Iran - Day 5

Here is a little known tip for anyone who is traveling to Tehran during the first 5 days of Norooz - everything is CLOSED. Yeah. We learned the hard way.

In the morning Mama decided to take Doc & I on a trip down memory lane. She took us to the district where she worked and lived back in 1979. We went to the hospital my mom worked at which is the same hospital Doc was born at. The security guards at the hospital were super nice and let us go in and take pictures. My mom showed me the street where she would walk to work every day. It was lovely to get a glimpse into my mom's past and finally have a visual to all the stories she tells me.

Afterward we went to my all time favorite store - Tavazo. The level of obsession I have with dried fruit is not normal. There are only two reasons I travel to Iran - 1) my family 2) dried fruit from Tavazo. The people working at the store though I was insane because of the massive amounts of dried fruit I bought. Haters gonna hate. I bought a two year supply of dried fruit and had no problem lugging them around because they are delicious and they are ALL MINE.

After I bought the entire store we went on a hunt for coffee. The biggest downside to traveling to Iran - minus lack of Internet - is giving up coffee. In the motherland they have nescafe - no coffee. For Doc & I this is very difficult because we are addicted to caffeine. One of our family members suggested we go to Amir Shokolat for a decent cup of coffee. Thank the lord for this joint. When my sister and I walked in and we saw an espresso machine and Starbucks containers we knew we were in heaven.

Since it was New Year time Tehran was decorated all over. The city had decorated eggs all along the street. Also at major roundabouts there were mannequins dressed in traditional Persian clothes as well as the traditional new year table.

For lunch we went over to my mom's cousin's son's house. It was great being surrounded by all our family! I can't get enough of them.

After the lunch part of the gang headed to Milad Tower. This tower was built in 2007, it is 435 m high, and is ranked the sixth tallest tower in the world. I was definitely impressed by this tower - from its structure to the setup and all the activities going on at the tower. If you ask Iranians who live in Iranian they generally say they haven't been there and it is just a tall building - however it is worth visiting!