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Final week Lonely Planet’s annual Best in Travel list included the Istanbul-Sofia Express as a vital journey for 2023.
The in a single day service restarted in April this yr, after being suspended in early 2020. When launched in 2017, it was a successor of older night-train companies, together with a number of incarnations utilizing variants of the identify Orient Categorical. I boarded one of many speedy suburban trains at Sirkeciin Istanbul’s Eminönü quarter, heading out of the town to Halkalı, an unassuming commuter station that’s now the place to begin of this evening prepare.
Leaving Istanbul from right here is akin to first travelling from Euston to Watford Junction to board the Caledonian Sleeper: it’s a contemporary, practical station, although not a lot to take a look at. As soon as at Halkalı, the evening’s pre-departure ceremony was getting beneath manner. Shouts of “Sofia!” from station workers summoned passengers from an uncomfortably heat ready room by a baggage X-ray machine after which on to the platform. I used to be directed to my Nineteen Nineties-era sleeper compartment by the prepare supervisor. Residence for the evening got here air-conditioned, with an influence socket however no wifi and, unusually, a fridge stocked with water and some snacks.
Leaving on time at 8.45pm, we rattled alongside the single-track line by the darkness. Someplace alongside the way in which, I dozed off. Near 1am we approached Edirne, with the Selimiye mosque lighting up the cityscape. Leaving Edirne, the prepare supervisor all of the sudden grew to become unpopular, knocking on doorways with a brisk “Management!”. It was the cue to stand up and get in a slowly shuffling passport queue at Kapıkule on the Turkish-Bulgarian border. There have been just a few hundred passengers on the platform, most nonetheless half asleep. Ready for that passport stamp was the proper likelihood to fulfill fellow passengers. We have been crossing the EU’s busiest land frontier, and it was turning into obvious to all that taking this sleeper doesn’t assure a restful evening. Snacks and smokes have been provided round, and tales have been shared.
It took about an hour to get everybody by the queue and again on board. Leaving Turkey, the prepare crawled by openings in barbed-wire fences and into Bulgaria, the place one other set of border guards took away everybody’s passport for an hour or so. I didn’t sleep till mine was returned. The barbed wire and guards in commentary towers weren’t for these of us on this prepare, however they have been for somebody.
The remainder of the journey felt dream-like, partly due to the interrupted evening inducing a barely dozy sense of the place we have been. At breakfast, we arrived in Plovdiv, famed for its Roman theatre and well-preserved Nineteenth-century picket buildings. It is a wonderful place to cease over. The ultimate haul over the mountains to Sofia was performed in daylight, providing views of rocky hills and forested streams.
There was no on-board meals service – passengers can buy a packed breakfast on their manner out of Istanbul – however our enterprising prepare supervisor did move by promoting espresso and tea for small change, endearing himself to these he had needed to coax away from bed within the evening.
At about 9.30am, the prepare arrived at Sofia’s communist-era railway station and I hopped on the metro into the town centre for brunch. Although signature banitsa pastries are offered in all places, the town’s meals scene has developed right into a diverse cafe tradition with advantageous, robust espresso at its coronary heart. A cup of that was very welcome after an unforgettable rail journey between two completely different cities that provided pause for thought and journey on parallel tracks, stretching throughout south-east Europe and past.
Tom Corridor is vice chairman at Lonely Planet
The Istanbul-Sofia Categorical runs day by day in every course. It leaves Istanbul’s Halkalı station, a 45-minute journey from the centre, at 8.45pm, scheduled arrival in Sofia is 9.35am however border procedures could cause delays. In the other way it leaves Sofia at 6.30pm and arrives at Halkali at 05.34am. Tickets can’t be purchased on-line. Buy prematurely from Discoverbyrail.com – Tom Corridor paid £105 (together with Uncover By Rail charge) for single occupancy of a sleeper compartment together with ticket supply to his lodge in Istanbul. For 2-person occupancy the price is £57.50pp by way of Uncover By Rail. Tickets might be bought at the international sales desk at Sirkeci the place second-class tickets (no couchette or sleeper) price £16 plus £9 for a couchette, or a sleeper cabin to your self £55. Whereas it’s cheaper to purchase in Istanbul, this runs the chance of the prepare being offered out, particularly in summer time.
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