Tour de Tehran.

3.

I had been told the tales of the legendary Persian hospitality before I came to Iran. Yet nothing can quite prepare you for the lengths people will go to here, to make sure you're okay.

As a guest you are held in the highest regard. And although a host can last but a few hours- an impromptu tour guide, perhaps- they'll always refuse to let you pay for anything during the time that you're with them.

As a Brit you get inwardly embarrassed. You try to pay, you insist, but it is never to any avail, and being too forceful could embarrass your new found friend, so you have to go with the flow, eyeing out any opportunity to buy them something in return.

4.

DOWN WITH AMERICA, in bold writing greets you as you walk up from the metro station directly outside the now defunct (of course) American Embassy. Round the corner the iconic gun with the stars and stripes points down the long outer wall towards the depiction of a Statue of Liberty with the face of death.

This is by no means a commonly held sentiment here, obviously. And things like Argo and Homeland do a grave injustice for both sides' understanding of each other. But it was definitely something I wanted to see. And to experience; as being face to face with something so explicitly cursing the social framework from whence I came (whether I like that or not) added a certain atmosphere that perhaps could only be felt by me.

It was evocative, too, when you imagined the stifling tension that would have filled the air around those walls there during the '79 revolution. I decided not to use my picture of those famous murals, though, and instead opt for the woman with striking eyes.