Next country, Switzerland !?

isnt the next country pakistan? actually yes, but it is to dangerous to travel there at the moment.
The swiss embassy in islamabad didnt recommend me to travel in pakistan at all.

not all embassies do their job as good as the swiss embassy in islamabad. Within one hour i got an answer! the indian embassy here in tehran is the opposite. i still dont know if i could get a visa for india. There i met a scottish who have been waiting for the visa for more than 2 weeks and still dont know if they can obtain one.

so i decided to go home, home to switzerland - but not by bike ;-). i will arrive this friday in zurich.

but my journey will go on in about 2 months. i will write later more about it...

it isnt much to see in tehran. hassan, a friend in tehran asked me to make a homepage for his company. Why not? I had time...


eating lunch at the officeHis 2. job is teacher, he teaches english and computer science at a high school. I was invited to have a presentation about web-programing there.

Well, see you soon switzerland!!!

güle güle turkey...

after 6 weeks and more than 1700 km i left turkey. i very enjoyed cycling in turkey although the many high passes and the snow. thanks to all turkish people who helped me and invited me to drink cay. tesekkür!!!!! I had a fantastic time!! i promise i will come again one day...

the highest mountain in turkey, ararat. higher than the mountains in switzerland (5137m)

salam iran...without any problems i could cross the border to iran. the first days were not that easy...get money, long distances to cycle, police and dangerous drivers...

...get money...it is not possible to withdraw money on atms. and creditcards are not accepted. you have to take cash in dollar or euro with you and change it in iran. but only a few banks in bigger cities change money. it took me a long time until i got iranian money (rial).

...the distances between cities are long. on one day i drove 117 km to reach the next city (marand). i arrived pretty late. fortunately i met magid who helped me finding a hotel.

later on i went with his uncle to a swimming pool and sauna. just the right after the hard day...

...police, your friend and helper? they stoped me on the road and checked if i have any drugs...fortunatelly they didnt see my washing powder ;-)...

...it is pretty dangerous on iranian roads (for foreigner). especially in cities..there it is horrible. an iranian guy wanted to show me the way with its bike in tabriz. he was just driving next to me as suddenly a car hit him...fortunately he didnt get hurt so much.

tabriz has one of the biggest bazar in iran. they sell carpets, fruits, tea, seasonings and so on.

goodbye erzurum

I couldnt just drive on after taking the wisdom tooth out. No sport for some days.

I stayed 2 more days in erzurum. On the last day was a rock concert. A friend's friend sang in a restaurant. She has a fantastic voice! The concert was marvelous.

Thanks for the great time in erzurum. I will miss all of you!

When i left erzurum the roads where covered with snow. It was not easy to drive...i fell down more than once, but the ground was soft ;-)

It is not possible to overnight in the tent anymore - too cold. Hotels are only in the bigger cities. So i overnight often in ögretmen evi (teacher house).

Teachers and the schoolmanager playing their favorite game (in eleskirt).

A teacher invited me to go to high school in eleskirt. The students asked me many, many questions...about my journey, me, switzerland, religion and so on. Finally i went to 6 different classes and was in the evening almost more exhausted than after a cycling day ;-). But i had a lot of fun!

Erzurum...

...the coldest city in turkey. Even though turkey is pretty in the south, it snowed already in erzurum. It is so cold here because erzurum is 2000 meter over sea level.

A hot cay (tea) helps me warm me up. People in this region dont put sugar in the cay. But it dosnt mean that they dont use sugar. They take a cube of sugar in their mouth and drink the cay. The sugar they have is harder than normal one.

I met Murat and Ümit who showed me erzurum. We went to their university and i joined them to go to english class. We learned the continues form ;-)

After horrible 2 minutes the wisdom tooth was out and i was happy that it was over...can you guess how much i had to pay? Only 20 euro!

One problem comes rarely alone

i had problems with my backwheel in the last weeks. many spokes cracked. i looked in erzurum for a new backwheel - but no chance to find one.

i took a bus back to ürgüp (cappadocia). Sezgin and Murat helped me organising a new wheel. we ordered one from ankara.


Sezgin, thanks for overnighting at your house and everything else!
Murat, thanks for ordering the wheel and the delicious food at your restaurant!

Sezgin showed me his workplace. he works for a carpet company, where he does tours and sells carpets to tourists.

i havent seen so beautiful carpets before. unfortunately my budget is to small to buy one...


eventually i went to ankara to the delta bikeshop (http://www.deltabisiklet.com/). they could see what exactly i needed for my bike. after they fixed everything i took a bus back to erzurum. finally they had to change more parts than i thought at first.

thanks for the good work!
hey Lio! they even had dt swiss spokes!

the bike is now ok, but the driver not...i have tooth pain and went to the hospital yesterday. one wisdom tooth has to be taken out. they will do that next friday after i have taken medicaments for 5 days...please cross your fingers for me...


hey Tinu! i just added two photo albums...have a look...i know you have been waiting a long time.