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The bottle is flashing, the Turkish train burns through the night in an epic voyage


The bottle is flashing, the Turkish train burns through the night in an epic voyage

The service was suspended less than a year after it started because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ankara / Kars:

Festive wreaths, white tablecloths and tempting bottles of wine come as passengers board the Orient Express for an epic journey through Turkey’s snow-capped Euphrates plateau.

Locally named Turistik Dogu Ekspresi, the train offers one of the vast country’s most coveted new experiences.

Its nine carriages wind around mountain bends on the 32-hour, 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) journey from the capital Ankara to Kars, an ancient city near Turkey’s craggy borders with Armenia and Georgia.

The service was suspended less than a year after it started because of the coronavirus pandemic. But with the easing of restrictions, the sleeper has returned. Tickets, although relatively expensive, sold out in minutes.

The director of Turkish State Railways Hasan Pezuk told AFP: “The Ankara-Kars line is rated by travel writers as one of the four most beautiful train lines in the world.

“It’s really a very special moment for me and my family,” said Zulan-Nour Komurcu, 26, who was celebrating her birthday with them on the train.

“Here’s my present,” smiled the brunette, who decorated her cabin with purple lights, hung a wreath over the door and placed cookies and porcelain teapots on an embroidered tablecloth.

Three months of snow

The train runs twice a week from December 30 to March 31 to make the most of the snow-covered landscape. Engineer Fatih Yalcin says its route is a miniature version of Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railway.

“There’s always something to fix,” he said, his head deep inside an electrical cabinet.

“Last week, the temperature was minus 24 degrees Celsius (minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit) … The water froze,” he said, adding that sometimes it goes down to minus 40.

“I intervene when required and do not disturb passengers. Seeing them happy is a real pleasure for me.”

Depending on the compartment, there is a prayer ceremony or a wine.

In the dining car, diners can eat and drink all night under the shadow of a nightclub-style mirror.

This is where Ilhemur Irmak and her retired friends meet for tea as the sun sets in a vibrant color. 40 women from Bursa, a western province on the Sea of ​​Marmara.

“We are withdrawing from our husbands and fathers,” said Irmak, causing laughter everywhere.

Like most passengers, they started on their own terms: a sumptuous feast of specialties and sweets.

Another faster and less festive train runs along the same route for about 20 hours, with no scenic stops.

But this train is designed to offer the absolute joy of passing through breathtaking but hard-to-reach provinces such as Kayseri, Sivas, Erzincan and Erzurum.

And, of course, to party all night.

nostalgia

Attorney Yoruk Giris and his two friends made sure their belongings lasted until the last minute. A party animal, he brought a garland of white light, a plaster snowman, candles, and a portable speaker that blew up Turkish rock.

“It was an old dream,” said the smiling 38-year-old rocking, his table laden with whiskey, delicacies and chilled beer.

“We had to make something fun out of it. We prepared a lot.”

As evening turned to night, people began to meet in the hallways to share music and dance. Among them, there are two couples in their fifties, “friends since high school”, intending to “have a predestined relationship”.

One of them, Ahmet Cavus, admits to feeling “nostalgic” about the trains of his youth.

“We revisit the journeys we took as children with our grandparents,” says Cavus.

The train brings together a wide range of Turkish societies, with people of all ages and styles, from the reserved to the unrestrained.

At Erzurum, the last stop before Kars at 1,945 meters (6,381 feet), several passengers performed a traditional dance on a frozen platform, assisted by a tea seller’s crackling radio. .

The station’s thermometer showed minus 11°C but no one seemed discouraged.

Resigning, the train commander postponed the departure for Kars with a smile, waving the torch to the beat.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)



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