An American's Recent Travels in Iran - (And I kept my head...)

I had the opportunity to travel to Iran not too long ago, and despite the flurry of warnings I received from a few worried friends and family (ala "You'll get your head chopped off", I had one of the most wonderful trips I've ever had.

The depth of history and culture in the ancient Persian capitals is virtually unrivaled anywhere I've travelled thus far. The beauty of the architecture, the incredible cuisine, and most importantly it's incredibly warm people.

I was familiar with "torof" (basically an extreme form of hypergenerous humility), but had never experienced the lengths to which people will go to do nice things for you. Especially as a western traveller. Quite to the contrary of what so much media and fear-mongering might have one believe, modern Iranians love Americans (just not our government, but come on, I think we can all agree on that POV no matter what side of the world we are on).

If you have the opportunity to visit, I emplore you to consider it. It's so important methinks for us all to remind one another that we are all the People, and its just our governments who need to work out their dramas...(why cant they just resort to kanly as in Dune?!)

Anyway, without further ado or rambling exposition,