Back from Vacation

I came back from my big vacation! I and my family traveled to Iran. My husband was visiting after almost 30 years. He was excited and nervous as well! Every thing was smooth at the airport except the fact that none of our luggage was there. We received them the following day. I was seeing my brother and his family after 9 years and he was seeing my family for the first time.
First few days was very shocking to my husband, everything had changed to him, all the street, their names and even people. His Mom still lives in the same house that he used to live before leaving Iran. He was very emotional when he first entered the house.
I had mixed feelings in first few days, I was happy to see my brother and his family but was disappointed about Tehran, it seemed dirtier, more populated, very expensive and very unorganized!! I have to apologize to Iranian readers if I am hurting their feelings by saying this but I found Tehran worse than ever. The driving violations were crazy and unbelievable. I don’t know how people can afford this city any more. Most of things were more expensive than U.S. like grocery items, meat, some restaurants and Clothes. I was sad to see that most of people were not happy and were complaining about everything I saw lots of frustration among people.
Any way after staying one week in Tehran we traveled to Isfahan, one of my uncles and his family live there. I think Isfahan was a lot better than Tehran. The city is very clean and is beautiful. You see parks everywhere and people really care about their city. My husband liked it there a lot. Our next stop was at Shiraz where most of my relatives live. Shiraz is not as clean as Isfahan but is better than Tehran I think, and is more affordable. I visited all my uncles, aunts and cousins. We were invited for all the lunches and dinners and in between we would go for site seeing. We visited Persepolis, Hafezieh, Saadi, Baghe Eram, Baghe Afif abad and my husband enjoyed it a lot. After 6 day staying in Shiraz we went back to Tehran and now I was more used to everything. It was very hot especially towards the end of our trip but it was a good trip and I am so glad that I could visit all my close relatives. Traveling with kids was not that easy but it was a good experience. They both enjoyed it a lot. My older son liked Iran very much (I guess more than me!! He said he would move there!!!!!!! ) I think the reason is all the attention that he got.
Any way we got back to US on Monday night, it was a long way to go but thank god that everything passed well. Now I am back to my routines and have started working from Wednesday. Everyone at work was concerned about me and were happy that I got back safe. People here do not have a good image of Iran especially these days, they think it is not safe and every one can get in to trouble with government. I tried to explain that it is not that bad and Iranian people are strong and they try to make the best of every thing as much as possible!
I truly wish that everything gets better in Iran and people get their freedom and all the good things that they deserve back.