Ankara / Kars: Festive bouquets, white tablecloths and attractive bottles appeared passenger moments rising East Express for epic trips throughout the snow-covered euphrate plateaus.
Named Turistic Digu Expressions locally, this train offers one of the most coveted new experiences in a large country.
The nine carriages crossed the mountain roads with a 32-hour mountain race, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the capital of Ankara to Kars, an ancient city close to the Border of the Turkish ship with Armenia and Georgia.
This service was suspended less than a year after starting because of the Pandemic Coronavirus. But with easing restrictions, sleeping back. Tickets, although relatively expensive, jerks within minutes.
“The Ankara-Kars line is considered by travel writers to be one of the four most beautiful train lines in the world,” said the Turkish state train director Hasan Pezuk told AFP.
“It’s really a very special moment for me and my family,” said Zulan-Nour Komurcu, 26, who celebrated his birthday with them.
“This is my gift,” Smiles The Brunette, who has adorned the cabin with a purple lights, hanging a hairy bouquet on the door and setting the biscuit and porcelain teapot on the embroidery tablecloth.
Three-month snow
The train runs twice a week from December 30 to March 31 to maximize the most snow-covered landscape. The route is a miniature version of the Russian Trans-Siberian train, said Engineer Fatih Yalcin.
“There is always something to be repaired,” he said, his head was deep inside the electrical cabinet.
“Last week minus 24 degrees Celsius (minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit) … the water froze,” he said, adding that sometimes it fell into minus 40.
“I intervened when asked and without disturbing passengers. Seeing them happy is a real pleasure for me.”
Depending on the compartment, there is a prayer or alcohol.
In the car eat, the revelers can enjoy the night under the night-style mirror ball.
This is where Ilhemur Irmak and retired friends meet for tea at sunset in the flames. The 40 women are from the stock exchange, a western province in the Marmara Sea.
“We are backing away from our husband and our father,” Irmak said, triggered all laughter.
Like most passengers, they begin their own provisions: real party specialization and candy.
Other trains are faster and less festive along the same route in about 20 hours, without a beautiful stop.
But this train is designed for mere excitement travel through spectacular provinces but difficult to access like Kayseri, Sivas, Erzincan and Erzurum.
And, of course, to party all night.
Nostalgia.
Joruk Giris lawyer and his two friends make sure their inventory survives until the end. A party of a party, he had released a white bouquet, snowman plaster, candles and portable speakers blew up Turkish rock.
“It was an old dream,” said the people who smiled 38 years old, swaying, his desk was burdened by whiskey, delicious food, and cold beer.
“We have to make something fun from it. We are very preparing.”
When night turned to the night, people began to meet in the corridor to share music and dance. Among them, two couples aged fifties, “friends since high school”, intend to “have fun together”.
One of them, Ahmet Cavus, claimed to feel “nostalgia” to ride the youth.
“We are revisiting the trip we made as children with our grandparents,” said Cavus.
The train brings together various Turkish societies, with people of all ages and styles, from being provided for uncontrollably.
In Erzurum, the last stop before Kars at an altitude of 1,945 meters (6381 feet), some passengers did a traditional dance on platforms frozen, with the support of the radio crackled tea vendor.
Stations thermometer showed minus 11 C but no visible despair.
Resigned, the train conductor postpone departure to Kars with a smile, waving a torch in rhythm.