North

I went to the North of Iran this week; it was amazing. I needed a vacation for so long and I hadn't been to the North for five years; therefore, I enjoyed every minute of my trip. We packed our things on Monday and we hit the road at 11. It was quite hot during the first two hours until we reached Kandevan tunnel and from there after it was like heaven; foggy and cool so that I put on a rather warm cardigan. When we got closer to our destination, there was some traffic, but it didn't bother us at all since we were enjoying the view. We chose Chalus road and the scenery was breathtaking as you know. We stayed at a hotel in Namak Abrud region-actually right in front of the main door to Namak Abrud recreational facility. The premises of the hotel were green and very beautiful; full of life and colors--you could see the different shades of green there. The leaves were wet with dew. The weather was cloudy all the time and you know how romantic it is. I love the humidity despite the difficulty it causes, I mean with your hair and with your washed clothes not getting completely dry. I had taken my swimsuit but the sea wasn't calm and I couldn't go for a swim. The weather wasn't sunny and it was even quite cold; therefore, I couldn't get a sun tan either, but all in all it was so good that I don't regret not doing some of the things I had planned. We arrived there at 6 in the evening. Right after we checked in, we went for a drive near the hotel and found Laico-a big shopping center-very close to the hotel and as you know how shopaholic women are, we bought some bedsheets and a flask to preserve hot water.
I started the book "Sherlock Holmes" which I'm sure you're familiar with--The complete novels and stories in 2 volumes--during this trip. It's still startling to me although I've read the whole stories in Persian and I've seen the series on TV twice. It's a descriptive, detective book written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I bought this one from the book fair and its English is helping me improve my writing and knowledge of vocabulary. However, I have to confess that there are a lot of words I don't know and at first this matter distracted me, but I eventually managed to ignore it except for some very interesting expressions or words that I intentionally look them up in the dictionary. Reading aside, I went bike riding twice in that wonderful weather, we went walking every night, but despite this exercise I gained two kilos(!). I'm much of a glutton and with that delicious breakfast of the hotel how could I resist. Today I was viewing the photos of our trip and I really missed it: it was good but not enough; I could stay another whole week.