What a wonderful mega-post! You sure deserve the curie and all the other good votes.

I saw a yt video a couple of years ago with a western single guy doing a trip a bit like yours - no woman though :) He had your same experience with nice people coming out of the woodwork to help him and the occasional scammers. His video was very food related, and showed amazing food he almost never paid for. Either the people had him to their home, or would not let him pay if they were out somewhere.

Getting to Persepolis is a feat! Lucky, lucky you. The photo with it behind you shows the scale and I would have liked to explore for a week. Like you, this is a place I know from school.

Great photo of the place with "one thousand slippery stone steps." It's so cool to see all those people up there in such a fantastic place.

I love all your diverse sites and scenes in this post. So true that I thought of Iran as a dry desert. Thank you for setting me straight.