The journeys continue to be one of the more challenging aspects of this trip.

From Cappadocia I made my way to Eastern Turkey using another sleeper train called the Turistik Dogu Expresi. As a solo traveller you couldn’t book a single bed in a two bed cabin so I had to book the whole thing to myself. It was a little expensive but definitely worth it.

I arrived at Kayseri train station two hours before departure because of my transport options form Cappadocia. The departure time was 23:22. I was hopeful that there might be some restaurants nearby to grab a meal before I headed off. I arrived by taxi to be greeted by what looked like an abandoned train station.

I walked around the area but only found a few little shops and some vendors specialising in Turkish sausage and so I headed back to the station where there was a little cafe. It was completely empty at that time but I managed to purchase a wholesome meal to keep me going. Two mystery meat subs.

I also made a lifelong friend

Then, it was really a waiting game. I later found a manned ticket office in a portakabin and showed my e-ticket as I wanted to be sure I was in the right place. He just gestured towards the platform. Time passed very slowly and the platform gradually filled with people. I didn’t see any other travellers like myself, just locals.

the departure time came and went and the platform was now pretty full. Ten minutes later, to my a relief a train came rumbling in.

As the carriages came rolling by one after another my heart started to sink. I knew the train I was getting was supposed to be a sleeper only. All the carriages on this train were just seating. I was trying to figure out what was going on. Perhaps I’d made a mistake? I walked down the platform, through all the people and to my relief I saw two other travellers looking as confused as me. They were two young Dutch ladies and so I went over to see what was going on. They were getting the same train. We tried to ask the staff on the platform what was going on but they couldn’t speak any English. Eventually after some slightly frantic toing and froing and with the help of a local bystander who spoke some English we established that this wasn’t our train (it just coincidentally arrived at the same time) and that ours was either 1 hour late or was arriving at 1am. It was hard to tell but the guy definitely indicated a 1. To add to the confusion, due to the late arrival there was also another sleeper train arriving at a similar time now! We were warned to make sure we got the correct one.

After quite a long wait, and some further confusion we eventually managed to board the correct train at about 12.45am.

As with the train into Istanbul, it was really comfy and it was a bonus to have a cabin all to myself. I had a pretty good sleep and awoke to some spectacular views as we trundled through Anatolia. I could just lie in bed, looking out the window like a movie screen.

The train was a new tourist train that had started in May. I’d heard it was supposed to make some stops on the way where you could see some sights. The Journey was schedules to take 18 hours.

The first ‘excursion stop’ happened at around 9am I think. I heard a guard walk down the carriage shouting something in Turkish but it wasn’t until we’d been stopped for a while that I ventured out to see what was going on. Nobody really knew. Word got around that we’d be stopped for 2 hours. The station was pretty much in the middle of nowhere next to a fenced off lake. There were some taxi drivers waiting in the car park although it wasn’t clear where you could go. A few people got into the taxis, some to the nearest town for food and I believe some went to a viewing point. They were asking very high prices though. I decided instead to venture up a hill to see what was around. Nothing. There were some fantastic views however.

After two and a half hours we eventually left. Feeling peckish, I went to the restaurant car although I was a little disappointed to find a meagre selection of cold snacks on offer despite there being a fully equipped kitchen. Another delicious meal:

Later in the afternoon we made another stop. Same procedure. Complete confusion, no information about where we were, what was happening or what there was to do and we’d stopped with nothing anywhere nearby. After 15 minutes or so I was on the platform having scouted out a small tuck shop. A guard gestured to me to ask if I was staying here which had confused me a little. Moments later I saw the train slowly leave the platform. Not a great moment. All my belongings were on board. I suddenly thought that maybe the guy was asking if this was my stop!? For a split second I contemplated giving chase but quickly accepted my fate instead. For a short while I believed I’d been left behind. There were thankfully some Australian guys nearby who thought the same. At least I wasn’t on my own. We decided there was little we could do and then came to the conclusion that it can’t have left permanently without so many of us. To our relief, after 20 minutes or so the train returned into the station on a different platform. We spent another two and half hours here. Annoyingly we found out that a group of people had taken a minibus to a waterfall somewhere nearby but no one had said anything about it.

It didn’t exactly seem like the ‘tourist’ train. Us tourists were generally confused and had no idea what we could actually do at these stops. No one spoke English. The guards on the other hand had a jolly old time sitting in the restaurant car eating the hot meals that weren’t available for us and then enjoying huge banquets of food at the stops which had been delivered to them whilst we were left scrabbling around for a few packets of crisps and biscuits in the tiny shop!

Despite all of this, it was a very comfortable and enjoyable train ride and it was by far the most scenic train ride I’d ever taken. And we only arrived two and half hours late!