esprit even makes some. They look like a coat but are actually very thin material. (See pics. I can't make them post where I want them to go, and I can't rotate them.)


After the shopping the bus took us to the part of the city in the foot of the mountains again. This was a different area from before, and the uphill street was lined with vendors of fruit, dried fruit, candy etc. Then we turned a corner and it was all these restaurants built into the cliffs, each with 4-5 stories of patio dining and all beautifully lit. Some had waterfalls in their middle and some were closer to a stream -- they all had some kind of rushing water you could hear while you ate. It was lovelier than anything I could have imagined. I felt like I was inside a scene from Crouching Tiger or something. I deeply regret not having charged the camera battery.



We sat down at a long table (well, I did after running to the bathroom and changing into one of my new manteaux.) which had little cookies and tea waiting for us. Iranians LOVE sweets (I was quickly finding) and part of hospitality is offering little cookies or candies to nibble on when you arrive (at someone's home, to a restaurant, after you've boarded a domestic flight, even boarding our tour bus sometimes). Oddly, there were also several boxes of kleenex along our table. All I could think was: my mom would be in kleenex heaven here. Later I found out that that's what people use as napkins, though at this posh place there were also fan-folded cloth napkins.



I joined the folks who were ordering beers, very curious what 0.0% would taste like in this place where alcohol is outlawed. The answer: Terrible. Weird maltiness, ugh. disgusting. (A few days later I found an apple "beer" that is ok, carbonated apple juice more or less. and the lemon is not so bad either). So I stuck to water and soda after that.


I ordered a trout dish, as the other options were meat kebabs. The food was fine but much less impressive than the surroundings.


As we left the beautiful place, I saw my first Iranian cats! Which weren't Persian cats at all. They looked pretty much like regular domestic short hairs at home, perhaps a little smaller. These two were orangey. Not a lot of people here have cats as pets, but I think the strays get treated well (I bet they keep rodents away). They didn't avoid people as quickly as feral kitties at home do, though they aren't into being patted much. They look healthier than strays, and when you make kissy sounds, they meow back in greeting. (Every single cat I met, in cities across Iran, did this. How can that be explained? My best guess is that they have learned Iranian hospitality and friendliness from the humans).


The last novel thing of this long day was the fortune-telling parakeets. On the walk back down to the bus, an old man had two pretty birds and a long box stuffed with folded colorful papers. If you give him a 2000 rial note (about 20 cents), he has a bird pick out a fortune for you, very cute. Of course, we had to ask our guide to translate them. (Most fortunes conclude with suggestions to pray and remember God.)