I'm finally getting around to posting this trip report, only over a year late.

My travel buddies and I visited Central Asia -stans last year (See trip report). Our plan was to start in Almaty and head overland through the 5-stans and end in Tehran. US Citizens must be on a guided tour in Iran, so I arranged an itinerary with key2persia. I had already bought my open-jaw tickets AUS-ALA/IKA-AUS when I found out our visa authorization had been denied (no reason given) two days before we were supposed to depart for Almaty. We then had to scramble and rebook our tickets, visiting Iraq and the Balkans instead (I need to finish that previous report too!!)

In early August I decided to apply again for an Iranian visa, this time using my UK passport, hoping to travel the week of Labor Day. The advantage of using a UK passport for the visa is that it is not required to have a tour guide, the disadvantage is the visa for UK citizens costs twice as much (150 Euro vs 70 Euro). Getting a visa is a bit of an involved process, first you must apply (usually through a tour company in Iran) for a visa authorization number. This can take anywhere from a few days to a few months, and can be denied with no reason given (as happened to us previously). Once the visa authorization comes through, then you can apply for the actual visa stamp. When you apply for the visa authorization, you must specify which embassy you plan to get your visa issued. Once the visa authorization is approved you have usually 30 days (I've also read 3 months) to get the visa issued. It is possible to change the embassy but it does cost extra and tames more time. This time I used a different tour company and I also specified Istanbul as the embassy as I heard that they issue visas quickly there.

UK passports usually take 10-20 days to get an authorization number, but after I had not heard anything back after three weeks I assumed that it would not come through in time.. and I ended up booking a last minute trip down to Cow Do in Buenos Aires over Labor Day weekend 2012.

Finally over 5 weeks after I had applied and I had pretty much given up hope I was surprised to get an email saying my visa authorization had been approved! So next was the mad scramble to find flight availability and plan a quick week-long trip to Iran. I hoped to fly to Istanbul arriving Sunday night, get the visa issued the next day and take a flight Monday night to Tehran. That would give me 5-6 days on the ground, not much but enough time for me to see Tehran, Isfahan, Persepolis and Shiraz. I ended up finding award availability on American/British to Istanbul leaving the next weekend, although with bad connections including a long layover in Dallas, a LaGuardia-JFK transfer and only 90 minutes to connect in LHR. Coming back to the US, I planned to fly Qatar from Shiraz back through Houston. But since I did not yet actually have the visa, I was worried about problems and did not yet book my return flight.

It was an interesting time to visit Iran. The sanctions had started to hurt the economy and a shortage of foreign currency caused the rial value to plummet. Officially the rate was 12500/$1 but when I was there it was 25000/$1. Prices had not yet risen and it was already an inexpensive place to visit, allowing for some great deals on accommodation and entry fees to sites.

Sep 22, 2012
Flight: Austin, TX (AUS) to Dallas, TX (DFW), American Airlines, economy
Flight: Dallas, TX (DFW) to New York, NY (LGA), American Airlines, economy
Flight: New York, NY (JFK) to London, England (LHR), American Airlines, economy
An uneventful start to the trip. Supershuttle picked me up on time and dropped me at the airport with no problems. I had received the Scottevest for Christmas last year but haven't had much of a chance to use it previously. I managed to stuff all my electronics and passport/tickets inside the pockets which made going through security very easy. I had not renewed my Admirals Club pass this year for the first time in 10 years (I've been flying United more lately), but luckily I still had lounge access as I was flying internationally as a Platinum.

The flight to Dallas was uneventful but from then on the problems started. My flight was originally supposed to depart at 1:35 PM but there was an earlier flight departing to LGA at 12:30, since I had not checked bags I was able to standby for the earlier flight. I had to transfer LGA-JFK so an extra hour buffer time would be great. We board the flight... only to have an hour delay due to mechanical issues! In hindsight I should have just kept my original flight. The 1:35 flight was cancelled and hopefully they would have instead put me on the nonstop DFW-LHR flight.

We landed 70 minutes late in LGA, although at my original flight's scheduled arrival time. That left a tight but doable 3-hr time to transfer to JFK. Luckily traffic wasn't too bad on the Van Wyck (Saturday) and I was relaxing in the JFK Admirals Club within an hour.

The flight to LHR was uneventful though we pushed back about 15 minutes late.. I was worried about my connection in LHR.. only had 95 minutes to transfer T3-T5. Usually that is enough but I would have preferred a longer buffer, especially for visiting the BA lounges.

AA JFK-LHR

Sep 23, 2012
Flight: London, England (LHR) to Istanbul, Turkey (IST), Turkish Airlines, economy
Hotel: Old City Hostel, Sultanahmet, Turkey (20€)
We arrived in LHR on time but took nearly 30 minutes to taxi to the gate arriving at 9:30.. by then I only had an hour to connect and was definitely worried about missing my flight. However when I deplaned there was someone there with my name, BA had proactively protected me on a Turkish airlines flight instead! Much better as TK departs from T3 as well which saves making a terminal transfer. Plus that meant earning full Y miles LHR-IST on an award itin, score! I even had time to pop into the SAS lounge for a bit before heading down to the gate.

The flight to Istanbul was quite nice on the A330 plane. TK has pretty good food options even in economy.

TK LHR-IST

Arrived at Istanbul airport to a huge line for the visa then another long line for immigration. They have since moved to an online e-visa so that should speed arrival. This was my third time in Istanbul since 2009 and the airport keeps getting busier and busier with TK's huge expansion the past few years. I took the metro+tram combo towards the center of town, getting off at Sultanahmet station. I planned to stay at a hostel nearby as I hoped I would only need one night in Istanbul. The Old City hostel was very convenient, just a block away from the tram stop. Very clean and nice dorm rooms and it wasn't too busy. The Iranian Consulate was also conveniently located just a few blocks away.

The temperature was great so I headed out to grab a doner kebab for dinner, then wandered around the Blue Mosque and through lower Sultanahmet. The streets were very busy with tourists and sidewalk restaurants. Even if touristy, I love the atmosphere in Istanbul. I returned via the Iran consulate to scope it out for the next morning.

Hagia Sophia

Sep 24, 2012
Hotel: Old City Hostel, Sultanahmet, Turkey (20€)
I headed to the consulate early this morning but still managed to go to the wrong door... the gatekeeper pointed me in the right direction. I entered the consulate right at 9AM but there were already several people ahead of me. I got to the counter and asked about my visa reference number... they did not have it, argh! I had tried calling/emailing the consulate before leaving the USA to make sure they had received it but they did not respond. Finally after an hour of waiting I went to the window again and asked, they said yes they did find my reference number and to go pay the fee (150EUR!) at the bank across the street. The bank was very slow and that took nearly an hour just to get a receipt that I had paid the visa fee. I returned to the consulate only to learn that the visa would take three days to issue! I'd hoped to get my visa today so that was a big disappointment. I managed to talk them into giving it out in two days instead, but that meant losing two days in Iran as I only had a week for this trip! That also left me with 2 days to kill, either in Istanbul or going elsewhere.

I wandered down to the Galata bridge where there are lots of restaurants selling fresh fish sandwiches. I munched on one of these as I wandered about for the next few hours, walking across the bridge to Tunel, taking the funicular up the hill then walking down towards Taksim square. İstiklal street was just packed with people. The street is lined with fancy shops and restaurants, with a tram running down the middle. Finally I wandered down the hill to Kabataş tram station and catch it back to my hostel.

Galata Bridge restaurants


İstiklal street tram

For dinner I just stopped at one of the sidewalk restaurants around the corner from my hostel and had testi kebab. This is a speciality of central Turkey, meat and vegetables are cooked in a sealed clay pot which is broken open at the table. It's a bit of a show for tourists of course but it was delicious!


I'd been debating what to do with my free day for tomorrow.. one plan was to do a day trip to Troy and/or Gallipoli. I found a travel agent around the corner from the hostel. They said their Troy tour in the morning was full, but I could take an 1AM night bus and come back the next afternoon. It was already 9PM by this point and so decided to go with that option. I went back to the hostel for a bit to rest before they came and picked me up at midnight and drove me to the Otogar (bus station). I'd arranged the trip in a hurry so had no idea the bus company I was with, what the details were, or anything...

Sep 25, 2012
Hotel: Old Town Hostel, Sultanahmet, Turkey (20€)
The bus followed the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles to Eceabat where there is a ferry across to Çanakkale. I slept most of the way there only to be woken up at 6AM and told to get off the bus. I thought that was odd as Troy was on the other side.. surely they would be picking me up in Çanakkale itself. There wasn't anyone there to meet me so I was left stranded and tired at 6AM in the cold and dark ferry terminal as I watched the buses drive onto the ferry. No one around seemed to know anything about my tour either so I crossed the street to a hotel where I woke up the clerk sleeping on the sofa. I had the number of the tour company which he tried to call but didn't get any answer... so I just settled down and tried sleeping for an hour or so. The clerk let me go up to the rooftop restaurant for (free!) breakfast at sunrise. The view out over the Dardanelles was gorgeous, you could not ask for a more perfect clear day.

Eceabat Sunrise over the Dardanelles

Dardanelles ferry

Eventually we were able to get in touch with the tour company and find out where was supposed to be.. the tour agent had been worried as she had been looking for me too! That settled I headed to their office before we all boarded the 8AM ferry (they run hourly) for the 30-minute crossing. We picked up some more people on the Çanakkale side before heading down the new expressway towards Troia (Troy) ruins. We arrived about 9:45 or so.

Troy was the famous equine city of history, home to Helen and rediscovered by Heinrich Schliemann in the late 1800s. The city is near the entrance to the strategic Dardanelles straight although some distance inland. At the entrance was a cheesy huge wooden replica of the Trojan Horse. There was also one in Çanakkale, the prop from the Brad Pitt movie was donated to the city. Like many historical cities Troy was not just one city, but multiple towns and villages built on top of each other. There were 15 different layers, only one supposedly was the historical Troy. There's not much to look at, it lacks many of the grandiose marble columns and buildings of later Roman and Greek ruins. Mostly what remains are stone walls and an ampitheater.





Layers of Troy

After visiting Troy the bus headed back to the ferry and Eceabat. I had decided to do the afternoon trip to Gallipoli WWI battlefields. I had heard of Gallipoli before but hadn't realized the extent or full history of the battles that occurred there. The battles are still poignant history in Australia and New Zealand, remembered on ANZAC day when huge crowds still come to Turkey for services. The Gallipoli campaign was fought in 1915-16 as the Allies attempted to keep the strategic Dardanelles straight open against the Ottomans who had joined the Central Powers. The Ottomans put up fierce resistance and forced the evacuation of the Allied forces after over 100,000 combined fatalities on both sides. The Turkish commander was none other than Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who went on to found the modern Turkish secular state after the fall of the Ottoman empire.

The tour guide was TJ, a Turkish-Australian guy who has been doing these Gallipoli tours for years, and he was a riot. We visited several of the cemeteries and battle sites at ANZAC Cove, Lone Pine, The Nek, Turkish cemetery, etc. Many of the battles were hard fought over gaining just a few yards of territory. Mostly the battles devolved into trench warfare and some of them still remain. It was sobering to see so many gravesites in one place, I had never visted any WWII or WWI battlefield cemeteries before.



Turk carrying wounded British soldier

Lone Pine cemetery

Turkish memorial

After the tour TJ drove the bus back the 4 hrs to Istanbul, dropping me off last! It had been a long day, and tomorrow I hoped that my visa finally would be ready.