Spent the night at a truck stop 100 kilometers from Istanbul. It is really difficult to arrive in a big city as Istanbul trying to find some were to stay in when it is pitch black. It is difficult enough arriving in broad daylight. The 100 kilometers was quick and easy to cover, but then it took us about three hours to find our spot.

In the afternoon we finally parked our car in the Sultanahmet area and went straight for the Blue Mosque and on to Aya Sophia. After that we strolled to Galata Bridge were all the fishermen are. From Karaköj Pier we took the commuter boat over the Bosporus to Kadiköj on the Asian side to have something to eat. And then we took the boat back to Eminönu Pier on the European side again.

We are staying at a parking lot close to the Blue Mosque. We pay 3,50 Euro per day for the parking that is right by the sea and with access to a toilet, not clean but still a toilet. It is a guarded parking and we feel safe both to leave the car and to sleep there. Across the street there is a restaurant with wifi and we bought two ice creams to get the code for the wifi. This means that we can upload. It has been a while since the last time - ten days.

Today we walked around in Istanbul and we started with the Grand Bazaar. A must see palace. It is a nice place, but it is also a tourist trap. It is much more fun to walk around the small alleys outside the Grand Bazaar, where the Turkish people do their shopping. There are no people nagging at you about carpets, jewelry or Turkish delight there. We also visited Spice Bazaar , but there were too many nagging sales men. Instead we headed for the Galata Bridge and the modern parts of Istanbul. We took The Tynnel , a very old subway halfway to Taksim Square to continue on foot all the way to the Square. Here is where the hip people hang around.

Now we have seen enough of Istanbul and it is time to move on. We visited IKEA to by some Swedish food on the way. But they didn´t have the things we were looking for. But IKEA really is a safe place. The entrance was like entering an airport with metal detectors, x-ray and they searched all the cars.

After that we left Europe behind as we crossed the Bosporus to the Asian side. We headed for Yalova Thermal Bath to get a well needed scrub after our Istanbul visit. And Yalova Thermal Bath was a pleasant surprise. On top of that it was an outdoor Thermal Bath, it was also an agent and very beautiful Hamam. The best thing of it all was that it was a mix bath so we could experience this together. In the Hamam there was a hot indoor pool 38 degrees, a freezing cold pool, plenty of Turkish cleaning stations where we could scrub ourselves and a very hot steam sauna. We could only last for a few minutes there.

We finished off our Hamam visit with a cup of very strong Turkish tea in the relax area. We really enjoyed this Thermal Bath and Hamam visit. Unfortunately we couldn’t bring our camera, but we made a collage of the photos from outside the entrance.

Very tired and relaxed we decided to stay to sleep at the parking lot outside the premises, since it was already dark when we came out from the Hamam.

Today was the first time we filled up our car in Turkey. Petrol price is almost like at home 1.40 Euro per liter. And Turkey is a vast country and we will have to drive some thousand kilometers here. That is a lot of expensive petrol. At the petrol station they really played it safe. The man at the pump had a card to turn it on, and then we got a receipt from him for going in to the store to pay for the petrol. Then we got a new receipt to show the man at the pump that we actually had paid.

The Mosques are usually very grand and beautiful, but some are not that extravagant. Today we saw one that was housed in an ordinary shipping container painted white with green corners and with a minaret and some other less extravagant ones.

Today was all about making milage. We are heading for Cappadocia. It is an 800 kilometer drive and we have to split it in to two days of driving. We are avoiding the toll roads, but that is not a problem since all roads are great and fast. It is not much to see. It is flat and it is dry. But one cool thing we came across – a huge dried out salt lake.

We covered the last 200 kilometers to Cappadocia in the morning. There was no question that we had arrived. After the last bend - bang there it was in all its glory. We went straight to Panorama Camping, with a view over Göreme and the valley.

We are the only guests at the campsite right now and we found a good spot on top with a great view. We parked right under the olive tree. But had to cut some branches, since we have learned the hard way that noting is allowed to touch our car - or we might end up with an ant invasion.

In the afternoon we checked out the village of Göreme. Tourism is clearly the main income here for everybody. But it is still a relaxed place and not too crowded with tourists, but maybe this is because it is the end of the season too. The caves are everywhere, also in the village. It also possible to stay in a cave too, since some hotels provides that kind of rooms.

They are making carpets in the village too. On the road to the village we saw how they were burning “the beard” of the carpets to the extent that they turned almost black. Then they throw them in a huge tumbler to make them nice and clean again.

Today we took an extensive walk in the neighborhoods. Our step counter showed 20 000 steps, in the blazing sun, +32 degrees Celsius and in a dry and dusty desert climate. Puh!

We started out with visiting the Göreme Outdoor Museum , an area with several cave churches, chapels and a monastery.

Then we took a walk in Rose Valley with lots of caves and fairy chimneys, that has been used as housing and hide outs during many years. When walking around here in this hot and dusty valley, we feel like we are visiting another planet.

In the village today we also met another overlander couple heading for India, Alexandra and Fabio from Switzerland . That was great! They are making a travel blog at www.aviagemdojorge.ch. For sure we will meet again probably in India or Nepal. We exchanged information so that we can keep in contact. Up to date information about traveling in Iran, Pakistan and visa hazels are vital, since everything changes all the time.

This morning we were up real early to see all the hot air balloons take off in the sunrise. There were like 70 balloons in the air at the same time. It was a very nice view. It would have costed us about 220 Euro to fly a balloon. That is a bit too expensive for our budget. But it was free to watch it all from our great view point, only 10 meters from our car - and having breakfast at the same time.

Today it was time to do some work like doing laundry, put clean sheets in the bed, do some work on the car and modify our shower cabin. It is nice to have a day at home like this once in a while.

The agent in Iran e-mailed us about the visas. They are ready, and we can pick them up in three days at the Iranian consulate in Erzurum, about 800 kilometers from here. That is great. One step in the right direction. But we are still to see if we manage to cross the border with our car without having a guide.

Today we made a longer tour in the outskirts of the Göreme area to Derinkuyu and the underground city. This is a gigantic town, eight floors deep eight floors deep in to the ground. About 10 000 persons and their cattle have lived here. The entrances were hidden from the enemies, the Persian and Arabian armies.

In the underground city they had it all, stables for the cattle on the first floor. Housing , food storage, kitchen and winery etcetera on the floors below and oil lamps lit up the caves. There was even a church and graves inside. Only ten percent of the underground city was open for visitors, but there was still a lot to see.

After that we visited Ihlara Valley and the lush canyon. It is a big difference of Ihlara Valley and the rest of Cappadocia that is dry, hot and dusty.

The last stop of the day was Selime – and the film set of the cult movie Star Wars from 1977. We ran around in the caves. It was cool! Now we have to watch the movie again to see if we recognize the caves and the fairy chimneys.

This morning we started our journey to Erzurum in Eastern Turkey, we need to cover 800 kilometers. We plan to make it in two days, since we want to avoid traveling in the dark, there are too many dogs and other things running around in the dark…

It is usually plenty of petrol stations around. But when we need them they are scarce. We were really low on petrol and we saw petrol station after petrol station pass on the other side of the barrier. But on our side there were none at all. Finally there was one, and we went there and asked them to fill it up, but they only had LPG and diesel – no petrol. We had to get on the road again to drive only on the fumes for 20 kilometers before we found the next one. It was a little nerve-racking since we don’t carry a jerry can. On our last trip we carried it around for two years without using it and we need all the space we can get, so we left it at home this time.

We have been driving all day and the landscape has been flat, dry and dusty, but now the landscape starting to change. We are getting close to the mountains. This also means that it will get cooler, especially in the night.

It was cool night, only +3 grader C. We were staying at a great truck stop “Karakumlar”. There were a lot of trucks and it was open 24 hour per day. It feels safe. The pizzas was less than 4 Euro, toilets and free wifi, and in the morning we could buy freshly baked bread from the bakery next door.

Went in to Erzurum to check out the consulate. For Islam Thursday and Friday are the weekend and we hoped that the consulate was open on a Saturday, but no. We have to come back on Monday.

Right outside Erzurum there was a lot of people at the spring water pump. We also filled up our water supplies.

There are a lot of police- and military premises around Erzurum, and there are checkpoints with sandbags and armoured cars parked here and there along the road but also in town.

Today it was time to go shopping for suitable clothes for Catharina before going to Iran. It is cover it all that is the dress code for Ira, also for tourists. Catharina decided to go for a coat-dress thing that is easy to slip in to. And choose black because it is easier to blend in, especially outside Teheran where all women wear black.

We roamed around town trying to find shops that carried these kind of clothes. The shop keepers were giggling hysterically while helping Catharina find an outfit. Finally we found one that was not too expensive, only 30 Euro. But it was kind of ugly and needs some modifications.

Then we did some shopping for the car, a new tube for our kitchen sink and new feet for the small ladder we use to get in to our car. When we came back to the car a man approached us and invited us for tea across the street. Nuri turned out to be a mountain guide since 30 years. He told us about a Thermal Bath outside town. That was perfect since we needed to take a shower.

It can be difficult to know how things work in different cultures. The Thermal Bath was an experience for both of us. Bert got told off by the staff because he had too reviling swim trunks – at the men’s department. It was quite normal pair of trunks. But be had to put on like a small sarong around his hips to cover them up.

Catharina on the other hand managed to make the hole ladies department scream, when she took of her panties in the locker room. That you could not do! And the staff came running with a towel to cover her up. You were supposed to go to a special dressing room to change in to the swim suit.

When Catharina was swimming in the pool, she discovered a 20 year old girl sitting on the poolside with a huge yellow floating device around her waist looking at Catharina swimming back and forth. Catharina asked if she wanted to learn how to swim and she got very excited. After that a 40 minute swim lesson took place, at the poolside, in the water with the floating device and finally without floating device with Catharina supporting her so that she wouldn’t sink while practicing her swims strokes and leg kicks. Now she know how it works and she will soon get the hang of it.

This morning we went straight to the Iranian Consulate to pick up our visas. It was supposed to be a very straight forward process since they were already approved. But no, the man at the counter passed us two new applications forms to fill in and asked us for two more photos and to go to the bank to pay 2x75 Euro! Well, no use of arguing we just have to do as they say. But when we came back again after a couple of hours it too only about 20 minutes to get our passports stamped with the visas.

After that we was invited for tea at the office of a refugee organization next door to where we parked our car. That was very convenient for us, because they had two interpreters there that could translate the information at the visas that we couldn’t read. We were worried that it said something about that we could not travel in our own car without a guide. Luckily there was no such information in the visas. Now we have to see if we can cross the border without having a guide waiting for us…

Now we were ready to leave Erzurum. On the road we stopped to do some shopping. A girl was delighted seeing Bert´s long red hair. It is fun to see that the makeup trends are different here and that also the men really care about their looks. At the petrol station there was an old man singing away for Bert. We hadn’t a clue was that was all about – as usual.

Now we are in Dogubayazit, 35 kilomters from the Iranian border. We are staying at Murat campsite , a rundown campsite but it have all that we need; hot shower, toilet end electricity for only 4 Euro. Perfect! And we are the only guests. On the premises there is also a small fairground that also needs some TLC.

The best laundry day in a while. Steaming hot water from the tap finally made the fat stains go away, a nice view and we could hang the laundry to dry on the roof.

Suddenly an armored truck turned up. The doors opened and 8-10 men with guns rushed out to secure the area. Oh shit! What is happening? After a while they seemed to relax a bit and went over to talk to them and we got to see the inside of the truck too. It was clear that this was not an ordinary armored truck that we see in every corner here like the one at the picture. This was one of three special units and we could absolutely not take a photo of them or their vehicle.

We told them that we also have a car and that it was parked behind the trees. A crew cut officer, with a stone face and in very dark sunglasses said; WE KNOW! Hmm,maybe that is why they are here we thought.

On the hillside over our campsite is the castle Ishak Pasa Palace. It is a very popular place to take the wedding photos . During the short time that we were there three wedding couples showed up with their entourage entourage.

Now we are two months in on our trip we think it is time to update our car. We draw the route up until now by hand on our map on the hood and put the name of the countries visited on the side of the Toppola.

After that we went to Dogubayazit, it is really a very dusty and dirty bordertown. Not much turists here. We got invites for tea at the local gaming place gaming place were the men are smoking, dringking tea and playing 101 Okey.

Here in Turkey they have found a very effective way to make the drivers to obey the one way signs. If they don’t they will end up with four flat tires. We really have to look out for the spikes.

Back at the campsite we discovered new guests – another overlander car . It was Michel and Tina from Belgium. They are also heading for India.

Now it was time to see if we managed to enter Iran with our car – but without having a guide. To get out of Turkey took us 15 minutes. At the last gate in Turkey it was time for Catharina to put on the dress and cover her hair. You are supposed to be dressed correctly already entering Iran.

The passage took an hour. When going by car there are some extra paperwork to be done at the border. But it was no problem at all. And no questions asked about a guide or our trip in Iran. This means the guide thing is clearly some shit the agencies in Iran demand to give you a Reference Code.

There was a man at the border that helped us though. We thought that he was an official, because he behaved that way. But when it was all over he took us round the corner and asked to be paid 100 Euro. We said no, then he asked for 20 US dollar. We still said no and told him in a sharp way to give us back the Carnet de Passage, the passports and the exit note. And he finally did.

We really hate people trying to skin us for money and services we have not asked for. It is really difficult to figure out who is an official and who is a fixer at the borders. And fixers will never get any money from us - unless they up front with us and we ask them for help and agree to pay them.

Finally we are in Iran. We are very releved! But in Iran you cannot use ATMs or pay with your credit card. Here cash is still king. We brought Euro and US dollar. The currency is Rial. For 400 Euro we got 17 000 000 Rial. That is a stack of bills and a lot of zeros.

The next mission was to fill up the car. It is amazing – only 0,30 Euro per litre! Full tank for 20 Euro Full tank for 20 Euro. Perfect!