Wiebe Wakker
October 31, 2016
Day 228 | Friday October 28
When I woke up I was surprised that I was the only one in the room, while we were with 5 when we went to bed. I thought I was alone in the house but later I would find out that Merih went to her sisters rooms as the floor was to hard for her. Fatma & Okan went to work, I was sleeping so tight that I didn’t hear them leave.
During this journey I really learn about all the cultures in different countries as I stay with locals all the time. Some things like interests and hobbies are similar in all countries but breakfast is something typical everywhere. In Turkey they start the day with a lot of Ekmek (bread), commonly mixed with french fries, yoghurt and some vegetables. They say that the breakfast is the most important meal of the day and apparently the consider french fries and bread as healthy & nutritious.
My host Merih and friend Fatma would fly to their hometown near Antalya today so we went looking for a ticket for them. I started looking for another place to stay in Erzurum. I still needed to arrange some things for the entry to Iran.
Costs
The coming period I’m going to have some expensive costs. A visa for Iran which costs between 75 and 105 euro (on every blog I read different amounts), a temporary cas insurance as my own insurance only covers the countries on the green card and Turkey is the last one for the countries to follow, price is unknown. Than I would need to take a ferry from Bandar Abbas to the Emirates, which costs around 400 USD and get a visa for this country which could be free or costs around 30 USD, I will find out at the border I guess. From the UAE I wold need to ship the car to India and this is the most expensive post: 2350 USD.
I can pay for the Iranian visa with the money I received from donations. I want to thank everyone who made a donation and I am surprised that even people who I don’t know sponsored me. At the moment I received €350,- Which is a lot of money. So far I spend €19 on the visa for Turkey, €57 to deliver the Carnet de Passage with DHL to Trabzon and 40 pound for the authorization code for the Iranian visa, which was a scam unfortunately. There is still a chance that I would get this money back as I payed with PayPal and they have a protection program.
New sponsor
Now because I knew about the costs of the shipping of the car and other costs I started looking for a sponsor already a few months ago. I am happy to announce that I found one: Detroit Electric. They are sponsoring me financials and get a logo on the car. With the money of the donations and new sponsor I would be able to reach UAE and have a bit left for the shipment to India, but not enough. That’s a headache for later though, I can stay up to 3 months in Dubai so I hope to find a nice oil sheik or fix another solution.
The deal with Detroit Electric became definitive today and that was a blessing. In Iran it’s not possible to withdraw money from ATM’s or to use a credit card. This is because of international sanctions. So today in Erzurum I withdrew €500 (which is my banks daily max) and would need to take another 300 tomorrow. This is more as I expect to expend but because of the regulations here it’s better to have some extra.
I am sharing this information as I want to be transparant about the money you (my followers) are donating me and about the costs I need to make occasionally.
Today
Back to today. I needed to find a new place to stay and my host Refik from last Thursday told me that I could come back anytime. I contacted him and he told me he would be back home around 20.30. When I got there he took me the house in the apartment, the one of the owner of the place. He (I forgot his name) used to live with his girlfriend in France but because he needed to join the Turkish army they were ripped apart and never saw each other again. His room is filled with paintings of their time together. Apparently they recently got in touch and in two months they are going to meet each other again, after 40 years! What a touching story.
