Hi,

I am planning on riding solo from Berlin to Iran and back this summer. See my rough route:
Summer 2011 - Google Maps

I plan on taking smaller roads, talking to people, stopping in villages, experiencing nature. Not so much interested in historic sites or big cities.

The timeframe is two months, August and September. I plan on spending most of my time in Eastern Turkey and Iran, two places I have heard good things about. I realize Ramadan is during August this year, but what can you do.

Budget is 2500 Euro, which leaves me a little over 20 Euro a day after fuel. Rough camping will have to be the order of the day. I am pretty undemanding and tolerant when it comes to food, hotels, etc. I have done the West Coast of Africa and know the life of a motorcycle traveler.

I don't know yet, whether I will go (have the time to go) through the Balkans, I might take the ferry from Igoumenitsa (Greece) back to Venice. Eastern Europe I want to pass through relatively quickly, taking in the Transalpina or Transfagarasan in Romania though. Iraqi-Kurdistan is just an idea. I heard the Kurds want you to leave your passport at the border you come in, so if I go, I'll probably enter from Turkey, in case I can't convince them to let me keep my passport and have to turn around.

Carnet is applied for, as is the Iran visa. I feel a little queasy about taking all my money into Iran in cash form, Euro in my case. Mainly, because I don't know just how much I will need, and a like to have a safety margin, but not having to exchange cash for the rest of the trip (as opposed to ATMs).

Any tips or advice on countries, culture, places, borders, route? Where to spend more time/less time?

Thanks a lot, Julian

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