Hot beverages and lack of alcohol

Chay, or black tea, is the national drink here, so Ben is in heaven. Iranians place a sugar cube between their front teeth and sip the tea through it. The cubes are irregularly-shaped, hard nuggets and don't immediately dissolve. There's only so much black tea I can drink though, so I was delighted and amused when one of the hotels we stayed in had coffee sachets in the room - one called Ben Cafe and the other one Klassno Cappucino. :-)

The lack of alcohol hasn't bothered me as much as I had expected, although I have fantasized about chilled beer and Amaretto on several occasions. I gave in one evening and ordered a Bavaria beer (0.0%). It had a nice malty taste and I could almost believe it was having an effect.

I have rehearsed a plan for our departure day, though; I'm going to board the plane in Tehran and remove my veil once we're airborne and order the strongest drink available.