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Turkey
I had no internet when entering Turkey, so I used offline OpenStreetMaps to find a place to sleep in Istanbul. A few non-existing hotels, non-existing campings and full hotels later, I decided to sleep in a park. The sun was already coming up anyway. The next day I bought a local SIM-card and promised myself to never arrive late at night to a city 😉
Iran was hard to get in.
I applied for an e-visa while in Turkey, but it was taking too long to be accepted.
So I went to the Iranian Consulate in Erzurum. There I had to pay 75eur with a cash deposit at a nearby bank, and they gave me a paper, just before leaving the booth, without any explenation. It looked like a visa, sood news 🙂
Armed with a visa, I went to the Turkey-Iran border. Turkey took 5h to fix their administration for my scooter and then let me go to the Iranian side of the border. Here, I learned about the ‘Carnet de voyage’. Terrible. They send me back to Turkey, I contacted someone in Iran that could provide it for me, and woke up at 4:30 the next day to try again. This time, Turkey let me trough quite fast and in Iran, they welcomed me, let me sign a few persian papers, and put me on hold for 4h. After that we roade around the border post like madman to find someone to let me out. No pictures of this hole episode, because it is illegal to take those.
I’ll avoid getting back with a vehicle into Iran.
In iran, I took a break next to the road. A trucker stopped, and offered me a cold citrus drink. People in Iran are indeed very welcoming.
Fuel was 0.10euro/liter. Someone offered me to pay my fuel.
I drove high in a mountain and found a hotel of 5.5euro/night. They offered me to go to the hot-spring swiming pool for free.
The country was very nice, but mostly a desert.
Armenian drivers are dangerous
The people in the middle east tend to stand closer to you compared to Europe, but here they also tend to ride closer to you. Giving death fearing experiences all the way!
Georgia is beautiful
