The Doǧu Ekspres - the Eastern Express – What is it about that word 'express' that gives trains the right to creak slowly across the countryside?
The train leaves Haydarpaşa Station in Kadikoy around 7 in the morning but it takes an hour or more to leave Istanbul behind. For most of the day it crawls across the Marmara plains before gradually, unnoticeable winding up to the Anatolian Plateau. It doesn’t reach Ankara until evening. Around dawn it enters the mountains of Eastern Anatolia and winds through the valleys until it reaches the edge of the steppes that stretch across to Siberia. it stops at every station; tiny cinder block buildings not much bigger than an outhouse, where no one gets off, no one gets on. Whenever the train pulls into these stations it lets out a loud sigh. Like any worker stuck in a routine job, it wonders why it bothers.
The train leaves Haydarpaşa Station in Kadikoy around 7 in the morning but it takes an hour or more to leave Istanbul behind. For most of the day it crawls across the Marmara plains before gradually, unnoticeable winding up to the Anatolian Plateau. It doesn’t reach Ankara until evening. Around dawn it enters the mountains of Eastern Anatolia and winds through the valleys until it reaches the edge of the steppes that stretch across to Siberia. it stops at every station; tiny cinder block buildings not much bigger than an outhouse, where no one gets off, no one gets on. Whenever the train pulls into these stations it lets out a loud sigh. Like any worker stuck in a routine job, it wonders why it bothers.
