Everything worked out just perfectly:
I got the Iran Visa within one day. Went to the Iranian Consulate around 11.00. Was instructed by a funny but rigorous chimaera women (one eye blue, one eye brown) to fill in a form. After a couple of minutes she gave me a snippet for a bank on the main business street. I went there and paid 75 €. Then I had some time to visit Trabzons Aya Sofia - very old byzantine church overlooking the Black Sea. I returned to the embassy around 16.30 and collected the Visa - easy !
To celebrate this success I treated myself to a serious scrubbing and beating at a hamam.
Next day: Arthur repair day. Just cycled around town looking for bike shops. Found one at the main shopping area - but the staff couldn't help me - they just pointed at my not-turkish-standard bottom bracket and their turkish-standard set of tools and said 'Problem'. Fortunately I found another bike shop on Yavuz Selim Blv. - a guy brought me to a reasonably messy cellar workshop and told me to wait for the ustad (master) to come. Reasonably messy means: I was convinced immediately jthat all necessary tools could be found in this chaos or the ustad would be able to create them on the spot. And that is what he did - a screw on my pedal was stuck from the dust of 6000km - he managed to unscrew it by welding a nut on it - several times. The torque support I managed to bend by the raw power of my legs got some angle grinder treatment. Now Arthur has a new bottom bracket, new chain and a not new, but turned-around sprocket. I made a short test ride through town and it feels great !
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