Day 5 – Istanbul

We welcome in the new day at Svilengrad in Bulgaria, during a two-hour stop. Departing at 0024 we reach the border station, Kapitan Andreevo I think, at 0130, where we have our passports checked by the Bulgarian authorities.

Eventually we cross the border in to Turkey and at around 0230 arrive at Kapikule, where we have to have disembark, to queue first for a visa and then to have the visa stamped. At 0400 we are back on the train but have to wait until the passports are inspected at about 0445 before we can attempt to sleep again.

 

Istanbul Sirceki station, the end of the line…

…just a short walk to the ferry terminals, from where the boats to the Asia depart.

We arrive in to Istanbul about an hour and a half after the scheduled time of 0825, to discover that the Istanbul Adana sleeper train is completely full. A helpful local advises us to catch an earlier sleeper train as far as Konya, where we can wait for the Adana train that we intended to travel on (it being less busy on this stretch).

The power had gone off the previous evening and our cameras, phones and laptops were all in need of some juice. We find a boutique hotel near the station with very helpful staff, who bring us coffee, allow us to recharge and use the wi-fi, and refuse to accept any payment.

Having less time than we had hoped for in Istanbul. we don’t have time to look at one of the new generation of ‘green’ buildings, such as the R&D and technological centre for a private telecommunications company at the Tübitak Marmara Research Center Zone, designed by Erginoglu & Calislar Architects.

A new rail tunnel under the Bosphorus is currently under construction but for now a short ferry ride is required to cross to Asia. This ship’s cargo appears to be six huge wind turbine blades. In the background the Bosphorus Bridge connects Europe and Asia.

Haydarpasa station, from where we take the 1920 to Konya. The sleeper compartments are all full so we have to make do with Pullman seats, which doesn’t make for a great night’s sleep.

Day 4 – Bucharest

A good example of Romanian telecoms en route back to Bucuresti Nord station

Most of Bucharest has seemed strangely subdued; the station and the restaurant and bar quarter are the exceptions.

Once again the CFR sleeper is ex-Deutsche Bahn but this time it’s real wood veneer, brass fittings and the power’s on.

Crossing the River Danube in to Bulgaria over the longest steel bridge in Europe (2.5 km)

In Bulgaria the architecture takes on a more Mediterranean feel and fields of sunflowers stretch in to the distance. Unlike in Romania the mobile network supports data, which gives me the chance to check emails (and the Ashes test match score).

It’s surprising just how much more slowly the trains run east of Budapest. According to our InterRail map it is not much more than 300 miles from Bucharest to Istanbul, yet the journey time is in excess of 20 hours!