Today I want to share some pictures from Denmark with you...
... I spent last week on the island Langeland and had a wonderful relaxing time there. We went for loads of walks and I enjoyed the nature so much.
It was a very relaxing and a very peaceful vacation which I enjoyed a lot. The island of Langeland is a very quiet place. There are not many people, not many cars, not much noise and not much stress. It is the perfect place to calm down, to forget about all the sad things happening on this planet and to just enjoy family and nature. I will not write a lot but rather just show you a few pictures and let you make you own conclusions :)
These first few pictures are from Tranekär on Langeland
These ones are from when we went for a walk in the woods of Langeland... it was on one of the few sunny days we had during our stay :)
We also spent a lot of time at the beach and went for walks around there. The weather was cold but I enjoyed it anyway, put some cozy clothes on and loved to feel the cold wind on my face :)
One day we went to the most northern point of Langeland, the small town of Lohals...we walked around the harbor, the beach and the woods in the area :)
I hope you enjoyed these pictures. My next small vacation is already booked and I cannot wait to go there... the landscape will be very different from the one on Langeland in Denmark, yet also very beautiful. I will let you know more in early June ;)
So far, have a great weekend ahead and a lovely time with whatever you are up to!
Sending much love!
This is my last post from and about Iran...
... even though its been a month now since I am back from my vacation there, not even a single day passes without me thinking of this country! I miss Iran and I miss the people there. I miss the friendly faces in the streets, I miss the sunshine and the heat, I miss the food, I miss my friends there, I miss how people made fun with my little one and so many other things.
Anyway, today I want to show you Kermanshah's oldest mosque. Its such a beautiful building that I decided to make a whole post about it :)
When we visited the mosque it was closed, but a very kind man opened it for us and showed us around the building. We were even allowed to look at the kitchen and the rooms behind the kitchen, where they collected old pictures of the imans who prayed in the mosque in the last 200 years or so. It was very interesting and impressive.
I was impressed by the praying bracelets and praying stones and we even got some as a gift. We also got a praying carpet as a gift and I find it incredibly beautiful. Its hanging on our wall now and I love it :)
We got one praying stone made from soil from Iraq and one made from soil from Iran. They are both very beautiful and I am very grateful that we got those two souvenirs from the mosque.
Actually, we visited the mosque on our very last day in Iran and til that day we did not have a single souvenir. Then we got the stones, a bracelet and the carpet at the mosque and we were so happy. After visiting the mosque we went to my friend's mother and she gave us another carpet and some safron as a gift and later that day we got another carpet from our friends as a goodbye-gift. So we ended up with loads of souvenirs anyway ;)
Isn't the architecture overwhelming - all those small pieces of tiles put together to the most beautiful mosaic. Its beautiful when looking at it from afar like on these pictures here, but its even more impressive when going very close and looking at all those very small pieces. How much work it must have been to put all of these pictures together...
How do you like these pictures? Have you ever visited a mosque? If so - where? I would love to know!
Sending much love and wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
Today I will take you to Kurdistan...
...Kurdistan in Iran is an area in the West of Iran, close to the border to Turkey and Iraq. We did not go as far up as Turkey but rather stayed close to the border of Iraq. Kurdistan is absolutely overwhelmingly beautiful! Since I took so many pictures, and since I find them all very beautiful, I could not stop myself from putting a loooot of pictures here :)
The first few pictures are from Lake Zarivar in Marivan - we went there for sunset and had this most delicious fig juice (basically just figs left in water over night - I tried it at home too and its sooooo good (when you have good figs as the ones from Iran ;))!) while walking on the promenade. This was the first place we saw when we arrived in Kurdistan and of course we immediatly fel in love with this area.
The next day we took the car through the mountains... the landscape is just breathtaking (especially for someone who is living far away from any mountains and is not used to this sight). We were very close to the border to Iraq the whole time but we felt very safe. Even when we were that close that we could see some Iraquian villges we felt safe. Kurdistan is also different from the southern part of Iraq and its not too dangerous around there at the moment.
We also went to visit the Howraman villages. The villages are build in the mountains and the houses are made from the stones of the mountains. The streets in the villages are basically the rooftops of the houses underneath. These villages were the most peaceful places I ever went to. It seems like the march of time stopped there. People were wearing traditional clothes, they made everything in handwork, there was no cellphone connection. It was magical and really really beautiful!
The entire roadtrip through Kurdistan was definetly a highlight of our vacation (which was a highlight on its one already) and we are so very grateful that we got the chance to visit this impressive, intersting and beautiful part of the world. We never, anywhere, met as friendly people as we did on this trip! I travelled a lot (Africa, America, Asia, Europe...) but I promise I never ever met as friendly and hospitable people as I did in Iran and from the people I met in Iran the once I met on our trip through Kurdistan were the most hospitable. Just to make you understand what I mean; I did not spend a single dollar on our trip! I simply was not allowed to! This is a kind of hospitality I really did not know before.
By the way, on these last two pictures we are looking into Iraq so the villages that you can see on the last picture are actually not in Iran anymore.
How did you like these pictures and stories? I have to say that I was surprised and very happy when I read several comments from friends and followers who also want to visit Iran and who find Iran as interesting as I do. I can really recommend anyone to visit this wonderful country. You wont regret! And feel free to ask me any questions in case you are planning to go there and need any advice about general behaviour, clothing, visa etc.
Have a most wonderful weekend everyone! Enjoy it to the fullest :)
Sending much love!
Its Friday, its time to go back to Iran!
This Friday, next Friday and then again for one more week, I will take you back to Iran where I spent the most wonderful vacation ever back in October this year. Todays post is all about fooooood :)
The first thing you notice when you go to Iran is that you will not find any tables anywhere. There are carpets all over the houses, but not tables. I loved that! When its time to eat people just take a tablecloth (stupid to call it tablecloth in this context), put it on the carpet and sit down all around the tablecloth.
We had the most amazing food in Iran! Already prior to our arrival our friend told everyone that we are vegan (everyone means everyone who invited us to dinner - we had dinner in a different house almost every night) so whereever we went, we got delicious vegan food. For every meal people eat a very thin kind of bread. When its good, its very soft and delicous, when its a little old, its completly dry and hard and not that good ;)
We also had salad for every meal. Mostly just made with cucumber and tomatoe but sometimes also with onion, cabbage, carrots and lettuce. For most meals we also had olives in all different varities and figs (soooo good! We brought a whole lot home with us). A meal is usually taking quite some time and its very nice just to sit and snack on bread, salad, olives and figs :)
We also had rice basically every day. There is this thing with rice in Iran - when cooking it, they put some potatoe slices on the bottom of the pot and leave them there, while the rice is cooking so that they get somehow burned and very crunchy. When eating, everyone is fighting about this crust since its perceived as the most delicious part of the meal :)
Another thing I found very intersting was that the herbs (thyme, rosmary, basil, etc.) where not used for cooking and they were not part of the salad but they were just put on a plate and eaten in between two bites. Like a whole stem of thyme or rosmary! It was somehow strange to me but also very good! And so healthy!
Concerning the dishes we had, we had loads of eggplant and zuccini, mushrooms in all varieties, beans and lentils, okra, some greens I didnt know (and I dont think you can find them in Germany) and most of this in a kind of tomatoe-curry sauce. We had rice with safron, fried raisins, bread filled with mashed potatoes, small spicy bell peppers, falafel etc. etc. etc. seriously it was gerat! In Germany when someone invites you for dinner and you say that you are vegan, many people will find it very difficult to cook something for you and they will maybe complain that you are a complicated guest. In Iran it was not at all like this! Everyone was happy to cook something vegan for us and they also found it easy to cook (they mainly made dishes that are usually eaten with meat but they left out the meat - easy :)), sometimes they were surprised how good a dish tasted when using e.g. mushrooms instead of meat and two of our friends actually are vegetarians now! They felt so good after two weeks of eating vegan only with us that they decided to stop eating meat!
Next to all the great food we had for lunch and dinner, we also had endless tea breaks. Whereever we went, we haf some tea and some dates or figs. I loved those small breaks, where we just sat down on a carpet, the little one just next to us (she loved that we were always sitting on the floor!) and relaxed for a few moments, drank tea and talked about this and that. When we went somewhere by car and there was a place with a beautiful view, we stopped, got the carpet from the trunk, sat down and had a glass of tea while enjoying the view. It was just wonderful!
We also had loads of fruits. Since we travelled in Kurdistan it was easy and cheap to get fruit everywhere. Kurdistan is the region of Iran where all the veggies and fruits for the entire country are grown - like the apples, I worte about in my last post about Iran.
I hope you all had a wonderful week so far and I wish you a most amazing weekend!
Sending much love!
Today I will take you back to Iran again...
... one sunny day of our stay in Kermanshah, we went out of town to visit a village in the mountains, around 1 1/2 hours north of Kermanshah. We spent the day on an apple farm, picking apples from the trees, eating apples and, mainly, enjoying the view :)
We had tea and a delicous lunch with salad, falafel and bread (oh my, I had the best falafel ever in Iran!) and we had potatoes that we put in the fire for some 30 minutes, until they were completly black. We just removed the burned skin and the inside was so super yummy!
I was feeding the little one underneath a walnut tree and we both slept there for a little bit, while the others were picking apples to take home with us - we took three boxes of apples with us and ate at least four of them every day of our stay. Their were the sweetest, most delicous apples I have ever tasted and eating them reminded me every day of this beautiful day. It seriously was such a perfect day and it felt so good to stay on this quite mountain for a few hours, enjoying the silence, the fresh air, the view and the company of good friends. After having spend a few days in the city of Kermanshah this day really was like a small vacation in our vacation :)
I am back in Germany since more than a week now but I actually miss Iran! I really hope that I will be able to go back there soon! Until then, I will share a few more posts from Iran in the coming weeks :)
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Sending much love!
I am back on the blog...
... with a million new impressions, adventures, stories and pictures from an amazing country called IRAN!
I do not even know where to start because I am so overwhelmed with everything that happend in the past 14 days. I had the best time ever! I really had! Not only was I lucky enough to get to visit a beautiful country, get to know loads of incredibly nice people, taste the most amazing food and learn a lot about the Kurdish and Persian culture, but I was able to share all of this with my husband and my baby girl. This is what made the last two weeks not only unforgetably beautiful but rather 100% perfect.
I prepared a few posts about this amazing adventure and I will share loads of pictures and stories with you in the coming weeks (dont worry there will be other posts in between, so you will not get bored ;)). I want to start with a post about the place we visited first and where we stayed most of the time - the city Kermanshah in the West of Iran. Its close to the border to Iraq and its a mostly Kurdish city. We went there because I have two very dear friends living there (we got to know each other during my stay in the US back in 2013) and I wanted to visit them for a long time. They got married last month and invited us for the wedding but since it is very hot in September, I decided that its not good to go there for the wedding with our baby girl - so instead we decided to go and visit a month later. And this was now.
So here are some impressions from Kermanshah, Iran.
The first few pictures are from the area around Bisotun, right outside the city of Kermanshah. There are some ancient reliefs there in the mountains which are really beautiful.
These pictures here of this beautiful building are from the city center of Kermanshah. The building was build for people to mourn there and I found the architecture really impressive!
The Bazar of Kermanshah is huge and you can truely find everything there. It was a great experience to walk through the alleys at night. We bought plenty of mulberries, figs, dates and some spices there.
The next few picutres are from different neighboorhoods in Kermanshah, we went for loads of walks around the city and explored everything :)
The last few pictures are from Oveis, a place close to Kermanshah which is somehow holy. There is a kind of mausoleum on top of the mountain and many people make a pilgrimage to this place. We visited the holy grave but mainly enjoyed the amazing view from the top of the mountain :)
I know some of you have already seen some Iran pictures on my instagram so you may get an idea already of to what kind of places I will take you in the next few posts about Iran ;)
For today I leave you with these ones and I am very curious about what you are going to say about my vacation in Iran. I think that probably most of you have not been there and I think most of you would not actually consider the country as a place to go on vacation to - but I was and I still am, actually even more than before :)
Now, I am saying welcome back once again! Thanks for being here with me and thanks for your kind comments on my last post! You are great!
Sending much love!
