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.