Days 1- 2: Istanbul, Turkey to Veliko Tarnova, Bulgaria
Hello from somewhere in Bulgaria! As of writing, its about 10.30am and I’m on the Golden Eagle train, traveling through the verdant countryside, heading towards today’s destination of Veliko Tarnova. I have a couple of hours to update you on our trip, so I thought I’d post some videos and piccies to give you a flavor or what we’ve done so far – and what is to come. I’m not going to have as much free time on this trip as I did on my Scotland trip to write, so expect more videos rather than written stuff – it’s simply quicker to update you with a little vlog, so I hope you don’t mind seeing my cheery face!
Anyway, with that, we started off with a very smooth and uneventful Turkish Airlines flight from Chicago to Istanbul. It was, however, over 2hrs late leaving – but we did get sufficient notice of the delay such that we were still at home, so at least we didn’t have to spent the extra time kicking our heels at the airport. Also good – now Turkish Airlines biz gets to use the new Polish LOT lounge at ORD rather than the Saddest Airline Lounge in the World, the Swiss Lounge. The plane itself was a little on the dated side but at least I wasn’t in economy this time so could stretch out and try to get some sleep. This proved to be a bit difficult as the amenity kit earplugs seemed to actually concentrate sound into the eardrum at the same time as being very uncomfortable – not sure how they managed that, but oh well. Also – I have to say that I think the food on Turkish Airlines just isn’t as good as it used to be. I made a mistake in choosing the steak which I think was made from the same organic material as the earplugs and the meal service took ages – it was well past 1am by the time they finished, given our late departure.
Our arrival into Istanbul and transit through the airport immigration and customs was wonderfully quick and easy. There was hardly anyone there! (ORD had been similarly quiet). Its always a nice little bonus after a super long international flight when you don’t have to queue for hours to get through all the checks (looking at you, Bali). Our bindles arrived after not too long a wait and we headed off to go meet our pick-up person in the arrivals hall. We’d been supplied a helpful little map to find them (as I’ve written about before, Istanbul airport is enormous) and it all worked perfectly, as there was our chap, waiting with a Golden Eagle Luxury Train and Castles of Transylvania sign. Yey!! He led us to the car park and, after a bit of a wait, our ride arrived to transfer us to our hotel for the next 2 nights, the Four Seasons at the Bosphorus Istanbul. As you can see from the video below, it was a sweet sweet ride!! We were off to a good start!
As you might expect from the Four Seasons (especially if you watch The White Lotus), the hotel was Very Nice Indeed. It took about 50 mins to drive there from the airport – but we didn’t mind as we were definitely enjoying our bougie ride. It was about 6.30pm by the time we arrived so we checked in and then headed off to dinner at 7pm, while we still had enough energy. There were 3 different types of restaurant – international, fish and Turkish – but all were down on the waterfront, so we picked the Turkish one (obvs) and enjoyed a delicious meal of kebabs and salads. It was a little chilly, so I was given a black fleece wrap from the hotel to keep me warm (very thoughtful) which may, or may not, have found its way into my suitcase. I figured they would assume a decent number of them would get nicked so would already build the cost into the meal. After dinner, we went and had a nightcap in the hotel bar – which was curiously stocked with shrink-wrapped huge coffee table style picture books for sale. Who would buy these? – especially sight unseen as there were no unwrapped samples to leaf through.
Anyway, I had hoped a glass of wine at dinner would help me sleep as I was pretty loopy with tiredness by this point, but alas – nope. I woke up at 1.30am after about 90mins – and was unable to get back to sleep again. This was not entirely unexpected as there is a 8hr time difference between Chicago and Istanbul. I eventually got up around 6am and went for an early morning wander around the hotel to explore, before breakfast started at 7am. Clearly its a late night kind of place as there was no-one else around that early in the morning, save the chap cleaning the pool and a couple of security guards keeping an eye on things (and me, probably). I had the entire breakfast dining room to myself, so had plenty of time to admire the epic selection of jams and honeys on offer – as well as the super weird artwork suspended from the dining room ceiling!
I hadn’t scheduled any activities during the day, as I assumed we’d want to take it easy and recover from the journey. As I was now 2 days without proper sleep, I was pretty knackered so a day spent soaking up the sunshine by the pool was just the ticket. The weather was gorgeous – blue skies and 72 degrees. The only thing we did have arranged for today was a welcome drinks reception and dinner, where we would get to meet the rest of the people on our tour and be told of the departure arrangements for the next day. As suspected, we were definitely on the younger side of the age demographic. There appears to be 1 couple younger than us – but that’s it! There are a total of 42 (I think) people on the tour – and the train has a total of 40 staff, so its almost a 1:1 ratio! We have a couple of tour guides who will accompany us throughout the trip (with additional local guides to supplement as needed) so they explained the procedures and choices for tomorrow. We could either do a tour of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, or we could do a Bosphorus river cruise. We chose the cruise – we’d seen lots of swanky boats docking at the hotel, so thought it would be fun to join the Yachting Crowd for a couple of hours. In the end, it was a great choice – not only because the cruise was pleasant enough- but because the queues to get into the mosques were apparently crazy because of 2 massive cruise ships that had docked that day. 5,000 people apiece. Insane crowds and long lines are not fun at the best of times – but when you are sleep deprived and jet lagged? That’s a hell no, from me! As well as the cruise, we also got the chance to explore the local spice market. And yes, while there were spices on sale there, there was a whole crap ton of other stuff on offer too – all the fake bags and perfumes and dodgy fashion that I know and love all too well from Northern Cyprus! It was fun to walk around though, ascending up a long street lined with stalls that ManpanionTM termed “Garbage Mountain”!
After about an hour, it was time to rejoin the group and head off to the train! We were going to be leaving from a station in Istanbul that is only used by the Golden Eagle train and the Orient Express train, so that was pretty cool. Similar to when we alighted the Royal Scotsman train after our Edinburgh wedding, all the train staff were lined up on the platform to greet us – including a musical accompaniment! (saxophone this time, rather than bagpipes!). We were in Cabin D2 and our bags had already been collected from the hotel and delivered directly to our cabin (as it should be!). It was exciting to walk down the narrow corridor until we found the door to our cabin – and then open it up and explore our digs for the next 5 nights!
As you can see from the video, our cabin is fairly small and not as luxey as the Royal Scotsman train – but it has everything you need and we’d both been careful not to overpack, so we managed to easily fit all our clothes and odds and sods into the available storage space. After settling in, we were invited to join everyone in the bar car for a welcome glass of champagne before sitting down to lunch at 1.30pm. Am happy to report the food was excellent!
After lunch, we then had a free afternoon to nap (a glass of champagne will do that to you) and relax in our cabin. We figured out how to convert our couch into the bed, so we got comfy and snuggled in. Before long, it was time to get up and eat again – but after dinner we had to stay awake for the necessary passport control stuff as we left Turkey and entered into Bulgaria. For this, we had to all physically disembark the train, walk across the platform to get our photographs taken and passports stamped. It took all of 30 seconds – after which we were now free to return to our cabins and retire for the night. It took me quite a while to nod off to sleep as there was quite a bit of background noise (eventually I dug out my earplugs, which helped). I also lay in bed and fretted about the existential question “To Flush or Not To Flush – THAT is the question” as I eventually had to get up for Number 2’s (by this time it was 1am). Initially I was on the “don’t flush, you don’t want to risk waking up the carriage next to you” side of the existential equation. But on further reflection, I decided that the potential horror of ManpanionTM making an unexpected discovery in the middle of the night was a graver concern. I got back up and pressed the “Full Flush” button, timed strategically to when the train started moving out of the passport control station so as to mask the noise.
Given my late night poop ponderings, I didn’t get a ton of sleep last night either – but our lovely cabin attendant Virag brought us coffee first thing, before breakfast, so I am currently sitting here, typing away, powered by caffeine. Fairly soon, we will arrive at Veliko Tarnovo where we will start our afternoon’s activities – described in my little video below. And so now you are all caught up! Welcome to Transylvania!!
