End of The Journey to Iran

I haven’t had access to wifi for some time so please excuse the delay of this post. I’ll just put everything that happened in the last few days into this one ‘brief’ post.

The morning after my last post we went to the embassy once again and this time sat there for a good two hours for them to give me my passport with the stamp. The person who was dealing with Going by the policy he showed us, it should have taken a week longer from the day we got the stamp.

Now that everything was ready, all we had left to do in Vienna was to have a shower, say goodbye to the kind family that practically adopted us for a few days and depart.

I forgot to mention who there was in that family. There was a mother and father with one boy aged 11, and one girl aged 2. The girl was quite possibly the cutest human being I have ever seen. She reminded me of Boo from Monsters Inc..

We set off from Vienna a bit late at around 17:30 and made it to the border of Hungary at 19:00. From Hungary we went to Croatia, from Croatia to Serbia, from Serbia to Bulgaria and from Bulgaria to Turkey. That journey took place mostly at night and took roughly 20 hours with a couple of naps here and there. It wasn’t the most interesting of journeys especially as it was happening at night but it may be worth mentioning that these countries are pretty damn poor. Well the places we passed through were, anyway. In Hungary we were greeted by prostitutes.

Auf wiedersehen, Wien!

Before we set off from Vienna we thought that the route would be through Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria. Embarrassingly, when we got to the end border of Hungary, my father asked “we are now going into Serbia, right?” With a chuckle they replied “No. Croatia.” Never have I felt so stupid in my life.

We drove through to Kumburgaz, near Istanbul in Turkey by the following night, where we slept in a hotel. The sleeping pattern throughout the journey has pretty much been one day hotel, one day car. Discounting the time we were in Vienna of course. We weren't going to sleep in a car when there was a perfectly good living room to be slept in.

The car we're using.

It was roughly 1600 km from Kumburgaz to the border of Iran and we managed to get there once again within 20 hours, excluding a nap in the car. During this nap, I couldn't fall asleep because I was asleep for most of the driving part. So luckily, we had stopped at a service station where there was a strong wifi signal so I just watched Kevin Hart and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown for a good four hours.

We passed through the border of Iran on the 25^th of August in the evening. We had to stop at a city nearby called Khoy in order to get our number plate changed as the alphabet and number system is different here.

It is now the 26^th of August, we've got the plate and we’re now going to make our way to Shiraz. I’m not sure what my posts are going to be like when I’m there, or how frequently I’ll post due to the fact that this site is blocked in Iran, but I guess it’ll soon be revealed.

Journey to Iran: Day 2/3

My first impression of Vienna was wrong. Kind of.

On the 19^th of August, after going to the embassy, we decided to have a little rest and wait for the weather to cool down so we could go out in the evening and have a stroll. We firstly went to Schrönbrunn Palace. I thought it was going to be a quick look like how you would at Buckingham Palace, but no, this place was huge and beautiful. I’m not entirely sure what it was/is being used for, but my God. No amount of pictures will do this place justice. Probably spent a good couple of hours there until it was getting dark.

I am neither of the two people you see.

Not sure if you can make it out, but check the pose on the right.

Beautiful.

Jay Z totally should have used this for MCHG.

"Welcome to my humble abode. Oh, the woman's head in my hand? That's nothing to worry about."

GAH IT'S SO AMAZING.

Afterwards, we decided to go get desserts in the city centre. I would tell you what I had, but I don’t even know. I just asked the waiter what he thought was best and trusted him in bringing me a slice of a cake. Twas pretty damn good. Had a quick coffee to warm me up after and we headed back “home”.

I’ve got to say, people here are much more warm and friendly than they are in England. Not one dodgy look has been received. If I could learn German I would love to live here but someone said that it’s far too complicated which was rather demotivating. Although, I probably could get by with English.

On the 20^th of August we returned to the embassy to find out my passport had been produced! However, due to the fact that Iran requires a two year military service for all males within certain criteria, I need a stamp in my passport to allow me to exit the country within three months without having to take part in the service. It was just my luck that the two people who have the authority to sign the documents for the stamp, weren’t present, and so we were told to come back the following day.

Having left the embassy, we decided to walk around the area to see what we could find out of luck. We came across a place called Belvedere-Garten, where once again pictures will not do it justice, but I’ll try to give you a sense of the place with one picture I took with my phone because I stupidly forgot my SLR.

For now the waiting game must be continued.

P.S. I feel like the quality of my writing was slightly poor in this but I know that if I don’t upload this, I’ll procrastinate my next post to never. I do hope you’ll find some pleasure in reading this though.

Journey to Iran: Day 2

Before continuing to blog about this current journey, I should probably mention now that the sole driver of this journey is my father. What a lad.  

On the ferry from Dover, we were unsuccessful in finding a row of seats available to sleep on. In fact, the only free place left was a corner table, opposite the kids play area. Subsequently my father and I did not manage to get any sleep. Though to be fair, we weren't that tired.  

We got off the ferry at roughly 02:30 and started driving towards Vienna. We were only in France for about half an hour before we entered Belgium. From Belgium, we entered Germany at roughly 07:00. Never is the choice of music so important than when you’re in a car, driving at night, on a motorway with no speed limit. Classical Iranian music doesn’t really cut it. A bit of Foals here, a bit of Flux Pavilion there. Not what my parents would choose, but the iPod was in my hands.

Here's a generic image. And no, that isn't our car. 

After hours of driving now, a nap was calling. My father and mother don’t really tend to sleep more than a couple of hours when we’ve stopped at a service station. I on the other hand, can sleep to no end when sitting at the back of the car whilst moving. Which I did for most of Germany.

One thing that blew my mind when washing my hands at a service station was that the soap dispenser automatically dropped soap on your hand when you put them under it. Don’t get that in England, do you?

Yes, my mind is easily blown. Hehe. Blown.

[I've now been told there are such dispensers in England. Where have I been all my life? Not at a service station, evidently.]

The car rides generally aren’t that exciting seeing as they’re mostly on the motorway so I’ll skip ahead to where we get to Vienna. First impressions at around 22:00 were that the city looked like something out of the film District 13. 

There is a fair amount of graffiti around. 

Why have we come to Vienna in particular, I hear you so curiously ask? Well, first of all I currently do not have an Iranian passport. There’s no official embassy in London for Iran so we have to get it from another country in Europe. The reason for Vienna in particular is because my father has a cousin who lives here so we’ve hijacked the living room until we get my passport.

A building. Like you've never, ever seen before.

Today, the 19^th of August, we went to the embassy to see if we can get the passport by tomorrow morning. Different people said different things so the waiting game is what must be played. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long, but while we do wait, we should be checking out the city. So pictures will inevitably follow. Unless my battery dies. Or my camera is stolen. Or if I just generally can’t be bothered. 

A Journey Begins: Day 1

So it begins. An over three thousand mile journey to Iran. By Car.

You're probably already thinking: "great, a fun road trip across Europe!" Not really. My father, mother and I are in a large car filled as much as it can be with luggage, and on top of that, there's a roof box (excuse the pun). Imagine being in the back of an old Corsa with three other people. That's the maximum level of comfort we generally have.

We set off from London on the 17th of August to get to the Port of Dover by 23:00, an hour before the departure of our ferry. Driving through the suburbs was to say the very least, discomforting. With all that excess weight in the car, each swerve added to a newly formed motion sickness. Not the greatest way to start a week long car journey, but hey ho, with the help of a tablet, I got used to it and was put to ease.

I write this now on the ferry with one more hour to go until we get to Dunkirk where the aim is to get to Vienna by evening. Though it's worth noting, with limited access to wi-fi, this will probably be uploaded a few days later.

Watch this space!