Persian hospitality and quick friendships are hard to avoid anywhere in Iran – especially when you’re in the country. On our weekend autumn getaway near Mashhad, we ate a lot of traditional food, we also visited the shrine of a local Shia saint who almost instantly answered my prayer!
Sometimes it’s impossible to walk away from tenacious Iranian hospitality, especially when there’s tea from a charcoal-powered samovar and unforgettable abgoosht.
Iranians mostly stink at running hotels. The maddening inefficiencies and amateurish missteps found even in 5-star outfits are tragic (and often comical) examples of an ancient culture struggling with something essentially foreign. But receiving guests at home and connecting with strangers eye-to-eye, well, that’s as Iranian as it gets. Persian hospitality at home is a..
Iranian airlines feed all passengers with piping meals, service that is shocking to visiting tourists.
The biggest risk of travel in Iran is not going to jail (or from getting shot or ripped off, as is the case in the streets of Europe and America). Here the risk is getting your gourd smashed in a traffic accident! Or at least think you’re out of your mind after witnessing what Iranian drivers are capable of. I’m in an incredibly beautiful land with people who are insane drivers but nonetheless have stolen my heart with endless kindness and generosity.
As any tourist would attest, Iranians can get extreme with for their hospitality – which is one of the rewards of living in Iran and something I greatly miss when I’m not in Iran. Persians see offers of hospitality as essential to one’s expression of dignity. Someone who does not profusely offer hospitality is seen..
“My duty is well-defined. I exist to serve my wife. No one loves his wife as much as I do.” I met Asgar Azizi all of ten minutes ago and already he is waxing poetic for the four visitors squatted before him. The females in our group burst out laughing. One of them demands proof…