Hello to all you people out there from the wonderful place of Erzurum in Eastern Turkey.

Just a note of caution if you are thinking of applying for a VISA through IranianVisa.com.

We applied in Greece (Athens) and paid for the 2-5 day service. Three-and-a-half weeks later we still waited.

IranianVisa.com (HAmid) suggested we could pick up the visa at Instanbul/ANkara/ERzurum if we wanted to move on (boy how we did as Athens is so damn expensive to sit around).

We CHECKED several times with MR Hamid whether this was ok to do and also checked he had changed the request with the Foreign Ministry from Athens to Erzurum. He told us many times a copy of authorisation would go to Erzurum AS WELL. Multiple emails told us we could get the visas with the same code at Erzurum.

1800 MILES LATER after several visits to the consulate we find out that MR Hamid is 'economical with the truth' - our authorisation is only valid for Athens and we are in Erzurum. Flights back to Athens and accommodation will cost about 1000 Euro - it's cheaper to stay here for another 7-10 days as they process ANOTHER application; the VISA code is useless anywhere APART from Athens! At no point did he tell us anything apart from this!

He then told us that we would have to reapply again!

We now (five weeks later) have to apply all over again through the consulate in Erzurum.

Best wishes to all of you out there!

Cathy and Bernard

www.worldtour.org.uk

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Touching the World: A Blind Woman, Two Wheels and 25,000 Miles