Part 12: Kars to Ankara by overnight train
Doğu Express (Eastern Express) – private sleeper, 25 EUR
STD 8am - STA 7.30am (+1), travel time: 23h30m
Trains in Turkey are a hidden gem. Sure, flying is faster and Turkish Airlines is excellent. But in my opinion you can only really get a feel of the country when travelling by train or road. Only by seeing the scenery slowly change you get a real sense of proportion and location and at times even history and culture.
Many Turks will still say buses are better than trains to travel inside the country. Sure, the railway network is very limited and apart from the high speed trains in the west and centre of the country (Istanbul-Eskisehir-Ankara, Ankara-Konya) trains are much slower than buses. For the past centuries, Turkish trains had an (unjustified) reputation inside the country of being unreliable, slow and uncomfortable, but I highly tend to disagree. Much of the rolling stock has been renovated, new high-speed lines are being built, and ticket prices are dirt cheap. And unlike many bus journeys on the main motorways, the scenery is often much more spectacular, you can stretch your feet, interact with other passengers, and actually get a good night of sleep if travelling in a sleeper.
I easily managed to book my ticket online at the website of the Turkish Railways, see the excellent
website of the Man in Seat 61 for details on how to do this. Note that on some routes it is highly advisable to book your tickets as much in advance as you can, as some routes have surged in popularity in recent times. The Ankara to Kars route for sure is one of them, as I heard from Turkish friends many tickets even get bought up in advance by travel agents for the domestic tourism market (many Turks prefer to travel the train and visit Kars in winter when there is snow). For just 25 EUR I got a private sleeper entirely for myself for the entire journey – talk about a steal!
I arrived at 7.30am at the railway station of Kars, stocked up with supplies for the journey as no restaurant car is currently available.
It did not take long for the Doğu Express (Turkish for Eastern Express) to roll into the station.
The train exists out of modern air-conditioned TVS2000 sleeping-cars. If you book a 2-berth compartment as a single traveller, you automatically get the entire compartment for private use as the other berth gets blocked out by the system. Besides the 2-berth sleepers, there are also 4-berth couchettes and a car with reclining Pullman seats (in a 2+1 layout) – which I would not recommend for an overnight journey!
The compartment was in day-time mode when I entered it. There are two seats at one side, and a small fridge and washbasin on the other side. Plugs are available, although the train does not have wifi. The only disadvantage to the sleeper and couchette cars in comparison with the Pullman seating car is that in daytime mode I find the seats a bit hard after sitting down for some time. It could have gone with some better padding!
That said, the quality of the bed is much, much better. You can simply turn the seats into a bed by flipping over the bench – mattress and bedding is already applied at the other side of it, it's an ingenious system. If travelling with two, the other person sleeps in the bunk above – which remained of course fully folded now as I was travelling alone. I find the mattress especially extremely comfortable and it makes for some good sleep.
Each sleeper compartment also has a small fridge, which comes in handy on such a long journey to keep my beers chilled which I bought in advance. The fridge also features a complimentary candy bar, crackers, a bottle of water and a small package of juice.
Also provided are some slippers and a refreshment towel. It's almost like flying business class ;-)
The train is air-conditioned and you can adjust the temperature of your compartment.
We departed on time. I rolled the seats over into bed mode to get two or so hours of more sleep as I was still feeling tired and knew that the best scenery was only to come at a later point during the journey. I fell asleep almost immediately thanks to the comfy mattress, warm blanket and the slight rocking movements of the train moving along on the railway track.
It's just awesome waking up and seeing the world pass by from your train window!
I flipped the bed over back into seat mode and had some breakfast (börek, a filled pastry – I opted for the one with cheese when I bought if fresh at a bakery in the morning) while watching the highland steppes go by from the window.
The first two to three hours of the journey until the first major stop are not too spectacular, with the exception of a cool-looking ancient stone bridge I saw next to the motorway along which the train was travelling.
The first major stop of the train after about four hours is the city of Erzerum. As there is no dining car available I got myself some kebabs at the station using a special trick. After doing some online research (and confirming it with Turkish friends) I found out that many kebab shops in Erzerum do delivery to the Doğu Express! I had a Turkish friend order four kebabs by phone with instructions to meet me at the platform in front of the sleeper cars (the Erzerum stop is about 15 minutes). And indeed – there was a kebab guy with a big plastic bag, and it turned out I was far the only one ordering from them as four more passengers collected their order and paid him on the platform.
Approaching Erzerum
Kebabs, a salad and some decent Turkish red I bought before in a shop for lunch
After departure from Erzerum and having eaten my lunch, I flipped the seats back to bed mode. As I wrote before, I find the seats rather uncomfortable after a while, but the mattress on the other hand is great. Given the compartment is completely private, I can as easily just get snug under the blankets, put some pillows against the wall so I can sit a bit upright from bed and watch the scenery.
After Erzerum the scenery starts to get more spectacular as some hilly terrain approaches and ventures far away from any paved roads. More interestingly, it also runs here besides the Western Euphrates River.
A few hours later the train halts at Erzincan – another major stop. There were great views of the local airport too, where a Turkish Airlines flight was about to take off!
Leaving Erzincan begins what I believe is the most spectacular part of the journey. If my map-reading skills are correct, we were now following the course of the Kızılırmak River (known as the Halys river by the ancient Greeks).
I was absolutely glued with my face to the window at this part of the journey as I found the contrast between the river, the surrounding trees, and the bleak mountains behind it so striking and beautiful.
After a while, the valley narrows down and the train runs along the river into a gorge.
At the other end of the gorge the terrain levels out again – it looked like the river was dammed here creating some artificial lakes in the bleak landscape.
As it was getting dark soon after, I drank my last beers, ate my last two kebabs – and went to sleep. I had a great night of sleep when my alarm clock went off about an hour out of Ankara, leaving myself with plenty of time to freshen up a bit and get dressed again.
Arrival at Ankara's station was an hour late – which we racked up in the last two hours or so of the journey when the train stopped for several minutes each time in the middle of nowhere and was rolling at excruciatingly low speeds (seemed like we were stuck behind another train or so).
The Doğu Express at Ankara station
In short: What a spectacular journey this train ride is. For those who love slow travel and watching out of the window looking at beautiful scenery, I can highly recommend it. For just 25 EUR in a private sleeper it is about the best value deal you can get in travel! Count me a fan.
Next up: Flying from Ankara to Izmir on Anadolujet (Turkish Airlines).