The drive to Esfahan was uneventful, the landscape nothing particularly special, but the roads were very good. We arrived to find Esfahan itself a lovely city, with tree lined streets, vast parks and the Zayandeh River bridges which date back to the 1600's. We initially headed towards a park by the river that had been suggested by other overlanders as a good place to camp. Eventually after weighing up our options we settled for a centrally located hostel, which had also been recommended, by Heather and Russ. The nice bloke at the Amir Kabir Hostel indicated where we could find 24hr parking at a great rate, and also had us parked on the edge of a sports ground behind a tall fence, the second night for free! With my eye still swollen shut from a mosquito bite, we ventured out for a couple of hours, deciding to make our way to the famous Imam Square and its bazaar.
With Ramazan putting a stop to our daily discoveries of the local cuisine, Andrew was keen to find a tea house which would surely supply nibbles, tea and of course a water-pipe. Before too long a local noticed us being tourists and directed us to a hidden building, filled with sweet smelling smoke and many Iranians smoking, eating and chatting. We sat and ordered tea and a pipe, then gazed at all the different pictures, collectables and people covering every square inch of the room.
The black, delicately flavoured Iranian tea is a nice change from the sweet milky chai of India and Pakistan. Even a bulging eye couldn't stop me enjoying the atmosphere. Two girls sitting beside us were keen to say hello and speak English. They even invited us back to their flat for coffee, with that true Iranian hospitality. Little did we realise they were going to turn into our hosts for the next day and night!
Spoiling us with coffee, ice cream and Iranian music, Azi and Atena were the perfect hosts. It was the first time we had been able to speak openly with Iranian women about wearing a head-scarf by law, and also to see what home-life is like in the cities. As soon as the doors were shut, life was very similar to anywhere else in the world. As we left, Azi insisted on taking the next day off work to show us around Esfahan, and we gladly accepted. There's no substitute for local knowledge, and they were quite a laugh also. At 10am I had some new antihistamines, it turned out the ones I had been given by a chemist the day before were the wrong type, no wonder they hadn't reduced the swelling. With the sun out and our new friends having arrived, were off to our fist stop, some of the famous Esfahan bridges.
We were then driven to the ancient Esfahan fire temple, where we had 360 degree views of the city and its surrounds.
We also visited the (tongue in cheek) Manar Joman, or 'shaking minarets'. A man climbs up into the right hand minaret and with his hands and legs, pushes against the sides of the tower. After it begins swaying, the left hand tower also sways. Funny in a Disney kind of way...
We took the afternoon off to get the oil changed in the car, and were again treated to some lovely Iranian generosity as a local man and his son guided us on their motorbike to a good mechanic. Unlike our last oil change in Pakistan, this one went smoothly. We got them to change the oil and fuel filters, and check the oil levels and condition in the diffs and transfer case. After a brief afternoon nap we showered and were ready to head out for the night, this time joined by some fellow travellers from our hotel. Azi and Atena turned up and we walked to Imam Square again, sitting for a while in the a tea house, trying some more local foods. As the night wore on Azi insisted we catch taxis up to the 'mountain'. The mountain turned out to be the Esfahani picnicing/socialising site, with tele-cabins (cable cars) taking us up to the very top for a windy but awesome view of the city.
We left Esfahan the next morning feeling as though we could have spent much longer there, however our extended transit visa of 14 days just didn't allow it. We had planned a route that roughly headed straight for the Turkish border, with a slight detour to visit Takht-e Soleiman - ancient Zoroastrian ruins surrounding a 'bottomless' crater lake.
The roads in the west of Iran were very similar to the east, with hilly, sandy views all around.
Eventually after a day and a half driving we arrived at the Unesco World Heritage site, and found we were the only tourists there! Dating from the third century AD, ruins around a crater-lake are surrounded by 1500 year-old fortress walls. How nice to have a spot like this to ourselves.
The crater lake still pours out 90L of water per second, the ancient fire site was fuelled by natural volcanic gas chanelled through ceramic pipes to provide an 'eternal flame'.
A couple of kilomters away is a tall, hollow, conical peak topped with religious ruins dating back to 900BC. The 80m deep crater at the top still smells of sulphur, as we discovered after climbing to the top and peering gingerly over the edge for a dizzying look down. The view of the surrounding area wasn't bad either.
On the road again, we drove north towards Tabriz. Our camping suggestion for this sprawling city was a park about 8kms from the city centre.
We soon discovered it to be the Iranian Summer-Ramazan-evening-entertainment and family-gathering-spot. Thousands of locals poured into the park by car and on foot. On every grassy area there were picnickers set up with usual hot cooking coals, breads and water pipes. Cars drove around looking for the perfect spot, cats followed the scents of cooking meats. We finally found a quieter car park away from the amusement rides, food stalls and general fun. We slept soundly and headed into the city the next morning.
The bazaars, like the others we'd seen in Iran, housed gold, carpets, household goods, tailors and any other product an Iranian may need.
We spent hours wandering around, trying to help time pass until it was acceptable for a hidden establishment to open and serve the non-Ramazan observing population some food. One area of interest was the shoe-making part, where stalls sold hides, rubber soles and other shoe components.
By mid afternoon we decided we should make the most of being in a relatively large city, and we sought out the car market area for some engine oil. We still had 2L of the old stuff and needed to match this if we could. After a little bit of a self-guided tour, we found a shop selling loads of oil. It was run by a friendly man who spoke not a work of English. Not to be deterred from helping us, he called a friend who spoke English well, put Andrew on the phone to explain what we were after, and then had it relayed back to him. After a lot of hand signals and smelling oil, the guy then refused to let us pay for the oil we wanted.
After getting the car washed (ready for the border crossing) we again headed back to the city centre, planning to visit a tea house and enjoy some more Iranian food. Again we must have looked lost and helpless as a bloke saw us looking for parking and proceeded to run ahead of the car, down the road to a 24hour security car park. Cheap as chips and close to where we wanted to go. Every where we turned someone was offering to help us with something different. Was it really that we looked lost and helpless? More likely the Iranian's are just so generous and kind. Before we even found a tea house a university student stopped us in the street, practiced his English on us for a bit and sure enough we were soon in a very un-touristy local tea house, chatting about governments, our respective countries and enjoying some nice chay. He then took us to a great local restaurant for the best dizzi we had yet tried. A delicious meal, terrific company and a nice end to our short Iranian visit.
The border crossing was time consuming but un-eventful. Duty-free beers chucked into the fridge, self-sticking visa stamps into the passports and we crossed into Turkey by 4:30pm. We drove to 'Doggybiscuit' - the first town that travelers reach heading east to west on this route. The rather impressive Mt Ararat (Turkey's highest mountain) sits right at the border, marking the new country. We were pointed in the right direction of the camp sites and found a good spot to share with a couple of other people. Head scarf off, beers and chips, jumpers needed as it was suddenly cooler and we were welcomed to Turkey by the camp-site's menagerie of dogs, cats, a donkey and lots of turkey's. An old Dutch guy who helps run the place made us feel very at home. We even got to do our washing in a machine rather than by hand...at the ridiculous price of 8 euros for one load! We broke the 'ask the price first' rule, but had nice clean towels.
We didn't notice any really change in the scenery until we left Bulgaria, however seeing as Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary really were just flying visits, a couple of days in each, it's hard to comment really. We chose some sites that looked appealing and made a bee-line for them.
In Bulgaria we found free and £1 camping which was good, but other than walking through some nice stone villages such as Tryavna, we didn't see a lot. We did manage to try the beers and some bread, both of which were 'ok'.
We even camped at 'Vampire Camping', where it was suitably wet and cold.
Brasov turned out to be a Gothic city we did not want to leave, with touristy elements balanced nicely with the old town architecture. We spent only half a day there, exploring the small lanes that fanned out from the central square. 
Romania is a country we had not considered before we arrived, but once there we had to remind ourselves that there simply wasn't time to spend weeks wandering around.
Andrew had ridden around Hungary with some mates years ago, but it was all new to me.
We spent a night in a campground where we were the only people, and then headed to Budapest for a day and 2 nights.
We found the huge food market stocked with sausages, fruits and all kinds of local alcohol. The streets were sunny and bright, Autumn's flowers out.
We sampled the local beers, (and some food) and readied ourselves for the uneventful border crossing into Austria. At this time of year the popular road-side stalls are selling loads of onions and apples, bagged up neatly and looking very tempting indeed.
Austria is 'order and organisation'. Not a blade of grass out of place, every car parked exactly where it should be. No litter, no stray animals wandering around, and no one behaving badly (that we could see). 
We made our way towards Salzburg, an stopped for a day at Hallstatt, a gorgeous village set beside a placid lake.
We first visited the ice caves nearby in Obertraun, stayed the night at a very expensive but lovely camping ground, then enjoyed some late summer sun and a day out of the car in Hallstatt.
Andrew was very pleased to find the Beinhaus (Bonehouse) where generations of deceased have had their dug-up, cleaned and painted remains placed in full view of the public.
Painted skulls and bones stacked neatly, it really is interesting but a little creepy also. The last one was added in 1995, after 10 years of decomposition.
It was a days drive to Munich the next day, and we were excited to get there too as we were finally going to be able to catch up with some friends we'd met in Chennai at the very start of our trip in January. With the Oktoberfest in full swing we were sure there would be lots of Bavarian beer to taste, and tales of travel to share!
