Bon Voyage

We're finally (yet sadly) back for our final post!!!

Check out our video below, where we are interviewed about our favourite country in this blog that we'd go to next, our favourite experiences/places in the country we posted about and our contributions to this blog! You finally get to put faces to our previous posts!

We hope our posts have given you all some really fun and unique travel locations, ideas and info!

Comment where you are off to next and if you are travelling to any of the countries we posted about!

Bon Voyage✈️

The Travel Buddiez

Iran part 4: Sports by Poorya

Iran

Part 4 : Sports

By Poorya Mahdavi

Sports in Iran like any other country is a huge topic that is followed intensively by all people, with activity's such as soccer, weightlifting, basketball, volleyball, futsal and many other sports. Tehran was the first city to host the Asain games in 1974 out of the whole of West Asia.

In the photo above, my cousins (centre and right) and I (left) are outside the Azadi stadium waiting for the gates to open for everyone to enter to watch the showdown of two of the most popular Iranian soccer teams going head to head in a grand final fixture, the two teams Persepolis (Red) played a team known as Esteghlal FC for the league final, however unfortunately the team we were supporting didnt come out on top and lost the game in the closing moments 1-0, the experience all in all was a great opportunity as I saw first hand how big the sport of soccer was in Iran as the stadium was completely sold out, which was incredible as the Azadi stadium is the worlds forth largest soccer stadium.

Apart from soccer, another sport that is considered very important to many Iranian's, is weight lifting, this is all thanks to a very important man known as Hossein Reza Zadeh, who is regarded as one of the greatest weight lifters of all time, he holds the world record for two types of weight lifting super heavyweight class, first being the clean and jerk and total where he lifted an incredible amount of 263.5 kg, a small youtube video regarding his time as a weight lifter can be found here.

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Incase you missed last weeks blog here is a link for it right here!

Part 1: Introduction

http://travelbuddiez.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/iran-by-poorya.html

Part 2: Architecture

http://travelbuddiez.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/iran-part-2-by-poorya-mahdavi.html

Part 3: Cuisine

https://travelbuddiez.blogspot.com.au/2017/05/iran-part-3-cuisine-by-poorya-mahdavi.html

Iran Part 3 : Cuisine by Poorya

Iran

Part 3 : Cuisine

By Poorya Mahdavi

Yes, it is the time we have all been waiting for time to learn about the countries cuisine. Iran shares many of the styles of cuisine they have with neighbouring countries such as the Kurdish and Turkish, however it is still unique in its own way, Commonly throughout all Iranian dishes there is a mix of rice and meat such as chicken and lamb, and you will often find the rice has been made with a touch of saffron to really bring out the flavours in the meal.

Main Dish

There are many main dishes in the Iranian culture, to name a few there is the famous kebab trio which consists of kebab kubide, juje kebab, and kebab barg, and other meals such as adas polow, lubia polow and koresh e bademjan, these are the most popular main dishes iran has to offer, however my personal favourites are kebab kubide and another dish namely known as Qorme-sabzi

Kebab kubide

Kebab kubide is my all time favourite Iranian dish, as it is extremely simple to make and absolutely delicious to eat, it consists of rice and ground lamb/beef, it is made by wrapping the meat around a metal skewer and placing over the barbecue, however this may sound simple at first, it is rather hard, reason being that if you spread the meat along the skewer unevenly and have too much on one side, often the weight of the meat will rip apart from the skewer and fall off therefore being uneatable, another issue you face is the possibility of putting too much meat on the skewer thus not allowing for the beef to be cooked right through.

Qorme Sabzi

Qorme sabzi is another one of my top Persian dishes to eat. Although this dish doesn't look the most appealing due to the mass amount of dark green color from the herbs, it is a meal that will bring you  back for seconds or thirds, the meal consists of rice as the base, with lamb mince and herbs such as leek and parsley, and also mixed with some kidney beans or split peas.

Dessert

Dessert plays a major role in Iranian culture as the main beverage had between meals is tea, there are many desserts that compliment the tea very well, some of which include Falude, Sholezard and Sohan however out of all the Persian desserts i have tasted nothing comes close to Bastani e Zaferani.

Bastani e zaferani

The term Bastani in persian means ice cream, and the term zaferani means saffron, this dessert is literally what the name says saffron ice cream, bastani zaferani is a very different type of ice cream compared to the ice cream you see at stores such as gelato, however like any country, it is unique to itself, when served fresh it is the perfect cold snack to have, due to the richness of the cream used to make the ice cream, followed by the strong taste of saffron, as well as tiny pieces of pistachio and frozen cream all come together to make for a heavenly bite.

Be sure to tune into next weeks update for more news on everything IRAN

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Incase you missed last weeks blog here is a link for it right here!

Part 1: Introduction

http://travelbuddiez.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/iran-by-poorya.html

Part 2: Architecture

http://travelbuddiez.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/iran-part-2-by-poorya-mahdavi.html

Iran Part 2 by Poorya Mahdavi

Iran

Part 2 : Architecture

By Poorya Mahdavi

Hello and welcome to the second part of my blog, today we will be discussing Iran's breathtaking architectural talent, today I will show you a few places within Iran which are truely some sight seeing places.

Image source: http://danamotor.ir/Tehran_Azadi_Square_Flowers_2012.jpg

Pictured above is the Azadi tower, it is located in Azadi square within Tehran, it is a symbol of iran, and marks the entrance to the west of the city. Within the tower lies the Azadi museum, a theatre hall, and an art gallery, and sits 23 meters above the ground, and took almost 3 months to be completed and has a total of 286 steps within.

Before the tower was named "Azadi tower" it was known as Shahyad tower, however before the revolution it was a location for protest, and after the revolution had passed, the tower was renamed to Azadi translated to the freedom tower.

image source : http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/thumbs/site_1422_0005-750-0-20151104153828.jpg

The photo shown above is a photo taken within the Golestan palace it is a very important piece of memorabilia as it is one of the oldest monuments in Tehran, it was a sight which belonged to the royal people of iran, and was located within Tehran's citadel which was once closed to the public, it is now open to the public whom can visit the many sight seeing places within the palace such as the marble throne, the pond house and the famous Mirror Hall.

Image source : https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6a/71/e0/6a71e05cb8aa8606151d121ba2ac6717.jpg

Pictured above is the ancient ruins of Persepolis, dating back to 515 BC, it is considered a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1979. The ruins were first commenced by Darius I, and the name Persepolis was given to it as it was the name of the town it resided in. The ruins was a place for surrounding countries to come together bearing gifts for the start of the new year to the residing king of the time.

Make sure to stay tuned for next weeks blog update where we will dive into more detail about the Iranian Culture and food.

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Incase you missed last weeks blog here is a link for it right here!

Part 1: Introduction

http://travelbuddiez.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/iran-by-poorya.html

Iran By Poorya

Iran

By Poorya Mahdavi

Hello and welcome all, My country of choice is Iran, I have chosen this country as I like to think of it as my second home as majority of my family relatives live in Iran.

I hope with the information you will gather from my posts you will learn many things about Iran and its beautiful culture.

A bit of background

Iran, also known as Persia is a country in the middle east, I visit Iran almost every year towards December as that is when Winter starts for people residing within Iran, In my own opinion winter is the best time to visit as it is beautiful to see the city enveloped in snow.

image source: http://i.imgur.com/L7mlE.jpg "Tehran Covered in snow"

The cities I have visited within Iran are Tehran, the capital and the largest city, as well as Aligoudarz a much smaller city about 500 km away from the capital, but just as good as this is where I spent most of my time when I was a child vacationing in Iran with my family, as well as Shiraz and Isfahan.

Above is a picture of me and my sister in Shiraz, playing with a bird that picked out a tarot card, which was passed to a man whom would read our fortune.

My love for Iran comes from the culture, people and definitely the food however we will be getting further into that in later blog posts so stay tuned!

- Poorya

Introduction

Hey everyone, welcome to our travel blog. We're 5 different students from different cultural backgrounds and walks of life. Our posts are our stories from around the world, sharing our unique experiences and different views of some of the most beautiful places to visit. Our group is made up of:

Poorya Mahdavi - I am a 19y/o IT Student at Macquarie University, my favourite hobby includes Skateboarding and playing sports. My background is Persian which is the language spoken from people whom live in Iran, which is my focus for this blog.

Joshua Iacono - I am a 19 year old commerce student and my favourite hobby is following and playing basketball. I've travelled a few places, but one of my favourite trips in particular was to Vietnam and Cambodia.

Akash Chabhadia - I am 19 year old Software Engineering international student at Macquarie University. My hobbies are computer software, golf , horse riding, cricket etc. I have visited places across India, Australia and Europe. My posts will be focused on India.

Victoria Porreca - I am a 19 year old biology student at Macquarie University and my favourite hobby is art and drawing. My favourite places that I have visited was Northern and South-Western Europe. In particular, Italy was my favourite as I got to see a lot of family there. My posts will be focused on Norway.

Brittany Dalamangas - I am a 18 years old IT student majoring in cyber security and hope after graduating to work with ASIO! Love travelling, food and travelling for food:) My favourite places I have visited are Greece, Portugal and Italy! My posts will be focused on Greece.

Here is a group picture.