Esfahan. We arrived in Esfahan on 24/12, Christmas eve at about 4pm. We checked into Totia Hotel which was gorgeous by the way. Lonely Planet describes Totia as a 3-star hotel with 1-star prices, ah huh, got that right.
Now we had reached Esfahan on a mission, the mission was to find a church to attend Christmas mass. I had decided that Esfahan was a better choice than Tehran simply due to its history, Esfahan in Safavid times, housed a large Armenia community which were Christians. There was also a must visit monument from those times, the Vank Cathedral in Jolfa. That is where our search started.
We got to the cathedral at about 4.30pm, immediately spying in the courtyard a Christmas tree, Santa Claus, the whole shindig. We enquired at the ticket counter on a church for mass and the lady advised us visit first and come back later for information. We had struck gold. The museum was a museum, Bible's, Quran's, relics of a time long ago were on display. The neighbouring Cathedral of St. Joseph of Arimathea though however was a visual feast. Vivid colors, paintings Renaissance style adorned all 4 sides of the cathedral. Upon closer inspection though some of the images were positively morbid, especially the one depicting the suffering of St. Gregor the Illuminator.
We then made our way back to the lady at the ticket counter, she gave us an address and time. 7pm. It was then 5.30pm. We thanked her, rushed back to our hotel, grabbed a quick bite, changed into some fresh clothes, got another cab, cabbie left us in the wrong place, asked a shopkeeper for directions, was eventually showed to the church by a somewhat kooky man and attended mass.
Mass itself was beautiful, said in Armenian. There were about 120 people in attendance, now the language barrier I felt was not a barrier, mass was spiritual and reverent. There were two songs in French which got Gaelle excited and two in English. Mass ended at 8pm, we wished a few people a Merry Christmas, called home to Malaysia, wished the family, called France, wished the family and all this done on roaming on my DiGi line, props to DiGi, awesome service. We shared a pizza after and called it a day. That folks was my Christmas miracle.
Esfahan was gorgeous, from the mosques, the restaurants (Sharzad and Bastani deserve mentions), the bazaars (the most we've shopped yet) to just walking its streets, though it did get awfully cold at times.
As usual I'll let my photos add more meat to my stories. I hope you enjoy them when it's finally published.
